Living under the Bilva Tree
Arrival at the Guesthouse It was 4:00 am in the morning and dark. The rickshaw driver took me down a small road. It was a new area I had not explored before. He called the guesthouse manager who suddenly appeared from nowhere it seemed. Being tired from an overnight bus ride I was about ready […]
Arunachala Hridaya: The Heart of Arunachala
This is an account of an affair of the Heart but not in the usual sense. My very first connection with Arunachala was when I was fifteen years of age and I borrowed a book from the library on the subject. To this day I have no idea what caused me to pick up that […]
Arunachala Grants the Bliss of Glorious Final Liberation
“In the Dravidian region of South India, there is the greatest place called Arunachala, dearest to Chandrasekara (Shiva as moon-crested). It is the abode of Shiva and yogis. Arunachala is to this world what the heart is to the whole body. It is everything for Shiva. For the benefit of the world, Shiva took the […]
First Home Visit
I got a bit lost. I had taken a walk and ended up who knows where. To my rescue who came walking there? It was the father of a family I had befriended. He always called me ‘Amma’ and told everyone about me having rented from his son, and who knows what else in his […]
Sleeper Bus Adventure
Have you ever been on an overnight bus ride on a single upper bunk in India? On my last trip from Bengaluru to Pondicherry I did not know better and got a single upper bunk. I thought it would certainly be great to get a bit of sleep. Actually it was a quite dangerous […]
First Impressions of South India
Arunachalam! As an American I get this curious question by Indians and sometimes also by other foreigners. ”What made you interested in India?” Well, once upon a time I came across a German Meridian Travel Magazine with a picture of the Kumbha Mela, a religious festival in North India, on the cover. There were naked […]