Up to that point I had a limited understanding of the role of deities in spiritual practice. I had almost no knowledge of Lord Skanda, though he is a popular deity in South India and one sees his picture everywhere. I had not yet grasped the depth of his connection with Ramana. So I was shocked to come into a direct contact with such an entity, not as a mere fantasy but as a concrete and vivid inner experience penetrating to the core of my being. That the process of Self-inquiry, which starts out as a philosophical practice, could be aligned to a deity in which my personality was swallowed up, was not something that I had noted in any teachings.

In time I learned much about both Skanda and Ramana. Skanda is the incarnation of the power of direct insight. He is the Self that is born of Self-inquiry which is like a fire, the inner child born of the death of the ego on the cremation pyre of meditation. This child represents the innocent mind, free of ulterior motives, which alone can destroy all the demons, our negative conditionings, with his spear of discrimination beyond the fluctuations of the mind. Coming to Tiruvannamalai was an experience of that inner fire (tejas) which is Skanda and Ramana.