July 31st

Day 8: A Blessed Birthday

Hello! I’m Tanvi, a 14-year old Saikid from Dallas. I was a volunteer at the 2023 Giggling Geckos summer camp. 

I had the wonderful opportunity of celebrating my 14th birthday at Haritachala! I couldn’t wait to see the surprises the day held. To kickstart the day, I had the beautiful opportunity to do Baba bath with Sruti Akka. I had given abhishekam to Baba Tathayya on my last birthday, and I got the opportunity once again on this birthday! As soon as arati was over, I went to Ammamma for blessings. She was so sweet and gave me a warm birthday hug!! Sruti Akka got me wonderful gifts, and I felt so blessed and grateful for all the love. 😀 At the beginning of tea time, Ammamma came outside, and it was so nice to spend time with her for a while. 

During the farm walk today, we stumbled upon an abundant harvest of dragonfruit. What a pleasant surprise! Sruti Akka taught us many new things. First, we learned about gliricidia, a nitrogen-rich plant. By placing gliricidia in between two other plants, its nitrogen will attract earthworms, therefore making the soil richer. This is why we grow so many gliricidia plants at Haritachala! We also learned the difference between sterile silence (closed space) and natural silence (quietly experiencing the sounds of nature).  Our joy continued with a mouthwatering surprise – piping hot pooris and delicious curry! Following breakfast, we gathered for a group picture, capturing the happiness and contentment that filled the air. 

Our next activity was the highlight of the day. Sruti Akka distributed printouts of a poem Guruji Tathayya had written during his stay at Skandashram. In the poem, Guruij Tathayya describes maya, or the play of the World, as a mother who was coaxing him back to worldly matters. He describes Arunachala symbolizing his dad who encourages Tathayya to continue meditating. Guruji Tathayya decides to come back to the real world. We talked about how it is such an important piece of history in Saipatham. If Guruji Tathayya had stayed at the Ashramam, Saipatham would not have existed. As Hasita Akka said, “It was so fun to go through such a beautiful poem and decipher Guruji thatha’s words!”

After reading Guruji Tathayya’s poem, we had lunch. I got to enjoy my favorite hot item: mirchi bajji! Heartfelt gratitude to the aunties for their time spent to make these delicacies so scrumptious and fresh for all of us. In the afternoon, we all went on a trip: to Poondi! Before leaving, Sruti Akka read to us the Rose Petals chapter about Poondi Swami. After reaching Poondi and taking Poondi Tathayya’s blessings, Murali Uncle read us another article, this one written by Guruji Tathayya himself. We learned that Poondi Tathayya is “the transmitter”.

Guruji Tathayya explained Poondi Tathayya’s way of showing love in such a beautiful way. He said that Ramana Maharshi showed Guruji his vessel, which is his mind. Poondi Tathayya cleaned his vessel, and Baba Tathayya filled it. Sruti Akka told us that Poondi Tathayya cleans out our vasanas (vessel). She explained this through her personal story. When Akka was younger, she would go to Poondi many times. Every visit, Akka would feel either extremely sleepy or very restless. All of her usual thoughts would be magnified, and she would not feel comfortable. Sruti Akka asked Guruji Tathayya about this, saying that a saint should make one feel peaceful, not uncomfortable. Tathayya explained that every saint has their own way of working with us, our minds, and our hearts, and Poondi Tathayya’s way is to bring everything up and show it to us. The only sadhana we require to do is to put our physical body there, and endure it. Poondi Tathayya will take care of the rest. So, there is nothing wrong in feeling uncomfortable when visiting Tathayya. 

Sruti Akka told us another one of her personal experiences at Poondi. When she was around 22 or 23 years old, Akka visited Poondi Tathayya and with her confusion of what her life goal was. Akka hadn’t told Guruji Tathayya about this visit, but as soon as she came home, Tathayya gave her a list of her life goals and what she is meant to accomplish. Akka used a metaphor for this phenomenon: she turned the light switch on at one place, but the light glowed at another place. 

Guruji Tathayya had a powerful experience at Poondi as well. Tathayya’s Guru told him to spend some time with Poondi Swami, so he stayed for around 40 days. Guruji Tathayya meditated near Poondi Swami during those days. When time came for Tathayya to leave, he asked Poondi Swami for permission, which was denied. So, he told Poondi Tathayya devotee, Subramanya Swami, that it was time for him to go, and to ask Poondi Tathayya for leave. Guruji Tathayya’s guru said that if Guruji Tathayya had stayed longer, he would have reached the stage of enlightenment as Poondi Swami! 

Reading about Poondi Tathayya and listening to his stories were such a beautiful part of our day. As Jahu Akka says, “it was such a nice experience to hear these stories and they changed my connection with Poondi Swami. I felt like staying at Poondi longer!” Namita Akka felt a similar feeling, expressing that she “felt even more connected” and the whole experience was “very powerful”. 

After coming back to Haritachala, we all ate a delicious dinner of palak paneer, chapati, banana bread, and jam! Next was our Gratitude Circle, in which Pravallika Akka and Geetika Akka shared a nice experience they had at Poondi five years ago. After that, we had a conversation with Sruti Akka for a while. We talked about marriage, life goals, financial independence, and passive income. We also talked for a while about passion. Sruti Akka told us that passion is overly romanticized, and it's ok to not be very passionate about something. She told us to think about a day or month in our ideal life, and use reverse engineering from there.

We have to understand what is needed to get to that point. Akka also told us to find something small that makes us happy and to build our life around it. For Sruti Akka, helping people makes her happy, so she built her life and job around that. 

A birthday is a day to celebrate the unique tapestry of your life, filled with love, memories, and endless possibilities. I got the wonderful opportunity to celebrate my birthday at Haritachala with my amazing family! Spending this day with Poondi Tathayya, reading Guruji Tathayya’s poem, and talking for so long with Sruti Akka were the wonderful things that happened today. This is a birthday to remember!