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Published: January 15th 2008
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South Indian Thali
Christine devoured the papaya you see in the picture and got a tummy ache for her efforts. The bus ride out of Mettur on Christmas day was long over due. T and I were very ready to move on as we had been there for 2 weeks. Kind of a drone zone. We headed for Tiruvannamalai.
Traveling by Indian bus has been for me an enjoyable experience, that is if you don't watch what your driver is doing (they play chicken with the other buses the whole way)! I have been mesmerized just watching the country side roll by and you can see so much this way. The buses are not plush however and the ride can be bumpy. Also some of the buses play non-stop Bollywood movies on video screens at a very high volume. That can be tedious!
Upon arriving in Tiru we were excited to see white people! It had been weeks. And they were all over the place as this town is a big spiritual hub. We checked into the Hotel Trishul which was to be our home for the next 7 days.
One of our goals while we were there was to climb Mount Arunachala. "Unrelenting" was the word that popped
Tiru Temple
Mt. Arunachala in the background into my head over and over as we ascended straight up, mind you, to the top. No gracious switchbacks here, just up the side of a rocky, hot, mostly shadeless steep mountain. We thought we started early enough in the morning to beat the heat but not even close. By 8 am we were on the trail and by 8:20 we were sweating cats and dogs. We brought barely enough water to make it up to the summit (2 litres). Once we were there it was a bit of a let down.
Here's the low down on the mountain that will give you insight as to why we thought it was an important thing to do while in Tiru ( The mountain is a pilgrimage destination for many Indians. It is said that Shiva (a main Hindu God in some states) descended onto the mountain and appeared as a pillar of fire. For the people of the state of Tamil Nadu this was an important event. So now every full moon pilgrims from all over the state and from other states where they also like Shiva, come to the mountain to climb it and circumnavigate it as well.
Most of the pilgrims do this barefoot!
In the later part of the year starting sometime in November there is a particularly auspicious time to make this journey and a huge gathering of pilgrims make the climb. They light a huge ghee torch on the summit and the fire burns non-stop for some days or weeks. So here's the deal. We get up there after this whole party was over and what we see is the whole top of the mountain was a big black puddle of burned up ghee that got on the bottom of our shoes and made us slip around on the rocks. Every hikers nightmare.
And, of course, there were the ever present pseudo sadhus (holy men) asking us for money! I told them they should be paying me after what I just went through to get up there. 3 and a half hours of climbing.
But the story does have a good ending. On the way down, blessedly, there is a spring, a cold, clear, rushing spring! And we got into the shower of the spring and did not come out for days. At least that's what it felt like.
Temple Complex
As seen from the mountain We hiked for an eternity and we played in the water for ages.
The other thing about this mountain is that is was a sacred mountain for one of the most revered Indian teachers of our time. Ramana Maharshi was a tremendous influence in the Advaita school of spiritual thought. There's an ashram that was built for him at the base of the mountain where he lived for many years until his death in 1950. Before his ashram was built he lived on his mountain in a couple of caves, one of which you can visit, for something like 15 years. He was a true renunciate of the body. He didn't care one iota for it and people had to go up to his cave and feed him to keep him alive. He saw through the illusion of form to what is real in everything, spirit. {http://www.geocities.com/ganesha_gate/maharishi.html } He remained the same as the years passed and temples were built around him and people flocked to see him from around the world. He owned almost nothing, wore a loincloth and refused to eat untill everyone living at or visiting the ashram had. We explored the ashram a few times
From a little higher with the whole town
This temple looks amazing from above. Inside it felt about as holy as a state fairground. wandering the grounds, meditating in the main hall and in the room where Ramana attained maha samadhi (in other words where he croaked ).
The rest of the Tiru experience was the standard squalor (save for a couple westernized shops near the ashram). We went to the temple there which is quite large and famous. I must say I liked it better from the
outside than inside. You have to take off your shoes to go inside of any temple in India. The thing about that is that mostly India is not clean. And the inside of temples is no exception. So we're walking around this temple grossed out on what we're stepping on and there's crowds of people and there's not much to see that you can't see from the outside any way. And there was a huge elephant chained up in the middle giving Darshan (blessings) with his trunk to any one who gave him money or food. He took the food and bonked the giver on the head with his trunk. Over and over again. He was rocking back and forth shifting his weight from side to side and looking miserable and lonely. Or maybe that was my projection. We weren't to keen on the temple scene.
We spent new years eve in Tiruvannamalai, not by choice really, it was just that our next destination was all booked up! Our hotel was having a party with music and food and dancing. We just couldn't imagine ourselves enjoying it as mostly the food in the state of Tamil Nadu was as
boring as cardboard and we were tired of telling everyone where we were from (that's about the depth of our conversations with most Indians so far as not everyone is speaking fluent English). So at about 10pm we just had to peek at the party to see how it was going and it was just too funny to put into words. There was a band playing way too loud and only two European people sitting dead still in a room full of Indians. The food was the same thing we'd been eating for three weeks and there were some strange guys dressed up as Santa (a really deranged looking santa) and ganesh (elephant god) and some other eerie things. I couldn't stop myself from laughing so we had to go outside to be polite. In the end we got a free meal out of it and we watched some bootleg fireworks from the rooftop of our hotel. Yippee! Happy New Year!
Here is a little ditty I wrote (T wrote one verse) with some general observations of India.
four men riding on a motorcycle
women in their sarees on their bicycles.
time to
burn some plastic at the end of the day
here comes the bus better get out of the way
poop and trash floating down the river
the food you ordered never gets delivered
all kinds of smells drifting to your nose
the pee wall's to your left better watch your toes
dogs and pigs and cows eating up the trash
crossing the street is a life or death dash
India, India the most amazing things you will see......
sending love to you all, Christine
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Terry Supahan
non-member comment
Indian Verse.
Your written 'little ditty' was my favorite part of your Mettur journal (we should hold a contest and guess which lines were written by T). We all miss you guys. Some Somes Bar friends moved out to the coast, and i told them yesterday that when you guys get back we'll all have to get together. And T: the Blazers are the hottest team in the NBA right now! WhoHoo. xoxoxoxts