Thiruvarooril pirandhaal moksham,
Kaasiyil irandhaal moksham,
Annamalayaai ninaithaalae moksham:
so goes a Tamil saying.
It says that you get salvation if you are born in Thiruvaroor,
You get salvation if you die in Kasi,
But salvation is yours if you just think of Annamalai.
Thiru Annamalai---literally an 'elder brother mountain'--is about 210 kilometers from Chennai. Take National Highway 5, and drive for about three and a half hours till you hit Tindivanam junction. Hang a right, and you are on the road to Annamalai.
The drive slows down on this road. It is narrow and traffic is high for the size of the road.
You have to cross Gingi to reach Annamalai. Gingi offers a big tourist attraction in the form of a fort built of Raja Dhey Sing. His original name is Raja Tej Singh, but the Tamils call him Dhey Singh.
The fort is about two hundred years old, and some the structures still make you hold your breath. Life must have been beautiful but raw, about two hundred years ago.
But our visit was to Annamalai. After a brief stop at Gingi, we reached Annamalai.
The majestic hill inspires you. Feels like spirituality was in the very air. But for the din of the town life at the foothill, the hill beckons you as it once did the famous sage of Arunachala--Ramana Maharishi.
Arunachala is the presiding deity here. Like the hill, the temple towers too are majestic. As you scan the tower and the pinnacle, you vision mergers into the formless sky--a quick transition from the mundane to the sublime.
We started walking round the hill--a perimeter of 15 kilometers--around seven in the evening. It was a full-moon day, and you could see thousands circumambulating the hill like us. Some holding incense sticks, some chanting Om Nama Sivaya--the fifteen kilometer walk as fascinating if a bit tiring.
It is said that the very hill is alive. Once Ramana Maharishi had said there was a city inside the subtle world around the hill.
When the wise speak, there is something which is beyond our little understanding.
Faith works, and it was with faith that we walked around the hill and returned to our room at one in the morning.
We were up by eight to walk up the hill to Skandashram. A quite place which offered you a panoramic view the town below.
