By Shobha Rao Smilemaker

Jan 24: When I stepped down from the bus at 4.00 am just outside the gates of the Ramana Maharashi ashram at Thiruvanmalai, I said a small prayer of gratitude. After three different attempts, finally I got lucky to land at the foot of the Arunagiri hills . This lingam shaped 'Fire Mountain' is considered as one of the highest spiritual energy centres on this earth

They say that to visit a holy place your time has to be right..you don't decide, the place decides when to call you. There were many times that I had made plans to visit Thiru as it is fondly called.. but something or the other always stopped me. My fun loving and also spiritually inclined friends group told me about their amazing experiences there, which I had missed earlier even though all my reservations were made well in advance!

It was destined for me to experience the spirituality of the place in the company of another dear friend Hema and her deep faith in this place. In the first morning we visited three smaller ashrams around the vicinity and were lucky to partake their ample prasad during the lunch time at the serene Ramsuratkumar ashram.

My friend Hema inspired me to walk around the holy mountain, in absolute silence with complete concentration on Lord Shiva's presence as the holy mountain of light!
Also I chose not to use any footwear, so it became a comparatively slower yet highly memorable ' pradakshina' walk around the holy Arunachala Mountains for 14.6 kms which we took around 6 hours to complete at our own pace and serenity.

As kids we had heard the story of Shiva as a beacon of light with Brahma and Vishnu unable to find the ends. We kept seeing the mountain as symbolic of Shiva's story as an infinite pillar of light, which energy could still be felt here.

On the circular path we visited, 8 small Ashta Linga temples The eight lingams are: Indra Lingam, Agni Lingam, Yama Lingam, Niruthi Lingam, Varuna Lingam, Vayu Lingam, Kubera Lingam and Esanya Lingam, named after the elements and Gods. I made sure I got my pictures at every place so that I keep track of the many temples that we visited with devotion.

We also visited another ancient Adi Annamalai Temple which is located on this path. The finale was a visit to the majestic Arunachala temple, where we could visit the Shiva temple, but missed out on seeing the Parvati temple as the time was up and the door keeper surprised me with his rudeness, which was in stark contrast to the silence of the last six walking hours.

The second day started with a visit to a small colourful Kali mandir. After the circulatory walk around the holy mountain on the previous day,it was time to actually climb the holy mountain, again on bare feet. Surprisingly it was not difficult at all to do so as we slowly made our way up the holy mountain towards the Virupaksha cave where Sage Ramana Maharishi was said to have meditated for many years.

I could just imagine how he propagated the simple theory of the imporatnce of self enquiry as an answer to the quest for inner bliss. The silence in the mountain was another factor that contributed to the feeling of being surrounded with the grace beauty and security of Lord Shiva himself!

After another trek still higher, we spent time browsing around the books and corners of the Sharda ashram. The majestic view of the city of Thiruvanmalai made it absolutely worth the climb.

The evening was spent again in silence sitting both indoors and outdoors within the precincts of the main Ramana Maharshi ashram. Just being surrounded with seemingly content looking people, reading the inspirational writings around us, watching the misty mountains, consuming the holy prasad, simply being in nothingness inside the ashram is an experience that cannot be justly described in words.

Hema spoke about the sacred Kartik month annual light festival day which she regularly used to attend. (Three years before this visit I had been to another high spiritual energy centre which corresponds on the other side of the axis of the Arunagiri hills -Machu Pichu in Peru!)

On the third day we went very early in the morning, to the main temple for a special Abhisheka darshan of powerful Shiva Linga and Parvathi, sitting very close in front of the idols at the ancient Arunachala temple....as we slowly soaked in the mysterious energy of the temple nestled in between the majestic holy mountains. We literally got a bucket full of eatables which we distributed to many as prasad. I also spent some quiet moments down the flight of steps where the great sage Ramana Maharishi was said to have meditated.

As we sat in the night train back to Bangalore, I said a thank you and a goodbye to Ramana Ashram with its foreigners, tasty meals, chanting, etc. Bye bye Arunachalam mountains physically for now, but will always remain eternally in one blissful corner of my heart!

Shobha Rao Smilemaker has a vision of living in a world where people use their ability to find and make smiles in any situation. She is a lawyer by qualification, a soft skills trainer by passion, a motivational speaker, a freelance journalist, a bestselling author, an avid traveler and founder of 'Smilemakers Trainings'. She can be contacted at www.shobhasmilemaker.com.