Arunachala/Mountain Of Light

Arunachala,the Mountain of Light has been revered since ancient times as Shiva,God himself in the form of a hill.It is the same Annamalai of the Puranic era,to who, the quarelling Brahma and Vishnu finally bowed in surrender,acknowledging the Supreme Being who manifested before them as an infinite pillar of light,thus quelling their dispute and restoring peace throughout the cosmos.The eponymous town of Tiruvannamali nestles at it's foot,with the magnificent Big Temple of Lord Arunachaleshwar at the centre of it's raison d'etre. A grand cycle of religious festivals punctuates the annual calendar,crowned by the ten day Deepam festival in November-December.A giant fire is lit on the peak of of the mountain,which burns more than a week and can be seen for miles around.Every month on the night of the full moon hndreds of thousands of devotees throng to Tiruvannamalia to perform giripradakshina,the 13 km circumbulation of the mountain. It is living tradition that Arunachala has sheltered saints and spiritual practitioners down the ages.Most recently the vibrant spiritual centre was amde well known through out the world by Sri Ramana Maharshi (1897-1950) widely regarded as one of the greatest sages of modern India.Even today seekers the world over are drawn to the potent presence of Arunachal with whom the maharshi totally identified himself. Sri Ramana Maharshi (Tamil: ) (December 30, 1879 April 14, 1950), born Venkataraman Iyer, was a Hindu sage. He was born to a Tamil-speaking Brahmin family in Tiruchuzhi, Tamil Nadu. After having attained liberation at the age of 16, he left home for Arunachala, a mountain considered sacred by Hindus, at Tiruvannamalai, and lived there for the rest of his life. Although born a Brahmin, after having attained moksha he declared himself an "Atiasrami", a Sastraic state of unattachment to anything in life and beyond all caste restrictions. The ashram that grew around him, Sri Ramana Ashram is situated at the foothill of Arunchala, to the west to the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai. Sri Ramana maintained that the purest form of his teachings was the powerful silence which radiated from his presence and quieted the minds of those attuned to it. He gave verbal teachings only for the benefit of those who could not understand his silence.His verbal teachings were said to flow from his direct experience of Consciousness (Atman) as the only existing reality. When asked for advice, he recommended self-enquiry as the fastest path to moksha. Though his primary teaching is associated with Non-dualism, Advaita Vedanta, and Jnana yoga, he recommended Bhakti to those he saw were fit for it, and gave his approval to a variety of paths and practices.