Arunachala: The Spiritual Incubator
Some of you may have heard of Thiruvannamalai, which is a small town in the north western part of the South Hindu state of Tamilnadu. 'Thiru Anna Malai' as it should be termed in chaste Tamil, the name means 'Revered Inaccessible Mountain'; a name that was given to it in the distant past not because it was a tall and mighty mountain physically, being more a medium sized hillock, but possibly because of the spiritual connotation that the place had for the believers and spiritual seekers. The entire township has evolved around the mountain and a 'parikrama' or circumambulation of the mountain is considered to be holy and spiritually value enhancing.
In Sanskrit this mountain is termed 'Arunachala', literally the 'Unmoving Morning Star', simplified as the 'Red Mountain', possibly in reference to its reddish hue. Sages from time immemorial are reputed to have lived in the caves and slopes of this hill, sanctifying it and being sanctified by it in turn. Adi Sankara had described Arunachala as Mount Meru, the inaccessible heart center of Siva. The legend of this temple, the Sthala Purana, reads thus.
In ancient Hindu mythology there is a story of a fight between Brahma, the Creator and Vishnu the Sustainer, as to who was greater. There was no one to solve the fight except Siva, the Rejuvenator, and the third member of the Divine Trinity. Siva appeared before them in his vishwa rupa, the divine form, in such a huge size, as a shaft of light, that its ends, his head and feet could not be seen. Siva said who ever can find either of my ends is the greater of the two of you. Brahma went up towards the head in the form of a flying swan. Vishnu went as a boar digging below the ground to find Siva's feet. They searched for ages, yugas. Vishnu realized that he could not find what he sought, decided to surrender his ego, and told Siva to forgive his arrogance in trying to seek his feet. Siva blessed him for his honesty. Brahma could not accept his failure. He saw a flower falling down as he flew up and asked the flower where it was coming from; it said it had fallen from Siva's ears. Brahma asked: how long have you been traveling? Flower said: I have been falling for four ages of Brahma. Brahma was shocked and realized he had no hopes of finding Siva's head, but he did not want to accept his failure. Brahma decided that he would tell Siva a lie about finding this flower on his ear; he then asked the flower to bear witness that he had brought it down from Siva's head. The flower hesitated, but Brahma persuaded it saying in any case Siva would not know. Flower having little choice, and afraid to refuse the Creator said yes. Both went down to Siva and Brahma told Siva that he saw Siva's head and brought this flower as his witness. Siva was angry at this lie and punished him saying: You will be never be worshipped; and he punished the flower saying: no flower will ever be used in my puja. Brahma realized his error and sought forgiveness. Both Vishnu and Brahma requested Siva to keep his form of light to bless the Universe. At their request Siva in this divine light form became Arunachala, the glowing mountain and assumed the form of the 'jyotirlinga' at the temple in Thiruvannamalai.
The temple to Siva in Thiruvannamalai is perhaps the biggest temple in Bharat, certainly amongst the biggest. It is one of the five sacred lingam sites of Siva in the South where Siva is worshipped in his elemental form of fire, as one of the pancha bhutas, the five elements of nature. In Chidambaram Siva is worshipped as ether or space, in Kalahasti as air, in Kanchipuram as earth, and in Tiruvanaikkaval as water. It is also believed that Siva appeared to Parvati here in Arunachala as a column of fire on a Karthikai Purnima day (Karthikai is the Tamil month of November-December and Purnima is the full moon day), when she prayed to unite with him.
The temple of Arunachala has been sung about in Tamil in the 7th century by the Saint Sambandar, and is believed to have existed since long before. It is built in a combination of three distinct architectural styles. The inner sanctum and first courtyard are of the Chola style of 9th century. Later day Cholas of the 11th century added an additional prahara (courtyard) and gopurams (entrance towers) with grand carvings. The third prahara and the massive fourteen storey tower are from the Vijayanagaram style of 16th century, begun by Krishna Devaraya and completed by Sevappa Nayaka. The later day extensions (there are seven praharas in all) have been carried out in total harmony with the original Chola structure that makes this temple one of the finest examples of Dravidian architecture. This temple of Arunachala has nine gopurams on its four walls, the eastern and largest gopuram being 72 meters tall with thirteen storeys.
Living Masters of Arunachala
In recent times, Thiruvannamalai has been best known for Ramana Maharishi, arguably one of the greatest saints and enlightened Masters of modern day Bharat. Ramana moved into Thiruvannamalai when he was sixteen and lived in the ambience of Arunachala the rest of his mortal life. Known as the Silent Sage, Ramana communicated his somewhat complex message of enlightenment through a process of self enquiry by the sheer force of his personal grace and charisma. Ramana called Arunachala 'the spiritual center of the world'.
Ramana's process of self enquiry leads one to the source of one's thoughts. Ramana says to keep asking, Who Am I? This query and enquiry peels through layers of the mind body and leads ultimately to the realization that what one truly is, is not the body, not the mind, not anything material, but the inner spirit and the inner divinity. This process if experientially carried out, and not as an intellectual exercise leads to self realization. More than the process, it was the grace of Ramana, the Master that enlightened the disciples who gathered around this living enlightened Master, an incarnation.
Arunachala is a spiritual incubator. When a Master enters this world in a human body, his acclimatization process upon Planet Earth is like 24 carat gold having to be alloyed down to 22 carat to enable being fashioned as jewelry, which then has to shed the alloy to be purified and enlightened.
As we shall see later, incarnations come down with some sattva guna embedded in their Being; they are born with the highest attribute of spiritual calmness in them, to be able to survive in their human body. Over time they shed this satva attribute as well, once their bodies get acclimatized to living on Planet Earth. A spiritual incubator helps in providing these enlightened beings with the right ambience to shield them, so to speak, from any disruption to their highly evolved state. This incubator ensures that the spirit is sustained at close to the purest, attribute less levels as is possible in human reality.
This does not mean that every one born in Tiruvannamalai in the neighborhood of Arunachala is an incarnation or is bound to be enlightened; far from it. Ramakrishna says: dozens of flies crowd around a cow and drink its blood; it is only the calf that comes in perhaps twice a day that goes straight to its mother's udder to drink milk. It is likely that most of those who are born and live around the Arunachala are the flies; the calves who come to imbibe the milk of spirituality are precious few.
Arunachala has been the spiritual incubator that has provided the nurturing for many Masters over thousands of years. It has the lineage of a great enlightened Master Arunagiri Yogiswara, embodiment of Siva himself. The great temple of Thiruvannamalai is built on the Jiva Samadhi (burial place of the living spirit of a Master) of Arunagiri Yogiswara. Prayers are offered to Yogiswara first in this temple, even before the ruling deity of Arunachaleswara. Ramana refers to Yogiswara, the great master as a young sage sitting under a banyan tree teaching many older persons seated around him.
In Hindu tradition enlightened Masters are buried, whereas all others have their bodies burnt. There is a very scientific background to this practice. Bodies are the receptacle of our memories, our desires, and our samskaras. These memories begin before our birth and last after our death.
Studies by Bruce Lipton at the cellular lever have now shown that the embryo in the mother's womb retains memories of what transpires in the outer world. Interaction between parents and the emotional state of the parents, especially the mother are carried viscerally into the infant through its cellular structure.
Similarly memories live on after we die, and these memories are embedded in the body. If the body is buried as in many cultural and religious traditions, these memories stay on at the place of burial and remain intangibly present. This is what gives rise to the presence of ghosts and spirits. The feeling of some people who are sensitive to these super natural sensations is very real; it is not hallucination. Whether we believe it or not, understand it or not, accept it or not, memories survive our death and linger on.
When the bodies are burnt as with the Hindu custom, their memories are destroyed with the body. No memories, no spirits, and no ghosts linger.
In the case of enlightened Masters their memories are very powerful. Masters who are enlightened leave no desires and no samskaras behind. What they leave behind in their bodies are enormous amounts of energy. Hindus believe that this energy of enlightened Masters can be preserved by burying their bodies under right conditions in a living tomb, or Jiva Samadhi.
Jiva Samadhis of great Masters are enormously powerful spiritually; they are the equivalent of nuclear reactors.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says that in his personal experience he has seen five such Jiva Samadhis recent living Masters in Bharat: of Raghavendra in Mantralaya, of Saibaba at Shirdi, of Ramana at Tiruvannmalai, of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa at Dakshineshwar, and of Sadasiva Brahma at Nerur.
Arunachala Purana, the legend of Arunachala, says that Siva made a promise that He will be always be available on this Planet in Arunachala in three forms: as the Hill Arunachala, as the Jyotirlinga Arunachaleswara and as incarnated Living Masters; this truth has been reaffirmed by Ramana Maharishi.
The Hill Arunachala lives on; so does the Jyotirlinga in the temple of Arunachaleswara. The living Masters of Arunachala come in as incarnations to fulfill their Cosmic missions and depart when their mission is accomplished. This great temple town ensures the continued presence of Spirituality on Planet Earth through the promise made by Siva, by being its spiritual incubator.
Thiruvannamalai is a town that celebrates each day of the year as a temple festival day. In this town every household takes pride in looking after ascetics and mendicants as well as sages and saints. Beggars are not looked down upon in Tiruvannamalai. They are seen to provide an opportunity for people to be charitable. It is not easy to distinguish between a great Master who has given up all, including his followers, and a beggar, if both wear the same minimal clothing!
The great temple here provides its people with an introduction to religion with its elaborately carved mythological stories and the legends that have grown around the town and the temple. The Hill Arunachala radiates energy all around the year and provides spiritual fulfillment. Living Masters who are always present here bridge the Temple and the Hill, fulfilling Siva's promise.
The theory of inner Science, the application of inner Science and the Scientist of the inner space all happen here together at the same time and place. The Hill represents the Sastras, the sacred scriptures that cater to the intellect buddhi and intellectuals, the theory; the Temple represents the Stotram, devotional verses that sing the praise of the Lord, catering to the faithful and the devotional bhakti followers who follow their emotions, the application; and the living Masters are the Sutras, mystic techniques presented in epigrammatic form, that directly work at the level of the Being; they are the scientists. Siva appears all the time in Tiruvannamalai in all these three forms blessing the World in line with His promise.
An Incarnation
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa tells us this story: Three men were walking together when they reached a high wall. One of them jumped over the wall and saw a beautiful garden with many fruit trees. He jumped in without further ado to enjoy what the garden had in store. He never even thought about telling his friends about what he saw, so focused he was upon his own pleasures; most of us are in this mode of living. The next person too followed and peeped over the wall. He too saw the bountiful garden. He called out to his friend below, told him what he saw and jumped over to enjoy himself. He had no patience to wait for his friend; but at least he had the mind set to share his experience; there are many preachers who are in this mode of living; they can talk and inform, but have no experience to share. The third person looked over the wall and saw the fruit trees; instead of jumping over the wall, he turned around, walked back to the village where he came from and told the entire community about this wondrous garden and how to reach it.