By Acarya Dasa
On April 22nd our padayatra party reached Tiruvannamalai located 180 kilometers away from Chennai. The city is also accessible from Vellore and takes around 80 kilometers by road to reach there. This world renowned temple town in Tamil Nadu is synonymous with deepam (light or flame) or fire worship. Lord Siva is worshipped here in the form of fire as Arunachaleswarar.
After taking our morning darsana of the Lord we headed for the town and reached there by 10am. We encountered a lot of traffic entering the town and problems with policemen who were refusing us access. We tried to convince them to let us in but because of the language barrier between the police and ourselves they couldn’t understand what we saying. What we were not aware of at the time was that a shobha-yatra[1]was taking place, which was why the town was so packed with people. Our party tried to enter the town when suddenly a policeman appeared and began to beat me and the other padayatris. Akhildhara Dasa started to sing Nrsimhadev pranam to protect us. Another policeman then appeared on the scene and reprimanded the policeman that was beating us. We were shocked and wondered what to do next. A few minutes later we saw some leaders of the ‘Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)[2]’. We approached them and spoke to them about our mission. They sympathized with us and spoke to the authorities on our behalf and clarified that we were padayatris travelling all over India spreading the message of the Lord. He explained that we had come to their town to take darsana of Lord Siva and to do sankirtana. This convinced the authorities and they allowed our padayatra party into the town. The VHP’s help did not end there. They also made arrangements for our accommodation in a nearby asrama.
It was purnima[3] when we arrived here –the local custom during purnima was to do parikrama of a sacred hill in the town. We now understood why the town was brimming with people. It is believed that the town’s temple located at the foot of the ‘Annamalai hill’ was built around 750 AD which archeologists estimated from the temple’s sculptures. This temple is the biggest in India dedicated to Lord Siva. The ‘Siva Parvati Arunachaleswarar’ temple boasts a 66 meter high gopuram or monumental tower with 13 storey tiers located at the entrance of the temple. Here Lord Siva is known as ‘Annamalayar’ in his form of a lingam (a symbolic representation of Siva) and Parvati is known as ‘Apitakuchambal’. As is common in most temples the Arunachaleswarar temple has a large path circling the hill. Devotees visiting the temple are advised to circle the hill at least once to reap the full benefits and blessings of the Lord. The act of circling the hill is also known as ‘Girivalam’ or ‘Giripradhakshana’, ‘giri’ refers to hill and ‘valam’ to circumambulation of the hill. Therefore, ‘Arunachaleswarar Giri Valam’ is the circumambulation of the Arunachaleswarar hill’. Here in Tiruvannamalai it is very auspicious to go on ‘girivalam’ on the day of a full moon or during the annual ‘Tiruvannamalai Deepam’
Our padayatra party joined the one hundred thousand person walk or giri valam around the hill and whilst doing so we did kirtana and distributed books. The people walking also joined in on the kirtana. This reminded us of Govardhan parikrama and so we all meditated on Giriraj during the entire giri valam. Afterwards we went to the temple and took darsana of Lord Siva and Parvati. We stayed here for two days and on the third day something miraculous happened. The policeman who had assaulted us when we were trying to get into the town approached us and asked us for forgiveness. He also asked us why we did not retaliate even though he was beating us so badly. I replied, “Our mission is to spread the message of the Lord and to distribute books and by doing this engage everyone in the service of the Lord. If we had retaliated you would never have helped us. Also, we are not going around wanting to fight, we are going around wanting to transform hearts and today also we were successful in doing that.” The policeman with tears in his eyes apologized again and asked for forgiveness.
We have faced incidents such as these on several occasions before and learnt to tolerate as best we can; after all Lord Nityananda also showed tolerance for a higher cause when he was struck by Madhai. Caitanya Mahaprabhu was ready to kill Madhai with his chakara if it were not for Lord Nityananda’s plea, “Please my Lord do not hurt them.” This was how the hearts of the most sinful Jagai and Madhai were transformed. The Lord gives us the strength to bear these injuries and face these occurrences. It makes us stronger every day and reminds us that our mission is to preach. I always think about how Nitai Gaurasundar and Srila Prabhupada are tolerating so much every day on padayatra and facing all the seasons with us. Further, we are constantly moving. If They were in a temple they would receive such opulence but instead They gave up all that to travel with us. They motivate us to carry on with this journey and we depend on Their mercy to protect us. On one occasion we had some bruises on our bodies –we did not have any medical help or supplies, so we applied a little turmeric paste that was all and by the next day we were alright singing and dancing as usual.
It is a hard life on padayatra. Sometimes we are faced with situations where we do not have accommodation and other instances where we are allowed to use vacant schools. Once we travelled to a village where they allowed us to use such a school but it did not have any electricity and there were no fans. We kept all the books inside the rooms to save them from getting damaged in the heat and all of us slept outside in the courtyard. As we slept we heard a hissing sound. Suddenly one of the devotees called out saying that there was a huge snake that looked very poisonous. We surrendered our lives to Guru and Gauranga and began to pray. In no time the snaked changed direction and headed away from us. The life of a padayatri is like the life of a vanavasi or forest dweller that accepts many austerities and goes without water, shelter and faces hot sun, rain and cold winters. All the difficulties we face make us even more dependent on the Lord. We move from town to town facing new challenges every day. No matter what the circumstance, we always depend on the mercy and protection of the Lord.
[1] Procession
[2] An Indian right-wing Hindu nationalist organization based on the theology of Hindutva.
[3] The word refers to ‘full moon’.
