Saints of Arunachala · The cave saint
Guhai Namasivaya: the cave saint Ramana spoke of
Four centuries before Ramana, another saint came from afar to Arunachala, lived in a cave on its slopes, sang its praise, and was liberated by its power ~ so parallel a life that Ramana himself remarked on the kinship. The story of Guhai Namasivaya.
The short version
- Who
- Guhai Namasivaya (b. ~1548) ~ a Virasaiva saint of Arunachala, four centuries before Ramana.
- His name
- From the cave (gugai) on the hill where the Lord commanded him to live.
- The Ramana link
- Ramana noted both were Virasaivas from Karnataka; came via the guru Sivananda Desikar.
- His samadhi
- A jeeva samadhi temple on the lower slopes; yearly Guru Pooja in Karthigai.
← Part of Saints of Arunachala
Four centuries before Ramana, another saint came to Arunachala from far away, lived in a cave on its slopes, poured out his love for the mountain in verse, and attributed his liberation entirely to its power ~ a life so strikingly parallel to Ramana’s that Ramana himself remarked on the connection. His name was Guhai Namasivaya, and he is one of the great saints of the hill. His jeeva samadhi on the lower slopes remains a place of quiet power to this day, and his story is a reminder that the pattern Ramana lived ~ drawn from afar, liberated by the mountain, singing its praise ~ is an ancient one at Arunachala.
From Karnataka to the hill
Guhai Namasivaya was born around 1548 in Karnataka, to a pious Virasaiva (Veerashaiva) couple. Spiritually inclined from childhood, he sought out a great Virasaiva guru, Sivananda Desikar, at Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh, and served him with selfless devotion, mastering his system of yoga over many years. Then, the tradition holds, the presiding deity of Srisailam, Lord Mallikarjuna, appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to go to Arunachala and remain there as a guru, teaching mature disciples. With his own guru’s blessing, Guhai Namasivaya set out on horseback for Tiruvannamalai.
The saint Ramana spoke of
Here is a detail that devotees of the hill treasure. Ramana Maharshi occasionally told his devotees that he and Guhai Namasivaya were both Virasaivas who had come from Karnataka to Tiruvannamalai, and it is even reported that both had, in a sense, served the same guru, Sivananda Desikar. Tradition also holds that Guhai Namasivaya was accompanied to Arunachala by Virupaksha Deva ~ the very saint who gave his name to Virupaksha Cave, where Ramana would later spend his silent years. The threads between the sixteenth-century saint and the twentieth-century one are many, and Ramana clearly felt the kinship.
Drawn from afar, liberated by the mountain, singing its praise ~ four centuries before Ramana, Guhai Namasivaya lived the same pattern. Ramana felt the kinship, and said so.
The saint of the cave
In Tiruvannamalai, Guhai Namasivaya at first lived in public halls, gardens and the surrounding forest, given to meditation and long absorption in samadhi ~ but, curiously, he would not enter the great temple. One day his guru Sivananda Desikar unexpectedly appeared and entered the temple to worship; the disciple understood this as a sign, a play of the Lord, that he now had permission, and took up residence at the temple entrance, composing a verse in praise of Arunachala each day and living by begging. Later, the Lord appeared again in a dream and commanded him to live in a cave (gugai) on the mountain ~ and it is from this cave that he takes his name, Guhai (“cave”) Namasivaya. Like Ramana after him, he composed a substantial body of poetry to Arunachala, expressing his gratitude to the hill for liberating him.
His disciples and his samadhi
Guhai Namasivaya had notable disciples who carried his light onward ~ chief among them Guru Namasivaya (who later went to Chidambaram and raised funds for the temple there) and Arumuga Swami, both of whom passed away in the mid-to-late seventeenth century. Guhai Namasivaya’s own jeeva samadhi is enshrined in a small temple on the lower slopes of Arunachala, a short walk up from the base ~ reached, tradition directs, by a small street near the Girivalam road behind the great temple. A Guru Pooja is held there each year in the month of Karthigai. His recorded assurance to those who came to him is pure Arunachala: reach the feet of Annamalaiyar, and however great your sins, however relentless your karma, you will be made holy.
Guhai Namasivaya’s life is preserved in Tamil tradition and brought to English readers chiefly through the research of David Godman; dates and details follow these accounts. His parallels with Ramana ~ the Karnataka origin, the cave, the poetry, liberation by the mountain ~ are among the most striking in the saintly history of the hill. See the saints of Arunachala, Isanya Desikar, and jeeva samadhi.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Guhai Namasivaya?
Guhai Namasivaya was a 16th-century Virasaiva saint of Arunachala, born around 1548 in Karnataka. Commanded in a dream by Lord Mallikarjuna of Srisailam to go to Arunachala, he settled at Tiruvannamalai, lived in a cave on the mountain (from which he takes his name, gugai meaning 'cave'), composed poetry in praise of the hill, and attributed his liberation to its power ~ much as Ramana Maharshi would four centuries later.
How is Guhai Namasivaya connected to Ramana Maharshi?
Ramana occasionally told devotees that he and Guhai Namasivaya were both Virasaivas who came from Karnataka to Tiruvannamalai, and both are said to have been connected to the guru Sivananda Desikar. Guhai Namasivaya was also traditionally accompanied to Arunachala by Virupaksha Deva, who gave his name to the Virupaksha Cave where Ramana later lived. Ramana clearly felt a kinship with the earlier saint.
Where is Guhai Namasivaya's samadhi?
His jeeva samadhi is enshrined in a small temple on the lower slopes of Arunachala, a short walk up from the base ~ reached by a small street near the Girivalam road behind the great Arunachaleswarar temple. A Guru Pooja is held there each year in the Tamil month of Karthigai.
What did Guhai Namasivaya teach?
Like the whole tradition of Arunachala, he pointed devotees to the saving power of the hill. His recorded assurance was that if one reaches the feet of Annamalaiyar (Arunachaleswara), then however great one's sins and however relentless one's karma, one will be made holy. He also left a substantial body of devotional poetry to Arunachala.
Last updated 14 February 2026. Following the documented record preserved by Sri Ramanasramam and his devotees; where an account is traditional, it is told as such.