GIRIPRADAKSHINA

Giripradakshina is the practice of circumambulating Arunachala hill at Tiruvannamalai, Tamilnadu.  The scripture says that it is Lord Siva himself, manifesting as the Arunachal hill which is 2682 feet high.  There are two paths, Outer Path and Inner path to do the Giripradakshina.  The distance of Giripradakshina is about 14 kms and takes about four to five hours.

 Ramana Maharshi always advised his devotees to go around the hill.  He himself has done Giripradakshina often.  He would advise them to walk slowly, keeping to the left of the road since the path on the right is reserved for the Siddhas and Rishis.  Giripradakshina is always done in clockwise direction keeping the hill to your right.  One should go round either in silence of meditating or japa or bhajan and thereby thinking of God all the time during the Giripradakshina. The letter ‘Pra’ stands for removal of all kinds of sins; ‘da’ stands for fulfilling the desires; ‘kshi’ stands for freedom from future births; ‘na’ stands for giving deliverance through Jnana.

It is written in the Skanda Purana that when Sri Rama asked Hanuman to bring a medicinal herb called Sanjivini from the Sanjivini Mountain to revive his unconscious brother Lakshmana, and as Hanuman could not find that herb, he lifted the whole mountain and flew to Sri Lanka.  As he was flying over Arunachala, a piece of the mountain, along with its medicinal plants, fell on Arunachala.  There are a great variety of medicinal plants all around the hill, whose scents, wafted by breeze are beneficial to health.

Regards,

Tirumalanath

tirumalanath@gmail.com