It is said, by seeing Chidambaram, or by being born in Tiruvarur, or by dying in Kasi, or by merely ‘thinking’ of Arunācala, one will attain Liberation. Just ‘remembrance’ of Arunācala will liberate! Understand deeply: This mountain is not an ordinary mountain. If we keep a receiving station, it will receive any type of wave or signal right? Like that, this sacred place is the place that pulls incarnations.

Spiritual runway and incubator for incarnations 

When a baby is born prematurely, they place the baby in an incubator. The incubator has the same temperature as the mother’s womb. They give the baby food in it. The incubator takes complete care of the baby. Only if that incubator is there, the baby can become healthy. Like that, for an incarnation to descend and settle in the human body, the spiritual incubator is what is Tiruvannamalai. Our ancestors have done this for incarnations to descend and settle in the body. It is like an airport. 

In an airport, can the flight directly land and halt? You need a runway, right? In the same way, when the formless Existence descends into a human form, it descends like the Ganga; like a thunderbolt! It has to descend, apply the brakes and settle with the body. Tiruvannamalai is the runway for that. It is the spiritual incubator, spiritual runway, spiritual airport. It is the spiritual airport created for incarnations to descend. Not only that, it is a strong attraction…! 

Spiritual lighthouse 

Whenever I remember power, I remember the top of Arunācala Hill. That is the expression of the power – the Big Bang – when Mahādeva stood as a light shaft. Arunācala is the spiritual lighthouse, which attracts enlightened beings. It is here that Shiva manifested instantaneously as a Linga of fire with no beginning, no end: the Jyotirlinga Mountain – Arunācala. 

Please understand: how in the ocean, if the boats are lost they see the light house and reach the shore safely where they need to reach, I could see, the souls who are lost in the cosmic darkness, the moment they see these lighthouses they land in those houses or in those areas and continue their spiritual journey. I myself used Arunācala as the light house to land, to do what I want to do. 

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi on Arunācala 

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi explains, “’Aruna’ – ‘A’, ‘RU’, ‘NA’ signifies Sat, Chit, and Ananda (Being, Consciousness and Bliss), or again the Supreme Self, the individual Self, and their union as the One Absolute, expressed in the Mahavakya ‘That art thou’.”

Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi himself has translated the Skanda Purāṇa to Tamil. The following translation is found on page 80 of his ‘Collected Works of Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi’. 

Shiva said: “Though in fact fiery, my lacklustre appearance as a hill on this spot is an act of grace and loving solicitude for the maintenance of the world; here I always abide as the Great One (Siddha). Remember that in the interior of my Heart is transcendental glory with all the enjoyments of the world.”