We just returned from our trip to Thirruvanamalai. It was simply amazing. On our first night (Friday), we circumambulated around the mountain, Arunachala, which is considered to be Shiva's body, literally. An ox-cart was hired as a support vehicle for the 14 km stroll. As it turned out, one of our group had sprained her foot pretty badly that morning on her way down the marble hotel stairs, and another’s broken toe is still healing, so the oxcart allowed them to go round the mountain plus various of us hopped on for brief respites or to remove or replace our shoes on our feet.  It is traditional to walk barefoot, both around and up the mountain. In the either case, you are walking on the body of Shiva and it is thus more respectful to walk with bare feet.  In the former case, I think there may be more to it, or perhaps it is just how it was always done. The path, of course, has been dirt for most of history, but relatively recently it was paved. Thus, one's barefeet are “protected” from the bare dirt by several inches of asphalt (sarcasm;-)).  Quite a few of us (not including moi) walked barefoot much or all of the way around the mountain. Pretty impressive. Even more impressive is the woman who developed quite large, full heel, blisters on Friday and still hiked up to the top of Arunachala on Sunday!

Saturday, we walked part way up the mountain to the cave where Sri Ramana Maharshi meditated and lived for seven years. Sitting inside the small buildings now perched on the side of the hill and encompassing the actual cave was quite powerful. Sitting there even for a handful of minutes felt both grounding and joy-filled. After that we walked back down and right into the Ashram where SRM lived out the rest of his years. There we had lunch on the floor of a large room with hundreds of others, mostly ashramites.  When we entered, we were filed down rows demarcated by our plates (banana leaves) and metal cups. Servers moved quickly up and down rows bringing rice, various sauces and dishes, spicy mango chutney, juices, and finally a delicious watery dessert (no idea what it was!). Of course, we all sat on the floor and scooped rice and sauce with our right hand carefully up to our waiting mouths. It was perhaps the most efficient "cafeteria" meal I've participated in, and was quite delicious and enjoyable.

Finally, we met with Michael who has lived at the ashram for 11 years. He had been studying to be a Benedictine Monk in California, came here to the Sri Ramana Maharshi Ashram on a rare release from the monastery, and decided to stay. He helped us to know and understand more about this life choice as well as about SRM.

Finally, early on Sunday morning we hiked the approximately 2 hours from just outside the largest Shiva Temple in southern India through large boulder strewn steep hillsides to the top of Mount Arunachala. The climb is not for the faint of heart; the trail pretty much goes up and up with very little directional respite. Amazingly, at the top are a couple of guys (saddhus perhaps?) who offer a blessing and a cup of chai-the amazing part being that someone has to carry the milk and water up the mountain every day! The bouldered peak is black and oily from many years of ritually burning many thousands of pounds of ghee (also having been hauled up by thousands of bare-footed individuals – no helicopter drops here!) in celebration of Deepam. The flame burns brightly for 10 days!

Banana pancakes and very cheesy omelettes with delicious home-fried potatoes, from a café run by a woman who was told by The Mother to follow this path of starting an establishment in this town, pleasantly punctuated our time in Thirru (these are not the usual fare, even in Auroville!).

But mostly I am left with images and memories of small groups of saddhus (generally men, who have chosen to follow a spiritual path in this lifetime) sitting on benches or on the ground all the way around Mount Arunachala and throughout the town, of saying and hearing “Om Nama Shivaya” with hand to heart or hands together, of being bathed in the sound of young boys chanting one of the Vedas (by heart) in the large meditation hall at the ashram, and of visiting the shrines to Lakshmi the cow, Jackie the dog, Crow, and Deer, all of whom were special beings in the life of Sri Ramana Maharshi who bears some resemblance to St. Francis of Assissi in the way he fully respected all living things.