Swami Arunachalananda
Tiruvannamalai - First Year After Sannyasa
(March 2022 - March 2023 )
After spending about a week at Varanasi and Prayagraj with friends, i came to Tiruvannamalai through Nagpur-Bengaluru. At Nagpur, i had
few hours with me before boarding train to Bengaluru. Saurabh Mj (Swami Jnanagamyananda) of Nagpur Math came to railway station to pick me up.
He showed me around Nagpur Math and made good arrangement for my stay, food etc during that evening. I met my old acquaintances from
Pune Math - Santosh Mj and Dhanraj Mj; also attended the Holi-Fire celebrations conducted by Nagpur Math hostel boys. At night Saurabh
Mj, Dhanraj Mj took me by car to Railway station. From Bengaluru i came to Tiru by bus.
I took the same room which i had earlied booked
for a year in Sept 2021 by paying Rs 10000 advance for 4 months rent (and in which i couldn't stay due to Mayavati stay and sannyasa!).
In Tiru i quickly started my familiar routine of Ramanashramam, Yogi Ramsuratkumar Ashrama, Bheeksha, Girivalam etc.
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Met again Kumar Mj and Br Raghavendra. In March end, one evening i suddenly met Michael of Gurudev Siddhapitha Ganeshpuri, near Arunachaleshwara temple; he was riding a bike and i was walking on the road. It was a pleasant surprise as we were suddenly and unexpectedly meeting each other after about 6-7 years; in GSP Ganeshpuri we used to have satsangs with Brahmanandaji and few others. I clicked a selfie and sent it to Brahmanandaji; he said he was coming to Tiru next week and we all shall meet. On 5th April we all did meet! Brahmanandaji and his brother had come in their car and they invited me, Michael, and Avi (another GSP devotee from Israel living in Tiru) to Arpana Hotel in the town (In 2017, Swami Sivabrahmanandaji had taken me and Br Amrit to this posh hotel for Onam Treat). We all enjoyed the dinner and the evening discussing various topics. Brahmanandaji came again in July with his niece, nephew, wife of nephew, and their daughter; we again went to Arpana Hotel for dinner with Avi. |
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On 16th April, Purnima and Hanuman Jayanti were on the same day, Saturday; i moved some of my luggage to new room on this auspicious
day; next day morning i moved entirely to this new room which was just being Yogi Ramsuratkumar and being on top floor, had clear view
of Arunachala. On 17 April evening there was heavy Wind and Lightenings;
there was power outage and Arunachala and surrounding view was intermittently illumined by lightenings.
In June, Br Jnanenshwar of Newasa came with two devotees and stayed in Sri Ramanashramam; we all had good discussions on spirituality.
Later they went to Pudducherry and from there the two devotees returned back to Newasa but Br Jnaneshwar came to Tiru and stayed for
three more weeks. He stayed in Siva Towers near my room; he completed 11 parikarams of Arunachala during this stay. I had shown him
all the ashramas, girivalam, and bheeksha places. Once during girivalam with him he took a video
of mine coming out of 'MuktiDwar' near Panchamukha Darshan area!
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Another day with him, Br Raghavendra, and Br. Shrikant, I went to evening Girivalam; on the way we went to Swami Ashutoshanandaji Mj's flat and had good satsang with him (On Mj Terrace). On Gurupurnima day (13 July 2022) i did morning girivalam and in the evening went to Yogi Ramsuratkumar Ashrama (GuruPurnima). Around 19th July, Manoj Nagarkar arrived in Tiru; he left his volunteer work at Snehalaya (Ahemednagar) and came straight to Arunachala. I arranged his accomodation in Siva Tower; showed him the ashramas, bheeksha places, Girivalam etc. From 5th - 9th Aug, Devdatta Kulkarni, my old friend from Pune, came and stayed at Siva Towers. With him too i did Girivalam and went to Arunachaleshwar Shiva temple, Skandashramam, Virupaksha Cave etc. (5 Aug 2022). |
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On 15 August 2022, i went with Swami Nirvrittanandaji, Saurabh (of Mumbai), his mother, and Mr Jnanendra Saxena (of Bhopal) to SoulFree INSPIRE, a NGO in Tiru for quadraplegic patients started by the inspiring Ms Preeti Srinivaasan (Swami Nirvrittanandaji had taken me once, couple of months back, to Ms Preeti's home near Yogi Ramsuratkumar Ashrama and to SoulFree INSPIRE in Govt. Hospital). We joined in the joyful (Independence Day) celebrations. On the 15th evening I again shifted my room to Lalitashrama near Agastyar Annadanam place; Varalaxmi Ammaa of Lalitashrama and my friend Akhileshwar helped me. Akhileshwar was earlier staying in this room and he had already paid the current month's rent, and he refused to take that amount from me! Ganesh Chaturthi was on 31st August, in the morning i went to Pachaiamman Temple near Essanya Lingam on cycle, there was slight drizzle and the town was busy in starting the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations. Early Sept, i changed this room for another within the Lalitashrama campus; the new room on the first floor of the main building had direct view of Arunachala.
My friend from GSP days, Raju Karemore of Nagpur, arrived in Tiru during mid-Sept; he got my previous room within Lalitashrama. I showed him the ashramas, bheeksha places, Girivalam, Skandashramam etc. The day Raju came, he saw Kamali Allnut of UK near Sri Ramanashramam; i knew her since GSP days and was aware that she comes to Tiru frequently, but all these years hadn't seen her here. After few days i met her in Ramanashramam. Once we celebrated Gherish Vaity's (Manoj friend from Thane) birthday with small 'Falooda' party near Sheshadri Ashrama; Raju, Manoj, myself and Gherish enoyed the treat. Navaratri celebrations started on 26th Sept and continued till 5th Oct. On all nine days, i did Girivalam, initial few days in the early morning and later during evening or daytimes. Raju Karemore accompanied me for some Girivalams; on Shashthi day i did whole-day Girivalam with Akhileshwar (from 9am-8pm), it was Akhileshwar's idea and we enjoyed slow walking with spiritual discussions, sitting for meditation at ashta-lingams, pleasant weather etc. The change in weather during Navaratri coupled with daily Girivalam caused cough and cold for me and after Saptami Girivalam i had weakness and fever. Raju gave Paracitamol tablet and brought Ayurvedic medicines. Luckiy in the night fever subsided and i could complete Ashtami and Navami Girivalams. On Ashtami day we finalized a 2BHK independed house to be taken on rent for a year; Ajay Khamkar, Raju, and Manoj agreed to divide the per month rent and Ajay Khamkar paid the entire deposit. Raju Karemore, while leaving Tiru stayed for a day in the new rented house and after returning back to Nagpur he called and said he wont be coming back! The owner of the house too dragged his feet regarding agreement document and some repairs; due to these reasons Ajay decided to cancel the plan to visit Tiru during Deepam and continuing the rented house. Rs 30K had already been paid to the owner as depost and hence Manoj stayed there till Decemner end and thus the amount was utilized.
On 27th Novemeber Deepam festival started with morning flag hoisting ceremony in the main temple of Sri Arunachaleshwara; i attended the same from 5.15am till 7.15am
and then went to Girivalam. On 1st Dec evening i went to Yogi Ramuratkumar Ashrama to see the Jayanti Celebration there.
Ankit, who had come to Tiru in July-August and had met me, came back for few days in the first week of December. With him and Manoj i went to main temple again on 3rd Dec
and then had dinner at Hotel Kanna near the temple. During Ankit's stay he discussed with me lot of issues regarding spirituality, spiritual practice, philosophy etc.
Phanish Mj (Sw Ujjwalananda) came from Narmada banks and met me; Br Vijay had given my number to him and Br Vinit had also informed me about his arrival. The expected
crowd in lakhs for Deepam arrived on 6th Dec - the main MahaDeepam day on which holy fire is lit on Arunachala - and stayed for couple of days. I saw the lighting of
Mahadeepam from Sri Ramanashramam and then went to Girivalm with the crowd. On the third day of Deepam (8 Dec) Arunachaleshwara with Unnamulai Amman did Girivalam
as yearly Deepam tradition along with devotees.
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Deepam Videos : Video1, Video2, Video3
From Sri Ramanashramama Video1, From Sri Ramanashramama Video2
Deepam Girivalam for Shiva-Parvati Video1, Deepam Girivalam for Shiva-Parvati Video2
View of Deepam From Lalitashrama
Videos taken On 14 Dec 2022 : Video1 , Video2 , Video3 , Video4 , Video5 , Video6 and Video7
During December end Br JnanaChaitanya (Arnab Mj) of Rishikesh came and stayed at Sri Ramanasramam for couple of days; we had good discussions and
Girivalam together. New year started with Kalpataru day Girivalm as it was Sunday - my Girivalm day. Manoj had found a new flat for his stay;
it was very near Arunachala and in-between Sri Ramanashramam and Arunachaleshwara Temple. On 7th Jan 2023 was Bhagawan Sri
Ramana Maharshi's Jayanti and i did evening Girivalam after attending morning Puja at Sri Ramanashramam and taking prasada there; during
Girivalm also visited Manoj's new rental flat. 14th Jan was Swami Vivekananda Jayanti and i did morning Girivalam; 15 Jan was Sunaday
and during morning Girivalam i obeseved the traditional rangolis outside houses to mark the beginning of Pongal festival; vans filled
with sugarcane had come to town and people were busy purchasing it, preparing pongal in earthern pots under sugarcane canopy.
On 17th Jan Arunachaleshwara with Unnamulai Amman did Girivalam as yearly Pongal tradition. From 17th Jan - 21st Jan Arvindji Kothe
of Haridwar came and stayed in Laxmi Guest house; showed him Sri Ramanashramam and Yogi Ramsuratkumar Ashrama. On 3rd and 4th Feb, Raju
Karemore of Nagpur and Mr Agrawal of Nandurbar came to Tiru and stayed for 3-4 days; during same time Gopal Mudaliar came from Mysuru.
On Sunday 5th Feb was Purnima (holy Maagh Purnima in North India) and Thai Poosam festival, with crowds we (myself and Gopal) did morning
Girivalam (on route, by chance, we met Vasantha Sabapathy Amma of UK and got introduced to her; she was doing Girivalam after 10yrs gap!) and on
6th evening we all (myself, Gopal, Raju, and Agrawal uncle) went to Hotel Arpana for dinner. Later Vasantha Amma and her husband came to Lalitashrama to
meet me and we also had dinner at Aakaash Inn one evening. On 10th Feb Murali Selvarajan, my friend from Theni days, came from Chennai to meet me and
we talked a lot about spirituality, science, psychology etc.; we were happy to meet each other after many years. He left the same day as he had to
attend office next day.
Mahashivaratri was on 18th Feb (Video) and unfortunately on that day itself Manoj had to be
admitted to KVS Hospital near main Arunachaleshwara temple. Hrishikesh (from Pune who is staying in Tiru for a decade or so) agreed to be with Manoj in the hospital.
After various tests, saline bottles, injections, and observations, Manoj was discharged on 20th Feb; I went to hospital during this period every now and then
and also attended the Yogi Ramsuratkumar Aaradhana celebrations, Mahashivaratri Puja at Sri Ramanashramam, did whole night Girivalam with thousands of pilgrims on
Mahashivaratri etc. On 21st Feb was Sri Ramakrishna Tithi Puja; Manoj left Tiru early morning for Thane and I started for Girivalam. In the next week or so, with the help
of Br Chakradhar and Br Raghavendra, i distributed the remaining stuff from Manoj's room, collected his remaining room-deposit from his room owner etc. In March, by
visiting couple of times the Central Bank of India (Tiruvannamalai Branch), i could transfer my Nashik Branch bank account to Tiru Branch. This enabled me also
to change my Aadhaar Card address to Tiru address. Ajay was thinking of coming to Tiru with family in the later half of March but could not come due to medical
reasons.
19th March 2023 was Sunday and i did my weekly Girivalam in the morning. This marked the successful completion of one year continuous stay
at Tiruvannamalai! Om Arunachala _/\_
Some Pics of the Year-long Stay: Tiruvannamalai (19.03.2022 - 19.03.2023)
Next : Tiru 2023 - 2025
----------- Om Tat Sat -----------
