Ramana Hridayam

Santha

Bhagavan warned me several times about the dangers of being attached to the I-am-the

-doer idea. On one of these occasions, he told me a story about King Vallalan, a Saivite king of Tiruvannamalai whose devotion to Siva is extolled in a Tamil work called Arunachala Puranam. This king was responsible for building one of the large gopurams [towers] in the main temple in Tiruvannamalai. After he had completed this gopuram he had a strong feeling, 'I have built this great gopuram.'

On major festival days Arunachaleswara, the temple deity, is taken out of the temple and paraded through town. According to one local legend, on one such ten-day festival, Arunachaleswara refused to pass through the passage under King Vallalan's new gopuram because the king had too much pride in his achievement.

For nine successive days, Arunachaleswara chose a different route to leave the temple. On the tenth and last day, the king realized his mistake and became more humble. He broke down and cried before the God and begged him to use this gopuram for just one day. Arunachaleswara saw that the king's pride had abated and granted his request.