| 31 Oct, 1 Nov: Bangalore, Tiruvannamalai |
 After an uneventful and painfully long 19 hour train ride from Shirdi, a rural Central Indian village, to Bangalore, there was quite a sense of surprise. Bangalore is one of India’s more modern cities. It is a busy and bustling town. Visitors are greeted on the main roads by miles of murals, freshly painted onto the roadside walling. This is part of a fairly recent initiative to clean, beautify and develop India’s cities to be more "green." This city is representative of the full spectrum of India’s people. Here you will find modern youth, dressed more western than are most westerners. Just down the street one can find shops with rows and rows of colorful cloth for traditional Sarees. There are shopping centers and high office buildings as well as rural outskirt villages, where it is not uncommon to find many farm animals roaming the streets. Our driver Ashok, was eager to point them out to Swami and Amma. They both happily caught up with Ashok, who had driven them in 2004 on a trip to South India. Raghudas sat in the back seat, mouth agape at the many interesting street scenes.  The first point of interest was to visit the Samadhi site of Cuddapah Swami, or "Taatha" (meaning Grandfather) Swami, as Amma calls him. He has appeared to Amma and Swami in the past and revealed some sacred teachings to them about the nature of spiritual evolution. Our driver navigated dirt roads of a village on the outskirts of town and we seemed to be having a lot of trouble finding anyone who knew of the address, or anyone who had even heard of Cuddapah Swami. After a few hours of searching to no avail, we would succumb to whatever Divine Lila was being played and decide to move on to our next destination which was Thiruvamanallai.Thiruvamanallai is the name of a mountain that rises from the tropical forests in the form of Nandi, the omnipresent bull that accompanies Shiva. This sacred location is home to one of the most sacred Shiva temples in all of India, which sits at the base of the mountain. Around this temple a village has sprung up that is host to many lodges, local restaurants and shops selling religious readings and music, all targeted at pilgrims. Ramana Maharishi also built his ashram here and it attracts multitudes of visitors from around the world. This mountain is known to many because of its demanding expectation for those visiting. The Girivallam is a long and barefoot 16 km trek around the base of the mountain. Along this walk there are 8 sacred Shiva Lingams, each representing a vital holy element. The Girivallam concludes at the main Temple, which houses a giant ligam, holding the element of fire. The temple is a massive complex. The expansive temple grounds are constructed from ancient times and each of the four directions has a towering stone carved entrance. Swami and Amma filled in Ashok on all the happenings of the Yatra thus far. He was excited to hear about the experiences of the group and eager to see what was to come. Before entering the temple he asked everyone to wait in the car for a moment and he jumped out into the rainy street scene. He disappeared around the corner and returned shortly after carrying two plastic bags. "For Raghu’s feet," he explained. He is a man of great compassion and sweet natured. After hearing about the stories of the trip thus far, including the firewalk, he wanted to make sure that Raghu’s feet were well protected from the mud and rain. Raghudas was grateful and thought to himself that it is no wonder that Amma and Swami chose him to guide our journey in the South.  Inside the temple there were lines of rope in place outside the temple, marking waiting areas that were in place for the following Full Moon day’s events. The temple would expect over 200,000 visitors and pilgrims. Inside the sanctum was a deep feeling of serenity. There was also a noticeable difference in the temperature compared to the outside air. It was very warm inside each temple sanctum. The group went for Darshan and received blessings from Lord Ganesh, Murugan. We then followed Ashok across the stone complex, rain pouring down. We were brought into a short line to receive blessings from Shiva and Amma pointed out the great heat that was felt as we approached the Fire Lingam. After darshan, Swami left a donation on behalf of everyone, with the priest outside Shiva’s sanctum. After that we moved to another smaller temple that housed Shiva’s Shakti consort, Mother Paravati. We waited in a longer line here for some time. Suddenly one of the priests ushered our whole group in a line for "special darshan." We were startled at this invitation, and gladly accepted. As we were being brought into the inner sanctum, Amma pointed out that the Divine rewards us all constantly and this was an example of how Swami’s generous donation for all was immediately reciprocated by the Divine. The lovely experience in Thiruvamanallai was fairly short. Though the group would have enjoyed to stay in the Divine presence here longer, however, our driver insisted that we must move on. We drove through the night and encountered terribly flooded roads and some traffic that was caused by this. We were headed for Pondicherry, this is a small French Colonial seaside city, and is home to some sacred temples and Sri Aurobindo’s ashram. During the rainy drive Raghudas was amused at the many signs that he saw for Pondicherry. One reason begin that it was the first time seeing road signs since being in India, and another reason being that it was spelled all of the following ways: Pondicherry, Pondycherri, Pondy and Ponducherry. At nearly midnight Swami checked the group into a small seaside guesthouse that was opened for Sri Aurobindo’s ashram. We sought food from the only nearby snackshop that was open and were pleasantly surprised to find several images of Mahavatar Babaji in the convenience store. This journey is truly a blessed one and the Divine guidance can be felt and found in many unexpected places! |
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