I am writing from here at the Feet of our Deeply Beloved Great-Grandfather Sat-Guru - Arunachala ...the Holiest Mountain ......in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, South India.

Full Moon at Arunachala is always celebrated by doing Pradakshina (or Giri-Dakshina Giri Valam as it is called here) around the Mountain. It is the circumambulation of the GURU - walking around the Mountain and is usually done barefoot.

It is the month of April and HOT. I start at around 10 PM, hoping for some coolness from this constant over 110 degree daily temperature. The road is FULL! Full of people, all with the same intention, in the same direction....to walk around the HOLY MOUNTAIN. Women in their finest, most beautiful Sari's, some carrying babies, some carrying plastic bags with water bottles.  Girls in Salwar suits or western dresses....holding hands and laughing and giggling as they walk this 14 kilometer journey around the ever Effulgent Emptiness of the SELF! Grandmothers, bent over from a life of labor, pulling their grandchildren along to the next temple for Darshan. Boys walking together, talking loud....walking fast.  Men in Dhoti's, western pants, lungi's, shirtless and with shirts, Vibhuthi across their foreheads from the temples visited.  Bhramins with their Sacred Strings across their naked chests.  Sadhu's in orange, sitting by the road with their begging bowls in front of them. People chanting, talking, laughing.  All walking barefoot. In the Gaze of the Mountain... Unmoving.... Untouched...! No cast or creed HERE....... Bhramins to Untouchables....old and young...... educated/non-educated...dark skin and light skin....all walking together...all in the GRACE of the SELF!

I enter the main street and am immediately swept up in the moving energy of the crowd!  Barefoot... walking on the road in front of the Ramana Ashram of the holy saint of Arunachala, Sri Ramana Maharshi. The road is basically closed to all but bicycles and scooters. And it is so full that you can't see the ground. The air is full Celebration/Carnival. And yet there is an Emptiness that is awesomly visible.  Everything is happening in the GRACE of the SELF..... It is all of the Substratum..... infused ith the Substratum, it SELF! This is NOT a walk in quiet meditation as you would think meditation to be...or want it to be.....It is all noise and crowd and smells and sounds........ But it is all Empty! And it is all Meditation it SELF!  Everything is  walking, walking in the same direction... a wave of energy - from the Source back to the Source - the Shakti of the Shiva of Arunachala, itself...  And yet, I am lying when I say this. Because Nothing is moving!  Nothing is HERE!  Nothing Exists!  Nothing comes from the source to the source...It is ALL the SOURCE!  And it is all a DREAM!  A Dream of the Mind!  Arunachala sits Unmoving, Untouched....constantly showing the Dream for what it is - a Dream! Even IT doesn't exist!  What JOY!  What JOY!   What constant  J O Y  !

I walk......  Everything is taken care of on this 14 kilometer walk.  There are makeshift stalls selling namkeens (deep fried salty snacks), Bajji's (deep fried banannas, onions or potatos) pakoras, wadai (deep fried!!! ground dal with onions, chilli's and ginger), chole (Chick peas made usually with lots of chilis).  There is water, soft drinks, coffee, Chai (tea with milk and sugar) and tender green coconuts to drink. There are people selling Palm friuts, banannas, and the first mangos of the season (green and probably sour). There are tables with books, usually spiritual and mostly in tamil. And there is music ... bright lights and loud speakers... blasting songs about Shiva and Arunachala. There are Sadhus in orange...white beards and no beards....singing bhajans and playing their hand drums.. trying to get enough money to go on Spiritual excersions to Holy places (Yatras). And there are some quiet moments where there are no lights and no music and no thing! There are many places to get darshan of God!  There are Eight Cardinal Point Lingams (representation of Shiva/Arunachala as the fire element), and four Nandi's (Bulls which represents the Body and the first devotee of Shiva). There are small and big temples and mandirs... with people lined up for hours waiting to get in for Darshan of the GOD!  All in this 14 kilometer walk around and in EMPTINESS! And there is the town......with air-horns blasting from the busses trying to go down a street that doesn't belong to them tonight. The road is rougher and tougher to walk on barefoot....me along.......walking on air.  Then, the Main Temple of Arunachaleswarar....the crowd is tremendous....so I decide to not go in this time. I have been in before...and this Ancient Temple is infused with secrets and energy and images from the past.....the very Ancient past.....before the conditioning of our western mind!

Republished from Walking during Girivalam around arunachala hill