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"The search after Truth is the one thing by which the shape of human life should be determined. Genuine desire itself opens the road to fulfilment."    Sri Anandamayi Ma

The Physical Magnetism of Arunachala

In the first years living at the foot of Arunachala, I frequently walked on the hill up to Skanda Ashram, resting in the small valley or sitting gazing out over the great temple and town below or more often, pausing on the first high gradient adjoining the stone sign near the base which showed the path to Skanda Ashram. There I sat and watched the sunset as many others have done over the decades. They were moments of great peace.

During a time of shattering inner turmoil when my spiritual aspirations crumbled in the face of my increasingly obvious personality limitations that threatened to overwhelm me, I would seek refuge on the hill and lie on a large rock half way up that adjoined the pathway but now is covered with dense scrub. For an hour or two I would gaze at the blue sky and dissolve into the limitless expanse. My mind was arrested by the tranquillity of those seemingly timeless moments. It went on for months until a calm new sense of resolution excised the torments. At the time I thought it was the clarity of the sky which purged the mind and heart of turbulence but now years later on reflection, it was aided by the chthonic forces rising from the enigmatic underworld buried in Arunachala.

Like all natural dynamisms Arunachala does seem to follow a rhythm of expansion and contraction, whether it is according to the phases of the moon or another indecipherable factor is unknown. It puzzles all who come within its ambiance. The best we can do is sing its praises because the indubitable fact is that it does transform us through a silent, invisible fire of purgation. Our psyche, for want of a better word, is confronted with its shortcomings and we see the particular ignorance which presently causes us to be blind to our thought processes. With no disrespect to the tradition, Arunachala is like a giant washing machine into which we are plunged, scoured and left clean.

As the years passed, I walked on the hill less and less for no particular reason. However, recently I did walk once more on the sacred hill at the wish of a friend who lived outside of India. It was a struggle as my physical body was still recovering from a traumatic medical emergency. I could walk no further than the bifurcated path with the stone sign indicating Skanda Ashram. I managed to walk a little distance on the left-hand path that led to a waterfall, and stopped to pray for that person and that of his recently departed wife.

Possibly due to my fragile physical condition and a consequent increased sensitivity I felt for the very first time, the magnetic underlying power of Arunachala seeping upward through my feet. At first, it was quite pleasant and surprisingly wholesome but after a while, my nervous system became increasingly agitated and I had to retreat down the hill.

Previously I had communicated with and worshiped Arunachala partly with my mind's focused attention and partly through the influence of imagination coloured by all the reading about the magnificence of Arunachala. There were brief moments of transcendence.

So, it was a shock to experience the hill as a living, implacable presence that was impersonal as the waves of the ocean which could toss one about like a doll irrespective of one's vulnerability. Just as one learns respect for the ocean through a one-sided confrontation, the energy of Arunachala could not be reasoned with nor controlled. I felt for the first time the visceral impact of Arunachala shorn of intellectual permutations. I was stunned but not frightened as there was no negative intent. One either took it at its own measure or one vacated the spot. That potency was indifferent to what I thought or felt. I beat a slow but determined retreat.

There was only one other spiritual site where I sensed the impersonality of the antediluvian authority residing on the site. And that was Chalice Well at Glastonbury. There was depth to the manifestation into which I could easily have drowned if not for a deliberate repulsion of my physical attendance by whatever force was active there. I was given enough spiritual nourishment and was deliberately sent on my way. It was all so natural that I barely noticed it.

But returning to the question of the mystery of Arunachala, through the ages various saints have sung of its glory. Sri Ramana was no exception with the various compositions in praise of Arunachala. The major paean, The Marital Garland of Letters is a 108-verse composition extolling Arunachala, chiding it, beseeching it. Let us take one verse as sufficient to demonstrate its merits. It conflates Arunachala with a mountain of medicine that cures us of our primal disease that causes us to endure untold suffering. Verses 76 states:

Arunachala. You who, as the self-manifest One, stand and shine in the form of a mountain as the reviving medicament of grace and true knowledge! You are the doctor for the disease of birth. When you have taken pity on me, and given me the medicine to cure this delusion which was the cause of that disease, is it right that I should still remain confused? 1

We are all in this predicament of receiving Grace by being in the presence of sacred Arunachala or some other divine manifestation be it a holy site or a genuine spiritual teacher and yet we continue to suffer because of our, it appears, congenital ignorance. Why is this so?

Until we grab with undivided attention the root of our suffering; until we are prepared to dispense with the various distractions that consume our attention with irrelevancies, we will continue to be victims of our own fantasies and fears. Though if we are unable to penetrate the fortress of our so-called ego and see it naked, we can still stand before Arunachala who will automatically give us the medicine that unclenches the grip of our thoughts that spin endless webs of enticing dreams. It is all a question of courage to consider the unthinkable, the destruction of our well-made plans and allow Grace to transform us. Arunachala waits like a motionless sentinel. It is we who are required to take that first hesitant step and by opening the door to that translucent state of consciousness, so dare enter that forcefield.

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l1. Arunachala Aksharamanamalai. A Commentary by Muhavai Kanna Muruganar. Translation by Robert Butler.

"Love and devotion to Him

are a bridge across the abyss to salvation."