Patala Lingam

On a recent visit to Arunachaleswarar Temple I noticed some great photographs on the walls of the Patala Lingam. It was in the cellar of the Lingam, that Ramana performed severe tapas, remaining in samadhi and totally oblivious to the wretchedness of his living conditions amongst scorpions and fireants.

The first photogaph is of the beautiful Pali Thirtam, which is the tank adjacent to Sri Ramana Ashram.

The below shows you the condition of the Patala Lingam during the 1940's before renovation.

And now the Patala Lingam after renovation.

Another photograph on the walls of the Patala Lingam, is a narrative recording the life of Bhagavan Sri Ramana and Tiruvannamalai. For those of you who haven't yet visited Tamil Nadu, I've left part of the Tamil translation, so you can see what the Tamil script looks like.

Below a photograph taken up at the caves on Arunachala, of the young Sri Ramana Maharshi at the age of 21.

Next is a split photograph, the top half being of Ayanakulam Tank (which is the tank that Sri Ramana disrobed when he came to Arunachala) and the bottom half of the photograph is of Pavala Kundru - one of the most beautiful Shakti Temples at Arunachala. It is the place that Parvati was meant to have lived whilst performing tapas at Arunachala. In more recent times, it is the place that Sri Ramana was living, when his Mother arrived at Tiruvannamalai.

The last photograph is of the top half Skandashram and the bottom Virupaksha Caves. Virupaksha Cave has a long history and was often inhabitated by saints and sages, including Sri Ramana Maharshi. But Skandashram is an original and was actually a labour of love constructed by a devotee name Skanda (thus Skandashram) for his Guru, Sri Ramana.

Arunachaleswarar Temple, with its huge 25 acre compound is replete with history - a fascinating and inspirational Temple to visit and spend time, again and again.

Swami Abhishiktananda

In an earlier posting I mentioned the ban on non-Indians wishing to take darshan of the Lord at Jagannath Temple, Puri, Orissa. I would mention that there are Temples currently in South India that also maintain such a policy. And yes, in olden days, even here at Tiruvannamalai, there were restrictions against non-Indians visiting the Arunachaleswarar Temple. At the moment I don't have details of the history of the ban, but once I have that information I will post it.

Now the once 'trickle' of non-Indians visiting Arunachala and Tiruvannamalai, has become a veritable 'flood'. But it wasn't always like that. Due to lack of information and difficulty of travel, it has only been since the 20th Century that Westerners have visited and/or stayed at Arunachala in any great number. Such notables include; Paul Brunton, Somerset Maugham, Maurice Frydman, Arthur Osborne, S. Cohen and Swami Abhishiktananda.

Swami Abhishiktananda was born Henri Le Saux 30th August, 1910, at St. Briac in Brittany in France. At an early age he felt a vocation to the priesthood and in 1929 he decided to become a monk and entered a Benedictine Monastery. Eventually his attraction to India, which started as early as 1934, came to fruition in 1948 when he joined Fr. Monchanin in Tamil Nadu where they both started up a small ashram at Tannirpalli, Tiruchirappalli District. It was there that Swami Abhishiktananda started to learn Tamil and Sanskrit and immerse himself in the Indian life-style.

Swami at an Arunachala cave

However it was in 1949 when he visited Tiruvannamalai and Sri Ramana Maharshi, that his life was to take a decisive turn. He later refers to that time:

"I regard this stay at Tiruvannamalai as being at one a real retreat and an initiation into Indian monastic life."

The periods which he spent at the foot of Arunachala and in its various caves were all between 1949 and 1955. However, during those years his permanent residence was at the ashram of Shantivanam which he had co-founded in: "an attempt to integrate into Christianity the monastic tradition of India."

But of Arunachala, he was to say: ' . . . the South (Arunachala) is my "birth-place".' And of his own spiritual experience at the sacred Hill, he was to later write:

"Anyone who is the recipient of this overwhelming Light is at once petrified and shattered; he can say nothing, he cannot think anymore; he just remains there, outside space and time, alone in the very aloneness of the Alone; it is an unbelievable experience, this sudden revelation of Arunachala’s infinite pillar of light and fire."

Swami's later years at his Ashram

At the end of his last visit to Tiruvannamalai in March, 1956, Abhishiktananda gave his assessment of the significance of Arunachala for himself:

"I think the best description of my real condition since Arunachala would be to compare it with the dawn;"arunodaya", when even before the sun has risen, the sky is already aglow. Light, peace and bliss. The birds are already singing, my heart too is singing. Joyful expectation of the appearance of the glorious orb."