The story
Why this place
Arunachala
Arunachala is one of the oldest and most revered sacred sites in southern India, a granite mountain that rises from the plain of Tamil Nadu at Tiruvannamalai, worshipped for many centuries as the manifestation of Lord Shiva in the form of fire — the agni lingam.
Our land lies on the western side of the mountain, near the Aadhi Annamalai Temple. The Aadhi Annamalai is older than the great Shiva temple in the town, and the western side of Arunachala has long been associated with the siddha tradition — those who withdraw from the world to be in the presence of God. It is a quieter side of the mountain than the eastern, town-facing side.
The connection between Skanda Vale and Arunachala is not new. It was felt by our founder, Guru Sri Subramanium, many years before this project began.
Swami Suryananda
Some years ago, in the middle of a Sunday discourse, Guru stood up and told everyone in the temple that the Lord had just told him Skanda Vale was renamed Arunachala. It was a shock — it came from nowhere. I asked him afterwards whether he wanted us to change the name, and he said no, no, it would just happen. It would unfold.
What I think the Lord was saying is that Skanda Vale is, in some way, the place where Shiva manifests in the form of fire — the agni lingam — and that there is a connection between our community and this mountain. Lord Subramanium is the energy of Shiva, and that energy first manifested at Skanda Vale in the Lord Murugan temple. Arunachala is the mountain where that same energy lives in its primal form.
When I first went to Arunachala in 2015, I had a prayer to take a lingam to the top of the mountain, have it consecrated there, and bring it back to the kalasam of Somaskanda Ashram. I didn't take one with me — I said to the Lord, if this is your will, may you provide it. The day before the climb, devotees I had never met gave me a gift of two lingams. It felt like a confirmation.
We carried them to the summit at midnight to consecrate them. There was a gale blowing, mist all around us. I sat chanting just in front of the feet of Shiva, my sister behind me, a siddha yogini behind us, watching it all happen. And our friend Mani, the custodian of the mountain, somehow became Hanuman — an avatar of Shiva — bounding around the rocks, doing the abhishekam in the middle of the night.
That is my genuine experience of it. You felt that all the saints and siddhas and sages had gathered for that one purpose, in that moment. It was cosmic — it really was. Then we brought the lingams down. One is in the Shiva niche of the Murugan temple at Skanda Vale now; the other in the kalasam of our Somaskanda temple in Switzerland.
So the connection between Skanda Vale and Arunachala goes back a long way, and it isn't something we set in motion ourselves. It feels like one of Guru's sankalpas — a seed planted years ago, slowly unfolding. The retreat house is part of that.
In pictures
What we are building now is small in scale and slow in pace. It is for those who feel the connection and want to spend time in the presence of the mountain.
Shiva Skanda Vel is a project of Skanda Vale, the monastic community founded by Guru Sri Subramanium in Wales. More of Guru's life and teachings at gurusrisubramanium.com.
The nature of God is in the elements. The mountains, the rivers, the sun.
Guru Sri Subramanium · Bern, 1992