The world has developed over the last fifty years, so that unlike ancient times many people are able to visit Tiruvannamalai from all corners of the world. We walk, take a bus or train, and cross the oceans by sea and air. Some of us may have undergone an inner experience and actively make a decision to visit blessed Arunachala, while others may not know why they decide to make the journey. I personally believe it does not matter if we think we make the choice or not, because all of us, even if we are unaware of it, have heard the 'inner summons' and have taken a step closer to Lord Arunachaleswarar Siva.
The Divine lifts up the humble soul and takes it on a spiritual journey. This soul has lived a life of service, where silent before its maker it has only asked: "What am I and what is my life, so that I may offer up my blood and ardor to Thee?"
The 'inner summons', that which draws us towards Arunachaleswarar Siva, is the magnetic movement of the Divine as He draws souls closer towards Himself. This summons is the mystic meal of the soul, the Supreme Mystery living in the breast of souls who seek after Divinity; known in their longing, slumbering in the germ of their ecstasy, and firmly linked to the rhythm of their actions. Most wonderfully, it is also the fulfillment of that longing, streaming out of the ecstasy of the soul, as does the finding of God out of the seeking after God.
This is the Supreme Path of the Gods and the Angels, and the same path that great saints have been able to tread for countless centuries. And, while there are many of us mortals living on this earth who have not yet gained our angel's wings, there is nonetheless, something most glorious within all of us, a most wonderful inner spirit of knowing, which like a bud, is waiting to flower. This is important for the soul to understand while it is wandering from place to place upon this earth, as it is the knowledge that links us to the Supreme Path of Arunachaleswarar Siva.
Every soul upon this earth has to enter this path and stand before Siva and His Shakti. The bud of all our souls has to open and flower. Everything within this mortal world lives, grows, rises, eventually to sing and praise the Lord. We are not unlike the plants in the fields, where even though there is an appearance of death in the cold season, at the approach of the sun's light they come to life again, reborn and refreshed. Like the flowers in the field we are also reborn again and again and have to open our faces to the sun and the rain and see Lord Arunachaleswarar Siva and Mother Apeethakuchambal in everything of this world.
This leads me to the words of a wise guru who once said; "That, which we see is only external, the visible, and that which is concealed from our view is the internal, and this is the root of all. Know that the Divine, is in the here and now yet only seems hidden in every secret place in the secret of secrets."
[By Iswari Kamalabaskaran]
