Tīrtha Series - 4b: Visit to Arunachaleshwara Temple, Thiruvanamalai

Here is the link to Tirtha Series Master Database

Definition of tīrtha:

tirtha, (Sanskrit: “crossing” or “river ford”) in Hinduism, a holy river, mountain, or other place made sacred through association with a deity or saint.

taken from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/tirtha

Definition of Sacred:

dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deitydevoted exclusively to one service or use (as of a person or purpose)
worthy of religious venerationentitled to reverence and respect

taken from: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sacred

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December 18, 2021, Thiruvanamalai, Tamil Nadu, India

This is a direct sequel to Tīrtha Series - 4a: Astral Arunachaleshwara Temple & Who is Ramana?

Wikipedia information on Arunachalesvara Temple.

After the astral interaction with Ramana Maharishi and Nisargadatta Maharaj at Arunacheleshawa temple on Nov 25, 2021, I got to visit the temple on the physical side on December 18, 2022. I had a hunch that the astral visit is over and I was waiting for the physical compilation but forgot with so many things going around me.

Ramana's & Deity's Grace:

Ramana gave the grace to visit the temple. The temple is near my hometown, just a 4-hour drive but without grace, it is not easy to visit these temples.

My maternal uncle tried lifelong to visit the temple and circumambulate the hill on the full-moon day (Girivalam meaning Mountain-circumambulation). He passed away without fulfilling it, several times he planned, some obstacle came and stopped.

I never thought I would visit the temple, after my marriage while staying in my in-law's house for a week as custom, my father-in-law proposed to visit nearby temples. After a string of temples, we got to visit the Arunachaleshwara Temple in Thiruvanamalai which is 2.5 hour drive from my in-law's house. It was a last-minute plan.

We visited the temple and saw the gigantic crowd, and that's when we realized we came on a full moon day, which is very auspicious for this Shiva temple. It was COVID time and a lot of regulations, but still, several thousands of people gathered.

We went inside and my father-in-law took a lot of initiative to get a local guide or temple worker inside the temple to bypass the queue and crowd as it would take hours to see the deity inside. The next day, he got to be in the office, so we wanted to cover more temples around the city.

Luckily, a temple worker came and to us in that huge crowd as shown in the picture. This is usually rare during a festival day like this when thousands gathered.

The guide and VIP Treatment:

My father-in-law just approached a random person and asked him whether he can help us to see the deity in a shorter time. This guide/ worker reacted as if he was waiting for me, he jumped up and said yes immediately.

He saw me and paced towards me, he just broke the line and opened the gates, held my arm tightly dragged me outside the queue. Held my hand so tightly, mainly to prevent getting lost in the crowd, and took me directly inside the temple and put me in front of the deity (Shiva Linga, Durga deity, and several other deities).

He showed me every deity in that temple and put the deity's garland, thread in hand on me and my father-in-law without us requesting him (Even on normal days, we have to pay the priest and request them for garlands, but on festival days, these things for the laity are not considered, only VIPs or politicians get this treatment).

There were enough garlands from the deity on my neck (they came without requesting) and toured like a politician around the temple with a guide. At the end before leaving, the guide made us wait for some time and he took us inside the deep temple premises and fed us with temple food which is presented to Deity. It is mainly for the police officers guarding the temple and the priests, but we got to eat it on a full moon day. The temple food was so hot and spicy, but it did not affect my tongue or guts right there, after 24 hours, I felt it.

The inspiration energy installed in that guide was tremendous. We never spoke of any cash, we thought of paying him few bills but in the end, we paid him with all cash from our pockets for his service but still, he was not leaving us. He said let me come in your rental car and show you around more places and offered us accommodation in his house, we manufactured the reasons to cut him off, it was too much to handle and he was treating us like his close family member, that became too much to handle for us.

Several barricades (due to the big crowd) were in place to not allow the cars inside the inroads around the Arunchaelshwara hill, but all barricades were removed when my father-in-law requested. That's quite uncommon unless it is a big wig's car. Got a chance to visit several shivlings around the hill like Durvasa lingam, Chandra Lingam, etc and circumambulated the hill in the car and visited the temples in the outer path.

Overall, it was a good temple experience. Diety & Ramana inspired the guide and others to give me a darshan (an opportunity to see the deity) for some positive tapas (austerities) I did before. My Father-in-law was delighted to get this kind of darshan, he never got such treatment or visited on full moon days.

Garlands, temple food, especially on a full moon festival day getting straight entries to deities even when it is barricaded was quite unexpected.

If Deity wants he will bring you from anywhere, if Deity doesn't want, end of the story!

Don't ask me if I got jivan-muktha or liberated after visiting so many temples, hahaha! (Madhva asked me this question)

I am still the same, with not an iota of change. The temple visit did not change anything in my psyche. Only correct guided psyche and yogic austerities can have lasting changes. Only some pride came from such treatments when others pointed it to me, and I have to work harder to eradicate or deactivate them.

Patala Lingam in Aruncahala Temple:

Got to see the Ramana's place of tapas or austerities. Patala Lingam (as shown in pictures below):

This is where Ramana spent about six weeks continuously in meditation. At the end of that period, he had to be physically carried out and cleaned up. In his early years here he said that he would open his eyes, without knowing how long he had been oblivious to the world. He would stand up and try to take a few steps. If his legs were reasonably strong, he would infer that he had been unaware of his body for a relatively short period – perhaps a day or two. If his legs buckled when he stood to walk, he would realize that he had probably been in a deep samadhi for many days, possibly weeks. Sometimes he would open his eyes and discover that he was not in the place where he had sat when he closed his eyes. He had no recollection of his body moving from one place to another within one of the temple mandapams

taken from David Godman's website ( A British guy who researched Ramana well)