Appa, 2 Aunts (Lalitha and Girija) and my friend Sudhakar accompanied me to a visit to Tiruvannamalai on 24th December 2006. Chitra chiththi, Rajappan chiththappa, Vignesh and Sanjeev were there to receive us. They had finished Giri Pradakshina and were about to leave to Chennai. Chiththi booked us into the PWD guesthouse they were vacating. It is just opposite to Sri Ramanasramam! Their visit and ours' coincided due to Sri Ramana's grace!!! They had their itinerary in place before ours', so, reluctantly, I did not request them to sync with us. Maybe next time. I've told Sanjeev and Vignesh that we'll go to Skandasramam and Virupaksha Guhai next time. They spoke with us for a while and left to Chennai.
We started on the Giri Pradakshina at 1500, but were there in the Arunachaleshwara temple until 1630 because of the huge crowd. We lined up for the special darshan and began chanting Arunachala Siva, Arunachala Siva, Arunachala Siva Arunachala. Had a good darshan there and had the darshan of Sri Apeetakuchamba. We came to Patala Lingam entrance, but it was locked. Someone came there just then and opened the lock!!! We had the darshan there and started on the Giri Pradakshina.
Here, we decided that we would walk just like what Bhagavan Ramana had said - like a 9 months pregnant lady. Appa and Aunts walked about 10kms and then took an Auto. Sudhakar and I walked really slow and finished at 2230. We successfully came through the darshan of the Idukkuvazhi Pillayaar and felt happy.
Next day, December 25th was Sri Lakshmana Swamy's birthday and he was to give darshan at 0900 at his residence (named Arunachala Hrudayam) near Sri Ramanasramam. All of us reached there in an Auto at 0815 to see that many people had already arrived before us. We got seated almost at the end of the passage and I moved to the right side end so that I could either stand or sit on my knees.
Sri Lakshmana Swamy came, all of us stood in reverence and he spoke for a while. All that I could hear was - I am not the body, I am not the mind. He was speaking softly and we could not hear him from the distance where we sat. The darshan lasted for about 45 minutes after which Swamy went back inside the house. Prasadam was distributed to us all after that.
Just before Swamy came, my heart began pounding not knowing what to expect. But, after seeing him, all the restlessness was put to rest. He looked a very simple person and there was nothing about him to tell us that he was realized!!!
Probably, I did not have the qualification to receive his grace. But, he did call us there to see him. That in itself is grace!!!
Then, we went to Sri Ramanasramam, shopped for books. This time, we got the 8 volumes of "Charitamum Upadesamum" in Tamil because I want all the folks at home to read them and not just that, read out aloud :-) I will be blessed to listen.
I visited the old hall and sat there for a while. Then it was time to get back home!!!
Pranams to the holy feet of Sri Lakshmana Swamy!
Om Sri Ramanarpanamastu.
