They come to sit and meditate at Ramanashram, a centre established to accommodate the devotees of the celebrated local guru Sri Ramana Maharshi, who lived for decades on the slopes of the hill and died in Ramanashram in 1950. They come for Arunachala hill, a sacred granite mount with a picturesque triangular peak that according to legend is a form of the Hindu god Shiva. Indian pilgrims have been coming to this spot in the state of Tamil Nadu, a mile or so south of the rapidly growing town and about 50 miles south of Madras, for thousands of years. Every other evening a yellow auto-rickshaw arrives at Arunachala's ashram with sizeable orders of the tinfoil-wrapped burgers, a welcome fast-food dinner for him and his devotees. The veggie burger, a new item, has even met with the approval of a locally based Texan guru who goes by the name of Arunachala Ramana. The menu at the Amman Rooftop Cafe, just outside Tiruvannamalai, has been adapted to suit the palate of the increasing numbers of Westerners seeking spiritual nourishment in this small southern Indian pilgrimage town, writes Róisín Ingle
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