Why Amma says Thiruvannamalai itself is Thirukailayam

Maataji, Sathguru Siva Sri Thiyaneswar Amma, built her ashram at Adi Annamalai beside a hill she does not call Arunachala alone. She calls it Thirukailayam, the abode of Shiva itself. For a pilgrim who has travelled a long way to walk around a mountain, this is worth pausing on, because it changes what the walk is for.

Kailasa is not somewhere else

In the tradition Maataji teaches, Shiva's home is not a far peak that a few can reach but the place where devotion is complete. The hill at Tiruvannamalai, worshipped for centuries as Shiva in the form of fire, is that place for anyone who comes to it with love. The pilgrim does not need to go to the Himalayas; Kailasa has come to the foot of the Girivalam road, and the walk around it is the walk around Shiva.

The motto on the seal

Anbe Sivam, Aduve Thavam. Love is Shiva; that itself is tapas.

These words are on the ashram's seal and are the measure of everything that happens there. They draw on the old Tamil Saiva saying that love itself is Shiva. Maataji's addition is the second half: love is not only the goal but the practice. There is no austerity higher than loving, and no pooja that outranks feeding the sadhu at the gate. This is why the ashram's day is built around annadhanam and why she asks devotees to see Shiva in every person they serve.

Girivalam as a pilgrimage of the heart

• Walk with the hill on your right and your attention on the hill, not on the distance left.
• At each of the eight Ashta Lingams, pause and offer one thing you are holding on to.
• Treat every sadhu and every tired walker you pass as the one you came to see.
• Carry a line of Thiruvasagam or the name of Shiva, and let it set the pace of your feet.

Maataji teaches Thiruvasagam, the hymns of Manikkavasagar, in the ashram's classes, and the ashram's Sivayogam practice follows the same path of devotion before technique. The books she has written say the same thing in many ways: that the hill is Thirukailayam, that Shiva is love, and that the simplest act of service is the highest form of tapas.

More of her teachings, books, songs and talks are gathered on the Teachings page, with her own story on the Maataji page. To see the teaching lived rather than read, come to the ashram at Adi Annamalai, sit for Mounasamy Siddhar's darshan, and stay for the morning meal.