Visiting Mooku Podi Swami

Rightclick on all photos to enlarge

Yesterday morning decided it was a good time to visit with Mooku Podi Swami. He is currently residing at the Srinivasan Secondary School on the Girivalam Roadway near Nithyananda Ashram.

I often visit the nearby Rajarajeshwari Temple, a spot that Swami Mooku Podi regularly frequents so have seen him many times. But this time I wished to sit and visit and particularly wanted to take photographs as the ones I previously posted on Arunachala Grace were out-of-date and taken at the time Swami used to spend sitting on the ice-cream fridge, inside the Deepam Hotel on Car Street.

As it was a Sunday the school was on holiday and the compound was very quiet. An absolute ideal time to visit.

Swami was wearing dirty, old rags and his clean, fresh clothes lay next to him in a heap at his side. Instead of his usual stick, he was holding in his hand a fan and other than a clean, white cloth wrapped around his head was otherwise completely naked.

I noticed Swami’s eyes were shining and very twinkling. While there he handed me two thayam stones and urged me to cast them with Arumugam the Srinivasan School watchman. There was also a young man named Prabhu visiting Swami but all through he kept silent.

A photo of thayam -- a gambling game played in Tamil Nadu

Don’t know the exact reason why Swami has chosen Srinivasan School as his present abode. It is a Secondary School started by a Jeevan Mukta at the beginning of the last century. The Samadhi of this Jeevan Mukta (i.e. Srinivasanlu) is inside the school compound.

Srinivasanlu -- Jeevan Mukta

From the upstairs verandah, where Swami was sitting, I could see Parvati Hill – which is the only place of the 14 km girivalam roadway around Arunachala, from which you cannot see the flame during Deepam.

I spent about an hour with Swami Mooku Podi and other than his occasional shout, it was a peaceful and enjoyable visit. I hope the above is enough information, for those eager to meet Swami, for them to be able locate him on the hillround roadway.

Nithyananda Ashram

“A grand inauguration ceremony was conducted at the new ashram in Tiruvannamalai on April 19th 2008. With the majestic Arunachala as backdrop this is one of the most beautiful and going forward will be the most visited Nithyananda ashram in India. Being a full moon day, the day was also celebrated in Tiruvannamalai as Giri-Dakshina Giri Valam (14km barefoot circumambulation of Arunachala). At least 1 million people have been estimated to have walked around the mountain that day and almost everyone who walked were drawn into the ashram by the intense energy field of 1008 shiva lingas and an inner circle of deities all placed strategically in a circle around the main deities Sri Anandeshwara and Anandeshwari, Subramanya and Ganapathy.”

Abhisheka to Gods Anandeshwara and Anandeshwari

Swami Nithyananda

To read further and for a full compilation of photographs of the Inauguration of Nithyananda’s Ashram at Tiruvannamalai on April 19 th, 2008, to this link here>>>

Dhyanapeetam Inauguration

So this morning made my arrangements to visit the function held at the new three acre Nithyananda facility around the Hill.

Obviously a lot of folk had done very dedicated service in getting the facility ready in time for the function. I got there myself around 9.45 a.m. (the programme will extend throughout this day) because I was curious to be there for the arrival of Nithyananda.

I recognised alot of familiar faces - well after all Tiruvannamalai is a very small town! Even though it was a blazing hot morning, we were comfortable in our nice shady spots. And around 10.30 a.m. Swami Nithyananda arrived and duly took his seat on the dais.

I hope to post more about the function in the next day or so.

Sri Rajarajeshwari's new jewels

The Rajarajeshwari Shrine on the Hillround Roadway is absolutely one of my favourite places at Arunachala. This Goddess is held as the first God of the Devi Mahatmyam, in which all others are centred, and what is now the Rajarajeshwari Temple has been located at the same .25 acre site, in some form or another, for the last 100 years.

The small and exquisite Temple is located at Parvati Hill, which itself has a very curious association, to read more about it, go to this link here.

If you click on any of these images of this Goddess, they will all enlarge to a nice size. I actually visited the Shrine today as I was in that part of the world on my way to a function hosted by the Nithyananda group, at their new facility located at the foot of Parvati Hill.

Happily on my visit to the Goddess shrine I was able to view her beautiful new jewels and golden dress.

Inside the Mother's Shrine is a Sri Meru Yantra, a 3-Dimensional multi-Pyramid Cosmic Grid signifying unlimited abundance and positive powers. The Sri Yantra is the worshipping place of the form of the Mahatripura Sundari (Rajarajeshwari).

Also located at this beautiful Shakti Shrine are statues of the Dasa Mahavidyas, The Ten Forms of the Goddess representing knowledge (wisdom) and also what is hidden, secret, subtle and sensitive, what has to be searched out and discovered.

If you love the Divine Mother, you will undoubtedly very much appreciate this beautiful Shrine.

Parvati Hill

This evening I visited one of my favourite Amman Temples at Tiruvannamalai, the very beautiful Rajarajeshwari Temple on the girivalam pathway. I went to meet one of the Trustees of the Temple to get some details and history of this small but significant Shrine. I will be posting information of the Temple on this Blog in upcoming days and also posting a short descriptive narrative of it in Arunachala Grace News, which will be sent to subscribers at the end of this month.

While at the Temple, I learnt several signficant details but the one that surprised me the most was the fact that there is one area of the 14 km girivalam pathway from which the Deepam light at the top of Arunachala cannot be seen during the Karthika function.

In the below photograph I am standing in front of the gate of the Rajarajeshwari Temple compound looking out at a spur of the Mountain called Parvati Hill.

There is a stretch of about .5 kms, including this Parvati Hill, out of the 14 km girivalam pathway starting at Palani Andar Shrine and ending at Surya Lingam from which Shiva's light during Deepam cannot be seen.

The Trustee told me that it is believed that this short part of the Girivalam pathway is regarded as particularly Amman's and in ways subtley different to the rest of the pradakshina path.

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