When
Bhagavan was very young he intuitively knew that Arunachala signified
God in some way. In one of his verses he wrote, 'From my unthinking
childhood the immensity of Arunachala had shone in my awareness'. He
didn't know then that it was a place that he could go to; he just had
this association with the word Arunachala. He felt, 'this is the holiest
place, this is the holiest state, this is God himself'. He was in awe
of Arunachala and what it represented without ever really
understanding that it was a pilgrimage place that he could actually go
to. It wasn't until he was a teenager that one of his relatives actually
came back from here and said, 'I've been to Arunachala'. Bhagavan said
it was an anti-climax. Before, he had imagined it to be some great
heavenly realm that holy, enlightened people went to when they died. To
find he could go there on a train was a bit of a let down.
His first reaction to the word Arunachala was absolute awe. Later there was a brief period of anticlimax when he realized it was just a place on the map. Later still, after his enlightenment experience, he understood that it was the power of Arunachala that had precipitated the experience and pulled him physically to this place.
The verse I just quoted from chronicles the early stages of his relationship with the mountain:
His first reaction to the word Arunachala was absolute awe. Later there was a brief period of anticlimax when he realized it was just a place on the map. Later still, after his enlightenment experience, he understood that it was the power of Arunachala that had precipitated the experience and pulled him physically to this place.
The verse I just quoted from chronicles the early stages of his relationship with the mountain:
Look, there [Arunachala] stands as if insentient. Mysterious is the way
it works, beyond all human understanding. From my unthinking childhood,
the immensity of Arunachala had shone in my awareness, but even when I
learned from someone that it was only Tiruvannamalai, I did not realize
its meaning. When it stilled my mind and drew me to itself and I came
near, I saw that it was stillness absolute.
The last line contains a very nice pun. Achala is Sanskrit for 'mountain' and it also means 'absolute stillness'. On one level this poem is describing Bhagavan's physical pilgrimage to Tiruvannamalai, but in another sense he is talking about his mind going back into the heart and becoming totally silent and still.
-David Godman, Interviews
The last line contains a very nice pun. Achala is Sanskrit for 'mountain' and it also means 'absolute stillness'. On one level this poem is describing Bhagavan's physical pilgrimage to Tiruvannamalai, but in another sense he is talking about his mind going back into the heart and becoming totally silent and still.
-David Godman, Interviews
![When Bhagavan was very young he intuitively knew that Arunachala signified God in some way. In one of his verses he wrote, 'From my unthinking childhood the immensity of Arunachala had shone in my awareness'. He didn't know then that it was a place that he could go to; he just had this association with the word Arunachala. He felt, 'this is the holiest place, this is the holiest state, this is God himself'. He was in awe of Arunachala and what it represented without ever really understanding that it was a pilgrimage place that he could actually go to. It wasn't until he was a teenager that one of his relatives actually came back from here and said, 'I've been to Arunachala'. Bhagavan said it was an anti-climax. Before, he had imagined it to be some great heavenly realm that holy, enlightened people went to when they died. To find he could go there on a train was a bit of a let down.
His first reaction to the word Arunachala was absolute awe. Later there was a brief period of anticlimax when he realized it was just a place on the map. Later still, after his enlightenment experience, he understood that it was the power of Arunachala that had precipitated the experience and pulled him physically to this place.
The verse I just quoted from chronicles the early stages of his relationship with the mountain:
Look, there [Arunachala] stands as if insentient. Mysterious is the way it works, beyond all human understanding. From my unthinking childhood, the immensity of Arunachala had shone in my awareness, but even when I learned from someone that it was only Tiruvannamalai, I did not realize its meaning. When it stilled my mind and drew me to itself and I came near, I saw that it was stillness absolute.
The last line contains a very nice pun. Achala is Sanskrit for 'mountain' and it also means 'absolute stillness'. On one level this poem is describing Bhagavan's physical pilgrimage to Tiruvannamalai, but in another sense he is talking about his mind going back into the heart and becoming totally silent and still.
-David Godman, Interviews](https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t31.0-8/p480x480/1932623_526181774157979_4899827386889013030_o.jpg)
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