Arunachala Giri Pradakshina

November 23, 2018February 4, 2019 admin 0 Comments

Arunachala Giri Pradakshina:

Walking around the hill is called as “Giri Pradakshina”. Pradakshina means the act of walking around any holy place in a clockwise direction, with one’s right side facing the object of adoration. Performing pradakshina of Arunachala is considered to be beneficial in all ways. Typically, pradakshina is done in bare feet, with the Hill on the right. Sri Ramana Maharshi once explained the meaning of the word pradakshina and how it should be done by a devotee, 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. By the way of Pradakshina if you walk one step it gives happiness in this world, two steps, it gives happiness in heaven, three steps, it gives bliss of Satyaloka which can be attained. One should go round either in mouna (silence) or dhyana (meditation) or japa (repetition of Lord’s name) or sankeertana (bhajan) and there by think of God all the time.

Arunachala Giri Pradakshina details:

The distance covered is 14 kilometres (8½ miles). Tradition has it that even today a number of siddhars are living on the hill. There are eight lingams located at the eight directions, which provides an octagonal structure to the town of Tiruvannamalai. The eight lingams are: Indra Lingam, Agni Lingam, Yama Lingam, Niruthi Lingam, Varuna Lingam, Vayu Lingam, Kubera Lingam and Esanya Lingam.

Total distance covered to walk around the hill is 14km and it will take usually 3hrs 30mns to 4hrs to complete the pradakshina

Good time to walk: 4:00am,4:00pm or 10pm onward.

Darshan might take 6 to 7 hours. One must be prepared to stand during darshan. Giri Pradakshina can be performed any in a year but it is auspicious on Full moon days. The crowd will be high during this time.

There are two pathways around the Hill, the outer pathway which is the most commonly travelled and which contains Temples, the Asta Lingams, Tirthams and Shrines.

Another path is Inner path and it is available for Girivalam but this path pass through the forest. This path is full covered with stones not easy to walk without footwear. Due to security reasons this path remains closed now.

Arunachala Giri Pradakshina Images: