ARUNACHALA AND RAMANACHALA
By K. Subrahmanian
THE Maharshi and Arunachala embody the same principle
of stillness. The Maharshi too was achala, the stillness of
Awareness. He was the utsava vigraha, the hill the mula
vigraha. He never moved away from Tiruvannamalai, from
the day he arrived there in his sixteenth year till he merged in
its light in April, 1950. As the hill is rooted in the earth, Sri
Ramana is rooted in the Self. The hill still draws people to it.
Sri Ramana too, unmoving, draws people towards himself.
Even people who had not seen him during his lifetime are
drawn towards him and the hill.
The Sage appealed to humanity through silence. This si-
lence, like the hill's own silence, is more potent than the elo-
quence of preachers. It brings about silence of the beholder's
mind. It is not the negation of speech but the pure awareness
which is the source and end of all sound.
Going round the hill is recommended by Sri Bhagavan, as
this physical movement results in mental calm. Strangely
enough, one feels no fatigue in going round the hill. Going
round Sri Bhagavan was thought equal to going round the
hill and was found by some to yield the same mental calm.
However, he discouraged this practice. The hill and the
Maharshi are two forms assumed by the formless Self.
Smaranad Arunachalam -- If one thinks of Arunachala,
one gains liberation. Like Arunachala, Ramana too brings en-
lightenment by ending the illusion that the body is oneself.
The hill is Lord Siva himself. And Ramana lived and moved
as Sivananda. And he is present still as we sit in silence in his
Ashram or walk round the hill.
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