Unforgettable Love Story

There was a holy man living on the top of Mt. Arunachala in the town of Tiruvannamalia in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. He had lived there for sixteen years and the only food he consumes is four oz of milk each day. Swami Rama tells us in his book the Path of Fire and Light, Vol 1: Advanced Practices of Yoga that when a yogi is engaging in a lot of pranayama and meditation exercises he does not need very much food, in fact food becomes a hindrance to the practices. It seemed that this holy man was engaged in such practices fulltime.When I traveled to India I was hoping I would meet masters such as this. Tiruvannamalia was the home of a very well known master named Ramana Maharshi who had previously lived on this very same mountain until his death in 1950. The energy inside of his cave home was amazing and helped me to reach a very deep state of meditation with great ease. It was shortly after meditating there that I met a native man who told me of this holy man on the mountain top. He offered to take me to the top to participate in an early morning puja, which is a worship ceremony.

If you click on the View All Images button you can see these photos in larger detail.

We set out at 5:30 am while it was still dark, yet the city was already bustling with spiritual seekers and religious music.We were guided to the top (a 2600 ft or 800 m climb) by a couple of barefoot sherpas who were carrying water and chai tea up on their heads. This hike was strenuous enough for me who was only carrying a back pack, yet both of these men offered to carry my pack for me as well. I could feel it was the kindness of their hearts and not money that motivated them to offer. I politely refused and carried my own load.

We made it to the top just in time to take part in a daily ceremony to receive blessings from the master.You have to think, if someone spends sixteen years in meditation on the top of a mountain, they must be getting somewhere. I can’t imagine anyone doing such a thing in mere hope of finding God. To even begin such an endeavor you would have to have very powerful experiences that would tell you it was a worthwhile thing to do.

It was very cool to be a part of this. There were five kids ages 8 to 13 happily participating too. It was quite magical and I enjoyed the ceremony very much.

Coming back, half way down the mountain, just above Sri Ramana Maharshi’s cave home I hung out on a very large flat boulder for breakfast and a nap. When I woke up I wanted to take the long path back to my hotel room so that I could record the sounds of the wild monkeys I had seen along that path the day before. Unfortunately I did not have the stamina; I was pretty worn out by my morning climb up the mountain. I knew I would have another chance before we left Tiruvannamalia. Well that chance came much sooner than expected; the monkeys came to me.

At first one monkey showed up in the big tree that was providing my shade. She was making a lot of noise so I got some great recordings. When I fed her biscuits she stuffed them into her mouth whole, leaving a rectangular protrusion in her expandable cheeks. If you look at the photos carefully you can see the square shape left by the biscuits. Then she jumped back into the tree to consume them. Later I gave her some spicy fried dried peas; she loved them. She was gentle yet cautious as she took them from my hands. The skin on her hands was softer than I imagined it would be. When I took a banana out she looked like she was going to attack me for it. She had no patience for me to peal it, she wanted it now! I quickly threw it off to the side for her to retrieve. She ate the whole thing including the pealing.

I had to be watchful of my recorder, microphone, backpack and all of its other contents. I kept worrying she would take something or attack me. I made myself a bit frightened. I should have taken greater care with my thoughts, she only wanted the food.

Soon two male monkeys joined us and chased the female off of the boulder and into the tree. It took them a little while to take interest in my food. They were too busy deciding who was going to dominate. At first the little one attacked the big one, then jumped up on his back and buggered him in the rear. This surprised me but later the bigger one dominated the smaller one chasing him away. These two showed their teeth a couple of times, not to frighten me, just in their moving about and chattering with each other. They had two very long fangs on the top and bottom and then regular looking teeth in the rest of their mouth.

More monkeys came to visit and soon I was feeding about six adults and three young ones. All of the larger adults seemed to have big gashes and fresh wounds on their arms, legs, and face. I could see what they get up to with those large fangs of theirs. A few times they would fight with each other, but mostly they circled me, looking for the stray bits of food, as I fed them. I did not really feel that they were going to attack me or become too aggressive, but I did let my imagination run wild. I want to be clear here… the feelings I picked up from the monkeys told me I was safe, yet the thoughts in my mind was making me feel I was in danger. By this time I had place all of my gear into my backpack, except for the microphone which was hanging out to capture the sounds, and my camera which was often in my hands. I sat on the rock so as not to frighten the monkeys away. I wanted them to come close and take the food from my hands. I kept the backpack between my legs and occasionally would set my camera down on it so I could get more food out. A couple of times a monkey (three or four of them each took their turns doing this) approached me and I thought they were going to try and take some of my gear. Then it would turn out that they only wanted a stray pea that was sitting on the rock next to my leg, I wish I would have figured this out sooner than I did.

All of a sudden the largest monkey of all jumped out of the tree, it seemed out of nowhere since I had not seen him before. He jumped down right in front of me, stood up erect, and raised his arms and hands into the air. He had a large gash on his upper lip which left a big split through which I could see his teeth. His right arm also had a major gash on it too. This frightened me; I raised my arms up and yelled at him. Unfortunately I also flailed my legs kicking my camera down the bolder. It bounced many times making expensive sounds that were loud enough to be recorded.

Then the monkey reached down and grabbed yet another pea that was on the boulder right next to my leg and ran away showing me once again how much further I need to go in gaining control over my mind.

I had to do a bit of climbing to recover the camera, which was broken beyond repair. I was able to recover the digital film chip which is why you can see the photos in the slide show. Too bad I did not get a photo of the monkey who scared me; he was really quite a sight.

I made many observations about this experience. One, I was not in control of my mind even though the monkeys kept showing me they were only interested in food and that they were cautious and not wanting to tangle with me. I had wanted a new camera; I kept complaining how mine took so long to get ready for the next photo that I ended up missing some really great shots. After that I had to buy a new one. I wanted to record the monkey’s voices. I got to do that and they came to me. The Universe showed me that all is well even though the thing I feared (loosing some of my gear) actually happened. I had a fantastic experience and I have another great story to tell.

Speaking of adventures in India…below are links to some very popular stories of how I happened into an arranged marriage when I went to India to write my book. This story about the monkeys happened about a month before these next stories took place.

Part 1 - A Marriage Made in Heaven

Part 2 - The Suicide and the Accident

A Side Story - The Elephants of India

Part 3 - The Kidnapping and the Wedding

Part 4 - The Honeymoon and the Truth about Eju

And if you like these stories I am certain you will love my book Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story. I would like to ask you to buy my book, read it, ENJOY it, and tell all of your friends about it. You would be supporting me and all that I do here in teaching practical spirituality and the free spiritual counseling for so many of my friends here on MySpace.

Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story

Popularity: 5% [?]