A walk through girivalam

March 18, 2013 05:51 pm | Updated 06:00 pm IST

The long awaited wish of my grandmother to go to Tiruvannamalai on a full moon day for a Girivalam was fulfilled on January 26 this year. On each full moon, lakhs of people walk barefoot for 14 km in the well-lit girivalam path, surrounding the mountains — chanting ‘Om Arunachaleswaraya namaha’ — to get their wishes fulfilled. I was excited to go with her.

We left at noon after having a quick brunch. The journey from Chennai was about five hours.

The town was cordoned off with barricades to prevent vehicles from entering, so that the devotees could undertake the ritual.

We finally reached the resort. We had already booked a couple of rooms as finding one on a full moon day is difficult. We refreshed ourselves and went on to join lakhs of people at the girivalam path.

People from different nationalities joined us. We started walking at 7:00pm. It was a bright full moon day. The first three hours of walking were brisk but the last few hours were hectic and we took a break. It took us five to six hours to cover the girivalam path. People around me were constantly chanting ‘Om Arunachaleswaraya namaha’.

There were lots of makeshift stalls selling everything from water bottles, energy drinks, fruits to readymade dresses and devotional cassettes. There were small temples and ashrams on the way distributing prasadam to devotees and the poor.

Even though our family was exhausted after we finished the girivalam, I could see the happiness on my grandmother’s face at having completed in one go she had thought would not be possible.

The next day we went to the Arunachaleswara temple and the Ramanashram, and then returned to our resort, packed our things and drove back to Chennai.

VINAY BALAJI, V, National Public School

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.