This is the mandapam in front of the main-gopuram of Arunachaleswara-temple. I think this was where Ramana spend his first night and received his first bhiskha. The photo was taken in 2003.
His first night in Tiruvannamalai he spent freezing in the open pillared hall in front of the temple. On the day of his arrival he had nothing to eat. Only the following day did he receive his first alms (bhiksha). He reports, “The next day I was walking up and down in the sixteen-pillared mantapam in front of the temple. Then a Mauni Swami [a Swami, who had taken a vow of silence]… came there from the temple. Another Palni Swami, a well-built man with long matted hair who used to do a lot of service, by clearing and cleaning the temple precincts with the help of a band of sannyasis, also came to the sixteen-pillared mantapam from the town. Then the Mauni looking at me, a stranger here, being in a hungry and exhausted condition, made signs to the above Palni Swami that I should be given some food. Thereupon the above Palni Swami went and brought some cold rice in a tin vessel which was all black, with a little salt strewn on top of the rice. That was the first bhiksha which Arunachaleswara gave me!”
14 Mudaliar: Day by Day, p. 283
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen