The young sage’s love for Arunachala was infectious and those who gathered round him in the early years took to the Hill like ducks to water, following the master’s every move on or about the Hill. Young Ramana modelled for them the way they should reverence Arunachala and sparked in them a keen interest for the bygone tradition of Arunachala pradakshina. He went for regular circumambulation, setting out in the morning and returning in the evening to Virupaksha, the cave on the eastern slopes of the Hill where he took up residence in 1900. On some days he might start for pradakshina in the evening and return at daybreak. On other occasions his roundings would last two or three days, involving long halts. He would walk slowly, stopping to contemplate the surroundings or just to sit in silence. On the occasions when Arunachala’s holy presence engulfed him, the young adept would fall into a deep samadhi.
For devotees, such excursions were precious beyond description. To be in the sage’s intimate presence, to walk with him, to hear his voice, to drink in his stillness, was an untold delight. On such trips they got to witness the gracious manner with which he responded to the locals who came forth at shrines and mantapams, offering food and water, vying with one another to extend their hospitality. Bhagavan was ever gracious in obliging them, boundless and untiring in his generosity and not allowing anyone’s kindness to go unnoticed.
As the small band from Virupaksha made its way round the hill, members sang verses from the Veda, Gita, Bhagavatam, Thevarum and other Saivite hymns and verses. On other occasions they shared the stories of the Puranas and other ancient lore. Sometimes they gave discourses, elaborating on sacred texts.
Once, devotees persuaded Bhagavan to explain the meaning of his appalam song. Citing texts for each image in the song, Bhagavan’s commentary was not finished before they had completed the circuit. While going another time they sang a song from Thirupugazh, whose lines ended with kavalane, a word which in Tamil means ‘king’ or ‘master’ but in Telugu signifies, ‘I want’. Whenever the singer uttered kavalane, a Telugu member of the party named Kambli Swami made a lighthearted pun on the word, chuckling as he sang, ‘vadai kavalane’ or ‘dosai kavalane’ or ‘iddli kavalane’, etc. But as unexplainable things could happen in Bhagavan’s presence, the party was met at various junctures by devotees offering the very food items Kambli Swami had jokingly said he ‘wanted’.
On another pradakshina, it was suggested that one among them should act as chairman and that the others take turns as speakers, alternately delivering one-hour lectures on spiritual themes. The first speaker was Ramanatha Brahmachari, known for his meek, soft-spoken manner. Devoted to Bhagavan but lacking formal education, he was not known to be skilful with words. Yet once he started his exuberant discourse, replete with quotations, imagery, poetry and allusions to the sastras and scriptures, there was no stopping him. After having repeatedly appealed to the ‘chairman’ for time extensions, he could only be brought to conclude his charged performance after three hours had elapsed[1]. Devotees agreed that it was only his devotion to Bhagavan and Bhagavan’s ‘reciprocal grace’ that could have inspired such a rare presentation.[2]
Penning Aksaramanamalai
On other pradakshinas, members of the party traded verses or goaded each other to invent their own. Eventually they prevailed upon Bhagavan to compose hymns they could sing on the pradakshina path. It was nowhere else but on the rough-hewn hill-round road that couplets in praise of Arunachala began to pour forth from the sage’s lips[3]. At devotees’ prompting, Bhagavan scribbled but a single word, “Arunachalam”, with a pencil and paper one of the devotees had carried along with him. This was enough to initiate a spontaneous, tear-filled outpouring of devotion that became a lyrical garland of 108 couplets. Like Manikavachakar centuries earlier, Arunachala pradakshina drew forth the ecstasy of devotion in an effulgence of uncontrollable verse, fuelled by the vicarious longing of the seeker after truth or of a forlorn maiden seeking her beloved. Bhagavan halted along the route to jot down the cascade of lines flowing forth from his heart.
Aksaramanamalai would become the paradigmatic hymn of pradakshina (and too, the begging song used by Bhagavan’s sadhu-devotees during their bhiksha rounds). The signature song of Ramana devotees, it went on to become the pre-eminent canticle of praise to Arunachala.
Later when asked to explain the meaning of the text, Bhagavan replied, “Why don’t you explain its meaning yourself? Like you, I would also have to ponder over it to explain it. Had I premeditated on it in advance, I would be able to explain its meaning. But [as it was], the verses came forth of their own accord. Reciting [them] repeatedly is [their] meaning.” [4]
And so, devotees understood that Lord Arunachala sang through his human form, Sri Ramana, in the 108 couplets of Aksaramanamalai.
Night Pradakshinas
On the occasions when the group went for nighttime pradakshinas, they would only reach the Ashram at sunrise, and being tired, would all take naps—all except for Bhagavan. Bhagavan did not have the luxury of sleep as visitors would be ever seeking his darshan. If a visitor came and asked him to go round the Mountain that same evening, Bhagavan would not refuse lest he cause disappointment. So it happened that Bhagavan sometimes did not sleep for two or three days at a stretch.
Moving Down from the Hill
In 1922 Bhagavan’s mother left the body and he shifted down from Skandasramam to take up residence near her shrine, the site that was to become Sri Ramanasramam. Now more accessible, devotees from town and the surrounding areas, Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu, arrived in ever increasing numbers. With the growing need for a gathering place, the Old Hall was established in 1926. Soon it became more difficult for Bhagavan to go for pradakshina as his presence was required in the Hall. Finally, that same year, when a dispute erupted between those who got to go with Bhagavan on pradakshina and those who were required to stay behind to look after Ashram work, Bhagavan made up his mind not to go for pradakshina anymore, ever keen to avoid causing inconvenience to others. In lieu of going round the Hill, he thus commenced daily walks to Palakotthu and up the Hill, all the while avidly encouraging others to go for pradakshina.
Exhorting Devotees
Bhagavan pressed even those who doubted the efficacy of pradakshina, even those who were weak or infirm or otherwise seemed ill-fit for it. If someone returned from pradakshina with bodily pain, Bhagavan would encourage them to go again the following day.
Once a physician named Sadhu Bramaniam returned from pradakshina with blistered feet. When he entered the hall limping, Bhagavan suggested he bathe his feet in warm water and go for pradakshina the following day. He advised him to go yet a third time the day after that. After the third pradakshina, the kindly doctor reported that his feet were healthy again. From that time onward, his feet gave him no more trouble.
Another time Muruganar asked Bhagavan to tell of the benefits of going round the hill. Bhagavan suggested that he first go round the hill and then inquire of its benefits. The poet dutifully followed the advice and the next day reported to Bhagavan something quite remarkable: shortly after starting off on the hill-round path, he completely lost body consciousness (dehatma buddhi), only regaining it after reaching Adi Annamalai. Sri Bhagavan smiled and asked, “Now do you understand?”
Countless other devotees heard Sri Bhagavan esteem pradakshina above all other forms of worship. G. V. Subbaramayya records Bhagavan’s words in the Hall: “Other sacred hills are described as the abodes of some Deity. But Arunachala is God Himself in the shape of the Hill. So special sanctity attaches to going round it. It has been said that the one who has completed the round once in the proper way remains as brahmakara i.e. the ‘Absolute embodied’. The red sores on the feet caused by pricking stones along the way, it is said, will become diamonds in the crowns of Gods.”[5] And to Devaraja Mudaliar, who initially expressed scepticism regarding the merit of girivalam, “It does not matter whether one has faith in pradakshina or not; just as fire will burn all who touch it whether they believe it will or not, so the Hill will do good to all those who go round it. Go round the Hill once. You will see that it will attract you.” [6]
Atmapradakshina
It has been said that a thing is made perfect not when there is nothing left to add but when there is nothing left to take away. Such is the journey toward the Self—removing the extraneous so that only the essential remains. Since there is nothing other than the Self, even if the world seems to tilt out of kilter, Arunachala remains unmoving within. Yet when we abide in That, the tilted world rights itself and is made new again. “Let the tempest rage, let the oceans rise up, let the earthquake”, wrote one of Bhagavan’s devotees, “the Tree of Knowledge rooted on Arunachala stands immutable. Pilgrims on life’s journey repose in its shade and countless devotees like birds pour forth their songs from its branches.”[7]
There is only Arunachala, and He dwells within each person. To the physical eye, the pradakshina path around Arunachala seems to trace a circle, the circumference of the base of the Linga-Hill. But spiritually, it is not a circle at all but an inwardly directed spiral, ever decreasing in circumference, leading the devotee in a continual diminution until he disappears into his source.
Bhagavan once said that “going round Arunachala is […] as effective as circuit round the world.” He then added, “Self-circuit (i.e., pivoting round oneself) is [equal to it, for] all are contained in the Self.”[8] “After all”, he said, “proper pradakshina is going round the Self, or, more accurately, to realise that we are the Self and that within us all the countless spheres revolve.”[9]
Doing pradakshina pivoting in place in a circular manner before the deity or the guru is worshipping the divine, an unconscious acknowledgement that the ‘I’ within is the very same Reality as the divinity before whom we prostrate. The benefit of ‘outer’ pradakshina is augmented when we understand its ‘inner’ analogue.
Conclusion
It is said that originally Arunachalesvarar Temple had no Mother’s Shrine because it was assumed that Uma was contained in the linga of the Lord. Finally, this is why Bhagavan says that “atmapradakshina is the highest form of worship” because akshara or atma is the only thing real, the indivisible source, where no distinction can be made between Siva and Shakthi, inner and outer, or self and other.
Once in the Hall, Bhagavan took out the Ribhu Gita and read the following line: “Real pradakshina is the meditation that thousands of universes are revolving around me, the unmoving centre of all forms.” “I remain fixed, whereas innumerable universes, becoming concepts within my mind, rotate within me.” He later said, “The ego which goes round like a whirlwind must get destroyed and must get absorbed in atma. That is atmapradakshina”[10]. —
[1] Later Ramanatha Brahmachari penned a song (appended to his Stotra Anubhuti) summarizing his pradakshina discourse. (see Devaraja Mudaliar’s My Recollections of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, ch 3).
[2] The foregoing from Devaraja Mudaliar, Call Divine vol. 6, 1957, pp. 85-91.
[3]Aksaramanamalai was composed, Bhagavan says, “partly at Virupakshi and partly on my walks round the Hill.” (Day by Day, 7-12-45).
[4] Commentary on Arunachala Stuti Pañchakam, T. R. Kanakammal, p. 27. It has been said that the only fitting commentary for Aksaramanamalai is the Hill Itself (Nochur Venkataraman, in a talk at Sri Ramanasramam, Jan 2014). If this is so, then the only fitting manner to ‘read’ the commentary is Arunachala pradakshina, so why not, devotees might argue, chant the 108 verses while going?
[5] Sri Ramana Reminiscences, G. V. Subbaramayya, p. 38.
[6] Devaraja Mudaliar, The Call Divine vol. 6, Nov. 1957, p. 86.
[7] Fragrant Petals, p. 11.
[8] S.S. Cohen, 19th June, 1936.
[9] Day by Day, 15-4-46 Morning.
[10] Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, 15th April 1946 & 19th August, 1946.
