Arunachala Five Faced Hanuman Darshan

This is perhaps the most powerful darshan of Arunachala.

Stunningly all the five faces are easily recognizable in this darshan.

I am going to Chennai tomorrow and by Arunachala's grace will be going to Arunachala for the specific photography of this darshan and many more future darshans.

Watch this space for more.

The five faced Hanuman in Arunachala is coming up next!!!

Om Arunachaleshwaraya namaha!

Arunachala Right Heart

Bhagwan answers Poonjaji

When I entered the hall in the afternoon Bhagavan was
already explaining in answer to some questions put by Mr. Poonja,
a Punjabi:
“I ask you to see where the ‘I’ arises in your body, but it is
really not quite correct to say that the ‘I’ rises from and merges
in the heart in the right side of the chest. The heart is another
name for the Reality and it is neither inside nor outside the
body; there can be no in or out for it, since it alone is. I do not
mean by ‘heart’ any physiological organ or any plexus of nerves
or anything like that, but so long as one identifies oneself with
the body and thinks he is in the body he is advised to see where
in the body the ‘I’-thought rises and merges again. It must be
the heart at the right side of the chest since every man, of
whatever race and religion and in whatever language he may
be saying ‘I’, points to the right side of the chest to indicate
himself. This is so all over the world, so that must be the place.
And by keenly watching the daily emergence of the ‘I’-thought
on waking and its subsiding in sleep, one can see that it is in the
heart on the right side.”

23-5-46; Day By Day

Arunachala Milky Way

Inspired by the night skies of planet Earth in the International Year of Astronomy, photographer Larry Landolfi created this tantalizing fantasy view. The composited image suggests a luminous Milky Way is the heavenly extension of a country road. Of course, the name for our galaxy, the Milky Way (in Latin, Via Lactea), does refer to its appearance as a milky band or path in the sky. In fact, the word galaxy itself derives from the Greek for milk. Visible on moonless nights from dark sky areas, though not so bright or colorful as in this image, the glowing celestial band is due to the collective light of myriad stars along the plane of our galaxy, too faint to be distinguished individually. The diffuse starlight is cut by dark swaths of obscuring galactic dust clouds. Four hundred years ago, Galileo turned his telescope on the Milky Way and announced it to be "... a congeries of innumerable stars ..."

-- APOD

The Milky Way is the most holiest galaxy in the entire cosmos.

In it resides the Absolute God in all Glory!

Arunachala!

The Alpha, the Omega.

The Apple of the Milky Way.

The Darling of the Cosmos

Arunachala Stillness

Bliss will arise if you remain still.

Why, little sir, this involvement still

with yoga, whose nature is delusion?

Will [this bliss] arise

through your own objective knowledge?

You need not reply,

you who are addicted to ‘doing’!

You little baby, you!


If you remain still, without paying attention to this, without paying attention to that, and without paying attention to anything at all, you will, simply through your powerful attention to being, become the reality, the vast eye, the unbounded space of consciousness.



Udal Poyyuravu’, verse 52

Arunachala Monsoon

a mixture of monsoon blue....wet greenery....red hue.....and pure white....yes guys...the dhaani chunariya ( colorful embroidery) of nature is back....

picture a wet green landscape....flaming red gulmohars....pure white cranes and lightening against a backdrop of monsoon blue clouds.....

and Arunachala in the midst...

every drop that touches it is filled with Moksha...every wind that blows from it with life vivifying energy...

spread ur arms and yearn to be lifted up by this most exquisite beauty that visits south india every year....crane ur necks....dive deep into the depths of the sky filled with a hue of unimaginable blue.....

the monsoons have begun in india....and have brought with them unimaginable beauty...the dhaani chunariya of nature.

Arunachala...in the clouds...in the rain...in the Monsoon!

Smiling Venkateshwara

A post of my visit to Tirupathi long ago...



"Aren't you going?" I asked incredulously.

" No," my friend replied.

" But you worship him as God. You should be visiting him on his birthday celebrations" I persisted.

"There will be tremendous rush. It is not worth it." he replied again.

"But isnt that the test of devotion?" I queried.

"Perhaps..." was my friend's noncommital reply.

I was talking to him about the upcoming birthday celebrations of Sathya Sai Baba of whom my friend is a devotee. The fact that he refused to face hurdles on that day for his darshan made me remember a small little episode I had when I went to see the Lord of the Seven Hills a few years back.

"it was about 4 years since i saw him.

the delay when noted was surprising given that he is the most visited diety in the world. and i am one of those who eagerly visited him regularly.

its time, i told ramesh and baba (my friends). they both agreed.

so on a slightly sunny august morning seated in an empty AC Chair car of the south central railway the three of us headed south...to the seven hills of tirumala.

baba and ramesh spent most of the time sleeping. and i like everytime shunned the AC for the rush of wind on the dirty compartment steps. India! it has never ceased to fascinate me.

as the rushes of green interspersed with canals, rivers, farmers, huts , birds and all galloped past us for a moment i was Mohun Bhargav...this was Swades....and i was looking at a beautiful but poor India.

but before i could start singing " ye jo des hai tera" reality came bombarding and a yawning baba came out and wondered whether the train was on time.

the train was on time. we reached renigunta and climbed into a taxi by a tamilian called Arunachalam. i smiled at him and queried about his life as the taxi rushed towards the abode of venkateshwara atop the sevven hills. he explained his entire life from agra to mumbai to kanyakumari in the 45 minutes it took us to reach tirumala.

during the ascent i chanced to gaze out at the seven peaks...they are shaped like hoods of a snake (natural formations )...it was chilling to gaze at their humungous black silhouttes in the night. i felt i was being watched.

we checked into the cottage and slept as our darshan was booked for 4 am.

at 4 am we joined the eager crowded line at vaikuntam and the snails march towards Srinivasa began. it was one of the most lifeless crowds i had ever joined...discussions on business, politics, marraiges and a lust for laddoos dominated the psyche. shouts of govinda by me were met with passive stares. i wondered....did modern psyche finally overcome the awe and devotion? there were many from the USA, who made sure everyone knew they were from the USA by their loud english banter. the line moved on....and then....

after 4 years and 2 hours in the line i saw him.

he was the most beautiful thing i ever saw. standing on the pedestal , smiling in mirth venkateshwara looked ready to fulfill any boon u asked him. i waited for the tears to well up in my eyes and the palpitations to start. but they didnt..... within a moment i was out and i wanted to see him again. for i was surprised and confused that whether i too had become too modern for his devotion.

so ramesh and i went to the darshan booking centre and boooked our darshan for the evening....with the regular poor people darshan lines. the previous darshan was through internet booking. in the evening was the raw darshan. with the coolies, the laborers, the poor.

and was it a tornado!! hundreds of poor in luck and money when compared to the ultraelite group of the morning darshan were part of us now. there were lusty shouts of govinda doing the rounds. a small hint shout of govinda of mine brought forth much more lustier and louder shouts of ecstasy from the buzzing line. one person kept on shouting govinda till he saw the diety.

and was it my imagination or was venkateshwara more smiling and happier in their presence than in the morning? the diety it seemed was brimming with life and more mirth.

is this why internet, privileged darshans might bring us close to the lord within minutes....but it is with true brimming devotion that the lord is truly gladdened?

the next day early morining we had another darshan , the lord now in pure form divested of all gold ornaments and the trip ended.

as the taxi climbed down the hills towards the station, i wondered, the poor in luck>? in money? but in faith...in love....they were the billionaires.

Srinivasa it looked, was playing one of his subtle leelas again.