Rock at Arunachala

Below in the words of Nithyananda, his realisation experience at Pavala Kunru (what is now the controversial site)on Arunachala.

“I had my first spiritual experience at the age of twelve. Let me describe the incident to you. I was sitting on a rock, locally called Pavazha Kundru (the Holy Rock) on the Arunachala Hill and meditating. I was meditating for a long time that day. I was looking into myself to see where thoughts were coming from. I was actually playing with this technique, when a strange experience happened. It was on the Buddha Purnima day (full moon day) in the month of Vaikasi (May-June as per the Tamil calendar), and evening sunset period.

In the midst of his meditation, I felt something opening up within me, something was getting crushed, something else was getting created. It was like a vessel inside getting broken and a door opening, both together at the same time. It was a feeling of creation and destruction at the same time; and a very pleasurable feeling.

Even with my eyes closed, I could see all around. I did not need my eyes to be open to see. Not just that, I had a 360-degree vision with my eyes closed. With equal clarity, I could see the hill in front, the temple behind, the rock below, the stars above, the trees to the left, part of the hill to the right, all these were in my visionary field, without having to open my eyes!

At that moment, I awakened to the realization that I was one with the whole of Existence and everything was I! It was like this tree in front of me became my bone and this thatch above became my nerves!

How did this happen? What made me have such a strong experience of samadhi? There are many others who are also doing the same meditation, of seeing where the thoughts arise from, but why don't they have such experiences? The reason is, I was so inspired by the masters, that I was living like them! Because of that, my consciousness was ripe and ready for such an experience.”

Excavation

I stopped by this evening at the site of the controversial land grab at Pavala Kunru, a small hillock spur of Arunachala. I took lots of photographs, which I hope to post over the next few days, but for the meantime a few to get started. The below photograph is of the rock on which Paramahamsa Nithyananda reports to have experienced his realisation while still a young boy. This is the site which is the centre piece of the envisaged 3 acre ashram infrastructure that some hope to develop but which is currently causing alot of local controversy.

The below is taken from the 3 acre site and shows part of the adjacent unspoilt Hill.

The last photograph is of part of the current exacuvation of the proposed 3 acre ashram site.

Apart from the overriding spiritual and aesthetic senstivities of the opponents of the proposed ashram at Pavala Kunru, Arunachala, there is also the serious consideration of soil erosion and mud slides during monsoon because of the disruption of boulders and rooted trees. Some years back, before the current Arunachala reforestation programmes, parts of southwest Tiruvannamalai was endangered by falling rocks from the Hill resulting from soil degradation.

Pachaiamman Temples

At Kailash, Lord Shiva and Parvati blessed the world with peace, prosperity and happiness. Goddess Parvati, deciding to shower her bountiful grace on human beings by enacting a drama, closed the eyes of Shiva with her hands. As a result the Universe was engulfed in total darkness. The Devas and other celestial beings flocked to Kailash and Shiva gave asylum to them and opened his third eye thereby dispelling darkness and bathing the area in brightness.

The Goddess, in the form of Pachaiamman, prostrated at the feet of Shiva, who knew of her Divine design, to establish peace and harmony in the world. Since she was responsible for drowning the world in darkness Lord Shiva wanted her to atone by proceeding to the world in order to perform penance.

The Goddess appeared in many spots which became holy by her presence. She appeared in Kasi and spread the Vedas and Sastras and also at shrines at Thirumullaivaayal and Mangadu. The Goddess also went to Kanchi to perform penance under a mango tree to propitiate her Lord Shiva. At Sengodu, near Tiruvannamalai, she observed tapas standing on a needle. It is believed that she performed penance at Arunachala, at an Ashram located in what is now known as Pavalakunru.

The Goddess was victorious in all her endeavours. Since she is believed to appear as Pachaiamman in Thirumullaivaayal, she has a famous Temple dedicated to her there which is situated near Vaishnavi Devi Temple near Ambattur, North Chennai. Pachaiamman is called the goddess of marriage and blesses those entering wedlock.





Here at Arunachala, we also have a famous Pachaiamman Temple which has a long history attached to it. The most recent of which is that over the last 3 years the Temple, its tank and compound are undergoing extensive renovation.

In 1905 when there was a plague crisis in Tiruvannamalai, Ramana Maharshi moved to Pachaiamman Koil for six months during the worst of the epidemic and returned to the caves on the southside of Arunachala when the plague crisis was over. Again in 1908 Ramana Maharshi returned to Pachaiamman Koil and lived there with Ganapathi Muni and others for about three months.

I hope to re-visit Pachaiamman Koil soon and check out the progress of the renovation programme.