Shivaratri at Arunachala: A Yogi’s Encounter

Where does one even begin to try and humanely articulate the Omnipotent, Omniscient ‘Shiva’-the one who is not! This infinite Virata Ishwara, the body of the cosmos that is present everywhere in the darkest dark and yet stays supremely ‘still’ as the magnetic powerhead, shatters our limited understanding of the cosmic design that permeates the purest consciousness in all of us. It unwaveringly reminds us of the most potent central void, the nuclear grid, the epi-center of the cosmos as the source that we absorb in this fractal micro-cosmos called the human body. We can be an embodiment of this infinitesimal magnificence if we calibrate our instrument as an absorbing pipeline. It takes immense effort and courage to stay on the Shambhavapaya, the Summit path to liberation. This is a path that truly recalibrates, shatters, collapses, and implodes our purview of the entangled journey of an earthling embroiled in karma and dharma. It glaringly welcomes us to take the leap, plunge into its etheric inferno that burns all the components of drama that confines us to an endless loop.

Significance of Maha Shivaratri
The cosmos is eternally dark, and 95% of its mass dark matter and only 5%  is spaciously occupied by celestial light bodies. Darkness always exists and only light has birth and death. Hence even the mighty stars eventually die. Sun is the source of all life on planet earth. It is fuelled by the central sun, which is basically a huge void of nothingness. Every 14^th day of the lunar month is the darkest night and is called the night of Shiva- which is revered as Shivaratri. Once a year, on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri, the northern hemisphere of the earth positions itself in a special way which triggers a natural upsurge of energy in a receptive human. This is nature’s way of ushering us to our spiritual peak. Alignment is our responsibility and it requires us to straighten up and breathe deep to attune our receptors and portals so that we can receive the gracious flow of cosmic transmissions. Life is an eternal celebration and accessing the transmissions during the ‘Maha Shivaratri’ empowers us to accelerate our spiritual journey into completion and liberation. To stay awake and meditate on the void ‘Brahma Guha’ in the mid-brain, while remaining in deepest gratitude, is the essence of this night long celebration. Brahma Guha is a small cavity inside our third ventricle in the brain. It is the zero point field in our brain and enables us to tap into silence and stillness. We can choose our own way to celebrate the flow of creativity through their offering through outward expression of singing and  dancing. While we celebrate our expression, it will be truly worthwhile to dive within this  deepest inner silence that enables us to access the remembrance of the source and flow of the transmissions that awaken us.   

When Shiva, the Force, finds us worthy enough as aligned and ready ones, we have no choice but to listen, respond and act as per the divine will. It usually serves its notice as a direct or indirect summon through our human connections. Only a choiceless being can truly be immersed in a state of active surrender. Ever since this COVID virus mutated and attacked the humans on a pandemic scale, it has urged us to revisit our lives in every possible angle and to revive it to just being normal again. Undoubtedly, we have a choice, either we realign our body or we live in fear of succumbing to the dreaded attack. Raising the vibrational frequency of our body to attain a disease free instrument is possible and all these spiritual journeys contribute to it immensely.

Arunachala, the hill of wisdom in Thiruvanamalai is the cosmic portal of purest consciousness on our Planet Earth. For the uninitiated, it may appear as just another hill. However, one cannot ignore the words of one of the most magnetic and enlightened Master, Ramana Maharshi, who stated “Arunachala is truly the holy place. Of all the holy places, it is the most sacred! Know that it is the heart of the world. It is truly Shiva himself! It is his heart-abode, a secret kshetra. In that place the Lord ever abides in the hill of light named Arunachala.”

The calling of Arunachala Shiva came to me like a ‘telegram’ marked ‘URGENT’ in Red. The urge was so strong, that I was feeling the inexplicable excitement like a child. Having been there before is of little relevance as we can only absorb it better each time we return to Arunachala with higher devotion, receptivity, fitness and calibration.

Life is a phenomenal teacher. It is not just about the glorious ‘Destiny’ or ‘Journey’, it is also about the ‘people’ we walk along the path with that adds to the celebration of the divine that is sparking within us.  On the 10^th of March, just one day before the Maha Shivaratri, our boundless excitement rose and it demanded our immersive presence in the Arunachala to celebrate the Shivatvam in its heightened state. My student Jagat from Chikmagalur promised to be our local guide as he lived in Thiruvunamalai for 80 days at a stretch.  Hema ji and her daughter Sampruti opened their hearts to join us in this phenomenal journey and their driver Jagadeesh drove us to this temple town.

We may often use the term ‘lost my way’ when we encounter an unfamiliar or deviating road along our destination. However, I believe there are such no accidents once we trust in the divine. We meandered through some unchartered roads and were intuitively guided to finally land in the abode of Ramana Ashram.

 

Ramana Ashram: The magnetic vortex
One can keep wondering and intellectualize what makes Ramana Maharishi’s Ashram an immensely magnetic space and a feast for any receptive aspirant. No scientific lingo or poetic expression can truly justify or narrate the profundity of the experience that a receptive being can truly experience here. The foremost aspect is that the earth grid energies are its peak. The Muladhara Chakra kick fires to its peak expression and the Kundalini Shakti rises to celebrate the cloud burst of energies spilling over the space and it’s hard to contain the excitement and outpouring of gratitude that happens so naturally here. Ramana Maharishi is one of the most magnetic spiritual masters to have walked this earth and the heritage site of this phenomenal being stands out as the most-lively laboratory for the spiritual progression.

One step inside in the ashram, and the body gets rewired. The magnetism that prevails here is a true testimony of his eternal presence that permeates every atom in this consecrated space. Compassion is the highest emotion and it just emanates in us when we access that divine state within us. Ramana Maharishi was the greatest embodiment of it. The ‘self’ is embedded within us and if we seek it, we will miss it. The ego-self has to collapse into the ‘Atma Bindu’ and it reveals the true eternal self. It reminds us of its purest fragrance, truth, celebration, bliss and completeness.

Sri Ramana Maharishi conveyed the greatest truths in absorbed silence. There is no way one can explain it. This reflects in the portal of magnetism that prevails. His presence oozes in the sacrosanct spaces where he conducted the ‘satsangs’ and sanctified it with his presence. It is intriguing that he never even looked at anyone craving to be in his presence. He was absorbed in the magnificence of the Arunachala hills and all those who basked in his presence were celebrating the rising and dancing Kundalini Shakti as it merged into the Magnetic Shiva in the ‘Bindu’ chakra convergence point in the mid-brain.

We live in a world where magnanimous social media presence, PR, media projection and smart marketing have made ‘gurudoms’ thrive in its pretentious claims. The saying that a million flies cannot be wrong is evident in the mass hysteria of blinded followers that are besotted by the sway of the celebrity quotient. The masses often chase glitter, glamour, and pretentious claims that spurn the real essence of spirituality, which is rooted in accessing the purest magnetic stillness, silence and gracious transmissions. Even if we get a trickle of it in this lifetime, we will be set on the summit path of liberation. There is a saying in the Himalayas, that even if we utter ‘Om Namaha Shivaya’ ignorantly, we have kick-started our journey into the conscious knowing and dissolution. However, not all of us have the depth of calling, hence the statement “Manushyanam Sahastreshu..kashchit yayati sidhaye” which means Amongst Millions of humans that have passed this earth, only  few of us attain the purity.

It’s incredibly rare that great Rishis like Ramana have graced and illumined our Earth in this dark age. It is impossible to comprehend the levels of gracious transmissions that he magnetically embodied and radiated. Just walking into the Ashram is like passing through a spiralling vortex and intense magnetic grid. For those who wonder how that occurs, the fact is that Arunachala is located in the central void channel of the cosmos. It is designed to be the purest portal on Earth for spiritual ascension. It attracted Ramana Maharishi to take up his spiritual quest to the pinnacle. Now the space is alive with his etheric presence and showering of grace for those ready ones.
One cannot merely rely on devotion, we also need the awareness and calibration of our body to be receptive enough or we stand the risk of being a mere bystander in a cosmic celebration that unfolds at the Ashram during the auspicious occasion of Maha Shivaratri.

Ascended beings visit these sacred spaces in their etheric bodies which are referred to as ‘Nirmana Kaya’ which they project or establish with their superior will power. The Arunachala belt is known for the sacred visitations of many Siddhar Masters who are constantly exploring and guiding a true sadhaka who deserve guidance or initiation. Any aspirant who has the slightest inclination to bask in this gracious space would set forth on this pilgrimage to Thiruvanamalai and absorb the transmissions from the magnificent ‘Arunachala’. It is obvious that millions of devotees throng this sacred space, while only a few get to reach the core of readiness to grasp the river of grace that is flowing so abundantly in this grid.   

The supercharged atmosphere is driven by an unseen vortex of a magnetic grid. I was excited to scan and follow my instincts to trace those special spots that were radiating the highest energy field. Devotees throng the Ashram to bask in the special energies. Each one of us receives the transmission in a unique way that we are calibrated in the receptors, our chemical state, and our attitude, which truly is the game-changer.

A shrine built in honour of Shri Ramana Maharshi’s mother “Alagammal” (Beautiful mother) welcomes us with its sanctified, subtle feminine energies that wrap us in pure devotion. Intuitive guidance is available to all of us when we are in pure readiness. The voice within ushered me to walk around the sanctum of the temple in complete thoughtless surrender. As I kept walking, I felt a gentle river of prana within flowing with the presence, memories, and teachings of the Maharshi. I walked briskly with eyes half-closed as tears flowed down gently and the heartfelt warmth and the solace for the opportunity to be in such a pristine space. As I continued to walk faster, it triggered a massive churning of energies within. It is a blessing to be churned, washed, and karmically burnt by divine intervention and a clarified intent. I could have walked there forever, but something prompted and I ended up in front of the altar as I bowed down in deep reverence to a dancing flame that kept me magnetized and surged immense gratitude for the magical interventions. I returned the next day and repeated the ‘pradakshina’, the spin around the altar with more fervour. With the least expectation, we stand the chance of receiving a gift beyond our imagination. I was immersed in walking around the altar and then out of the blue, appeared an impossibly big blue flash of light in my brain and from within it, like a bolt of lightning, Ramana Maharshi emerged and gave me a full-blown vision of his magnetic presence. My breath froze in excitement. It was a vision that I was craving for a long time. But before I could even feast my eyes, the image vanished, while the prana currents within my body remained in its ecstatic state. Maharshi’s words flashed in my memory to pacify me. “We cannot demand grace. We get what we deserve”. From the pit of the core within, a deep surge of gratitude emanated towards this compassionate Master. It’s hard to express this feeling in words, and there is no better feeling than an outpouring of pure gratitude as it pulls out every bit of our embedded memory of all our lifetimes of sadhana and offers it to the source in a flash of a moment. The cold trickle of tears streaming down the face is a result of a heart melt-down and it fills that gaping void of incompletion that torments the perfectionists. This life is not a measure of yogic or material achievements, it is about deepest remembrances that can help us click into the grid of all the highest creative possibilities.

The Shivaratri festivities at Ramana Ashram is celebrated with a unique flavour. A deep feeling of devotion sets in at this space, as waves of compassion permeate all those who bask in this grid. I walked around like a curious kid looking for super-charged spaces that radiated the highest grid energies. A tree next to the meditation hall is an incredible transmitter for sure. I felt the urge to hug it tight and receive the magnificent healing transmissions it was oozing. A thought occurred to me that the tree must have been a pure witness to thousands of masters who have been entering into this grid for hundreds of years. A living tree is a terrestrial standing pillar of light and serves as a pure medium. I have made it a practice to do intensive kapalabhati kriya when I stand next to a tree and disperse as much carbon I can. This is one of my ways of expressing gratitude to the ever-giving tree.

There are few more spaces at the ashram that are super vibrant. There is a spot near the main office where Ramana Maharshi used to conduct ‘satsang’ in those days, and it still remains supercharged.  

I was overwhelmed by  phenomenal surge of energies at the Dining Hall in the Ashram. I had been there on invitation to take a look. It feels like a treasure house of Indian spiritual heritage and one can soak in the abundant energies to add to the purity of all the sattvic food served there.

Arunachala, the grid of highest liberation
Ramana Maharshi called Arunachala, the spiritual heart of the world, and revered it as the body of Shiva in the form of Dakshina Murthy. One look at the hill is enough to magnetize anyone who has an iota of devotion for Shiva running their vein. Aruna, which means ‘red, bright like fire’, does not signify the mere fire that gives off heat. Rather, it means Jnanagni, the Fire of Wisdom, which is neither hot nor cold. Achala signifies hill. Thus, Arunachala means ‘Hill of Wisdom’. This is the only place where ‘Shiva’ is fully embodied on planet earth to illuminate the ones who seek grace. Arunachala is OM itself. The greatest event that happens on the summit of this hill every year is the festival of ‘Kartigai Deepam’ during November. One of the most magnificent sights to behold is to watch the mesmerizing ‘Jyotirlinga’, the column of light that emanates when thousands of devotees burn ‘ghee’ on the summit. The presence of Shiva is truly alive in every cell at Arunachala. One can understand the depth of meaning when Ramana Maharshi says, “In the end, everyone must come to Arunachala.” When one wants to transit to a higher dimension, the soul is ushered to visit Arunachala and spin around it three times and seek the blessings of Shiva for liberation. Sri Ramana Maharshi once explained the meaning of the word pradakshina and how it should be done by a devotee: “The letter “Pra” stands for removal of all kinds of sins; “da” stands for fulfilling the desires; “kshi” stands for freedom from future births; “na” stands for giving deliverance through jnana. 

The Arunachala is the pearl of the Eastern Ghats and does not seem like a challenging climb as it’s only 814 meters high. However, the experienced ones know how it tests everyone in a unique way as per the karmic stage of evolution. Karmic burning is intense and it all triggers during the climb. We had the honour of landing here during the morning of the ‘Shivaratri’ on March 11th, 2021. Our local guide and friend ‘Jagan’ clearly indicated to us that climbing Arunachala is banned by the forest department. He said one can go there at one’s own risk and offered to send along a friend so that we wouldn’t get lost. We began the ascension point near ‘Skandashram’ at 4 am. It is hard to describe the feeling that when we realize that the Lord is watching over us and we are summoned to take up the climb despite the local authority regulatory orders. It was still dark and we used the torch in our mobile phones to make our way through the rocky terrain. The hill climb offers a picturesque view of the temple town of ‘Thiruvanamalai’ that was gearing up for the ‘Shivaratri’ Celebrations. The temples were bustling with early bird devotees as they joined in the prayers, their voices reverberating in ancient Tamil in the valley below. The atmosphere was charged with divine vibrations and transported me into a bygone era. The shimmering lights below began to fade a bit as we gained height. The tranquil early morning hours is called ‘Brahma Mahurat’ and are always special as the ‘ozone’ descending into the atmosphere enriches our breath. Meanwhile, our ‘guide’ was walking up at a frenetic pace and the two of us were trying hard to keep pace with him on this terrain that he knew like the back of his hand.

The sky canvas above us was truly a spectacular sight, as the Ardha Chandra (half moon) in its Chaturdashi tithi, the 14^th day of its revolution was hovering over the dark set clouds and mystic air surrounded us. After stopping over to take some precious pictures on our mobiles, we finally reached the summit. A huge wave of overwhelming gratitude gripped me as I soaked in the electric ambience. The elemental gods had arranged for some special views to match the occasion. The cloud formations were like an exotic ‘surfing wave’ and it was truly mesmerizing absorbing the ‘Arushi’ the first rays of the sun as it emerged as a huge golden ball and lit up the clouded sky for a brief moment. It is a big blessing if one can remain in deep devotion and absorb the photonic transmission from the Sun, the source of all life on our planet.


The sanctified ‘Guru Paduka’, the symbolic feet of ‘Shiva’ that is carved at the Summit is a deep reminder of the ‘Shambhapaya’, the shaivic path work that one needs to follow if we want to access the ‘Grace’ of the ‘Supreme Consciousness’.  As I sat up to tune into the gracious flow, I could distinctly feel the presence of many Masters. A picture shot by Jagadeesh could thankfully capture the presence of a powerful ‘Cosmic Being’ towering above the clouds. We were blessed enough to get this ‘Darshan’ that I have shared in the picture below.  Thiruvannamalai town viewed from the summit of Arunachala is always a treat to watch. It is a joy to watch the heavenly energies breezing their magical flow across the pilgrim town. Despite the COVID restrictions, devotees had walked up hundreds of miles to reach this town on Shivaratri. I felt truly privileged and blessed to be at the summit and absorb the special transmissions of Dakshinamurthi, the bestower of wisdom.

Our guide was getting a bit cautious and he warned us that we have to be at the base before 9 am. Every moment absorbed at the summit felt glorious. I have to admit that there is no better place in this world than being on the summit of Arunachala. The rumbling from the core of the earth can be felt distinctly at the top if we are sensitive enough. It is definitely not for the weak-hearted as it feels like the hill is churning from within. Every stone on this hill is Arunachala like a ‘lingam’ and conveys the essence of so many profound masters that walked this body of Shiva. Only deep trust and devotion can help one be at deep peace while experiencing this wild spin at the ‘muladhara chakra’ and the cosmic transmissions that profusely permeate the subtle body as intensive magnetic induction.

We reluctantly descended from the Summit. The breeze was light. Our guide ushered us to the Virupaksha Cave and the grid energies and presence of masters were distinct in those brief moments of absorption. There is nothing more precious than being absorbed in the mystique that these caves offer. They emanate the master presence and it’s so easy to slip into the zone of ‘nothingness’ as the buzzing energies, upscaled prana frequencies, and the nada of the eternal drone of ‘omkara dvani’ are so conducive for diving within the ‘Brahma Guha’, the cave within our brain.

We took quick detours to pick some fresh mountain gooseberries from trees. It tasted heavenly and it reassured us that anything that grows on this medicinal hill has to be superlative in its nourishment. We finally descended the hill and it was well before the 9 am deadline. As we stood at the foothills and looked up at the summit with longing eyes, we realized that we must make peace with the fact that we cannot live at the summit and we must return to the base and promise ourselves to share the true essence of being in this magical space at Shivaratri. There is a sense of completion that sets in when we are at Arunachala and everything felt so perfect and balanced. We walked to our hotel, brimming with bliss and deepest gratitude for this opportunity.

The next morning, we arrived at 4 am to be at the sanctum of the Thiruvanamalai’s most important temple, the Arunachaleshwara, the 9th-century marvel which stands as an offering to Shiva. The magnificent edifice is associated with the five elements and especially the Agni, the elemental fire. The temple is built in a sprawling complex that stretches to about 10 hectares and is regarded as one of the largest in India. The tallest ‘gopuram’ towers over the rest and stands at 66 meters and can be spotted distinctly from Arunachala. Walking through the temple and offering prayers transported us to an era when saints sang in the glory of the lord. A distinct devotional fervour sets in during Shivaratri. Devotees feel at home in this space and spend the night in the arms of the divine. There is no place like Thiruvanamalai and it reiterates why India continues to be the spiritual engine of the world.

It is always an honour to be in this land of Shiva. I welcome you all to join me in this sacred pilgrimage when I am around.

Om Namaha Shivaya