RAMANA SMRTI
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Birth Centenary Offering
1980
SRI RAMANASRAMAM
VISITOR’S GUIDE
By K. Padmanabhan
1. TIRUVANNAMALAI
A. THE TOWN
TIRUVANNAMALAI is a medium sized South Indian
town in the North Arcot district of the state of Tamil Nadu. It
is situated at 544 feet above mean sea level and has an average
rainfall of twelve inches. The town is surrounded by rocky
hills and the climate is generally hot except for the rainy season
between November and January. The area of the town is
about eight square miles and the population nearly a lakh.
Besides being a pilgrimage centre, it is a commercial centre
famous for brass vessels, chillies and groundnuts.
Tiruvannamalai is a railway station almost midway on the
Katpadi-Villupuram section of the Southern Railway. Though
the railway connection is not very convenient, the town is
connected to various important places by a good network of
roads. It is a hundred and twenty miles to the South-West of
Madras, a hundred and twentyfive miles South-East of
Bangalore, seventy miles from Pondicherry, and one hundred
miles from Salem. Regular bus services are available from
each of these towns, the journey from Madras taking
approximately five hours.
The town has a municipal guest house, a number of lodges,
dharmashalas and choultries, and a few retiring rooms
attached to the Temple of Arunachaleswara. Limited
accommodation is also available at the Ashram.
The primary language spoken in the area is Tamil. Speakers
of other Indian languages can also be found, but the second
most commonly spoken language is English. Speakers of other
European languages also live in and around the Ashram.
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The town takes its name from the hill. The prefix Tiru
means blessed or auspicious, like the Sanskrit prefix Sri. Malai
means mountain and Anna supreme or high, so the name of
the town signifies the Auspicious Supreme Mountain.
B. ARUNACHALA, THE HILL
It is the hill that has brought importance to Tiruvannamalai.
Arunachala is a Sanskrit word, whose Tamil equivalent is
Annamalai. Aruna means free from bondage, free from action,
righteous, silent, brightening or red, Siva, and beneficent.
Achala means motionless or steady. Arunachala is therefore
the red mount or the effulgent mount. It is also called the hill
of the holy beacon and hill of the holy fire. The philosophical
interpretation is that Aruna as force or shakti represents
Parvati, the consort of Siva, and Achala is Siva, Arunachala
being both Siva and Parvati. Sages have said that one can
attain liberation by being born in Tiruvarur, by meeting death
in Benares, by worshipping at Chidambaram and by merely
thinking of Arunachala (Smaranath Arunachalam).
The hill has a high status in the Hindu sacred tradition and it
is held that it is far more ancient than the Himalayas. It is made
up of igneous rock and has little vegetation. The hill is 2668 feet
in height with a basal circumference of nearly eight miles, and
stands in prominence amidst picturesque surroundings.
Pradakshina, or circumambulation of the base of the hill, which
represents the constant circling of the ego around the Self in the
Heart, is a common practice, especially on full-moon nights and
at festival times. The hill displays different shapes from different
directions and is visible for miles around. The temple with its
stately towers, combined with the background of the tall hill in
the West, gives an awe-inspiring and magnificent picture.
Besides Goddess Parvati and Lord Muruga, the Nayanmars
and Arunagirinathar, some prominent devotees of Arunachala
were Gautama Rishi, Guru Namashivayar, Isanya, Desikar
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Mana, and Virupaksha Devar. In recent years these have
included such great saints as Sri Seshadri Swamigal, Sri
Ramana Maharshi, Kavyakanta Ganapati Muni, Jatini
Shanmuga Yogi and Iswara Swamigal.
C. TIRUVANNAMALAI AS A PILGRIMAGE CENTRE
Besides the religious significance of the hill, the town has
one of the biggest temples in the South, where two important
festivals — the Arunagirinathar festival in the month of August
and the Kartikai deepam festival for ten days in November-
December — take place, drawing large crowds. The sight of
more than a lakh of people circumambulating the hill on the
night when the beacon light is lit on the top of the hill during
the Kartikai Deepam festival beggars description.
A number of great Saivite saints have lived in
Tiruvannamalai over the centuries. Here Sambandar, Appar
and Sundarar have sung sacred hymns known as Thevaram,
and Tiruvachakam and Sri Arunagirinathar has praised God
with his Tiruppugazh. The importance of the town as a pilgrim
centre has grown with the arrival of Sri Ramana Maharshi
and the establishment of Sri Ramanasramam. Sri Ramana has
said that even today many saints are on the hill, living in caves.
The proximity of other places of pilgrimage like
Chidambaram, Tirukoilur and Tirupati has also contributed to
the town’s importance. Tiruvannamalai is one of the five Saivite
shrines known as Panchabhuta Sthalams. Each of these is a
form of Siva as one of the five elements. The hill is regarded as
the Tejolingam or Jyotilingam, the Fire symbol of God. These
five together constitute the Heartseat of Siva and the world.
D. THE ARUNACHALESWARA TEMPLE:
The temple, situated to the east of the hill and on its base,
about half a mile from the railway station and covering
twentyfive acres, is one of the biggest amongst the South
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Indian temples. The Rajagopuram on the east of the temple,
217 feet in height and comprising eleven stories, is the second
tallest temple tower in South India. The earliest of the
inscriptions in the temple is of 850 A.D. The Chola kings
who ruled the area between 850 A.D. and 1280 A.D. were
probably responsible for the construction of the temple, though
some of the earlier kings of the Vijayanagara dynasty must
have constructed the inner shrine. The towers and the pillars
in the mantapams and vimanams contain figures of sculptural
excellence. The temple is also of epigraphical importance.
The inscriptions in the temple contain a wealth of information
on various subjects.
The main deity in the temple is Arunachaleswara or
Annamalai and the Goddess is Apeethakuchamba or Sri
Unnamulai Nayaki. The temples of Lord Subramanya and of
Arunagirinathar are within the compound of the main temple.
The latter is situated at the place where Lord Subramanya
gave liberation to Arunagirinathar. The Patalalingam shrine
where Sri Bhagavan spent a few months shrouded in the vault
and several other spots where he stayed during his first few
years in Tiruvannamalai, are situated within the temple
precincts. The Patalalingam is where a great sage is supposed
to have done penance many centuries ago.
E. TRADITIONS AND LEGENDS ABOUT TIRUVANNAMALAI
Even the Gods of the Trinity do not seem to be devoid of
the ego-sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. A quarrel arose between
Brahma and Vishnu about their relative superiority, which
forced them to go to Lord Siva for a settlement. Siva took the
form of a blazing column of light, and challenged them to
find either the top or bottom of it. They both failed in their
attempts, and surrendered themselves to Siva, the Supreme
Being. Vishnu, however, was judged by Siva to be the superior
of the two. Both of them prayed to Siva that the blazing pillar
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should establish itself as a small hill, that He should take the
form of a lingam on the east of the hill, and that a jyoti or
light should appear every year on the top of the hill as a
remembrance of the fiery column. This is the legend about
the hill, the temple, and the beacon light which is lit during
the Kartikai deepam festival.
Another story tells of the day that Goddess Parvati, in sport,
shut the eyes of Siva for a moment, which resulted in the whole
universe plunging into darkness and suffering. Lord Siva
banished Her to atone for the sin She had committed.
Accordingly, She did penance and worshipped Lord Siva at
Tiruvannamalai. Pleased with Her deep and ardent penance,
Lord Siva absorbed Her as the left half of His body. Thus came
the form Ardhanareeswarar, and the deity by that name is taken
out of the temple at the time of the Kartikai deepam festival.
Legends also say that Tiruvannamalai was a fire (Agni)
mountain in Krithayuga (the earliest age), a gold (Suvarna)
mountain in Threthayuga, a copper (Thamra) mountain in
Dwaparayuga, and a rock mountain in this Kaliyuga (the
present age).
2. BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI
AND SRI RAMANASRAMAM
A. THE TEMPLE, THE HILL, AND BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA
The word Arunachala had symbolised something great and
mysterious for Sri Ramana since his early childhood, and he
was quite surprised when in his fifteenth year he found out
from a relative that it was an actual place. After his experience
of death and realization of the Self the following year, he
intuitively felt the call of Arunachala. He left his home on 29
August, 1896, not even fully conversant with the route he
had to take, and reached Tiruvannamalai on 1 September,
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travelling by train and on foot. The note he wrote when he
left his house in Madurai read, “I have in search of my Father,
according to His command, started from this place”, and in it
we can see the great significance the hill had for him.
He is Arunachala and Arunachala is Lord Siva. The hill
and Ramana Maharshi have come to be recognised as
inseparable. There was something essentially static and
rocklike in the Maharshi. He was achala, as he never moved
out of the orbit of Arunachala from the day he reached the
place. His first entry into the temple is of striking importance.
He had a natural rain bath after having his head shaven. He
was all alone in the temple, whose doors were kept open as if
Sri Arunachaleswara was eager to receive him. As Swami
Sivananda of Rishikesh has said, “The holy hill was the moola
vigraha (stationary image of a deity) and Bhagavan Ramana
was the utsava murti (image of the same deity that is taken in
procession during festival times)”.
During his first few years in Tiruvannamalai Sri Ramana
lived at a number of different places, always seeking a place
where he could remain absorbed in the Self without
disturbance. His most well-known residence in the temple is
the Patalalingam shrine, though he also stayed at other places
such as in the thousand pillared hall and under an Iluppai tree
within the temple grounds. He lived at various places nearby
before he settled in Virupaksha cave in 1901 — such as
Namashivaya cave above the temple, Pavalakunru, on a spur
of the hill, where his mother first came to visit, and
Gurumurtam, which is south of the town near the Vettavalam
Road. He stayed in the Virupaksha cave most of the next
sixteen years, though the hottest parts of the year were spent
in the Mango Tree cave. A couple of times in this period he
moved to the Pachaiamman temple on the east side of the hill
when the town was afflicted by plague. Soon after his mother
came for good, they all moved up to Skandashram, which
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was built by a devotee called Kandasami. Regular
housekeeping was set up by the Mother, and they remained
there until after her death in 1922. All these places can be
easily reached from either the Ashram or the temple.
Bhagavan’s devotion to the hill was great, and he was
reputed to know every inch of it. He also had a great fondness
for pradakshina, which he did as long as he was able to, and
he always encouraged devotees to do it. Referring to its value,
he said, “My fire is at the bottom of the hill”.
B. SRI RAMANA AND THE GROWTH OF SRI RAMANASRAMAM
When his mother passed away in 1922 she was a liberated
being, and her body had to be buried in accordance with Hindu
tradition. As no burial was allowed on the sacred mountain,
the body was buried at the southern foot of the hill near an
already existing cemetery. He visited her Samadhi daily from
Skandashram, a distance of about a mile, and one day he chose
to remain there. This is the present site of Sri Ramanasramam.
At first there was just a shed with bamboo uprights and a roof
of palm leaves. There was no organisation of an Ashram as such,
and Sri Bhagavan was able to live a relatively unfettered existence.
But, as he became more widely known, donations and visitors
started pouring in, and some of the visitors stayed there itself.
The hub of Ashram life for many years, until just before his death,
was the old meditation hall, where devotees sat with the Maharshi.
There was a couch there where he sat in the day time and slept at
night. Feeling that he should be accessible to all, he never left
the Ashram except for his daily walks on the hill, and, in the
early years, an occasional pradakshina.
The Ashram office and bookstall, a large dining hall and
kitchen, a branch Post Office, the meditation hall, residential
quarters on a limited scale, the gosala (cowshed), Veda patasala
(Vedic school), a hospital, and the imposing temple over the
Mother’s Samadhi with a stone pillared hall — all these were
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established by 1950, when Sri Bhagavan attained Nirvana, after
declaring that the Ashram was to remain a spiritual centre. Sri
Niranjanananda Swami, the brother of Sri Bhagavan, served as
Sarvadhikari or general manager of the Ashram for many years,
and it was primarily his efforts that resulted in the establishment
and growth of the Ashram. New buildings have been added
since 1950 — a spacious hall round the Samadhi, a number of
new guest units, a separate office, etc. But true to the Maharshi’s
statement shortly before his death, “They say that I am going
away, but where could 1 go? I am here”, his presence is still
felt as the guiding force of the Ashram. The Ashram continues
as a spiritual centre known around the world, and there are
now a number of branches in India and other countries.
There is no spiritual head of the Ashram in human form.
The presence of the Maharshi is powerful and pervasive and
instructions for meditation are given in his writings and
sayings. Spiritual support comes directly from him and all
that is needed is sincere practice with firm faith. Sri
Ramanasramam is not a place visited by large crowds in search
of transient gains. It is for the serious aspirant who has
understood that liberation is the supreme goal and therefore
chooses to seek the grace and support of the Master to guide
him on his way. Devotees of the Maharshi living there
permanently or in other places pledge their lives to silent,
unobtrusive sadhana while performing their obligations in
the world. They follow the path set out by the Master to find
out their true identity. He used to say, “The purpose of the
outer Guru is only to awaken the inner Guru in the heart;
when the Guru has awakened, he is free to leave the body”.
C. CURRENT LIFE AT THE ASHRAM
The bulk of the Maharshi’s instructions to devotees
concerned direct inner discipline. So there is a minimum of
ritual and organisation at the Ashram. People go and sit silently
in meditation before the Maharshi’s shrine or in the old hall
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where he sat for so many years with his devotees. They walk
on the sacred mountain, Arunachala, or sit in their rooms.
Every morning portions of the Vedas and a few hymns of
praise are chanted in front of Sri Maharshi’s shrine, just as they
were chanted before him in his time. This is followed by puja,
which is done both at the Maharshi’s shrine and at the Mother’s
shrine. The programme is repeated in the evening and on both
occasions lasts for less than an hour. On the days of the Sri
Chakra puja at the Mother’s shrine, worship is more elaborate
and lasts longer. Certain days during the year are days of large
crowds and greater celebrations. The most popular are the
Kartikai deepam festival, the Jayanti or birthday of Sri
Maharshi, which falls in December -January, and the Aradhana,
or the day on which he passed away, which falls in April-May.
Participation in any of these functions is purely voluntary.
As there is considerable shortage of accommodation,
visitors are not permitted to stay for long periods. Ordinarily
they are allowed to stay only for three days. The stay can,
however, be extended in special cases. Intending visitors are
advised to write to the President of the Ashram sufficiently in
advance to ascertain whether accommodations are available.
The Ashram maintains a kitchen for serving simple South
Indian meals to the residents and visitors. Some vegetable
dishes without condiments and spices are also served to those
who are not accustomed to take South Indian dishes. No
charges are levied for boarding or lodging, but voluntary
donations are gratefully received.
As the teaching of the Maharshi is contained in the works
composed by him as well as the books written by his devotees,
the Ashram has brought them out in English, Tamil, Telugu,
Hindi and other languages. They are moderately priced and are
kept for sale in the bookstall. Books may also be borrowed
from the Ashram library. The library consists of nearly five
thousand books in various languages, mostly on religious and
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spiritual subjects. The Ashram also publishes a quarterly journal
in English named The Mountain Path, dedicated to the
propagation of the traditional wisdom of all religions and ages.
3. OTHER PLACES TO VISIT
A. PLACES CONNECTED WITH SRI RAMANA
The birthplace of Sri Ramana is Tiruchuzhi, which is about
thirty miles south of Madurai. The house in which he was
born is being maintained by the Ashram, as Sundara
Mandiram. Just across the street is the Bhoominatha temple,
and a few blocks away the primary school he attended. The
house in Madurai where he had his death experience is also
being maintained by the Ashram, as Ramana Mandiram. Down
the street is the imposing Meenakshi temple, to which he went
many times after this experience. The high school he attended
is near the bus and train stations. Madurai can easily be reached
by bus from Tiruvannamalai, and then Tiruchuzhi is a
convenient day’s journey. The train still runs on the same line
that Sri Bhagavan took to Villupuram on his way to
Tiruvannamalai. Other spots on his journey there can also be
visited. The temple of Arayanainallur is about a mile from
Tirukoilur. These latter spots are probably best visited by bus.
B. OTHER PLACES
Famous pilgrimage spots like Kanchipuram,
Chidambaram, Tirupati and Tirukoilur are not very distant
and can be easily visited by rail or road. The ancient fortresses
in Gingee and Vellore are quite near and are of historical and
archaeological importance. The Aurobindo Ashram in
Pondicherry about seventy miles distant is a place on the
itinerary of pilgrims visiting Tiruvannamalai.
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THE PATH TO SURRENDER
(From Teachings of Bhagavan
Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words.)
There are only two ways to conquer destiny or to be
independent of it. One is to enquire whose this destiny is and
discover that only the ego is bound by it and not the Self, and
that the ego is non-existent. The other way is to kill the ego
by completely surrendering to the Lord, realizing one’s
helplessness and saying all the time, ‘Not I, but Thou, oh
Lord’, giving up all sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ and leaving it to
the Lord to do what he likes with you. Surrender can never be
regarded as complete so long as the devotee wants this or
that from the Lord. True surrender is the love of God for the
sake of love and nothing else, not even for the sake of
salvation. In other words, complete effacement of the ego is
necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this
effacement through Self-enquiry or through bhakti marga.
The spark of spiritual knowledge (jnana) will consume all
creation. Since all the countless worlds are built upon the
weak or non-existent foundation of the ego, they all
disintegrate when the atom-bomb of knowledge falls on them.
All talk of surrender is like stealing sugar from a sugar image
of Ganesha and then offering it to the same Ganesha. You say
that you offer up your body and soul and all your possessions
to God, but were they yours to offer? At best you can say, ‘I
wrongly imagined till now that all these, which are Yours,
were mine. Now I realise that they are Yours and shall no
longer act as though they were mine’. And this knowledge
that there is nothing but God or Self, that ‘I’ and ‘mine’ do
not exist and that only the Self exists is jnana.
It is enough that one surrenders oneself. Surrender is giving
oneself up to the original cause of one’s being. Do not delude
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yourself by imagining this source to be some God outside
you. One’s source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it.
That means that you should seek the source and merge in it.
Because you imagine yourself to be out of it, you raise the
question, ‘Where is the source’? Some contend that just as
sugar cannot taste its own sweetness and that there must be
someone to taste and enjoy it, so an individual cannot both be
the Supreme and also enjoy the bliss of that state; therefore
the individuality must be maintained separate from the
Godhead in order to make enjoyment possible. But is God
insentient like sugar? How can one surrender oneself and yet
retain one’s individuality for supreme enjoyment?
Furthermore they also say that the soul, on reaching the divine
region and remaining there, serves the Supreme Being. Can
the sound of the word ‘service’ deceive the Lord? Does He
not know? Is He waiting for these people’s services? Would
He not – the Pure Consciousness – ask in turn, ‘Who are you
apart from Me that presume to serve Me’?
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TRANSLITERATION OF SARANAGATHI
SONG
(Raga: Navaroj — composed by Manavasi V.
Ramaswamy Iyer in 1914)
Pallavi
Saranagathi Un Para Nan
Inippugathunaithan Yedu
Nee Pugalai —
(Saranagathi)
Anupallavi
Smaranath Gathi Phala Arunachala Nirai
Ramana. . . Karuna. . . Varuna
(Saranagathi)
Saranam
Tharunam Idu Vanro Karunai Nokkave
Kalaharanam Aakkidil Haa Haa En Seiven
Thunbai Neekki Inbai Alikka En Anba
Innam Paramukham Ennal Thaladayya
Sri Vediya
(Saranagathi)
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TRANSLATION OF THE SARANAGATHI
SONG INTO ENGLISH
Pallavi
I surrender — unto you
Where else am I to surrender myself tell me
(I surrender)
Anupallavi
Who is perfect in Arunachala
Which endows one with ultimate Release
O Ramana, Raincloud of Compassion!
(I surrender)
Saranam
Is this not the appropriate time
For granting me your glance of Grace?
If you delay, Lo! What am I to do?
My beloved, remove my sorrow
and grant me Bliss
I can’t bear indifference any further,
O Vediya (One who is Brahman Itself)
(I surrender myself unto you)
My humble salutations to the lotus feet of Bhagavan Sree Ramana Maharshi
and also gratitude to Bhagavan’s great devotees for the collection)
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