A Vacation To Cherish!!

After a long long time enjoyed a really wonderful vacation.Unlike the usual it was not tiring and hectic.Had a truly great time right from day 1.Our vacation started with receiving the blessings and spending a few minutes with Swami Parmarthanadaji, about whom I shall write on some other occasion.Our next stop was Ramanasramam Tiruvannamalai.We were indeed fortunate to have a sincere and wonderful young lad driving us around to all the places.

Ramanasramam and Tiruvannamalai were indeed among the best experiences I have so far had.No words to describe my feelings.Bliss it was!!! is all I can say......

We had the great good fortune of staying two days at Ramanasram,so for sure made the best use of my stay.I had for quite sometime wanted to do the Giri Valam(Parikrama around Arunachala)and sure enough my wish was fulfilled.Our driver was driving us around and I suddenly realised he was doing giri pradakshinam by car,(luckily he had done only 1/2 km),I immedialtely asked him to stop the car,got down and joined a family doing the giri valam.I had some very very earnest and simple souls as company all through the 14kms around Arunachala.It was an amazing experience I must say.As they have very rightly mentioned I hardly felt that I was walking.Someforce walked me through the entire path I am sure. There is certainly something inexplicably beautiful about the Arunachala hills.

We were there just after karthigai deepam festival,so that was an added plus because every evening we got to see the deepam being lit at the top,and that is sure something everyone should see atleast once.Every spot is so very beautiful at Ramansramam,not to forget the peacocks moving around so freely.There were a few amazing white peacocks too.There was everything that one would want and love to be amidst.Nature's scenic beauty,the totally peaceful meditation hall, the unbelievable caves and places where Sri RamanaMaharishi spent many many years of his life and ofcourse sumptuous and good breakfast,lunch,tea and dinner that was served.

Felt truly blessed and gives me goose pimples to think that I indeed had the great fortune of actually treading the path that Maharishi used to for a long time.

Arunachaleswarar temple is one of the very old and important temples and is the agni kshetram,(the pancha mahabootha kshetrams:prithvi,akasham,agni,jalam&vayu)The others are at Kanchipuram(prithvi), Kalahasthi,(Vayu)Chidambaram(Akasa) and Tiruvanikovil(Jalam). The swami here is Annamalaiyar and ambal is unnamalaiyaal.A very beautiful temple indeed.there is also the temple of Karthikeya here,which is special because this is where Lord Karthikeya is supposed to have come and give darsanam to Arunagirinathar who was here in the form of a parrot.

I also did a bit of hill climbing (actually quite a bit!!)to have darshan of skadasramam and also the Virupakshya caves where Sri Ramana Maharishi spent many years of his early life.After two blissful days at Tiruvannamalai and Ramanasramam we headed down south.A number of wonderful temple visits followed by a great baghavatha sapthaham at Mudikondan by Brahmasri Nochur Venkatramanji.
Had the good fortune of meeting some inspiring and knowledgeable people at the sapthaham.Inspite of the heavy and continuous rains all through our stay we were blessed enough to be able to participate in the sapthaham all days.Thanks and God bless to the driver who drove us there everyday.

An enjoyable and blissful fortnight for sure,which I shall cherish for a long time to come.

Stay tuned more on the way...................

Jai gurudev.