Pilgrimages

Rishis, devas and sages are performing poojas every day to Shivalinga in the Thiruchendur Murugan temple.

Sometime ago, Amma was meditating on the Marina Beach. During the meditation, she was mentally visiting Thiruchendur and Kanyakumari and had the darshan of Lord Muruga and Goddess of Kanyakumari. She had never visted to those places before. When she visited Thiruchendur for the first time, she was seeing the same lord that she had seen during her meditation.

On a different occasion, when Amma was meditating, she got a vision that she was being invited to visit a temple in a village. She was seeing many small houses/huts in the village. The name of the village not known that time. When the couple along with their daughters (Alamelu Mangai and Abhirama Sundari) were visiting Thiruchendur, their car stopped in a small village called Thirumazhaipaadi. The village people flocked together to see the people inside the car curiously. They said that there was a temple in the village and showed them the route without asking. The couple along with their daughters went to the temple. It was the same temple Amma had seen in her vision during the meditation. They had the darshan of Atmalinga, similar to the one in Sholapur.

Once Amma got a dream in which Sri Karukaathammai, the Goddess of Karukaavur, invited her to come to the temple, “Come and stay here for a night, I will take care of you.” Immediately Ayya and Amma along with their daughters went to the temple. The village didn’t even have any basic amenities. Ayya hesitated initially how to stay there with the family but by the grace of the Goddess, the village people helped them. On that night, the family was staying in the temple prakaram (pathways) and sleeping there. Around midnight, they heard the sound of thandai-golusu (anklet) and woke up. They had the darshan of Goddess who was walking over them and blessed them. Amma and Ayya had many such spiritual experiences.

Amma was getting many such dikshas from different deities and siddhas. Even in Thirumazhaipaadi, Atmalinga was shown to her. Amma said that Atmalinga came from Tiruvannamalai but many people didn’t know this secret. How did it come? There was a puranic story goes like this: There was a demon king called Mahishasura who was hurting and disturbing good people, saints and sages. There was a rishi (sage) called Mannatha who had been doing Pooja to Spadigalinga. Mahishasura saw this and he swallowed the rishi along with Spadigalinga. Rishi went to his stomach straight but the Spadigalinga stayed in the neck of Mahishasura. Sages and devas went to Parashakthi and prayed for Her grace to rescue from this cruel demon. Goddess Parashakthi created Goddess Durga from Her. There was a big fight between Mahishasura and Durga. She cut the head of Mahishasura with Her sword from which Spadigalinga came out. She pierced the Earth through the sword and water sprang from it. That water spring is called Kadga Theertham. Kadga means sword in Sanskrit and Theertham means water. Spadigalinga was washed in that water and became pure and then called as Atmalinga. This incident happened in Tiruvannamalai because Mahishasura was ruling the city in the olden days. Atmalinga was kept in the Durgai Amman temple. How this Atmalinga went to Thirumazhaipaadi? Then what about the Atmalinga in Tiruvannamalai? It was all mystery. Everything was revealed to Amma. On another occasion, Amma stopped at one place on hearing the sound. A siddha came out of his samadhi and blessed her and went back to samadhi again.

Amma and Ayya along with their daughters visited Suseendram to have a darshan of Lord Hanuman. After this, the family went to Tirupathi again. This time, Sage Sri Ramanuja appeared and initiated Amma with Srinivasa Mantra. He told her, “You are doing a great service to humanity. Take this Srinivasa Mantra. Whenever you chant this mantra, Lord Venkateswara will appear and give blessings.” Having said this, Saint Ramanuja gave a Thulsi mala to Amma and continued, “Amma, your house is in the same place where Asaliamman temple is. Go there. Goddess will appear and give Her blessings. Lord Ayyappa will also appear in front of you. Though I am not in sthoola sarira (physical body), I am still operating at a different plane. I don’t have a boon to communicate to the world through other physical medium. You have got the blessings and abundant grace of Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva and Goddess Parashakthi. You will also come to this Divine path and get the blessings to speak to Mahaans operating in Sookshma sarira (astral body). Give their words to humankind.” Saint Ramanuja gave his blessings and disappeared.

Amma and Ayya were living in Chennai that time. Asaliamman temple is in Tiruvannamalai. Sage Ramanuja indirectly told Amma to settle down in Tiruvannamalai for good.

Amma got the blessings of Kanchi Mahaperiyava also when she was 18 years old. Once, Periyava was visiting a house in Chennai which was a back neighbor of Sri Shanmuga Mudaliar’s house in Thandaiyaarpettai. Amma heard through word of mouth that Kanchi Periyava was visiting the back neighbor. She immediately went there to get the darshan of Periyava along with others who were standing. Periyava noticed Amma and called her. He gave lotus flower and blessed her that she would become jyothi. Everyone in the crowd were dumbfounded by seeing this scene and they were talking among themselves that Amma was very lucky to get those blessings from Periyava.

Amma and Ayya along with their daughters visited many temples and reached Thiruperundurai.

When Amma saw the dilapidated Thiruperundurai temple, Saint Manickkavachagar appeared and recited Shivapuranam in front of Amma. Her heart melted on hearing the recitals of the saint and started singing with him. After singing, the saint said, “Amma! I didn’t sing these verses. They were actually sung by Lord Shiva Himself.” Amma was so lucky to hear the recitals from the great sage himself.

After Thiruperundurai, Amma and Ayya went to Palani hill to have a darshan of Lord Muruga. When Amma closed her eyes in front of Palani Andavar Sannidhi, Saint Bhogar appeared and said the following:

Amma! This Lord Muruga’s idol was made up of herbs and Nava bhaashaanam (nine types of poisons). This was made by me for the benefit of humankind. This idol is still being consecrated daily and worshipped by me. Over the period of time, humankind had partly destroyed this idol but there is another similar idol of Lord Muruga that was kept safely. That idol will appear in future at the time of need.

After the darshan of Lord Muruga, Amma and Ayya were observing six days of vratham during shashti. They were staying at Sadhu Mutt. Ayya remembered the greatness of Sadhu Swami in Tiruvannamalai who gave blessings to his mother. The same Sadhu Swami had built a mutt in Palani where Amma and Ayya had stayed. They also contributed donations for one day Anna dhaanam in the mutt. By the end of sixth day, there was a big rain on the hill. Hence Amma and Ayya decided to start their car journey on the next day early morning. Ayya came to the car to check if there was anything kept inside the car and then raised the car windows. The next day early morning, Ayya went to the car to wipe out windows so as to get the car ready for the journey.

When he opened the door, he smelled fragrance of vibhoothi, rose flowers and many different fruits. He was quite taken aback. He checked thoroughly but nothing was inside the car. He immediately closed the car doors and rushed inside the mutt to inform Amma.

Amma closed her eyes and Sadhu Swami appeared in front of her and told the following: “Ammani (means Amma), the fragrances of vibhoothi, rose flowers and other fruits came from the prasad. Every day, saints, sages and devas participate in ardha sama pooja (midnight prayers). Prasads were offered to saints, devas and rishis. I gave my prasad to you.

Sadhu Swami continued, “soon, saint Bhogar would give great blessings to you and remove your physical ailments. You would soon attain the status of other Mahaans. My blessings to you all.

Physical ailments to Amma? Yes, some physical ailments were bothering Amma due to some past karma. Even saints had to go through sufferings to burn their karma. When Amma was meditating, Lord Ayyappa appeared and blessed her. He asked her to go Tiruvannamalai to get upadesa from a Guru (self realized master) to get rid of physical sufferings.

Amma also received the following order from Lord Annamalaiyar, “There are some work to be completed. Come, as soon as possible.