When Sri Nannagaru left Arunachala the first week of June his devotees, resident at Tiruvannamalai, did not expect to have to wait until October 7th until his return. But wait they did while Swamiji toured India in September, spending part of that month in the North visiting Nagpur and Kasi.

Finally the day of Sri Nannagaru’s expected arrival at Tiruvannamalai came, but once again his devotees were frustrated by yet another postponement. Swamiji had been expected to arrive early in the afternoon but decided to spend the day in Madras to avoid traffic congestion around Tiruvannamalai because of Jayalalitha’s (Tamil Nadu Chief Minister) visit.

It was late and dark by the time Sri Nannagaru arrived at his Ashram at Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Tiruvannamalai. His devotees greeted him enthusiastically, garlanding him with flowers and waiving arathi to him. He seemed satisfied to have returned to the holy precincts of Arunachala. Before retiring to his quarter for the night, he graciously moved amongst his devotees, speaking to several of them.

The next day, very early in the morning, Swamiji called for a chair and sat outside his room. After sitting for some time he unexpectedly gave an extempore talk on the life of the Buddha to some devotees who had been clustered outside his quarters eagerly waiting for darshan. These informal talks, in which Swamiji spoke of his trip North and told stories illustrating the teachings of the Buddha, continued for several days during his visit.

Swamiji graced his devotees with darshan each morning and evening of his visit. Several hundred people, a large number of whom were from overseas, attended his darshans.

As is his custom, Sri Nannagaru spent an afternoon of his visit doing car pradakshina of Arunachala. A convoy of packed auto rickshaws, cars and two-wheelers all jostled for position in hot pursuit of his vehicle. Swami’s car stopped several times so that he could do pranams first at a Ganesha shrine and then at a small Subrahmanian Temple. Several times Swami ordered his vehicle to halt and he sat quietly in his seat looking at Arunachala. At Kubera Lingam he stopped for longer and spoke in Telegu about Ananda Ashram and Swami Ramdas to several of his older devotees.

During his stay at Tiruvannamalai, as well as visiting Ramana Ashram, Swamiji also visited several devotees in their homes.

On the evening of October 10 Sri Nannagaru relocated to Andhra Ashram, which is more centrally located, and close to Ramana Ashram and from where he also gave regular darshan. It was from Andhra Ashram that Guruji took his leave around 10 a.m. on the morning of October 12. This time his departure was not met with the same sadness as before because his devotees at Tiruvannamalai knew that Sri Nannagaru would be returning on November 30th to spend the holy time of Deepam with his beloved Arunachala and devotees.