Sri Ramana Ashram
Encyclopedia
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
, which was home to modern sage and Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...
philosopher, Ramana Maharishi from 1922 till his death here in 1950. It is situated at the foot of the Arunachala
Arunachala
Arunachala refers to the holy hill at Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, where the Annamalaiyar Temple, a temple of Lord Shiva is located. Every year in the Tamil month of Karthigai , the Karthigai Deepam is lit atop the hill...
hill, to the west of the Tiruvannamalai
Tiruvannamalai
Thiruvannamalai is a pilgrimage Temple city and special grade municipality in Thiruvannamalai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Thiruvannamalai district. Thiruvannamalai is home to the Annamalaiyar Temple located at the foot of the Annamalai hill and...
, Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
, where thousands of seekers flocked to be in his presence and later after he died in 1950 his samadhi
Samadhi
Samadhi in Hinduism, Buddhism,Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools is a higher level of concentrated meditation, or dhyāna. In the yoga tradition, it is the eighth and final limb identified in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali....
shrine continues to attract devotees from all over the world
History
The ashram at its present location, grew after he settled near the Samadhi shrine of his mother Alagammal, who died on May 19, 1922, at that time only a small hut was built there and by 1924 two huts were set up, one opposite the samadhi and the other to the north were erected.Amongst its early western visitors were British writer Paul Brunton
Paul Brunton
Paul Brunton was probably born as Hermann Hirsch of German Jewish origin. Later he changed his name to Raphael Hurst, and then Brunton Paul and finally Paul Brunton. He was a British philosopher, mystic, traveler, and guru...
in 1931, who is credited with introducing Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi
Sri Ramana Maharshi , born Venkataraman Iyer, was a Hindu spiritual master . He was born to a Tamil-speaking Brahmin family in Tiruchuzhi, Tamil Nadu. After experiencing at age 16 what he later described as liberation , he left home for Arunachala, a mountain considered sacred by Hindus...
to the West through his books "A Search in Secret India" (1934) and "The Secret Path". In fact in his first book, he mentioned, Ramana discouraging villagers from calling him Bhagwan, as he found the title excessive and inflated. Writer W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
who visited the ashram in 1938, and later used Maharishi as the model for the holy man, Shri Ganesha in his novel, The Razor’s Edge (1944). Other visitors include, Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda Saraswati was a Hindu spiritual teacher and a proponent of Yoga and Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He studied medicine and served in Malaya as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism...
, Paramahansa Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda , born Mukunda Lal Ghosh , was an Indian yogi and guru who introduced many westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his book, Autobiography of a...
, Alfred Sorensen
Alfred Sorensen
Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sorensen , also known as Sunyata, Shunya, or Sunyabhai, was a Danish mystic, horticulturalist and writer who lived in Europe, India and America.- Early life :...
(Sunyata) and Wei Wu Wei
Wei Wu Wei
Terence James Stannus Gray , better known by the pen name Wei Wu Wei, was a 20th century Taoist philosopher and writer.-Background:...
amongst others..
Arthur Osborne
Arthur Osborne (writer)
Arthur Osborne was an English writer on spirituality and mysticism, and an influential disciple and biographer of Ramana Maharshi. When one of Osborne's books, Ramana Maharshi and The Path of Self Knowledge, was first published in 1954, it contained a foreword from Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, at...
stayed here for twenty years, and edited Ashram's journal, The Mountain Path, besides writing several book on Maharishi and his teachings, Mouni Sadhu
Mouni Sadhu
Mouni Sadhu was the nom de plume of Mieczyslaw Demetriusz Sudowski, an author of mystical and esoteric subjects. Although born in Poland, he eventually became an Australian citizen. As a writer his subject matter concerned Western Hermeticism, and the Yoga tradition of India...
spent several months here in 1949. David Godman
David Godman
David Godman is widely acknowledged to be one of the leading authorities on the life, teachings and disciples of Ramana Maharshi, the renowned Indian sage who lived and taught for more than fifty years at Arunachala, a sacred mountain in Tamil Nadu, India...
came to the ashram in 1976, and has since written or edited fourteen books on topics related to Sri Ramana Maharshi and continues to live near the ashram.
Niranjananda Swami, brother of Ramana Maharshi, who had moved to the ashram along his mother in 1916, stayed at the ashram for the rest of his life and handling its management, and after him his son and grandson looked after the ashram.