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hurray

Paruvathamalai – Hill of hills. Adventurous and awesome trip.

We have been planning this trip for a long time, more than a month and it clicked exactly on July 2, 2010. Under the leadership of our captain Mr. x (Sorry, for security reasons am not letting this out. Aaamaa, appadiye sollitallum …!!!???!!! ) 7 of us started from our workstation around 5:15 pm for Paruvathamalai. The very first place where we stopped us it at some traffic signal.(Mokkai podhum, just continue.) Ok, ok. We had good light (that was not light at all!) snack at our ‘thale’s’ home with chutney and sambhar(one of the best sambhar I ever had). For some reason, thale took cricket bat and balls just to increase weight in the qualis and for nothing else. Next we stopped at our atheletes home at Oorapakkam after great difficult in finding his home (yes, that was his home, believe me. If the cab driver forgets the route that’s it, he will never reach home!) and once again filled it with homely snacks – sundal, vadai, cake, rose milk etc. When you are working with computers all the time, trust me your belly automatically scales for any amount of food intake. So, was the case now those who said its ‘full’, can’t even take a single perk of food extra now they all ‘round kattitangha’. Next is non-stop drive and we stopped at Polur (a small town) for night stay at around 11:30 pm at KK lodge (also known as Kadalai Kannan lodge – somebody christened the name on the spot). If you are coming from Chennai it’s assumed that you have a money tree in your garden and you can afford for any amount anybody asks for. For a small room, the charge was around Rs. 350/- (I don’t know by what percentage the price was elevated), but no time to argue or bargain so we took 2 rooms and 8 of us shared it. Our captain had given clear instructions/orders to start for Paruvathamalai sharp at 4 AM the next morning. (Things seldom happen the way it has to but our captain didn’t know that)

It was around 3:16 AM the next morning and there was a call in some mobile phone. I thought it was ping/synch-up call to our athlete and I thought of crying out “amma thaaye, why maa, entha nerithula eppadi imsai pannura”. But, that was a missed call from our captain or rather wake-up call. Kadamai unarchikku oru alavirukkalam aaana athukku eppadiya? Super. After that, we did the necessary flush outs, forced flush out and all the other activities and got ready for the day – which we have been waiting eagerly. We loaded our bags with biscuits, rusks, glucose (we call it as gulkos), 1 water bottle for each, bananas, fruits and what not as though we are never going to eat after that. Finally started at around 5:50 AM and it was 20 minutes drive from polur to the holy “Paruvathamalai hills”. Here comes the main part of the trip.

We had our cab driver whose name is variant of Lord Mallikarjuneswara – the prime deity of the hills with us and he has been to this hills about 20 times which is mind boggling and all the more he is that fortunate being here that many number of times. There is an amman temple “Pachaiamman” in the entrance but it was closed as it was 6:20 AM, we prayed there and continued to the next small temple nearby. It was Sri Ramabhaktha Anjaneyaswamy temple. We lighted camphor and prayed there. Some things keep happening in this world to stir our soul or vibrate our hearts anonymously that teaches us something is above us and you can’t understand everything by senses, science, maths. Our driver said that Lord Bharaivar would accompany us till the “kadapparai malai” and especially for those who are coming for the first time. So, there were 3 dogs to keep escorting all us all the time till the particular spot. The moment we lighted the camphor at Anjaneyar temple all the 3 dogs jumped over to the temple started facing us the same direction in which God faces us. That was a pleasant devotional shock to all of us, because these 3 dogs were just being here and there and not even aware that we are lighting the camphor, but as directed they all did this action in unison, which stunned us, like anything. After that, we continued walking, here starts the trekking we have to walk, walk, walk a lot. Initially there are about 1200 steps and after that their only rock, rocks, rocks everywhere. Sitting in AC, commuting in AC cab, conferencing in AC, eating in AC and every other activity in AC, one day we have been asked to do work “not the coding work” the real hard work, it was very difficult in the beginning for us to climb the steps. We were just breathing like anything, pains started crawling in the ribs, sides and had to take many breaks in the journey. Locally saying “nakku thallidichu”. Cool refreshing herbal air was refreshing and energizing which took away our pain in minutes. Just breathing that air consciously will take you to different world. (Don’t ask what is that different world; I have never been there) We started it again, come on lets do it. One thing that came out, as another surprise is that, one of the dogs was constantly accompanying the one who came at the last (Minor chain pudhu mappillai, am saying about you only) and the other 2 dogs at different spots. The dog ensured that everybody climbs up and then continued its journey as well. We continued like this walking few steps taking more rest. I was happy more calories are being burnt. Typically we do work that takes only 1x units of calories but we intake atleast 4 – 6x calories, this is also known as illegal smuggling of food in our body. Finally, the steps are now over, its only rocks as I said before.

We stopped at a small petty shop (slap me, its not a petty shop – if such shops are not there, it would be very difficult for devotees). In the fact the shopkeepers do an indirect service by helping the devotees. Had enough koozh – ragi porridge and as well affectionate scolding’s from akka (one who gave koozh and buttermilk to us). “Sapitumbhodu ennaiya pechu, thalaikera pogudhuya” Though she said that in a commanding tone, so much of affection was in there. Quite opposite to that shop was a small ashram to do meditation. I don’t know how to do meditation so I simply closed my eyes and opened it after some time. There is a deepham that is glowing continuously for more than 2 years without changing the threads. Where have you gone, great scientists? Can you please explain this principle? No one can, never. We are all supposed to “just shut up”. Sadhu there was explaining the holiness and the greatness of the hills. He was saying about jeevasamadhi, kabhala moksham, chakras, mukthi all those were running stream over my head and I don’t have any idea about them but just listened to them patiently. We continued walking again and this time barefoot, ideally we should have started this barefoot as it’s a holy mountain and we should not step on it with slippers, shoes. Next time, I will remember this. Along with us, few of us took the sand bags with us as well to be given at the hilltop where temple construction is going on. Literally everything has to be taken from “adivaram” for construction, pooja and what not – everything. Shoulders were paining initially and we kept exchanging it between left and right to see if that could help. Few of the localities asked us to remove our shirts (t-shirts) as its good if the herbal air graces our body and we did obediently. This is the adverse affect if you take more calories than required and not doing any minimal exercise – yes, everybody had protruding shameless tummy and not even one was spared for this – great unity here. We weren’t ashamed of that because we couldn’t do anything about that - as simple as that. We continued climbing that through the rocks and enjoying the refreshing air. A young guy (aren’t we young, no definitely not!) also joined us and pretty much mingled well with our group now the group counts became 9 now. It was quite interesting to know how he came all-alone. Said that, he had watched a show about “Paruvatha Malai” in vijay tv and something the previous night gave him the urge to come over here. He came just like that following his urge. May be if you are too sincere about god or pure to an extent these things might happen automatically. I can’t expect all this; I know my qualification very well. Ok, back to our trip. Here comes the place – “kadappara malai” and this is the place where the dogs would leave us to continue and they would wait for our return. We fed them with biscuits, rusks that we had. It was scary seeing the route and I can’t believe even now how I climbed the mountain. Literally saying you will have to climb an almost vertical big piece of rock. There are many iron rods, spears punctured into the rocks for grip (without them you can never do that) and for additional grip footsteps kind of marks where indented in the rock. There are big chains on either side so that we could catch hold of them for grip if the next spear or grip rod to you is at a farther point. Few got devotionally scared and started praying “Om Namah Shivaya”. It was really adventurous climbing that. Few of us were literally crawling to climb up and when you reach the top and if you see down you won’t believe that you have done this. Minor chain pudhu mappilai before me was trying to find the best path to climb though there was only path to climb, literally creating traffic jam there. Somebody touched my shoulders and was calling me from behind; it was none other than our athlete. You know what he said – “am standing here for a long time and its boring now, can you please give some way”. It was very funny.

After this, next comes a place where you will have to move from one big rock piece to another and the connecting part is a flat metal(iron) sheet and rails on either side. Next to the rails is 2000ft depth. Though 1000s of devotees are crossing it every day and night, my interrogative (so called stupid interrogativeness) mind raised a question, “nothing won’t happen, right?” I already said its stupid don’t scold again. We crossed that safely and there are couples of spots like that we had to cross such sheets, climb using the help of punctured rods. Surprising fact is that we all forgot that we were carrying 2 sand bags on our shoulders. It should be that we are used to that weight in 2 hours time or we had better things to think about when climbing. I should not forget to mention about the breath taking beautiful sceneries, view points, clouds, shades of the clouds on the ground and the entire display of feast to eyes for us by God (Thank you, God J). There is one such spot where there is a belief that when Lord. Nataraja performed “Rudrathandavam” he placed one of his foot on the hills and the place is all clearly marked with 5 toes. Near to that there is a small reservoir, which is believed to be used by “Sidhargal” to perform pooja to deities during night at 12.

Finally, here comes the reason to shout – Hurray!. Yes, we have successfully reached the hilltop after 4 hours of climbing, trekking, walking etc and now at a whooping height of 4560 ft above sea level. The hilltop of “Hill of the hills – Paruvathamalai”. We all were happy reaching the hilltop for different reasons and one common reason being we have climbed up so far, an adventurous journey to see Lord Mallikarjunaswamy and Lordess Bhramrambhigai. There were also other deities like Lord. Ganesha, Lord. Muruga. The temple had a lightening arrestor with silicon base installed recently by District Collector around Feb 2010. The reason being clouds are very near to the temple on the hilltop and more probable to discharge millions of ions as ion-discharge from clouds. We got all this information from the temple construction administration manager. We placed the sand bags at the right spot to be used for construction. I was very happy doing that. The manager also explained that everything has to be carried from the “malai advaram to malai ucchi”, literally everything and in spite of that you could see that temple being constructed at a great speed. As said by him, it was all because of “Amma Appa (lord, lordess)”, “sidhargal”, “devotees”. He also said that during full moon days when there could be more than 5000 devotees climbing the mountain for darshan are requested to carry any of these - 1 brick, 2 sand bags, small bag of cement, iron rod and other materials required for construction. Whatever he said was a perfect example of “small drops maketh an ocean”. This looked more interesting and surprising than the skyscrapers, underground railway stations, so flyovers running for so many kms in length that I have seen. So, this temple is opened 24 hours – all the time. There is no priest here; we can do pooja to deities by “ourselves” like in North India. I have never been to North India and I consider it as a fortune going near the deity then think of doing pooja to god by ourselves. We prayed to god happily. The deity of Lordess Bhrammarambigai is very pleasant to see, deity bears a smiling face and it’s a pleasure to watch the amman’s face. Mission accomplished!

We took some rest in the nearby place. The power packed breeze/wind with different tunes was a treat for our ears and the air was blowing away all the time, yes all the time. Few of the guyz got together and were discussing/lecturing on different topics like, power of siddhas, hidden secrets in hindu mythology (if they believe in it, I don’t know why they still call it as mythology still), bhakthi margam, gnana margam etc, etc. I didn’t poke my nose much except for then and there as I don’t want to miss the chance of being there in silence and alone. I can’t get that again in Chennai so I kept silent after some time.

Then we moved to AnnaDhana Mandapam and there was an “aandy” who took us to meditation cave. Its actually a small space between intersection of 2 caves but it has been modernized with tiles etc. (I was surprised to see tiles there…) That meditation spot is very famous and the suited place for doing meditation and people during full moon day would throng to find a spot and meditate. I remembered of this, though we get the right opportunity we won’t use that properly. Am one good example. But what to do, I don’t know about meditation how can I expect the art of meditation to sit on my mind all of a sudden. You have to be fortunate for everything. Am happy that am fortunate coming this far and seeing the lord and lordess. Let me move one by one. Then the sadhu took us to pooja room and we all prayed for some time. He explained us about various things about the hill. This hill is known as Southern Kailash – “Then kailayam”. It is believed that when Lord, Shiva was going from Himalayas to Thiruvannamalai he placed his foot on this hills. Its also believed that when Lord. Hanuman took Sanjeevi malai a part of the mountain dropped here and that is this hill. Hence, its also called as “Sanjeevi ThiruNeeru Malai”. We asked for some water, as we were thirsty. I have never tasted such water in my life. I have been thinking “Siruvani water” is the best in the world though I haven’t tasted water from all parts of the word to judge this. But, am changing it now. Who said, “water is tasteless?. Our primary school science books, right? Go and strike out that part first. It was very tasty, so pure and refreshing. He said that, water is so pure because collected directly from the clouds nearby (just like water pump being nearby for us). Suddenly, I remember that some sadhu did tapasya for 1000 years just drinking water. Can you get one drop of water directly from clouds here even if you pay millions of dollars here? He asked us to take some rest and gave few mats to lie down a bit. After some time, he brought us tea and said that lunch would be ready in another half an hour. I was surprised to see that the Sadhu gave us “tea” to drink. Isn’t that non-sattvic? So, I was expecting the same. Ok, no more questions. We didn’t want to rest our body there. There was a small place more like a balcony in bungalow for garden view. It was balcony for nature view. It was lovely, lovely. I just can’t forget that. Not to mention we took so many shots in different cameras left, right, top, bottom in all possible directions and all possible poses. (Enga ponnalum, ethukku onnu korachill illa! ;)) We also discussed there for some time what are the places to visit next. Cab driver was suggesting “sadhura giri hills” near Madurai, “Velliangiri hills” near Coimbatore and we were all thrilled about that, way to go guyz. Sadhu called us for lunch. It was an awesome lunch prepared by him. Pongal, kuzhambu, white rice, rasam, lemon pickle. I repeat it was very tasty and awesome. We thanked him a lot for the great food he gave to us. He asked us to give a call in advance so that he can prepare food in advance. It was so kind of him. We thanked him again and started our way down.

Legs pained a lot when going down than climbing. Some said, legs are shivering for every step (yes, it was me), pain in ankle, pain in thighs and many others. But we managed to reach down at kadappara mountain. Do you remember the dog that accompanied us? It was just “waiting” for us. My goodness, how all this happens! It started coming along with us now starting from kadappara mountain. All these things are beyond understanding. Thanks to the ‘g’ factor it dragged as like “dharadharadhara” and in another 75 minutes we were half way done now. We started running in the steps, else it would pain when you take steps one by one. We stopped at different points for buttermilk – 1, buttermilk – 2, (yes, I had it twice) tender coconut water, plain water etc and continued again. After full 2 hours we were height 0ft above sea level. We prayed to Lord. Anjaneyaswamy and “pachai amman”. Pachai amman temple was opened this time. The eyes of the amman was very very powerful. That sight is still there in my eyes. We fed the dogs with biscuits, rusks etc and thanked them. Then we set off our journey heading towards Chennai.

Ok, now the qualis is flying at 60-70 kmph in SH-45 and my thoughts about the temple, view, sadhu, hill, deities, pooja at 12, water, etc was flying at enormous speed that can’t be calculated at all. One thing was going on constantly in mind. Cab driver said exactly at 12 PM if we sit there at the temple before lord and meditate, we can definitely feel the vibration in our body even for those who don’t have any knowledge about meditation like me, as it is believed that siddhargal perform poojas to dieties at that time. I have no idea what that means and asked him. He simply said – “you will have to feel it” I translated in my mind, as “You can’t see with your eyes all those I have seen through my eyes”. I wish am fortunate enough and the lord allows me to visit Parvathamalai once again. My dear god, please grant approval for this!. (On an auspicious note, I think its going to happen, there was no power in my home for half an hour when I was writing this – and the power came again when I wrote “My dear god, please grant approval for this!.)

:) :) :)