Lighting the deepam on Arunachala for freedom:Pranav Khullar:TOI:THESPEAKINGTREE

Lighting the deepam on Arunachala for freedom:Pranav Khullar:TOI:THESPEAKINGTREELighting The Deepam On Arunachala For Freedom

By: Pranav Khullar
Nov 18, 2021, 13:11 IST

The Puranic tradition has it that while darshan at Chidambaram, being born at Tiruvarur, or dying in Kashi are all considered auspiciously capable of granting liberation, merely thinking of Arunachala at Tiruvannamalai is enough to attain a liberated state of mind. This invocation of Arunachala was often quoted by Ramana Maharshi to convey the mysterious pull of the place, which could turn the mind inwards into an inquiry into its source, the Self. Maharshi was himself magnetically pulled towards Arunachala at the age of sixteen, after a near-death mystical experience, which as he was fond of saying later, made him seek out his real father in Shiv, and his real home at Arunachala.  
The Skanda Purana talks about the mythological symbolism of the Arunachala hill, seeing it as a Taijasa Linga, representing the fire element. Arunachala is seen as that great column of light, fire, that not only ignites the spark of freedom for a seeker but lights up a fire which will eventually burn away all desire and root out the mind-ego.

The mythological story goes that Vishnu and Brahma once quarrelled on the issue of superiority. Shiv appeared to both as a column of light, asking them both to restrain from arguing with each other. Vishnu and Brahma began a new quest to prove each other’s superiority by trying to find the upper and lower ends of this column of fire, by assuming the forms of a boar and a swan. While Brahma tried to conjure up his side of the end of the column, Vishnu conceded defeat in finding the other end. But Vishnu was considered the winner, as Brahma had attempted to bluff Shiv. Vishnu represents the intellect in this story, Brahma the ego, and Shiv the Atman, the Self. Since the column of light was too fiery to look upon, Shiv manifested this column as the hill of Arunachala itself, a linga in itself.
The fire element represents the fire of freedom, which needs to be ignited, the fire of wisdom which alone can take one beyond the false conditioning that one is the body and mind alone. This notion that ‘i am the body and mind’, Maharshi believed, could be erased by an inquiry into the source of that very mind itself. It will reveal the false identification with the body and mind, which inevitably brings sorrow and pain. Yet one is tempted back into this notion time and again, as desires never seem to cease. Ramana stated that this journey from the ego to consciousness needed to be taken immediately, and Arunachala was a place that could trigger this leap of wisdom easily.It is this very love of the manifestation of Shiv as Arunachala that is celebrated on the Kartigai Deepam day, as a huge Deepam, lamp, is lit up on top of the hill to represent that column of light. Deepam is a symbol of that need to ignite that fire for freedom. And Arunachala is the place where the ‘i’ vanishes and the mind goes into a great silence, from which one will finally remerge, having learnt to ride the wild tigers of the mind.  The thought of Arunachala, Maharshi would say, is enough to take the path of self-enquiry.

Karthigai Deepam is on November 19