Saranagati

Sri Ramanasram

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In Profile: Vallimalai Swami

Vallimalai Swami

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Bhagavan’s devotees, including Muruganar, regularly referred to Bhagavan as an incarnation of Lord Subramanya. God of the Tamils’, the six-faced son of Lord Siva, Lord Subramanya is said to be agnibhu, the ‘form of Agni’. Known in Tamil Nadu as Lord Muruga, Lord Subramanya has His abode on hilltops in the Tamil land. For denizens of Tiruvannamalai, he had now come to the Tamil land in the form of a young ascetic living on Arunachala Hill. In the coming years, devotees would report having visions of Sri Ramana as Lord Muruga and readily surrender their life to him. Lawyers even asked Bhagavan Ramana if he was Lord Subramanya when a court hearing was held in the Ashram in 1936. Others had dreams wherein Lord Subramanya appeared and directed them to make their way to Bhagavan. Bhagavan himself on at least two occasions reported dreaming of Lord Subramanya, the Gods of Pazhani and Tiruchendur temples.^[1] Bhagavan regularly narrated the famed Tiruvannamalai story of Lord Subramanya appearing before the 15th-century Vijayanagar King, Deva Rayan, at the bidding of the saint, Arunagirinathar which took place at what is now the Lord Subramanya Shrine (Kambathu Ilayanar) in the Big Temple.

Nayana once asked Bhagavan at Virupaksha if he was correct in identifying Sri Ramana as Lord Subramanya in his Ramana Gita. Though Bhagavan heard the question he did not give a reply. That evening Nayana prayed silently to Bhagavan to respond to his query. When Nayana went to him the following day, Bhagavan said, “Ishwara Swami wrote a verse in praise of this Vinayaka image sitting in a niche in the Virupakshi Cave. At his request I wrote a verse on that Ganesa.” Then Bhagavan explained the meaning of the venba to Nayana. In the verse, Bhagavan entreats Lord Ganesa to look after him, because he is his younger brother. Nayana saw this as a confirmation that the Maharshi was an avatar of Lord Muruga.^[2]

After hearing these anecdotes and accounts, it is no surprise that those who were worshippers of Lord Subramanya might find their way to Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Some may have come to the Maharshi out of devotion to Lord Muruga but in Bhagavan, found both Ramana and the living Lord of their hearts. Among them was Vallimalai Swami, who would later make it his life mission to sing and spread Thiruppugazh, the famous devotional songs of Saint Arunagirinathar, all over India. After losing his first wife and three children, one after another, and then losing two more daughters, he suffered an acute abdominal condition. He went on pilgrimage to seek relief for his physical condition and the intense sense of loss he suffered. The pilgrimage brought him to Tiruvannamalai where he climbed Arunachala up to Skandasramam and joined the devotees waiting to glimpse Bhagavan Ramana. When the Maharshi came out, Vallimalai Swami did not see Sri Ramana at all, but saw Palani Andavar, Lord Subramanya of Palani, who is also only ever clad in a loincloth:

I joined the other devotees who were waiting to have the darshan of the saint. After a while, the sage appeared from inside the Ashram. He was standing there in his characteristic loincloth with a danda in his hand. I saw him and he looked at me intently. Suddenly, I felt that the very Palani Andavar, whom I saw frequently at Palani in the form of stone, was now standing before me in real life. I felt an inexplicable wave of power passing through my entire physique. In a moment of extreme bliss, tears trickled down my face. Words failed me. However, I managed to gain my composure and expressed my humble obeisance to Maharshi.^[3]

Early Life

In late November, 1870 in Poonachi near Bhavani in Coimbatore District, Vallimalai Swami was born and named Ardhanari, the name of the Lord of Tiruchengode. His parents came from an orthodox Brahmin family, and his great-grandfather, Sri Ganapati Swamigal had not only a mastery of Vedas and sastras but also was reputed to be a highly evolved soul. Ardanari’s father, Chidambara Josiar, was well-versed in the Vedas as well as in jyotisha and ayurveda.

At the age of five, Ardhanari lost his father, the first of many misfortunes that struck the family. He was thus deprived of the traditional Vedic education his father had been intent on giving him. Athletic by nature and showing no interest in secular education, his uncle apprenticed him to the head cook in the palace of the Maharaja of Mysore where he excelled in the culinary arts.^[4]

Already as a boy, Ardhanari was married twice, the first at age nine and the second at age 16. The second marriage occurred under unusual circumstances. The family had gone to attend the wedding of a relative. When just prior to the ceremony, the intended bridegroom suffered an attack of epilepsy, Ardhanari was prevailed upon to take the groom’s place. Both wives bore children and he managed to support his large family from the income he received from his service at the palace. But when he lost his first wife and all three of their children and not long afterward, the two daughters from his second wife, leaving only his second wife and their son, the grief was tremendous and he found it difficult to conduct a normal life.

Pilgrimage

In 1908, he resigned his job at the palace and went on pilgrimage with his wife and son. He went to Palani where he sought a cure for the stomach trouble he acquired in the aftermath of the family’s disasters. While there he attended a festival and heard a devadasi sing with so much spiritual fervour that he went into ecstasy and had a glimpse of realization. “Why does this song create so much vibration in me?” He wanted to know more about it, its meaning and its author. When he found out it was Thiruppugazh, composed by Saint Arunagirinathar, he made up his mind to learn written Tamil in order to read and sing the songs of Thiruppugazh. He met an eight-year-old boy named Mani who taught him written Tamil. He went to Coimbatore, where Sri Sankaracharya of Sringeri was camping and requested that he give him sannyasa diksha. But learning that he had a wife, son and mother dependant on him, the Sringeri Swamigal denied the request. Not long after this, Ardhanari and his wife went on pilgrimage to the South Indian temples that had been visited by Arunagirinathar. He soon came into contact with an erudite scholar, Sri Venkata Rayar, who knowing that Ardhanari was seeking a guru, advised him to go to Tiruvannamalai and meet Bhagavan Ramana. He visited Bhagavan on the Hill and met Seshadri Swamigal. He stayed in Tiruvannamalai for over two months and spent his time singing Thiruppugazh in front of Bhagavan. Bhagavan taught him Thiruppugazh and took the book from him in order to assist him in elocution, prosody and the metrics of Tamil poetry. A biographer writes:

Bhagavan explained their deeper meaning to Ardhanari. His explanations covered the whole gamut of Arunagiri’s works such as Thiruppugazh and Kandar Anubhuti. Bhagavan explained the importance of ‘Summa Iru’, referred to in Kandar Anubhuti, that is, the act of remaining quiet and still without allowing any thoughts to come in between. He cited many songs which underlined the need to go beyond the concept of body and mind and the need to find our true identity. Just as Bhagavan had mastered Kaivalya Navaneetham, Vedanta Chudamani and Yoga Vasishtam, which were brought by Palaniswamy during the Maharshi’s early period at Gurumurtam, Ardhanari mastered Thiruppugazh which is evident from references he made to it on many occasions.^[5]

One day during this visit, Ardhanari was on the pradakshina path and happened to find Bhagavan also going round the Hill. He was thrilled to have Bhagavan join him in the Thiruppugazh chanting. Ardhanari who considered Ramana as the incarnation of Lord Muruga was beside himself with joy to have Lord Muruga Himself come as his co-singer.^[6]

After taking Bhagavan’s blessings, he set off on a long pilgrimage to North India. Before going north, he returned to his native Poonachi Pudur, transferred all his property into his wife’s name and asked his son to come and take care of his mother. Once reaching the north, he took sannyasa, got the name Swami Satchidananda and wandered about the Himalayas undertaking a 10-month retreat in solitude. He visited Haridwar, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Amarnath. Afterward, he returned to Tiruvannamalai to meet Bhagavan. On seeing him, the Maharshi greeted him, “Good, you have come back.”^[7] A devotee describes the scene:

There were about ten devotees living with him, including his mother and younger brother. One of them was Vallimalai Murugan who, for a while every morning, sang the Tamil songs of the Thiruppugazh with great fervour. These well-known songs, the remarkable outpourings of the famous saint, Sri Arunagirinatha, are songs in praise of Subramaniam. When he sang, Bhagavan used to keep time by tapping with two small sticks on the two rings of an iron brazier of live coal that was kept in front of him. Fumes of incense spread out in rolls from the brazier, suffused with the subtle holy atmosphere of Bhagavan. While Bhagavan’s hands were tapping at the brazier in this way, his unfathomable look of grace gave one a glimpse of the beyond in silence. It was an unforgettable experience.^[8]

After staying ten days on the Hill with Bhagavan, one day, out of the blue, Bhagavan directed him to go down. Though puzzled, he obeyed the command but was unclear as to the meaning behind it. On his way down he got the answer when he met Seshadri Swami who instructed him to go to Vallimalai Hill, adopt Thiruppugazh as his mahamantra and relinquish all further need for external pujas.^[9]

Vallimalai Ashram

Vallimalai is a village in Vellore district, just 30 km. from Vellore, the famed abode of Valli and known for its Subramaniyar temple. Valli, the daughter of Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi was born from the drop of perspiration that fell from Lakshmi’s brow on the grass at this place, and was later consumed by a female deer. Valli was born to the Deer. Valli is to Lord Muruga what Radha is to Lord Krishna. Thus, in June 1916, Swami Satchidanada settled at the Vallimalai Hill known as Parvatharayan Kundru where he undertook intensive tapas. He excavated the sand from a small naturally-formed cave on the hillock. Having removed the sand and earth, he discovered a cave which could accommodate about 200 people. This cave would prove useful for future Thiruppugazh recitations.^[10] Another time when he was to embark on a long pilgrimage to North India, he came to stay with Bhagavan. Before setting off, Vallimalai Swami made an appeal to Bhagavan’s Mother, by seeking to activate her generosity with praise, for having given birth to a ‘diamond of a son’. He then proceeded to ask her for one of the Ashram’s large kamandalus for his pilgrimage, promising to bring water in it from the Holy Ganges and do abhishekam. She relented and gave him the desired item. As it would turn out, he was not able to return to Tiruvannamalai for many years but eventually did fulfil his promise, even though there were other visits in between. In 1937 he came to Ramanasramam and performed abhishekam over the lingam of Mother’s Shrine with Ganges water he had brought in the kamandalu Mother had given him nearly twenty years earlier.^[11]

Another Visit to Bhagavan

Once in December 1925, a party of vakils from Salem accompanied Vallimalai to see Bhagavan. The Maharshi heard him sing some of the Thiruppugazh, explaining in great detail with devotion and great compassion the meaning to the whole group. Bhagavan dubbed him ‘Thiruppugazh Murugan’. Maharshi who had patiently sat and taught Vallimalai Swami the meaning of Thiruppugazh, now saw how the latter was able to teach Thiruppugazh even to experts and enthusiasts.^[12]

The propagation of Thiruppugazh became the Swami’s mission in life and he did this so successfully that Thiruppugazh recitation began to be established all over Tamil Nadu. He arranged the Thiruppugazh’s songs in a suitable sequence and inspired his listeners so dramatically that Thiruppugazh recitation was adopted at the important shrines of Lord Muruga.

Living on Valli Hill, Vallimalai Swami had a vision of Goddess Valli who enthralled him with her song from Thiruppugazh. Devotees of Lord Subramanya were drawn to Vallimalai Swami in large numbers and on festival days, thousands would come.^[13] His formidable spiritual gifts were recognised by all. His moving devotion to the Lord brought tears to the eyes of onlookers and caused of all in earshot of him to swoon under the sway of such inspired singing and devotion. He once spoke of the path of devotion:

Where the heart predominates over the intellect, men prefer at the start the path of bhakti, similarly the man whose intellect predominates over the heart prefers the path of jnana, and the one in whom neither predominates prefers the path of karma. The distinction among the paths is only apparent at the start: in the end all the paths coalesce.^[14]

Vallimalai Swami showed similarities to Bhagavan. His devotees used to bring him extravagant gifts which he would immediately pass on to beggars or those in need. When given large sums of money, he would spend it all feeding the devotees and he took special delight in feeding the poor. He did not differentiate between people rich and poor, nor between caste or creed. He began to make use of his spiritual gifts to help others.^[15]

Conclusion

On 14th April,1950, Vallimalai Swami and a disciple were leaving Madras to Tiruvannamalai by night train, having heard the news of Bhagavan’s failing health. At about 8.45 p.m. when Sri Ramana attained mahanirvana, Vallimalai Swami was crossing the railway line. Exactly at this moment a carriage which was loosely shunted was speedily coming on the rails, and had almost hit him. At that moment someone seemed to extricate Vallimalai Swami from the calamity. But the mysterious rescuer disappeared just as quickly.

Later that year, on 15th November, the fifth day of the Skanda Shashti festival, Vallimalai Swami was performing on Sri Valli Sanmargam when suddenly he could not proceed further and withdrew. After a few hours, he revived and said that he had the darsan of Lord Muruga. On 22nd November, he attained samadhi at about 8.15 am. His body was interred and enshrined at Vallimalai in the cave which he had prepared for his samadhi. Just two days before Vallimalai Swami attained mahasamadhi several persons observed a meteor in the sky moving eastwards. Sri Ramana Bhagavan and Vallimalai Swamigal attained mahasamadhi in the same year, 1950, in the same tithi, trayodasi, seven months apart.^[16]

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