I normally do not goto temples but something deep within beckoned me to visit this place. It was july 25th, "Pournami" - an observed auspicious day for the Hindu's and others alike when the moon is full and bright and is considered to be a special time for offering "pooja" or prayers, mantras and chants. Thiruvannamalai was a 7 hour drive in car from my place and when I got there, I was simply amazed by the divine charm it had. In each di
Thiruvannamalai, is one of the great "Pancha Bootham" or the divine 5 elementals,and this spiritual place represents the elemental Fire.
This Shivalayam [land of the God Shiva] has been talked about for centuries of the"Fire Linga", the Holy Annamalaiyar hill which was supposedly a Linga in the form of burning fire. Generations or yuga later, It cooled down to a stone mountain, the present yuga being referred to as "Kali Yuga".
The mountain has a circumference footpath of about 14kms, where hundreds and thousands of devotees circumambulate in bare foot, yes, the devotees walk 14kms barefoot on the Thar road praying and singing chants Om Nama Shivaya. I met up with a sadhu there who guided me to offer prayers at one of the monumental entrances or "Gopurams", pictured above, and I was to pray with a camphor cube in hand, and then discard it in a huge burning metal vessel in front of a Lingam and start my journey of 14 kilometers at 6pm in the evening! The first few kilometers of the walk, I was energetic, walking amidst the huge crowd singing and hearing Shivam songs on devotees mobile phones ;) but after 2.5kms of walking, slowly my legs started to hurt and I thought i wasnt going to make it! You wouldn't believe me, but an inner voice kept encouraging me to go on, I wanted to continue... I walked and walked among other devotees, chanting to heart content the Shivam mantra and I felt i could do it! On the way, you will come across a total of 8 Lingams each of a different elemental aura and by 9:30pm I reached the last and final Gopuram. My leg ached, my foot felt tender because of the road, but deep within, I felt a great inner peace, a relief that i have walked 14 kms. I am stressing on this, because, I am a guy accustomed to modern convenience and I've never walked a mile on foot before, even with shoes! To think that I walked a 14, is purely because of the divine grace the place holds.
After the long walk, I came back to my lodge where the Sadhu greated me with smile, and enquired about my pradarshana. This sadhu has an ashram in the hills, has a look of modern-day Aghori, a friendly man, so i spoke with him as a friend. I told him it felt great to have finished the walk and offered pooja but on a jovial note I told him my legs are killing me ;).. He came forward to me and asked me to close my eyes, he hugged me and kept his toes over mine and said some chants for about 15secs. He then took few steps back and said to me with a smile, now try walking. I took a few steps and boy, I was amazed! I couldn't believe, the pain had actually subsided! Reduced by more than 70%! He tells me that he has simply shared some of his energy with me, so i feel all rejuvenated! I still don't know how he did that, but it worked!
"Thiruvannamalai is Fiery mountain of Knowledge, whoever comes here shall attain what he truly wishes", he continued,.. Its like when you hold out a wet wood to a ever burning fire, eventually, no matter how wet the wood may be, will soon dry and burn, becoming one with the fire. I felt good on hearing him speak so great about the spiritual place. It gives you inner peace, a break from monotonous daily work.
I Left the holy place by 11pm night and was on way to Kalhasti, another Shivalayam, about 150Kms from Thiruvannamalai. This place is also one of the 5 elemental Shivalayam, representing "Vayu" or the elemental "Air". This holy place if said to give you "Moksha" or "Mukthi", meaning "freedom from dosham". I'm not exactly sure how to put it in western English style [:p] Dosham could be uhmm, Sin or maybe a bad time or something like that. I had pooja done for myself at 6am in the morning by the temple priests, it lasted for an hour or more.
It was a two day's trip so i couldn't take much photos, so my apologies for that, but here's some images that I did manage to click with my pocket cam on way. And some are from the Flickr pool
more images:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=thiruvannamalai&w=all
The architecture is amazing with huge monuments and statues, with intricate details. Some female figurines there in the temple have been made so perfectly that you can see hairline pattern on them. Do visit this place if you get a chance!
This Shivalayam [land of the God Shiva] has been talked about for centuries of the"Fire Linga", the Holy Annamalaiyar hill which was supposedly a Linga in the form of burning fire. Generations or yuga later, It cooled down to a stone mountain, the present yuga being referred to as "Kali Yuga".
The mountain has a circumference footpath of about 14kms, where hundreds and thousands of devotees circumambulate in bare foot, yes, the devotees walk 14kms barefoot on the Thar road praying and singing chants Om Nama Shivaya. I met up with a sadhu there who guided me to offer prayers at one of the monumental entrances or "Gopurams", pictured above, and I was to pray with a camphor cube in hand, and then discard it in a huge burning metal vessel in front of a Lingam and start my journey of 14 kilometers at 6pm in the evening! The first few kilometers of the walk, I was energetic, walking amidst the huge crowd singing and hearing Shivam songs on devotees mobile phones ;) but after 2.5kms of walking, slowly my legs started to hurt and I thought i wasnt going to make it! You wouldn't believe me, but an inner voice kept encouraging me to go on, I wanted to continue... I walked and walked among other devotees, chanting to heart content the Shivam mantra and I felt i could do it! On the way, you will come across a total of 8 Lingams each of a different elemental aura and by 9:30pm I reached the last and final Gopuram. My leg ached, my foot felt tender because of the road, but deep within, I felt a great inner peace, a relief that i have walked 14 kms. I am stressing on this, because, I am a guy accustomed to modern convenience and I've never walked a mile on foot before, even with shoes! To think that I walked a 14, is purely because of the divine grace the place holds.
After the long walk, I came back to my lodge where the Sadhu greated me with smile, and enquired about my pradarshana. This sadhu has an ashram in the hills, has a look of modern-day Aghori, a friendly man, so i spoke with him as a friend. I told him it felt great to have finished the walk and offered pooja but on a jovial note I told him my legs are killing me ;).. He came forward to me and asked me to close my eyes, he hugged me and kept his toes over mine and said some chants for about 15secs. He then took few steps back and said to me with a smile, now try walking. I took a few steps and boy, I was amazed! I couldn't believe, the pain had actually subsided! Reduced by more than 70%! He tells me that he has simply shared some of his energy with me, so i feel all rejuvenated! I still don't know how he did that, but it worked!
"Thiruvannamalai is Fiery mountain of Knowledge, whoever comes here shall attain what he truly wishes", he continued,.. Its like when you hold out a wet wood to a ever burning fire, eventually, no matter how wet the wood may be, will soon dry and burn, becoming one with the fire. I felt good on hearing him speak so great about the spiritual place. It gives you inner peace, a break from monotonous daily work.
I Left the holy place by 11pm night and was on way to Kalhasti, another Shivalayam, about 150Kms from Thiruvannamalai. This place is also one of the 5 elemental Shivalayam, representing "Vayu" or the elemental "Air". This holy place if said to give you "Moksha" or "Mukthi", meaning "freedom from dosham". I'm not exactly sure how to put it in western English style [:p] Dosham could be uhmm, Sin or maybe a bad time or something like that. I had pooja done for myself at 6am in the morning by the temple priests, it lasted for an hour or more.
It was a two day's trip so i couldn't take much photos, so my apologies for that, but here's some images that I did manage to click with my pocket cam on way. And some are from the Flickr pool
more images:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=thiruvannamalai&w=all
The above image is from Wiki
The architecture is amazing with huge monuments and statues, with intricate details. Some female figurines there in the temple have been made so perfectly that you can see hairline pattern on them. Do visit this place if you get a chance!
Nice to read about Thiruvannamalai and especially about the sadhu you met there. Very well-written.
ReplyDeleteKeep writing about such experiences.