On the Razor’s Edge – II

Experiences on the Path …

In the last write up in this series, I had mentioned that there was a small story lurking somewhere on footwear and Giripradaksina - the ritual circumambulation of Holy Arunachala. Before I start the narrative let me take the opportunity to pen down a few thoughts on Giripradaksina in general.

The Giripradaksina

Preamble

The Sanskrit root word “Giri” means “praise” or “veneration”. All mountains are considered particularly holy and worthy of veneration and so the term “Giri” came to be applied to them. Otherwise, for instance, clouds are also called “Giri” sometimes, being venerable as well. And the word “Giri” is an honorific often given to heads of Mathams and renunciates in general. But the term may have come to be applied to mountains in particular, as a derived meaning of “Giri” is “eight” or “one with eight parts”. A mountain is taken to have eight parts, as it is generally in the form of a cone and thus equally faces all the eight cardinal directions.

The Sanskrit word “Pradaksina” literally means “moving to the South”, or in effect, “moving from left to right”. This is because in ancient India, the directions were marked when standing facing the rising Sun, i.e. directly East. Thus if you take a circular road around a central point, and were to start walking from the point dead East to the Southern point, i.e. from “left to right”, it necessarily will imply a clockwise circumambulation. Again, in ancient India, it was a considered respectful to always keep your right side towards holy objects, personages, temples and even noblemen and kings, when walking past.

And thus “Giripradaksina” means in effect “a clockwise circumambulation around the venerable entity, the Holy Mountain”.

I went to pains to explain the meaning of the term so as to highlight how, even from first principles, the Giripradaksina path necessarily has to be a little distance away from the Holy Entity being circumambulated; in fact NO portion of the Pradaksina path can be ON the Entity. Also, because it is a ritual circumambulation, the path is well set, and certain very strict rules apply. By “well set” I mean that over the thousands of years that pilgrims have done Giripradaksina, a particular path becomes the defined one. It is my belief that the Divine Powers accept this traditional path as the “official” one, on which sincere devotees will circumambulate on. Similarly, They accept the rules applicable for Giripradaksina as the ones that have traditionally evolved over the millennia. And it can be then said that They will wait around this path only for devotees doing “Giripradaksina”, and see if the traditional rules are being followed by them or not, to confer Their blessings as appropriate.

Divinity then also ensures that the “tools of the trade”, viz. temples, tanks and mathams sprout up along this path to be additional instruments of blessings for the devotees. And so we find that the Giripradaksina route will have holy shrines every few metres along the path.

And necessarily too, in my humble opinion, the Giripradaksina path has to provide 'challenges'. I have till now spoken of Giripradaksina in a general way as applicable to the circumambulation of any Holy Mountain, and there are many such in India. Holy Govardhan Hill near Mathura comes to mind, and it too has a very well defined, traditional, Pradaksina path. Though 'challenges' are part and parcel of any Giripradaksina route, let me focus particularly on Holy Arunachala  These days we crib endlessly about the vehicular traffic, the mindless crowds, the biting gravel stones, the filth and dirt along the way and so on. But personally I believe that this is needed so as to provide enough distractions and “crib-points” for the devotee to struggle with; to provide a volatile environment to him or her when trying to focus on Sri Arunachala. In the olden days, sure, the path was possibly much cleaner, scenic even, and you could bask in solitude; but the challenges would always have been equivalent, and would have come by way of lurking dangers of wild animals, dacoits, the lack of food or water along the way, even perhaps the odd ghost or two! And over time as one, so called, ‘problem’ drops away from the path, another one will crop up on its own so as to equalize the equation; and thus present a continuing challenge of focus for the devotee. Thus a natural filtering mechanism is built into the Giripradaksina path by the Powers-that-be, to sift the true devotee from the riff-raff that also floats along. The sincere devotee will still do his round despite all the problems without the slightest of cribbing. He will in fact see and not see, if I may put it like that, the filth, the crowds and the ugly scenery and so on; hear and not hear the noise of the traffic, the blaring horns; smell but not smell the garbage along the way; his focus on Lord Arunachala is firm and unbroken.

And what could be the point of all this trouble, to do a tiresome, long trek through dirt, traffic and what not? Well, Sri Bhagavan would explain the spiritual benefits of  “Pradaksina” as - “the letter ‘Pra’ stands for removal of all kinds of sins; ‘da’ stands for fulfilling the desires; ‘kshi’ stands for freedom from future births; ‘na’ stands for giving deliverance through jnana”. Thus the Giripradaksina was a great ‘tool’ available to all devotees to advance spiritually. And as we all know, Giripradaksina was the one ritual observation that Bhagavan most heartily recommended for all.

And the mandatory rules to trigger the above benefits were very simple. The Pradaksina had to be done very slowly, at the pace and manner in which “a queen in her tenth month of pregnancy” would walk. Many devotees who accompanied Bhagavan on the round have recorded that He would usually walk at a rate of around one mile in one hour, and then rest for 15 minutes. There had to be complete focus on Lord Arunachala when walking; or even on Vichara, or even on Lord Arunachala in the form of one’s Ista deva. Japa or singing of bhajans was also good. But absolutely no worldly chatter was permitted. And the devotee had to walk barefoot. There was to be no compromise on the last. The feet may get cut to ribbons, but the bare feet rule could not be violated. My favourite quote on this is from Sri G. V. Subbaramayya’s “Sri Ramana Reminiscences” (Pg 37 in the 1994 ed, Sri Ramanasramam publication; italics mine): 

Sri Bhagavan spoke commending the practice of going around the Hill. Sri Bhagavan said, “Other sacred hills are described as the abodes of some Deity. But Arunachala is God Himself in the shape of the Hill. So special sanctity attaches to going round Arunachala. It has been said that one who has completed the round once in the proper way remains as Brahmakara i.e. the Absolute embodied. The proper way is to walk as slowly as a queen in full pregnancy. The red sores in the foot caused by the pricking stones on the way, it is said, will become the diamonds in the crowns of the Gods.”

The Story

Cut to yours truly, on one’s first trip to Sri Ramanasramam and raring to go on one’s first Pradaksina. Much like as in the incident when one got caught out in the heat on Holy Arunachala, was kinda cocky and naïve, pretty confident about the 14 km circuit, but wary about doing it barefoot. Again, a few words on the cause of worry may not be out of place. In Delhi, where I come from, we have this really bad custom of wearing footwear even inside the house. In fact, we probably walk barefoot only a few short steps every day - until we can find the nearest slipper, or shoe or whatever. And thus the soles of the feet were pretty soft, quite unused to walking barefoot. Certainly not anywhere upto doing a 14 km round on a rough road.

It worried me enough to give it some serious thought. That the Giripradaksina had to be done barefoot was clear in my mind. To cut out the heat, one thought to do it at 3 a.m in the morning. And I hit on the idea of praying to Lord Arunachala Himself for Grace in the serious matter of protection of the feet. Alas, in hindsight, what a poor request, to seek something as banal as comfort for the feet! But do remember, I was kinda naïve and still learning. And so it was that I started my first Giripradaksina at 3.30 am, on a wonderful, blissful, cool summer morning, after taking permission from Sri Bhagavan in the Samadhi Hall, and having paused and offered a heartfelt prayer to Lord Arunachala that no trouble, no foot sore, or cut, or anything may happen to my feet; not only that, but I told Lord Arunachala something to the effect that if even one sore or cut appeared on my feet, I would always thereafter do the Pradaksina wearing footwear only!

    

Well, what can I say? My lily soft feet traversed the long and rough track as if it was covered in satin. Rough road, broken shards of hard plastic or glass, sharp tiny stones biting into the feet? Whatever. I had the most comfortable walk ever. At the beginning I had had the noble intention of walking very slowly, like the pregnant queen, with complete focus on Lord Arunachala looming mysteriously in the darkness on my right. But somehow, when on the path, some sort of frantic urgency built up to finish the round as quickly as possible. I finished the Pradaksina in less than 4 hours despite halting at each of the 8 Disha Lingams (plus the Surya Lingam), the Big Temple, and Adi Annamalai; the fastest time that I was ever to do it in. It was completely a marvellous experience, except the stretch around Isanya Lingam, a dark haunted road with atmosphere thick enough to cut with a knife, but that is another story. And at the end of it all, when I was back in my room at Sri Ramanasramam, I checked my feet and found that there was not one scratch on it!

But that is not the end of my story. My next visit to Sri Ramanasramam was a year later. And this time I prepared long and hard for the Giripradaksina. One knew one could not ask the same boon from the Lord again for a second time. And besides, the last time around, after just a short while on Pradaksina had felt so mortified at having expressed to Him so big a concern over so trifling a matter, that if I could have retracted my request I would have done so happily. But anyhow, this time from around a month before my visit to Tiruvannamalai one gave up wearing slippers etc inside the house. And on my regular walks around on the track inside the society compound where I lived, I started doing the rounds barefoot. I wish I could describe the looks I would get from the neighbours. They already thought that I was a little weird, and were fully convinced that I had lost it finally. Also, I picked up a punishing physical exercise regimen to increase my fitness levels. And so, when one landed up in Sri Ramanasramam a month later, one came with nicely hardened soles and all set to walk barefoot, as much as was required!

This time I was clear that I must do the Giripradaksina during the day. The previous round had been mostly during pitch darkness and I missed out on seeing some of the interesting sights on the path. And so I waited till a relatively cool day came around. And when it began to pour one afternoon, started out in the rain at 4.30 p.m. after permissions from Bhagavan as usual. It was to keep drizzling on and off throughout my walk, and certainly the day, and the evening, were as cool as could be expected in Tiru in the summer.

I think it was after the first 4 or 5 km that the first blister appeared on my foot. By the time I reached Isanya Lingam and the town stretch, my feet were in tatters and bleeding away from numerous cuts. In fact, I remember sitting for half an hour with my feet dipping into the cool waters of the Brahma Tirtham inside the Big Temple (which did not have the huge locked grills in those days, unlike now), to try and get some relief from the burning feet. The town stretch, always tough because of the rough gravel on the path, was absolute murder on the feet. Finally, I staggered back to my room 8 or 9 hours after having left it with my feet covered in cuts and blisters. Even the next day it was so bad that I could barely hobble around, inviting plenty of amused looks from other devotees and the occasional “just come from Giripradaksina is it?” And so, obtained some bandages, sterile gauze, Iodine etc and cut the blisters. Big mistake. Though I washed it all nicely in Iodine and bandaged my feet up, within a few hours they were infected. I was leaving the next day and thus found myself in a Chennai hospital shortly, forced to go for professional attention, get an anti-tetanus shot, and a course of antibiotics. In fact, my feet were so swollen that I could not get them into any sort of footwear at all. My brother lives in Chennai but, and so thankfully it was not so great a hassle to get the treatment and spend the extra 2 days there before I could travel further. So much so for my preparations for the Giripradaksina!

So many lessons for the naïve tyro, in all this! Where to start? The readers are quite discerning and wise and don’t need these to be spelled out particularly. But personally, the one message that was loud and clear from Lord Arunachala was - that the Giripradaksina has to be done on bare feet, come what may.

For me, every Giripradaksina thereafter has been a test of endurance as far as the feet are concerned. It seems that I still have a mountain (!) of debt to repay for my first Pradaksina and the foolish wish I had.  After only a few kilometres my feet start to blister and hurt. The only way I have some relief is if I do exactly what Bhagavan advised. Walk one mile in one hour, and then rest the feet for 15 minutes. And so the Lord Himself arranges the prescribed walking-slowly bit for me! Else, I do try to the best of my ability to focus on Lord Arunachala or try some “walking Vichara”. I do miss out a lot of the shrines along the way, but the 8 Disha Lingams (plus the Surya Lingam), Draupadi Amman Temple, Adi Annamalai and the Big Temple are mandatory for me. And I have always walked alone.

Just a very humble attempt at sharing folks. Again, would be happy to read comments  and particularly Giripradaksina experiences of yours too.


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Addendum:

The following 2 pictures are of the Pandyan Royal Emblem. Something similar would have been on the "Giripradaksina stones" referred to by David in his comment below.

Pandyan Royal Emblem

  

Pandyan Royal Emblem

This one following is a Chola Royal Emblem. Actually, only the 'tiger' was the symbol of the Cholas. The fish, the bow and the boar were the emblems of the Pandyas, the Cheras and the Chalukyas respectively whom Raja Raja Chola conquered.

Royal Emblem of Raja Raja Chola

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Addendum II:

The Institut Francais De Pondicherry came out with a detailed, multi-volume study of inscriptions in the Tiruvannamalai Big Temple, and also those in the area around. They list 5 Giripradaksina stones, and record the inscriptions thereof ("Tiruvannamalai Inscriptions", Tome 1.1, Pgs 381 - 382; Corpus No.s 292 to 296). Here is the record for one of them:

Corpus No. 296; EO. 1727:

Year: 14^th Century

Location: Tiruvannamalai, Giripradaksina, border stone set up in a field to the north of the mountain, to the east of the Eluttu-mantapam:

Text: [Below the writing is a bold relief showing a pair of fish with an elephant goad-like object in between, all standing on their tail].

Line 1.   Svasti sri [//*] Vi -

Line 2.   kkiramapan -

Line 3.   tiyan tiruviti

Line 4.   Elam vakuppu [//*]

Translation [1 – 4]: “Hail! Prosperity! (This is the) seventh division of the (road called) Vikkirama-pantiyan tiruviti”.

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Unfortunately, the 2 volumes with me of this study have no photographs in them. But David Godman sent me a picture of a Giripradaksina stone, most probably the same one described above. I have put up David’s remarks as well in the “comments” below.