Primary Form: Aranchala, Pongol and the Full Moon

There is a mountain in southern India, in the area Tamil Nadu which is called Aranchala. It is a holy mountain and has been acknowledged as such for many centuries. It is a pyramid shape and rises above the town of Tiruvannamalai with it's temples, it's ashrams and busy streets.

Full moon during the Pongol Festival

Approaching Aranchala

Every full moon pilgrims, devotees and chanters gather and families come from all over India to have reunions in Tiruvannamalai and walk the 14 km around the mountain, barefoot and make offerings, to Ganesh, to the cows, to themselves ultimately, as all things are connected. This year the full moon happened to fall on a holiday called Pongol. A three day harvest celebration which is a holiday here. Most shops are closed as the locals join half of a million tourists who come from all over India for the sacred walk.

The tamil word "Pongol" means abundance and prosperity. The first day is Thai Pongol which celebrates the sun as the primary energy behind of the agricultural process. The women and girls draw patterns in front of the houses, shops and shrines with rice powder and pigment.

Flowers come into town from the countryside by the truckloads for the pilgrims to buy and offer at the temples. There are temples all over. Not just the big obvious ones but they are next to the print shop, squeezed in between the jewelry shop and the lemon squeezer. One comes across them while walking the streets, the hills and with in the big temples are dozens of smaller shrines dedicated to the various aspects of human emotion and true nature. Shiva, Vishnu, Ganesh...the lotus. The images are everywhere. Napoleon Hill described this as Universal Intelligence but here, the true nature is said to be beyond intellect, beyond words to where there is no separateness, where we are one and that one is the source. God. Brahman.

A devotee makes an offering

A small detail of a VERY large temple. There are four large temples and a number of smaller ones, all decorated from top to bottom with this kind of granite sculpture.

Inside the temple, one of the largest in India.

Here is a video I took outside the temple during the festival:

All dressed up for Pongol.

Cows play an important role in the festival. Their horns are painted and they are given thanks by the people who rely on them for milk. Apparently cows utilize more of the suns energy than other animals and are able to give nourishment to people without harm to themselves which has contributed to their holy status. The second day of the festival is cow Pongol and the cow is celebrated even more than usual. Many of the temples have statues of calves draped with flowers and burning ghee set at their feet as offerings but on this day the cows are given extra special attention, painted and paraded around in the streets. It is not clear that they appreciate this, as you can imagine.

An effigy of the calf, facing a temple of Ganesh. The story of Moses

coming down from the Mt. Sanai echos through the Christians mind.

The holy mountain is everywhere.

A woman covered in tumeric and Shiva designs with a long stick through

her tongue gave blessings to those who wanted one.

Pilgrims walking their talk.

Aranchala

Aranchala is the cause of it all it seems. This is the name of the holy mountain. It rises pyramid like above the town and has been recognized as a holy mountain for many thousands of years. In 1896 a young boy came here, as an orphan, denying his family and in one spontaneous death experience, he achieved a kind of enlightenment, that was apparently obvious to all those around him. He is called Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi and he lived from 1879 until 1950. He has saint like status here and his picture is everywhere, hung in homes and hotels and shops like Justin Beiber posters in schoolgirl's bedrooms.

Over the years an ashram was built to carry his message of peace and grace and to serve the community, to feed the people. He spent most of his life in silent meditation, away from people, living in caves and in the temple. "This is a place for unlearning," I was told he said, "You don't need a guru, the truth is in yourself."

So, over the years many wise men have come to this place and many gurus have made Tiruvannamalai their home. Ghandi came here, Sai Baba and Mooji came here. I came here.

Wise men meditate on the mountain, above the temple

Unlike festivals in the West, alcohol sale is forbidden and nowhere was any evident among the half a million pilgrims that I saw. In spite of this the third day of Pongol is drinking Pongol. So I heard. Nowhere was a cold beer to be had and the two wine shops I know of were closed. After some hours, all day actually, of watching the crowd, first at the main temple and then in our neighborhood, I went to bed early. The crowd went on walking around the mountain all night, under the full moon, and into the morning.

Here is a video of the pilgrims, circling their holy mountain: