I am part of this Gita-Satsang. I made a 4 day trip to Thiruvanamalai with 3 other fellow members who I am meeting in person for the first time. (Although I know them by whatsapp and zoom calls for over 1.5 years now since we are reading / discussing Gita all along).
Last week's satsang was to discuss about the trip.
The first 12 minutes essentially captures the overview of the trip in a nutshell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hLAQ6bsoeQ
PS: You can watch the rest if it is interesting to you. Below, I will share some writings though that I shared with the group based on our discussions with Swami Guruparananda (Swami G) and Swami Paramarthananda (Swami P).
Day 1: noon we all congregate. Evening 2 hour q&a with Swami G. Night at Thiruvanamalai.
Day 2: Giri Pradakshinam start at 4.45.am (takes 4.5 hours). Afternoon 2.30, visit Ramana Ashramam. Evening 4.45, Arunachala Temple.
Day 3: Morning 8.30 start to Ramana Ashramam. Hike, Skandashramam, Virupaksha cave and prasadam. Afternoon 3.30 visit Ramana Ashramam again. 5.15: Seshadhri Swamigal Ashram 7.30: dinner at Yogiville.
Day 4: started back to Chennai at 6.30. Planned stop at Singha Perumal Kovil. Followed by Ramakrishna Mutt in the afternoon and meeting Swami P at 5.
I had a trip to India coming up and there were some buffer days, given two upanayanams, seven-day quarantine and space between two events. Given other uncertainty with covid/omicron, work schedule .. etc, at some point, the thought Arunachala occured to me. Figured I will leave it all to Arunachala, make that my purpose of trip and everything else that happens is to support this. Lo and behold, everything started falling into place.
Enter Gunds: Who says I will be in Tiruchi and I say, "Arunachala" and he says, "I am in". He says, I might visit my guru Swami G and I say, "I am in".
Enter Ajay/VP: We say, there is a prospective trip coming up, they both say, "We're in. Yeah, tell us the dates, we will fly to Chennai and we will join in whatever you do".
In less than 48 hours, we went from zero to me resheduling my Chennai stay and remote-work routine, VP/Ajay booking Chenani tickets and Gunds moving his USA trip by two days.
The trip is on.
PS; For those who might know, the residents of Thiruvanamalai or for that matter any bhathas of Arunachaleswara say, "everything happens by the will of Arunachala" - and this to an extreme extent. We too left everything up to the will of Arunachala for this trip.
Poornalayam / Swami G: Gunds and I picked up VP/Ajay and went to Poornalayam - Swami G's abode. Such a serene place in the outskirts of Kancheepuram if I were to put a big city near it.
It is 1.6 acres with lots of good water, dozen+ coconut trees, dozen+ mango trees .. etc. Lots of birds. The winds and the chirping are all you hear for most part (rarely an automobile that pass by the road). Backstory is some Swami G's disciples had got land and dedicated this small section to Swami-ji. Other disciples built the place. It is a very well maintained, clean place. [tempted to say two bedroom place with two big halls].
Swami G's story: When asked how we came to this path : Swami had done B.Com and was preparing for CA. He had an ambition to clear it all in one attempt. But after one year, he felt intense pressure and couldn't focus on the CA. He stopped that and started listening to local vedanta lectures. Then through a friend learned of and attended Swami Dayananda's lectures. He got hooked. After a few years, then he listened to Swami P and he asked both Swami P and Swami D permission to study wiht Swami P. And that's how he got started. He and two other brahamacharis lived with and learned from Swami P for over 5 years. Their medium of communication was Sanskrit.
Swami G's Tamil lectures: He initially started teaching in English. Then he realized that if someone wants to learn in English, then both his gurus (Swami P, Swami D) have enough material in English. So he figured why not teach in Tamil? Now if you search "vendata tamil", "bhagavad gita tamil" or "upanishads tamil", Swami G shows up at the top. I mentioned that when I mention about any vedanta topic, my in-laws were curious to learn. So I sent them Swami G's lectures since they are way more comfortable listening to it in Tamil. Swami G nodded that most of his sishyas are parents or in-laws of sishtas of Swami P. :)
https://gist.github.com/krishna2/c9e3f4cea1876c4c23df6090977ce24c
https://gist.github.com/krishna2/f4c07b042b66a696ef79bad62606a9ee