tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3961358105214008284.post6434423321233259406..comments2024-03-20T13:24:11.422+05:30Comments on Arunachala and Ramana Maharshi: Giri pradakshinaDavid Godmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10354181925332694222noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3961358105214008284.post-62115773239695691002015-09-20T18:45:25.258+05:302015-09-20T18:45:25.258+05:30I don't have a copy. Try Michael James on his ...I don't have a copy. Try Michael James on his 'Happiness of Being' blog. He probably has a copy.David Godmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10354181925332694222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3961358105214008284.post-34219428122265716662015-09-20T15:43:59.990+05:302015-09-20T15:43:59.990+05:30Dear Sri David,
Kindly post a pdf version of Sri ...Dear Sri David,<br /><br />Kindly post a pdf version of Sri Sadhu Om's "Arunachala Pradakshina Manbu". This poem is essential for Arunachala lovers like me. But, I'll be off internet soon for a long time & it'll be only the pdf's which will sustain & feed my progress.<br /><br />Thanks,<br />AnandAnandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08278763491358688642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3961358105214008284.post-25906504854787969392015-09-20T15:40:29.629+05:302015-09-20T15:40:29.629+05:30Dear Sri David,
Kindly post a pdf version of Sri ...Dear Sri David,<br /><br />Kindly post a pdf version of Sri Sadhu Om's "Arunachala Pradakshina Manbu". This poem is essential for Arunachala lovers like me. But, I'll be off internet soon for a long time & it'll be only the pdf's which will sustain & feed my progress.<br /><br />Thanks,<br />AnandAnandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08278763491358688642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3961358105214008284.post-43776289871884206812010-11-17T09:06:42.667+05:302010-11-17T09:06:42.667+05:30I've done pradakshina of Arunachala only once ...I've done pradakshina of Arunachala only once and like you said the last two miles were noisy, congested and my mind was hardly on Arunachala! So, thanks to you I now know there is a slightly different but a more quiet path.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3961358105214008284.post-40921614082688407212008-06-01T16:16:00.000+05:302008-06-01T16:16:00.000+05:30Thank you, David, for saying that yearning for the...Thank you, David, for saying that yearning for the mountain is equivalent to being there. This does not stop the uearning, though, in fact, I love the mountain more with each mention, each image, each thought that comes my way.<BR/>Somehow, it is not the hill itself that comes to my mind as the nooks and corners, the streets and bends, of the temple town, the tea shops, the sand under the feet in front of the ramamnashram, the cows bells, the insence smell,<BR/>the nandi facing shiva, it is these images that come to me unbidden when I am doing my daily chores.Manjushree Abhinavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01566753486772399519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3961358105214008284.post-66465463305755721132008-05-31T22:57:00.000+05:302008-05-31T22:57:00.000+05:30I've done pradakshina of Arunachala only once and ...I've done pradakshina of Arunachala only once and like you said the last two miles were noisy, congested and my mind was hardly on Arunachala! So, thanks to you I now know there is a slightly different but a more quiet path.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3961358105214008284.post-29020100270470180182008-05-31T10:22:00.000+05:302008-05-31T10:22:00.000+05:30Wow, this is wonderful, David. Thanks for such a t...Wow, this is wonderful, David. Thanks for such a thorough response. It's almost like being there....Jupeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04562814002037188693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3961358105214008284.post-3420996222549887262008-05-31T07:46:00.000+05:302008-05-31T07:46:00.000+05:30Yes, I love the analogy of the cow as well.In Bhag...Yes, I love the analogy of the cow as well.<BR/><BR/>In Bhagavan's day people would occasionally ask what the point of pradakshina was. Bhagavan would usually rely, 'Try it yourself and see'.<BR/><BR/>Those who followed his advice would almost invariably enjoy it and do another soon afterwards. You can't put something like this under a rational microscope and scrutinise it; it's something you have to immerse yourself in. Once you do that, you can feel for yourself the pulling power of the mountain and its ability to silence the mind.<BR/><BR/>Kunju Swami wrote in his reminiscences that he occasionally went into what he called 'walking samadhi' while he doing pradakshina. He would suddenly find himself a kilometre or two ahead of where he last remembered being, with no recollection of how he ended up there. I can't say that I have even had anything like that happen to me. My experience is more simple and straightforward: pradakshina quietens my mind and makes me want to do it again.<BR/><BR/>In an editorial Lucia Osborne wrote for The Mountain Path she made the interesting point that Bhagavan never pro-actively prescribed any sadhana except for giri pradakshina. That is to say, he would give you advice on other topics if you asked for it, but unasked, he would tell you to walk around the mountain.<BR/><BR/>As for the virtual pradakshina, I do believe there is a video on sale at Ramanasramam that has one person, with a camera next to his head, walking all the way around the mountain. I have never seen it, but it sounds like a good way for people who have never been here to get a feel for what it is like. If you want to enter into the spirit of the occasion, watch it on a big screen TV while walking on a treadmill.<BR/><BR/>Better still, forget the screen and just think of Arunachala while you walk. You are wherever your mind is. If you are walking down the road in Nova Scotia yearning for Arunachala, then, in my humble opinion, you are here on the pradakshina road. More so, probably, than people on the pradakshina road whose thoughts are anywhere except here.<BR/><BR/>There is an official pradakshina road that has existed for centuries. In the story of Vajrangada it was mentioned that he was a Pandyan king. One of the Pandyan kings, I don't know which one, put official marker stones on the pradakshina route many centuries ago. A few of them are still in place, but most of them have vanished. The stones have two vertical fish, side by side, heads up, tails down. That's the official emblem of the Pandyan dynasty. Above the logo there is a Tamil inscription declaring that this stone marks the official route. Nowadays it is a paved road, so you have to dodge the traffic as you walk, but in Bhagavan's day it was a little-used dirt track.<BR/><BR/>The official route passes through town, which means that the last two miles of a pradakshina on the official route are busy, urban and noisy. Tiruvannamalai now has a population of about 120,000 and its streets are noisy and congested.<BR/><BR/>There is an inner path that is well marked by painted rocks. That will take you about two-thirds of the way around the mountain. I usually take that route since it is quiet and forested, and when it rejoins the main road, I head off on a track which goes to Pachiamman Koil. That's where Bhagavan stayed when the municipal authorities forcibly evacuated the town during a bubonic plague outbreak. The temple is a few yards outside the official town limit, so Bhagavan was allowed to stay there. From there I walk through the back streets of town, which are almost traffic-free, past Pavalakundru, where Bhagavan lived in the 1890s, and eventually emerge on Pai Gopuram Street, which is the street between the Arunachaleswara Temple and the mountain. From there it is about a fifteen minute walk to Ramansramam. If I really want to avoid the noise and the crowds, I come back via Virupaksha Cave and Skandashram.<BR/><BR/>Bhagavan would often choose a route like this, primarily to avoid being mobbed in town. I do it to avoid the traffic and the noise on the last quarter of the walk.David Godmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10354181925332694222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3961358105214008284.post-1988874671675434502008-05-31T02:24:00.000+05:302008-05-31T02:24:00.000+05:30I would love to hear a comment from David as a rep...I would love to hear a comment from David as a reply to the prevoius post as I am in Canada and have never performed "Girivalam" except for the fact my children do pradakshina around the Ramana temple at the Nova Scotia ashram in Canada when they attend the summer children camp.<BR/><BR/>In Bhagawan,<BR/><BR/>Thiru.S<BR/>Toronto, Canada.Thiruhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15049006504300643398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3961358105214008284.post-62105337275418310662008-05-31T01:05:00.000+05:302008-05-31T01:05:00.000+05:30I love the verses by Sadhu Om and especially that ...I love the verses by Sadhu Om and especially that giri-pradakshina "is the only dual activity which never casts us away from the Centre, the sun [of the Self]." I also love the analogy of the cow grazing around its peg. Are we all cows grazing around pegs?<BR/><BR/>David, what is your experience with giri-pradakshina? Do you walk around the hill regularly? Is there a good walking path around it? Is there also a road around it and is there much traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian? Have you had any particularly profound experiences you'd like to mention?<BR/><BR/>Also, for those of us who may never get to Arunachala, is there a way to do giri-pradakshina in a virtual way, or would that simply be doing self-enquiry?<BR/><BR/>Thanks!Jupeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04562814002037188693noreply@blogger.com