Arunachala Newsletter

Arunachala Grace News, December issue will be sent out to all subscribers inboxes this coming week. There are some fascinating articles this month; satellite mapping of Forest areas in Tamil Nadu, a noise pollution Writ relating to Arunachala pradakshina path currently in the Madras High Court, the legend of Karthigai Temple in Tamil Nadu, which is different to the Arunachala myth, an article by Dr. Manickam, our Arunachala herbologist, narratives, beautiful poems and lots of other fascinating Arunachala related news and information.

If you wish to become a subscriber to this free Newsletter check out the subscription area underneath the Email Logo on the left hand column of this Blog.

Please remember to adjust the spam filter on your email inbox to accept Arunachala Grace News.

Karthigai Deepam

Today, Friday, 24th November, the ten-day Karthigai Deepam festival started this morning with the hoisting of the flag on the golden mast of the Annamalaiyar Temple.

On November 30, the 7th day of Deepam, the grand car festival will take place with more than 100,000 people pilgrims expected to attend the function. It is anticipated that over a million people will visit Tiruvannamalai for Bharani Deepam (December 3rd) to view the lighting of the flame on top of Arunachala.

There will be many ongoing cultural and religious activities during the time of the festival including the annual cow fair.

Guru Guidance

Q: All books say that the guidance of a Guru is necessary.

Maharshi: The Guru will say only what I am saying now. He will not give you anything you have not already. It is impossible for any one to get what he has not got already. Even if he gets any such thing, it will go as it came. What comes will also go. What always is will alone remain. The Guru cannot give you anything new, which you have not already. Removal of the notion that we have not realised the Self is all that it is required. We are always the Self. Only, we don't realise it.

[Day by Day with Bhagavan]

Happy Story

I love happy stories and this is a very nice one. While I was visiting at the Arulmani Ashram complex I kept glancing over the street at a group of men hammering metal panels and thinking 'Only in India. On one side of the street an Ashram and on the other side, a metal working shop!'

I found out that the metal shop is owned by two brothers, Palani and Shanmurgan (both names for Lord Subrahmanian). Shanmurgan used to work at the brilliant local Shantimalai Organisation (here at Tiruvannamalai) for 7 years as a mechanic. While there he had a good business idea about making trailers, so 10 years back approached the founder of The Shantimalai Trust, Hugo Meier for financial assistance. Hugo Meier (who died about 2 years ago) gave Shanmurgan an interest free loan of Rs.400,000 (US$ 9,000) thus enabling him the opportunity to create his own success story the 'Ramana Engineering Works'.

15 men work at the metal shop and produce custom made trailers in three different sizes ranging in price from Rs.75,000-250,000.

Here is one man working in the tool shop on something to do with the trailer wheels.

And here is the finished produce; a nice bright and shiny trailer ready for hauling goods all over Tamil Nadu. Most of 'Ramana Engineering Works' customers come from Tiruvyurkoil, Vandavasi, Vellore, Polur and of course Tiruvannamalai. At the current time they are building about 4 trailers a month.

But what struck me about the engineering works, was how cheerful and happy everybody seemed to be. A very nice group. How wonderful that Hugo Meier's kindness had so many auspicious consquences.

India is a very difficult country for an ordinary person to do extra-ordinary things. Here one is born into one's caste and lives the live enjoined by being in that particular caste. To get away from that and thereby change the direction of your life takes a huge amount of will and grace because India is not an 'I can do' sort of place. What Shanmurgan has achieved may seem ridiculous to a Western person, but believe me when I say that for him to achieve what he has here in this small rural area in Tamil Nadu, is a true victory.

Our hero Shanmurgan standing underneath the sign of his shop displaying potraits of his benefactors.

Arulmani Ashram

Yesterday I went to Rangammal Hospital to pick up some papers and as it was such a pretty afternoon and I just wasn't in the mood to haggle with auto rickshaw drivers, decided to walk the 2kms home. It was actually quite lovely and instead of going via country lanes I walked by the side of NH-66 (Tiruvannamalai-Bangalore road) on my way home.

I stopped to take a photograph of Arunachala and noticed a new construction which I decided to check out. I learnt from the owner of the building that the Arulmani Ashram is being constructed at a total cost of 5 crore (U.S.$1,122,000. It will comprise a small Ganapati Temple, two meditation halls (one of which can accommodate 1,000 people), a dining hall with kitchen, 14 air-conditioned rooms, 13 deluxe rooms and a small garden. The person building this new complex is also responsible for the much visited Ramalinga Swami Temple on the hill round which was opened 14 years ago.

Immediately you enter the compound and at the front of the Arulmani Ashram is a small Ganapati Temple with a very nice statue of the much loved elephant headed God.

Inside I checked out various rooms under construction and met up with a family of a Dad and his two sons, who are working together as electricians at the Ashram complex.

These statues at one end of the dining hall (which will offer free food) are of very lavishly painted Lord Venkateshwara and his two consorts. Even though the Complex won't be completed for at least another 4-5 months, the supremely auspicious God (always want to keep him happy!) has already been nicely decorated to help charge up auspicious blessings and vibrations for the successful completion of the work.

There are lots of other statues awaiting their nice painting and finishing. Here is a statue of five faced Gayatri Ma. Its brilliant watching the artisans make these statues as they build the forms up bit-by-bit with cement. The Balaji statue flanked by the two Goddesses, Sri Devi and Bhu Devi, started up in the same way as the Gayatri statue. So once she gets painted, she also will look bright and shiny.

With all the pilgrims and overseas visitors coming to Arunachala, there is certainly a need for more facilities like the above. I will check on progress at the Arulmani Ashram soon.

Self Enquiry Retreat

Arunachala Retreat group from a previous year

Premananda is holding an intensive three week Arunachala Pilgrimage Retreat, focusing on Self Inquiry, from 31st Dec 2006 to 21st Jan 2007. For more information about the Retreat please check link:

http://johndavid.org/satsang_b/indiaretreat.php

The Retreat will be conducted at the peaceful Sri Nannagaru Ashram which is located a short distance from Ramana Ashram. During the Retreat there will be a tour of Ramana Ashram, visits to Skandashram and Virupaksha Caves and a visit to the Arunachaleswarar Temple. As well as guided giripradakshina on the inner Mountain Path, there will also be visits to the countryside and local villages.

Five day Bus trip visiting Indian Saints
Towards the end of the Retreat there will be a five day bus trip which will include: a visit to Thuli Baba at Anbin Kudil Ashram, joining Swami Dayananda at his Ashram outside Coimbatore, darshan with Satchitananda at Anandashram, Kanhangad, Kerala, a meeting with Sri Gangoli, a Vedic authority, a trip to the tapas cave of Nityananda and finally a visit to Ajja at his Ananda Kutira Ashram.

Information about Premananda
Premananda was born in 1944 in Wales. He grew up in England where he studied engineering and architecture.

In his twenties he worked and studied in Japan where he was introduced to his first master, Osho. His longing for Truth took him to Osho's ashram in Pune, India. On arrival he recognised the question that had always been present: 'Who am I?' For the next fifteen years he lived as an Osho sannyasin in India, America and England.

In 1992, two years after Osho's death, he found himself in Lucknow in the presence of the great Advaita Master Sri Harilal Poonja, known to his many devotees as Papaji. After three weeks with Papaji, identification with a separate 'I' dropped. Premananda stayed with his master for five years, running a guesthouse and the Sangha bookshop.

From Lucknow he moved to Australia where he began offering Satsang in 1998. Since 2003 he has been based in Germany and traveling widely in Europe, wherever he is invited. At present he lives in a residential Satsang Community in Germany.

This will be his sixth Arunachala Retreat at Nanagaru Ashram.

He is also a writer. His first book, Papaji, Amazing Grace is to be published in 2006. Arunachala Shiva, a book about Ramana Maharshi, and Blueprints for Awakening, interviews with Indian Masters, will be published in 2007.

As an artist, he has exhibited his paintings in India, Australia and Germany. His joy-filled abstract paintings are an expression of the playfulness at the core of his being. See www.johndavidart.org

Deepam is Light

A Hindu religious festival merges myth and sacred time with the ordinary temporal flow since 'reality' does not exist in India where even the passage of time is illusory.

The sacred mountain Arunachala was worshipped long before the Vedic culture penetrated into the southern Indian peninsular millennia ago. In the south Lord Siva became the notion of significance and Arunachala became the embodiment of Lord Siva. Kailash Mountain of Tibet is his abode where he meditates, but Arunachala Mountain is Siva Himself.

It was in comparatively recent history that the Vedic Divine personalities evolved on the subcontinent; they up-staged the primeval pantheon of elemental divinities worshipped since time before mind: Fire, Water, Space, Air, Earth. Sacred places associated with these most ancient divinities lie in the South. Arunachala is The Fire Place.

However it is not Fire that is of primary significance but Light: an invisible column of light signifying the Enlightenment that those embodied in human form have the capacity to realize. Realisation confers freedom from the bondage of identity with form, both physical and mental. The light of the Deepam flame reminds us of this. Deepam means Light.

[By Apeetha Arunagiri]

The School

Tiruvannamalai is economically designated as a most backward District. There is no industry and a high percentage of the population is unemployed.

In 1992 at the request of the then District Collector, Rangammal Society opened a small school for profoundly hearing impaired children.

The area has a high percentage of speech and hearing impaired children. The reason often is because of consanguineal marriages (having the same ancestry or descent, i.e. marriage amongst close relatives).

The school currently has 200 residential pupils and 36 non-residential children. It is totally free of cost and includes food, board, study books etc for ages ranging between 3-22 years old. Rangammal Memorial Higher Secondary School for the Hearing Impaired has a high reputation for academic and cultural performances.

The children at the school are quite lovely. Very lively, intelligent, cheerful little babies. But it broke my heart to see such lovely kids wearing hearing aids.

While I was there I met two girls from the U.K. who have just finished their final school exams in England and have come to India for four months to work at Rangammal School. Both girls got their posts through Project GAP Activity Projects in the U.K.

In the LKG (Lower Kindergarten Grade) class, I met with Sarah from Dorset who is just 18 years old.

Next I visited the UKG (Upper Kindergarten Grade) class and saw Hannah from Kent who is also 18 years old and just finished school in the U.K.

The Visit

Started off from home by auto rickshaw stopping off for a quick petrol stop on the way to visiting Rangammal Rehabilitation Society. Must be that kind of day because everybody seems to be happy and smiling.

On the way I asked my driver to stop because I wanted to take some snaps of a pack of monkeys cleaning up waste bananas left on a delivery truck. They were having lots of fun chasing each other around the truck and also got to eat lots of nice ripe bananas. Just that kind of day!

The Rangammal Memorial Higher Secondary School for the Hearing Impaired (and all the other facilities in the six acred compound) is located off the Chennai Road about 6 kms south of the Big Temple and town. Arriving at the School one is greeted at the entrance by a beautiful statue of Mother Mary holding a young boy in a comforting embrace.

Visit to Rangammal

Some weeks ago I went to visit Sylvia Wright the Founder Director of Rangammal Memorial Rehabilitation Society at the Society's Hospital, the Ramana Maharshi Rangammal Hospital I was most impressed by the Society's level of dedication and service in the Tiruvannamalai District.

Very often the worthiest causes go unnoticed because the people in them are too busy 'serving' and don't have extra time to play politicals or go about promoting their work. I certainly plan giving their worthy Organisation lots of oxygen through my developing Arunachala information network, which currently comprises:

www.arunachalagrace.blogspot.com
www.arunachalasamudra.org
Arunachala Grace News: monthly ezine Newsletter
Authorship of: www.arunachalanews.com

The President of Rangammal Memorial Rehabilitation Society, Mr.N.Vijayan and I will work together to develop a dedicated section on the website www.arunachalasamudra.org on their Organisation and comprehensive information on The Rangammal Memorial Rehabilitation Society should be available through our Arunachala network within the next few months.

Their Society currently comprises the following:

Ramana Maharshi Rangammal Hospital
Rangammal Memorial Higher Secondary School for the Hearing Impaired
Vasavi Industrial School
Rangammal Memorial Teacher Training School for Hearing Impaired
Rangammal Memorial Day Care Centre for the Mentally Retarded and Cerebral Palsy
Outreach Community Programme
Village Clinics
RSVY Programme
Pension Scheme Programme

The Legend

There are two famous myths from the Puranas that describe the history behind the famous yearly Deepam on the top of Arunachala. The first is about Brahma and Vishnu's dispute over the column of light and the other is of the boon given by Shiva for Parvati's penace in atonement for killing the demon Mahisasura, a devotee of Shiva.

It is customary to celebrate Deepam in all Shiva Shrines at the same time that Deepam is celebrated at Arunachala, however the legend for these Siva Shrines is different to that of Arunachala. This other legend goes thus:

The Ghee Lamp, Rat and King

While Lord Shiva was seated in Mount Kailas with Devi Uma, a ghee lamp was in the process of extinction. A rat nearby approached it to drink the ghee and in that act the wick was pushed out a little, enabling the flame to brighten. This pious act though unintentional, resulted in the rat securing a human birth with huge wealth and the rank of a King.

With that prosperous boon the rat was born on earth as Mabali. Mabali, while reigning in all glory, one day wanted to worship Siva and went to a Siva shrine with all his royal paraphernalia.

While in the Temple, a drop from a ghee lamp fell upon Mabali. The King got sores from that one drop and his malady continued for a long time.

It was then Lord Siva proclaimed, "King, thou art very arrogant. Hence you got this trouble through me. From this day on if you light Shiva shrines with ghee, you will be rid of your sores and live happily."

Highly delighted on hearing these words the King from that day commenced lighting Shiva Temples and dark places with ghee (clarified butter) lamps. Lord Shiva looking at the king's piety, gave him liberation in the month of Kartigai on star Kartigai during poorva Paksha.

It is for the reason the Lord appeared before the King in the form of Light, that Deepam Darsan is celebrated in all Siva Shrines on this same day every year.

Be Still

By Arthur Osborne

Thou art? -- I am? -- Why argue? -- Being is.
Keep still and be. Death will not still the mind.
Nor argument, nor hopes of after-death.
This world the battle-ground, yourself the foe
Yourself must master. Eager the mind to seek.
Yet oft astray, causing its own distress
Then crying for relief, as though some God
Barred from it jealously the Bliss it sought
But would not face.

Till in the end,
All battles fought, all earthly loves abjured,
Dawn in the East, there is no other way
But to be still. In stillness then to find
The giants all were windmills, all the strife
Self-made, unreal; even he that strove
A fancied being, as when that good knight
Woke from delirium and with a loud cry
Rendered his soul to God.

Mind, then, or soul?
Break free from subtle words. Only be still,
Lay down the mind, submit, and Being then Is Bliss, Bliss Consciousness: and That you are.

[By Arthur Osborne]

Work Training

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are communities that are accorded special status by the Constitution of India. These communities were considered 'outcastes' and were excluded from the Chaturvarna system (the social structure of Hindu society for thousands of years).

These communities had traditionally been relegated to the most menial labour with no possibility of upward mobility, and subject to social disadvantage and exclusion. The Scheduled Tribes unable to participate in the community life of Society were deprived the opportunity to integrate and enjoy corresponding opportunities for educational, social and economic growth.

Scheduled Caste people are also known as Dalits; Scheduled Tribe people are also referred to as Adivasis. Gandhi used the terms Harijan and Girijan respectively.

The disadvantage faced by such a large section of Hindu society (SCs/STs together comprise over 24% of India's population, with SC at over 16% and ST over 8% as per 2001 census.

Local Governments try to offer different programmes and opporunities for further and technical education to members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in order to provide them with the opportunity to enjoy opportunities for social and economic growth. In this respect two such programmes are being currently offered in this area.

Free vocational training
The Department of Backward Classes Welfare will offer courses on radio and TV equipment for 100 people from Tiruvannamalai District. The age limit for the six month course has been fixed at 32 years old with a minimum qualification of a SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) education level.

The course will be open to candidates from the categories of: Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities.

Catering service course
It has been announced that THADCO (a financial institution) has offered a one-year free catering training course for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates under a self-employment training scheme.

The programme is to be executed by THADCO through Bharat Institute of Hotel Management, Tiruvannamalai and Om Sakthi Industrial School, Cheyyar. Approximately 120 students are expected to benefit from the scheme. Participants in the scheme will be between the ages of 15-35 and have reached a SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) education level.

Agni Tank

The repair and renovation of Water Bodies is an important part of the urban renewal plan for Tiruvannamalai, because:

"The number of water bodies considered to be holy, apart from having been useful to maintain the water table in the town till some years back, are now being completely polluted with mixing of sullage and sewage, besides being misused. In many of the tanks, major portion is encroached and water containment has become very much limited, which has resulted in constant depletion of ground water, apart from polluting the air, land and ground water. The soil erosion in the hills has resulted in silting and damage of the drainage network system, and in many of the roads, the drains are filled with silt and are completely choked."

On September 24 I took pictures of the renovation work going on at the Agni Tank on Chengam Road.

The renovation and repair work is now complete and here is a wonderful picture of a water tank full of clean water.

One local lady is busy washing clothes; hope she is using ecologically friendly soap!

Inspiration

God is love and whenever you reach out in loving kindness you are expressing God.

God is truth, and whenever you seek truth you are seeking God.

God is beauty, and whenever you touch the beauty of a flower or a sunset you are touching God.

God is the intelligence that creates all and sustains all and binds all together and gives life to all.

Yes, God is the essence of all: so you are within God and God is within you; you could not be where God is not.

Permeating all is the law of God; physical law and spiritual law. Disobey it and you feel unhappiness: you feel separated from God. Obey it and you feel harmony: you feel close to God.

As you live in harmony with Divine law you will feel closer to and develop more love for God.

[Peace Pilgrim]

http://www.peacepilgrim.com

Multi-mode Approach

Paul Devereux who is regarded as one of the world's leading authority on the geophysical aspects of sacred sites, comments that:

'When a person visits a ceremonial monument, is it their intellect, their five senses, their intuition, or the electromagnetic fields around their bodies that perceive the place? . . . One may individually respond in a limited set of ways to a site, but it is crucial to know that one's preferred reactions are only part of a network of knowing that is involved in a more complete description of the place'.

Devereux calls for a 'multi-mode' approach to the sites -that is by experiencing the sites from the vantage points of both knowing and feeling, both mind and heart. Knowing means having an intellectual and factual knowledge of such things as the mythology, archaeology, history, geology, astronomy and geomancy of a site. Feeling means the practiced ability to intuitively tune into and sense the presence of a site.

Ancients who discovered power places and erected ceremonial structures were most certainly interacting with the sites on both feeling and knowing levels. We must likewise employ both lines of inquiry; feeling and knowing, in order to tap into that wisdom and power.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda

A devotee connected with Paramahamsa Nithyananda got in touch and supplied us with some very interesting information that I reproduce below. I have also included a fascinating photograph of a ceremony on Arunachala itself during 2005 birthday celebrations. For more information please check link at:

http://www.dhyanapeetam.org

Nithyananda was born in Tiruvannamalai in 1978, and spent his childhood meditating in the energy field of the sacred Hill. He had his first spiritual experience, or satori (where he was able to see 360 degrees all around him) when he was 12 and meditating on a rock there.

Siva has promised that He will always be present in Tiruvannamalai in three forms: that of the hill, Arunachala, a Siva lingam (in the temple), and a Siddha. Yogi Ramsuratkumar was considered the Siddha to have succeeded Ramana Maharshi, and I have heard that close to his demise, he acknowledged Nithyananda as a Siddha. Nithyananda is intimately connected with Siva/Arunachala, yet his message is not one of Self-Enquiry; it is more broad in its appeal. He has said that his ashram which is slated to be constructed over land there will attract millions. So, it indeed appears that Arunachala shall be the spiritual centre of the world in years to come.

Here is what Nithyananda has said about his oneness with Arunachala:

'I am Arunachala!

Arunachala is nothing but the physical manifestation of the unmoving Self (achala).

Arunachala is Consciousness itself.

Arunachala is within, and not without.

Your journey to Arunachala is your inward journey; just as your journey to me is.

No wonder you are drawn here again and again.

Where else is there to go?'

Ashta Vasus

Sri Ramana Maharshi said:

'The Purana says that the Ashta Vasus having flattered themselves in Brahma's presence lost all their worth, and to regain it they came and did penance here all around Arunachala. They were given darshan by Siva at one and the same time by Siva assuming eight faces in this Hill. All those eight Vasus are still in the shape of eight spurs round this Hill.

What is meant by saying all those Vasus are still here as hills and doing penance round this holy hill, it is difficult to understand. Does it only mean that they are living on these hills and doing penance, or are they themselves these hills? It is difficult now for us to locate where the Ashta Dikpalakas actually stood sentry, whether at the spots where the Ashta Lingams are now found or whether the Lingams are those which were installed and worshipped by them.'

The Vasus are attendant deities and the eight elemental Gods representing aspects of nature and cosmic natural phenomenon. The name Vasu means 'Dweller' or 'Dwelling' and Ashta means eight.

Land Distribution

The State Government has given their approval to the Municipality to upgrade and distribute 62.52 acres of land worth Rs.50 Lakhs (US$112,000) to 28 women belonging to depressed Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes in Tiruvannamalai District during the current fiscal year. Beneficiaries of the land will include 26 ladies from Scheduled Caste and two from Scheduled Tribes.

The term "Scheduled Tribes" refers to specific indigenous people whose status is acknowledged to some formal degree by appropriate national and state legislation. A collective term in use locally to describe most of these peoples is "Adivasi".

The State Government intends releasing Rs.24 Lakhs as subsidy under the Chief Minister's special scheme of distributing lands to women for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. The fund will be routed through the Tamil Nadu Housing and Urban Development Corporation.

The balance of the money for the programme is to be arranged as bank loans in the name of the individual beneficiaries.

The office of the Collector have annoucned that those who wish to apply for land under the scheme can contact either the District Manager of the Municipal Corporation or Extension Officer (SC Welfare) of their respective Panchayat Unions.

Roadkill

On Wednesday, November 8th, approximately 74 people sustained injuries when a minibus in which they were travelling skidded and overturned on Tuesday.

The minibus was heading toward Tiruvannamalai from Paavupattu village. When near nearing Vignesh Polytechnic near Mel Puthiyandhal village (just outside Tiruvannamalai) the driver lost control of his vehicle and it slid sideways into the roadside shoulder and overturned.

All 74 passengers on the overcrowded vehicle sustained injuries and were rushed to the Tiruvannamalai Government Hospital, where 60 of them were admitted as in-patients. The other 14, (with minor injuries) were treated as outpatients. The incident is being investigated by authorities.

It is obvious to everybody in Tiruvannamalai that many vehicles are either flouting regulations regarding safety, recommended passenger numbers or environmental regulations regarding vehicle maintenance and excessive use of the horn whilst driving. The above difficulties are compounded by drivers who are either unskilled or too inexperienced to be driving passenger vehicles specially in dark and hazardous conditions.

About 8 kms of Chengam Road; which as well as being the main thoroughfare from Bangalore is also part of the pradakshina road around Arunachala, is notorious for driving incidents of speeding and noise pollution. This problem must be addressed!