Virupaksha Cave - Four Hour Shakti Experience

Front of Virupaksha Cave

A second highlight was the visit to Virupaksha Cave, where Sri Ramana stayed for seventeen years from 1899 to 1916, arriving when he was 20, after his stay at Gurumurtam after he arrived in Tiruvannamalai. This cave is situated on the eastern slopes of Arunachala.

Entrance Door to Virupaksha Cave

It is a unique cave as it is in the shape of the syllable “Om”, with a vestibule with a reclining stone "couch" outside the main cave. There is an excellent .pdf on the cave @ http://www.worldwisdom.com/uploads/pdfs/44.pdf which gives many details of Ramana's time there and some rare pics of the interior.

The cave derives its name from Virupaksha Deva, a renowned 13th century saint. It is believed that Virupaksha spent most of his life in this cave and surroundings. Legends tell that his body turned into ashes just after his Samadhi. The sacred ash (vibhuti) is assumed to be preserved here on the altar.

Ramana was in total mouna/silence until he gave his famous "upadesa"/teaching to Ganapati Muni in 1907 on the nature of "tapas"/spiritual practice which resulted in his being renamed Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi from his birth name Venkataraman Iyer. This has long been one of my favorite meditation spots.

Path to Virupaksha Cave

We climbed to the cave by the "steep, rough, smelly" route from Tiruvannamalai, which passes through some of the poorer parts of the town with poor or no sanitation; cow dung for heating and cooking is often being dried on the stones alongside the path.

The alternative, the beautiful path from the ashram ascends gradually; i used it extensively on my last Indian sojourn. There is an excellent youTube video of the ashram path to the caves.

Virupaksha Cave Interior Antechamber
Entrance to Interior at Left

As we arrived at the cave early, i was able to secure the "best" spot, one i knew well, in the dark corner on the right hand side, out of the path from the door to the "altar" where folk often traveled to bow, sit for a few minutes and leave. This was particularly important as the entire Ramanasramam "scene" has become much more popular and the cave, normally deserted except for a "cave watcher" when i was there 12 years ago, was now full of folk coming and going, and now had a "pujari" or altar attendant doing much fussing around with wick tending, lamp filling, etc. at least until about 9 when things started to thin out significantly.

During the first hour, i could feel a great energy with a strong compelling feel to it coming from the approximate region of the altar, but couldn't really fully connect with it. As folk thinned out, i surrendered into it, and a huge energy flowed into "me".

Ashes of Virupaksha
Altar of Interior of Cave

It had no "message", there was no "vision" or blinding light, i felt no "reason" for this great "download", but it was so powerful and compelling that it was clear i was going to remain where i was until the download was completed.

i sat in that dark corner where Ramana undoubtedly had also sat for another 3 hours, moving my legs occasionally, arising only to tell our group which was leaving that i would find my own way back, then returned to the dark corner. After the 4 hours, the energy just stopped, like a light switch had been thrown, and it was clear that i was free to go now.

i have no idea what "i" received during this download. Much, much has changed subsequently, but i cannot prove it did or did not directly result from the experience in Virupaksha cave. It was beautiful, deep, powerful and compelling, but a mystery...