Thiruvannamalai and Darshan of Arunachala
It was December 2004. There was a core group of devotees in the US who came to Bidadi to spend the time around Jayanthi celebrations with THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM took a group of 50 or so ashramites and devotees to Thiruvannamalai. All of us stayed in a Chathram (a place built to provide free accommodation to visitors coming to temples) operated by the family of our close devotee and Chennai organizer, Ramanathan.
It was dusk time, about 6:45 pm to 7:00 pm. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM took us to the location where he had His first satori experience in Thiruvannamalai. This is a beautiful serene hillock facing Arunachala on one side. On the other side is a Devi temple. It is believed that Devi has the experience of enlightenment here. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM showed us the rock where he has the first satori experience. I would like to direct the readers to THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's biography, "Nithyananda Volume 1" for in-depth discussion of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's first experience. It was here, where THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM had the deep satori or Samadhi experience at age 12. This experience revealed the blueprint of enlightenment to him. He had the incredible experience of being one with the cosmos through the experience of 360 degree vision (Brahma with four faces really symbolizes this 360 degree vision). The reader may also go to
Swamiji was sitting on the first experience rock and started singing. All of us huddled around him. There were about fifty of us. Suddenly Sri Atma Maneeshananda exclaimed to Swamiji, "Swamiji I am beginning to see Arunachala being lit up!" Swamiji acted as though nothing happened and casually said, "Just look around, maybe the lights from the city area are causing this." And he went about singing. Maneeshananda told us that there was no chance for this since everything else around was dark and only the region near us was beginning to light up. As Swamiji increased his intensity of singing, we started seeing Arunachala being lit up in a light reddish color. We were sitting about 700 metres from Arunachala. Yet, we had a clear view of the mountain to an extent we could clearly see stones, rocks and plants. The rest of the area was all dark. This was not logically possible. Swamiji would increase the intensity of singing and the intensity of the light would increase. All of us were in complete silence. There were no thoughts, no words said, just complete stillness in us. This went on for a full 45 minutes. Swamiji jumped from the first experience rock and suddenly got serious. He told us, "Cherish this moment and keep it inside your heart. Arunachala has blessed you with darshan" He then went on towards the foothills. All of us followed him. I looked back and amazingly, Arunachala was pitch dark. I could only see the outline of Arunachala.
Complete stilling of the mind at Skanda Ashram
The next morning Swamiji took all of us to climb Arunachala. The first stop was Skanda Ashram. This ashram was built by Bhagawan Ramana Maharishi. It is a beautiful ashram half way up Arunachala. The moment we reached Skanda Ashram, Swamiji explained to us about Ramanamaharishi and what went on in Skanda ashram and his childhood experiences coming here. After we saw the ashram, Swamiji sat down in front of Skanda ashram. All of us sat around him. All of a sudden it was as though something came down on us. There was complete silence and stilling of the mind. It happened to all fifty of us, all at once. While there was complete silence, it was an intense silence. It is not that we closed our eyes in meditation. My eyes were wide open, but the mind was completely still. Time stood still. Swamiji was smiling and gazing upwards. Suddenly he got up and said let us continue with our trekking. We looked at the watch and it was one hour since we sat down with the Master. Every one of us knew that the master gave us a deep glance of His true inner space, a space of intense silence.