AU REVOIR PONDICHERRY, BIENVENUE ARUNACHALA

My last few hours in Pondicherry were great. I was sorry to leave. I had really come to love the place - its laid-back charm, its comfortableness, its croissants, its crucible of East and Western culture and its spiritual presence. Its been fascinating encountering at last the more modern expression of Indian spirituality. Perhaps this is a pattern. Somnathpur, Madurai and Thanjavur were where I encountered Indian spirituality at its oldest while now with Pondicherry and here where I am now I am experiencing its most recent expression. And it won't stop here. After my encounter with Sri Aurobindo and 'the Mother' in Pondi and Sri Ramana Maharshi here I will be passing on to the two centres of Sai Baba, Whitefield in Bangalore and then Puttapharty.

This is the interesting thing about India. Saints and Holy Men continue to exist and have an effect on the world outside, not just spiritually but in the case of Aurobindo and Sai Baba, socially. Both were responsible for good works in their region, Sai Baba in particular, whose hospitals and schools all across India are tangible results of what he is up to. One imagines that in the UK someone standing up and talking about God would be laughed out of court (especially if he wasn't attached to any religion) but here it is difference. Good thing or bad thing? You decide. I am sure there are plenty of charlatans out here as anywhere else, there just do seem to be some authentic ones too...

I did manage to meet up with Harriet and Sylvia in Pondicherry, but not before I had had my second session with the Energy Healer and said good bye to Franzy and Sandra. The second session with the Healer was even more extraordinary than the first. He was more open and friendly and we had a little chat. At the end we shook hands and agreed it had been a pleasure to meet each other. What he did for me is not easy to put on a Blog, but it has changed me and only for the better. I imagine we will continue to have a connection even in years to come.

Franzy and Sandra and I enjoyed a croissant together in a little French-style bakery on the main drag called HOT BREADS. It was great to meet them and as we said goodbye, we promised to stay in touch. All of us sound like we have adventures ahead. After that, I met up with Harriet and Sylvia at the Gandhi memorial on the seafront. They were talking to a guy from Kerala who was a Katkali dancer who had told them that all his luggage and money had been stolen on the bus. He said he was waiting for two friends from London who were arriving that night but until then he was stranded. Scam or no scam? Who can tell? Well, we bought him a veggie meal and moved on. He promised to meet up with them the next day (I was heading off to Tiruvannamali, the place where Arunachala, the Red Mountain stands, the next day).

We went off and had a lovely dinner in a restaurant recommended in the Rough Guide which did international cuisine and GREAT beer! Having stayed off the beer throughout Pondicherry it was lovely to have one.

We met up again for a croissant the next morning and bade our farewells as I set off for Tiruvannamalai. For some reason I was feeling a little vulnerable so the trip was a bit odd. I got on the bus just in time before it went so it was heaving and as we set off I had the experience everyone had told me about but I hadn't yet had - a heaving Indian bus. Every possible sitting and standing inch was taken by about forty people, with some quite literally hanging on to the bus from the outside. I admired the calm and tenacity of these latter and realised how I had seen more and more how the way of life meant people were able to do things we would not dream of in the West. If an English bus was full we would curse but wait for the next one. The last thing we would do would be to hold onto the side for 200 miles!

The bus bumped and crashed through more breathtaking Tamil Nadu landscapes. I thought about how steeped I was becoming in this region of India, much more than Karnataka or Kerala, even though I had spent more time in both. We got to Tiruvannamalai mid-afternoon, and an Indian woman made sure I got off at the right stop (we shared a seat with a guy with a hacking, phlegmy cough which saw him hawking great gobs of gunge out of the window. Strange how these things make you bond with people!). I climbed off the bus and crossed the road to an eaterie (see how fearless I am?), ignoring the rickshaw drivers who were leaping towards me like flies to shit. I sat down and had another terrific Indian meal off a leaf. Really this is the way to experience Indian food in the raw. Nothing I have had anywhere else than these eating places has been better, even in the most lavish UK restaurant. The rice is always perfect and the simple vegetarian dishes just lovely. I must learn how to make some of them...

The meal was spiced up by the Dostoyevskyan inhabitants of the eaterie. All the different waiters took turns to pop over and see I was ok, as if I was an honoured guest. One had only one eye, another kept talking out loud, perhaps to me, perhaps to himself. They were an interesting bunch. Meanwhile from the table opposite a rather intense looking guy who kept ordering his wife around was staring at me. I couldn't tell whether he was going to kill me or whether he had never seen a white person before. Eventually I smiled at him and he smiled back. He didn't kill me, so I guess it was allright.

None of this scared me or phased me. It was all part of the story. After the delicious meal I got into a rickshaw and headed up to the Ashram. It lies in the shadow of the great Holy Mountain Arunachala, also known as the Red Mountain. It is here that legend has it that Siva manifested himself as an infinite column of fire so as to prove to Brahma and Vishnu what a super-cool dude he was. Since then it has remained a sacred site for Hindus and every November/ December there is a ceremony during which the Sadhus burn an enormous flame on the summit to symbolise Siva's promise to return annually to purge the world of sin.

I didn't know what to expect, and was surprised when I arrived to discover it wasn't half way up the mountain. Somehow I had assumed that it was in some secluded spot on the Red Mountain, but it wasn't (I later realised I had thought this because Ramana Maharshi had meditated in caves further up the mountain). First impressions were not favourable as I saw a couple of Varkalan/Auroville-like dreadlock yoga-on-the-beachers walk by. "Oh God!" I thought, "Is it going to be like this?"

I got out of the rickshaw and went to the induction office. A rather hostile seeming guy took my details and told me I was able to stay for three nights rather than three days, which was disappointing. He gave a key to a guide and I set off to find my accomodation. The Rough Guide had said visitors would more than likely stay in dorms so I was ready for that. Instead I was taken to a beautiful, secluded, leafy building three minutes walk from the Ashram and showed my own room. It was lovely, spacious, comfortable and very relaxed. It felt like somewhere where one could really relax and contemplate, not in luxurious, hotel-like surroundings but very simple, monastic conditions, rather like the Valli Hotel in Thanjavur. Nice, not harsh, but simple.

I was unpacking my things when a guy walked past the door and said "Hello." He introduced himself as Pierre, a Frenchman from near Mont Blanc. He had just come from Auroville. He seemed like a very relaxed, friendly guy and we chatted for a while. He explained the routine at the Ashram (really there isn't one and what there is fits on a small piece of paper). Somehow I felt hugely relieved to have made contact with a friendly face and felt perhaps I could enjoy being here. It wasn't going to be like Auroville...

After unpacking I went back to the Ashram and I have to say, I don't know why I had such a negative intitial reaction as the place is blissful. Its founder - or at least the guy it grew up around - was the Guru Ramana Maharshi, who I have mentioned before. He was a contemporary of Aurobindo Ghose and Gandhi but also Carl Jung, who knew of him but for some reason (I can guess why) made a point of not visiting him. He even wrote an article about how he didn't visit him. One gets the impression he was a little disgruntled at the saintly reputation of the man as the article seems to suggest there was no need to visit him as such men were produced all over India.

Egos aside, Ramana Maharshi's teachings were very simple. Unlike a lot of Gurus, he didn't write huge elaborate commentaries or great theosophical works bringing the world's teachings together. Instead he focussed on what he called the Self and the need for everyone to realise it. By the Self he meant the Atma, what the Upanishads call the Soul. In a nutshell, Ramana Maharshi went to the core of Hindu teachings, that the Soul/Atma was One with the World Soul, the Atman, which was One with the Divine Man, Purusha, which was One with the Supreme Consciousness, Brahman, out of which everything, including the Gods, comes.

Thus for the Maharshi everything was very simple - 'Be as you are'. Don't get locked in theological discussion and questions about Sin or Karma, don't even ask about Reincarnation or Psychic Powers. Instead, seek to realise the Atma within you, seek to realise that thing within you that was Divine and one with the Cosmos, for that was the only reality.

I say all this because this ethos is very much the ethos of the Ashram. There is no schedule here, no classes, no lectures (apart from some readings every afternoon which you can join if you want), no compulsory Yoga sessions, no Meditation classes, no regimen at all. Instead you have a very simple complex of only a few buildings in which people can walk and talk or just sit and think or pray or relax or read. There is no elitism, no 'Beautiful People' approach, no dogma or doctrine. Its just a place in which one can be still and silent and allow the soul to breathe through you. I also have to say that it has many Indian pilgrims as well as Westerners. Indian Ashrams are clearly like Indian Restaurants in the UK. The more Indians there are present, the more authentic you know they are.

What impresses you most of all is the sense that everyone has their space. Everyone is here for their own reasons, no-one is encroaching on anyone else's journey. No-one is pushing a religion or 'Way' and there is no narcissism about. In keeping with Ramana's sayings, everyone is just 'as they are'. There is a really relaxed atmosphere with people laughing and smiling or just quietly getting on with what they are about. You are left to do your thing the way you want without hindrance or intrusion. For the first time since I arrived in India I have found a place where I can be still and silent in every way and not feel I am missing something. Relaxing here feels like being whole rather than blobbing or chilling out as I did in Varkala or Pondicherry. One just rests and allows thoughts and feelings to bubble up. Its very nourishing spiritually. One finds oneself influenced by the gentle, generous spirit of the place. Every now and then a squadron of monkeys will run past or one of the many beautiful peacocks that roam around freely will suddenly start calling out, sending all the others into a cacaphonic chorus (a less welcome bit of wildlife are armies of gnats and nits. I have been bitten all down my arms!). But by and large it is a place to be calm, to rest and think, contemplate and share some space with other like-minded people.

Which is not to say nothing is happening. The centre of the Ashram includes a large, marble-lined Temple, a shrine to Ramana Maharshi and the Samadhis or mausoleums of some of the other Swamis and Gurus who have lived and died there. There are pictures of Ramana all over the place at different times of his life, all of which seem to involve him wearing the same pair of pants and not much else (sorry, couldn't help being a little irreverent there). When I got to the Temple, it was the time at the end of the day when the Brahmins attached to the Ashram sing the Vedas and everyone is free to sit and watch, meditate and circumambulate the Temple (I discovered that this circumambulation is about absorbing the energy of the Deity invoked. A tradition in Tiruvannamalai is to circumambulate the Mountain itself, which Ramana Maharshi described as wisdom in physical form). The atmosphere is wonderful. Everyone is there as part of a community but also in their own space. There is no hierarchy and you are not required to do anything other than respond in your own way, even if that is just sitting there watching. I found a place and just sat and rested there, feeling very much part of a human group of people. Everywhere else I have been with a religious function has been about the more Polytheistic aspect of Hinduism. In this Ashram and at Aurobindo's, the focus has been on something else - a more Upanishadic/Brahmanic spirituality. If you remember, the 'Shads were how I described myself way back while I was in Karnataka. Its fascinating to encounter these two Teachers who are all about that. Here the focus is just on humanity and its Soul. I guess that is how I would describe the vibe of this place - its just about humanity and its Soul. It was good to just drink in the vibe, which was only partly disrupted by me seeing yesterday's Keralan Kattalaki guy happily circumambulating the Temple! I went up and spoke to him. He was perhaps a little embarrassed but covered it well. Ah me!

The shrine dedicated to Ramana Maharshi is similarly simple and unpretentious. I watched the Puja there that night. Again, in keeping with the man himself, its very simple and one feels very at home there. A little distance away is a Meditation Room where he used to hold court and answer questions from followers. I spent a little time there. The atmosphere is wonderful. A special places.

After the Pujas and Vedas was the dinner. I bumped into Pierre and we went in together. You are lead into an enormous dinner hall and everyone sits cross-legged on the floor while servers come round and serve you portions of food on a leaf. Its hard to describe how wonderful it is. Once again, its very simple. You feel equal to everyone else, unpretentious, just quietly eating with everyone else. I was reminded of the description in the Last Supper in John's Gospel, where Christ tells the Disciples never to sit at High Table and to always take the lowest seat as well as the moment in which he washes their feet to show them he is not their Master but their friends. It felt like that here. Very egalitarian and warm.

I also understood something I hadn't understood before about simple, frugal living. All the great Teachings speak of the necessicity of simple eating, sparse lifestyles etc. To our modern sensibilities this smacks of ascetisism, self-punishment, hatred of the world, of sensual pleasures etc. Why should we go without? Sitting eating with everyone else in this easy way suggested something else to me. It was about needing less, of shifting the focus of the meal onto something else - oneself, one's Spirit, other people. By taking all the complications and indulgence away, more energy was left for other things. And the food was really good too, like the food joint I mentioned earlier, so one enjoyed the simple fare just as much as a lavish feast. Nor did one feel overfed or bloated at the end. The servers moving among us added to this sensation of a community or brotherhood (or humanhood given there were loads of women there too).

So the experience was lovely. Full relaxed in body, soul and mind, I slept superbly, dreaming, it seemed, of Ramana Maharshi all night, as if he was whispering his calming philosophy in my ear...

The next day was equally relaxed, although a schlep up the mountain to see the Caves in which Ramana meditated was a bit knackering and did involve a guide who wanted a big tip. As we walked we passed through a settlement of Sadhus, where I saw another facet of the Brahmin caste, this time not very inspiring. Having a Priesthood which are born into their role falls into the same problem everywhere else. Not everyone is deeply spiritual just by being born so. In a sense, Brahmins are as trapped as Untouchables. Although some clearly 'make a good living', others don't, as the spartan settlement showed (one Sadhu wasn't wearing any pants so was sitting there with his balls hanging out of his robes which was a smidge unappealing). Round the corner from my accomodation is a Temple in the street where the Sadhus sleep rough each night. At least they don't feel indulgent like some of those I have met, but I am not sure being born a Brahmin is any better than anything else.

In the end it must surely come down to choice. Gandhi wasn't a Brahmin, nor was Ramana Maharshi as far as I can see. The Mahatma (Great Soul) grew inside them as they lived and they became what they became rather than had to be...

Tomorrow I will take it easy and stay in the Ashram grounds. I will ask if I can stay a little longer than three nights but even if I can't, I will still come to the Ashram from the hotel each day. There are other things to see here too, a magnificent Temple, for example, which it was possible to see from the mountain as I walked. I am struck by the massive reservoir of spirituality Tamil Nadu has always had. Like nowhere else I know. It will be interesting to visit the other places I am going to over April to compare.

Its good here. Relaxed and lovely, where one can be what one is. I feel very free here, anonymous but also focal. I am allowed to sit and think about what I care about. I haven't had that anywhere else in quite the same way ever in my life. I feel very privileged. Its good. I have found time to look back on my whole journey so far, the people I have met and the places I have been and feel very lucky. It makes me look forward to returning to the UK with strength in my heart. I hope I never forget what I have learnt here. And there is still more to come!

Such places and experiences I only thought happened in dreams, myths and stories of ages ago. Now I know they are here on earth, existing now... Its like stepping into the Morte d´Arthur or the world of Greek Legend. Its a good feeling...