Travelling to Shirdi Sai Baba

What started for me as just an ordinary day, became quite an adventure after someone casually mentioned that a large Shirdi Sai Baba statue had been delivered and was waiting installation at the side of the girivalam roadway. Even though Shirdi Sai Baba, as far as I know, has not been recorded as ever mentioning Arunachala, or in anyway connected to it, still I've always missed there being a Shirdi Sai Baba Temple here at the Hill.

It was about 7.30 a.m. and immediately on hearing the news, decided to go and find the statue myself. So, off I go. It was a pretty day and the sun was already high up in the sky. Normal life going on all around. By the time I reached the Parvati Hill (which is the only spot on the 14 km circumference of the Hill that you cannot see the Deepam light on top of Arunachala during the yearly Karthigai Festival) it was beginning to get nice and toasty. Below a young lad is ploughing his fields for his rice crop.

In a roadside cafe, a lady is making idlis and customers in the background are eating their tiffin breakfast.

A young stone worker is hewing out holy carvings for temples, shrines or independent sales.

By the time I have reached this spot, it is later in the morning and all the school kids are off on their way. Below a very cheerful young 'un smiling at the camera, with his proud Mum looking on.

The birds are scouting around for their breakfast and below an Indian Roller (Blue Jay) is skimming the top of the pond for some nice succulent insects.

Surprisingly some of the roadside lamps have now become solar - see just how modern Tiruvannamalai is becoming! Well there is certainly plenty of sun to make solar the intelligent energy system of choice. In Pondicherry, solar appliances are hugely popular.

A small Hindu cemetry right by the side of the hillround roadway and close by to Adiannamalai Village.

Lots more kids on their way to school. Took lots of snaps of them - and they were so happy. Great to have started their day off so well.

Finally I reach the Shirdi Sai Baba site. On the right side there is rather an ornate statue of the great saint - but this is not what I have come to see.

I've been told that the special statue is lying in a packaging crate close by. So, off I go again! And Finally I find him!

And the huge crate.

Luckily the top of the crate is open, so I pop my camera in and voila! A very, very nice statue of Shirdi Sai, sitting peacefully in his roomy crate, awaiting his installation on the Arunachala Hillround Roadway.

This is definitely going to be a favourite spot of mine!

Sri Nannagaru at Andhra Ashram

Sri Nannagaru arrived at Arunachala on March 15 for an eleven day visit. He generally visits Arunachala three to four times a year, staying from anywhere to one to two weeks a time. You can find out more about this Advaitic Master, at an earlier post here.

Swamiji's primary Arunachala Ashram (Sri Nannagaru Ashram) is about one kilometre west of Ramana Ashram, just off the Chengam Road. While staying there, Sri Nannagaru has been giving darshan in the early mornings and evenings, and as is his general routine, performed girivalam (hillround) one day, visited the homes of some devotees, and also visited Ramana Ashram. He also travelled to Pondicherry one afternoon and returned in the evening of the same day.

In this series of photographs taken this afternoon, Sri Nannagaru is giving darshan at Andhra Ashram (which is his original and smaller Ashram here at Arunachala).

In the above photograph Sri Nannagaru sitting in front of a picture of Sri Ramana Maharshi, who he considers as his Guru, and through whom he attributes his own self realisation.

To find out more about Sri Nannagaru, you can visit his site at this link.

Holy Company, Satsang
“If you do not see the company of holy men, and do not have darshan of great souls, your egoism gets bloated. When we feel thirsty, we can quench it by drinking water. When we feel hungry, we can eat and satisfy our hunger. Similarly, because of our ignorance, we do not have peace.

By satsang (holy company) we can know God and get peace. When the person who speaks does not have clarity, we can conclude that the person doesn’t know anything. When a person is asleep, to wake him up you call him by his name. You need not touch him. He or she wakes up and asks: “Who woke me up?” The sound of your words woke him up. In the same way, when a jnani teaches you, the very sound of his words, one day or the other, takes you to self-realization.

Even if you are not able to have darshan of a jnani, if you cultivate the company of those who have made some spiritual progress, you are bound to be benefited. In this case, you invest a small amount, but you gain a huge profit. If you are performing japa, meditation etc., that is artificial air. Getting the company of an enlightened one, or seekers is like a natural breeze.

Fasting and such things you should do according to your abilities. But in the company of holy people, always be alert, awake. If you cannot remain in the awareness of the Self, cultivate the company of holy people. As a result of the influence of their company, you will reap benefits in the future. Their habits, their words are cooling in their effect. You naturally protect your life extremely carefully, similarly, if you want to free yourself from innate negative tendencies, you should protect your friendship with holy people with the same alertness.”

[Sadhana For Taming The Mind
By Sadguru Sri Nannagaru]

Animal Shelter Update

Today visited the Animal Shelter to pick up some skin cream for one of my dogs. As always visiting the Shelter is a real pleasure and whilst there caught up with the latest news. As always lots of playful puppies and young dogs, gayly making mischief wherever possible, in this case right underneath a medicine cart - whoops!

Of course I wanted to find out about Baby, the little female monkey orphan that was savaged by some dogs. Happily her wounds are almost healed and she is beginning to be brighter and more interested in whats going on around her.

In the below photograph, the Animal Shelters two highly dedicated vets, Dr. Raju on the left and Dr. Pushpa (in the white jacked) on the right. With tiny Baby in the centre.

Baby is learning how to behave like a monkey and in the next photo plays his favourite game of hanging on to his pretend tree (Dr. Raju).

The next photograph is of a peacock currently receiving treatment at the Animal Shelter. The peacock is an inmate of the Suddhananda Ashram on the northside of Arunachala, where he permanently lives with a colony of four other peacocks.

The poor little fellow got savaged on his rear end by a stray dog. Lets hope that Ashram takes better precautions in the future to protect their beautiful birds.

Before leaving the Animal Shelter wanted to find out about their resident monkey, of whom I have written several earlier postings, here and here. Well apparently the naughty, highly intelligent scamp was able to untie the string fastening of his cage, and made a break for it in the early morning about four days ago. Monkey ended up at the Animal Shelter as a result of an attack by a band of dogs. As the monkey is old and toothless he wasn't able to defend himself and thanks to the intervention of some locals with stout sticks, the dogs were pushed back and the monkey rescued.



For the past two months, the Animal Shelter have been trying to find a happy new environment for the monkey, but due to a series of unfortunate coincidences was unable to ensure a suitable relocation. Word has it that one of the Animal Shelter staff saw monkey in a tree a couple of days ago, so we keep our fingers crossed that the call of freedom ends happily for the dear old-timer and his remaining years are spent munching mangoes high up in the safety of the trees, and far away from bad tempered stray dogs.



Happy to report that the Animal Shelter now have their own website at this link. So please bookmark their site and keep checking with them on their reports of the excellent work they are engaged in, throughout Tiruvannamalai.


In addition in the upcoming Arunachala Grace News, April 2008, we will be having an indepth report from Leslie Robinson, the founder of the Animal Shelter. If you do not yet receive your monthly copy of the Newsletter direct to your email inbox, please check the facility at the left column of this page, to become a free subscriber.

Arunachala Grace News - April, 2008

This month’s newly designed Arunachala Grace News will be sent out around the end of the month. April Newsletter has the Red Wattled Lapwing and Oregano as its featured Arunachala Bird and Herb respectively. As well as Arunachala Tidbits, poems and inspirations, the Newsletter will also have the next part of the Dakshinamurti narrative and an inspirational narrative about what an IT education means to those attending the Don Bosco Siharam programme.

This month there will be a special section dedicated to the moon and its relevance at Arunachala. In conjunction there will also be a very charming story about the time the Sun, Moon, and Wind went out to dine with their uncle and aunts Thunder and Lightning and how what happened that night resulted in the Moon's light becoming soft, cool, and beautiful.

To become a free subscriber and receive a copy of Arunachala Grace News directly into your email inbox, please sign up at the facility on the left hand column of this page.

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.

Dusk at Samudram

Well as is probably true throughout the world, the metrological office got it wrong again - and instead of lots of rain and thunderstorms, we haven't had a drop of precipitation for the last two days. Now that I am again able to walk, after my enforced cellulitis bedrest, my dogs finally get that which is even more important than a fine dinner - WALKIES. Poor things, they have been so patient and now finally the GOOD LIFE can be resumed.

It used to be possible to take them out to the Lake throughout the day, that is until they reverted to their wolf heritage, and one day unexpectedly went after a baby goat (but the story had a happy ending with baby goat making a full recovery). Since then walkies occur at no-goat timings i.e. not between 10.00 a.m. - 5 a.m. Which is fine for us, so we either go early in the mornings or at dusk - which is much to be preferred. Something rather special in sitting by the side of the Lake, watching dusk fall upon Arunachala.

The first photograph is of Victor, the newest addition to our family of 6 doggies. He was an abused dog, and we were asked to adopt him and give him a new chance of life. And what a life its turned out for him - swimming and playing with all his new doggie family, and lots of good yummie food. He is filling out nicely.

The next photo is of the only girl in the family, Holly, she is about 3 years old and came to us as a waif at our doorstep when she was just 4 weeks old. Most people call her Princess, because she is such a dainty little thing.

The next is mad little Muffin, who is nearly a year old. He too turned up at our doorstep when he was about 6 weeks old. He stayed and stayed, and after about 2 days, thought we would let him in and give him a saucer of milk - and he's never left. A mad, playful little dog that everybody falls in love with. And Muffin knows how to push people's buttons - he turns folk into jello!

The last photo of the series is Caspa (named after Casper the Ghost) because he was completely white for the first 2 months of his life. Caspa is a part of triplet boys who were born at our house 3 years ago last January. Two of the other lads, playing somewhere in the bush, and are named Oscar and Wally.

So they play and swim, and lark around and just enjoy absolutely the very BEST part of their days. Oh! Walkies.

Lots and lots of rain

Rain or the threat thereof will continue right on till this Thursday, when there is a 38% chance of precipitation. Oh well and I was getting so nice and toasty with all the great weather we were having!

If you plan to come for girivalam (Hill circumbulation) this week remember to bring your umbrella!

Sri Nannagaru Visit

Sri Nannagaru will be arriving at his Ashram at Arunachala on Saturday, March 15, and will be staying for 11 days. While here he will be available to devotees and visitors several times a day. Sri Nannagaru Ashram is located off the Chengam Road, about one kilometre west of Ramana Ashram, in an area called Rajiv Gandhi Nagar.

Sri Nannagaru visits Arunachala about four times a year and stays for between 7-12 days each visit. As he is in fact my own Guru, without a doubt I will post lots of photos and news in the upcoming days.

Swamiji was born on September 23, 1934 and made his first visit to Arunachala in 1957 to visit Ramana Ashram and the samadhi of Sri Ramana Maharshi. Sri Nannagaru returned to his native place, Jinnuru, West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh, and continued with his duties as an agriculturalist, husband and father. Without turning his back on his duties, going on pilgrim, or engaging in any sort of extreme sadhana, Sri Nannagaru attained realisation within a short time of his 1957 visit. He says that the occasion of his realisation occurred during a later short visit to Arunachala and happened through the Grace of Arunachala, Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Although Sri Nannagaru's own teachings are based on Self Enquiry, he guides devotees in whatever path is personally most suited to them.

The below photograph is the view of Arunachala from the gates of Sri Nannagaru Ashram.

Ancedote from

“Sadhana for Taming the Mind”

By Sadguru Sri Nannagaru

“Once, moved by the prayers of a devotee, the Gods came and asked him for any boon he wished. The devotee replied;

“I have not prayed for wealth or gifts,”
The Gods persisted, “We will give you wealth,”
“I cannot hoard or protect it,” he answered.
“We will give you the boon of knowing the future and give you the power to know other peoples’ minds,”
The devotee replied, “Why should I bother myself with the minds of others?”
The Gods said, “We will give you the power to cure diseases.”
“The power of God’s name alone is enough to cure,” answered the devotee.

The Gods realised that the man would not accept any boon and without his knowledge, they gave the boon that on whosoever the shadow of this man fell, that person would have all desires fulfilled.

If you realize and own the vastness and depth of your heart, great benefit will accrue to the world.”

Bose Compound

On the way home from Rangammal Hospital decided to stop off at Kafe Ram and get a take away rice lunch. Here is the auto rickshaw with very nice driver Gandhiban. Kafe Ram belongs to the Bose Compound, which itself has a very interesting history. One of the most fascinating aspects is that the still living owner of the huge nearly 7 acre Compound which is less than a minute from Ramana Ashram, is that Maya Ramakrishna used to walk on Arunachala Hill with Sri Ramana Maharshi when she was a young 14 year old girl. She has lots of interesting memories of that time.

The view from Kafe Ram is absolutely amazing. In front is a recently built Shakti Temple and in the background a wonderful view of Arunachala.

In the small restaurant, lots of photographs of Saints and Gods and some interesting signs and quotes.

The below quotation from Aldous Huxley says:

"The World is an illusion but it is an illusion we must take seriously, because it is real as far as it goes and in those aspects of the reality which we are capable of apprehending, our business is to wake up. We have to find ways in which to detect the whole of reality in the one illusory part which our self-centered consciousness permits us to see. We must not live thoughtlessly, taking our illusions for the complete reality, but at the same time we must not live too thoughtfully, in the sense of trying to escape from the dream state. We must continually be on our watch for ways in which we may enlarge our consciousness. We must not attempt to live outside the world, which is given us, but we must somehow learn how to transform it and transfigure it. Too much 'Wisdom' is as bad as too little wisdom and there must be no magic tricks. We must learn to come to reality without the enchanter's wand and his book of the words. One must find a way of being in this world while not being in it. A way of living in time without being completely swallowed up in time."



Really interesting roof and bric-a-brac at the small, rustic restaurant.

And now to behind the scenes and a visit to the restaurant's small little kitchen.

And lots of chapati making!

Arun, Maya Ramakrishna's son, once told me that his mother visited Sri Sathya Sai Baba and during an interview, Sri Sathya Sai Baba started talking to her about her walking excursions with Sri Ramana Maharshi on Arunachala Hill. Now, that lady must have some amazing karma!

Arunachala Animals

Its no secret to readers of Arunachala Grace, that I am a BIG animal lover. I have 6 amazing dogs and have absolutely no objections to increasing the family. I have written many posts regarding animals and in particular have brought attention to the wretched and abusive life suffered by the Temple Elephant, and also have written in detail about the excellent work of the Arunachala Animal Shelter. These are early days and so much can and will be done to improve Animal Welfare here at Tiruvannamalai. In future there will be many postings in this respect. We have also started up a Blog dedicated to the local bird life at Tiruvannamalai, you can check it at this link.