Sri Ramana Ashram, also known as Sri Ramanasramam, is the

ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or a ...

which was home to modern sage and

Advaita Vedanta ''Advaita Vedanta'' (; sa, अद्वैत वेदान्त, ) is a Hinduism, Hindu sādhanā, a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and the oldest extant tradition of the Āstika and nāstika, orthodox Hindu school Ved ...

master

Ramana Maharshi Ramana Maharshi (; 30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was an Indian Hindu sage and ''jivanmukta'' (liberated being). He was born Venkataraman Iyer, but is mostly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. He was born in Tiruchuli, Ta ...

from 1922 until his death in 1950. It is situated at the foot of the

Arunachala Arunachala (IAST: , 'Red Mountain') is a hill in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, and one of the five main Shaiva holy places in South India. The Arunachalesvara Temple to Shiva is located at the base of the hill. The hill is also known by the nam ...

hill, to the west of

Tiruvannamalai Tiruvannamalai (Tamil: ''Tiruvaṇṇāmalai'' IPA: , otherwise spelt ''Thiruvannamalai''; ''Trinomali'' or ''Trinomalee'' on British records) is a city, a spiritual, cultural, economic hub and also the administrative headquarters of Tiruvanna ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

, where thousands of seekers flocked to be in his presence. His

samadhi ''Samadhi'' (Pali and sa, समाधि), in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness. In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. In the Ashtanga Yoga ...

shrine continues to attract devotees from all over the world.

History

Ramana Mahanirvana Place in Thiruvanamalai

The ashram gradually grew in its present location after Ramana Maharshi settled near the Samadhi shrine of his mother Alagammal, who died on 19 May 1922. In the beginning, a single small hut was built there. By 1924 two huts were set up, one opposite the samadhi and the other to the north. Amongst its early western visitors were British writer

Paul Brunton Paul Brunton is the pen name of Raphael Hurst (21 October 1898 – 27 July 1981), a British author of spiritual books. He is best known as one of the early popularizers of Neo-Hindu spiritualism in western esotericism, notably via his be ...

in 1931, who is credited with introducing

to the West through his books "A Search in Secret India" (1934) and "The Secret Path". Writer

W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

visited the ashram in 1938, and later used Ramana Maharshi as the model for the holy man, Shri Ganesha in his novel, '' The Razor’s Edge'' (1944). Other visitors included

Swami Sivananda Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivananda; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He stu ...

Paramahansa Yogananda Paramahansa Yogananda (born Mukunda Lal Ghosh; January 5, 1893March 7, 1952) was an Indian Hindu monk, yogi and guru who introduced millions to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization Self-Realization Fellows ...

Alfred Sorensen Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sorensen (October 27, 1890 – August 13, 1984), also known as Sunyata, Shunya, or Sunyabhai, was a Danish mystic, horticulturist and writer who lived in Europe, India and the US. Early life and background Alfred Sorens ...

(Sunyata) and

Wei Wu Wei Terence James Stannus Gray (14 September 1895 – 5 January 1986), was a theatre producer who created the Cambridge Festival Theatre as an experimental theatre in Cambridge. He produced over 100 plays there between 1926 and 1933. Later in l ...

Arthur Osborne stayed at the Ashram for twenty years, and edited the Ashram's journal, ''

The Mountain Path Ridgeways are a particular type of ancient road that exploits the hard surface of hilltop ridges for use as unpaved, zero-maintenance roads, though they often have the disadvantage of steeper gradients along their courses, and sometimes quite nar ...

'', besides writing several book on Ramana Maharshi and his teachings.

Mouni Sadhu Mouni Sadhu (17 August 189724 December 1971) was the pen name of Mieczyslaw Demetriusz Sudowski, a Polish-born author of spiritual, mystical, and esoteric subjects. He lived in Poland until World War II, and eventually settled in Australia where ...

spent several months at the Ashram in 1949.

David Godman David Godman (born 1953) has written on the life, teachings and disciples of Ramana Maharshi, an Indian sage who lived and taught for more than fifty years at Arunachala, a sacred mountain in Tamil Nadu, India. In the last 30 years Godman has w ...

came to the ashram in 1976, and has since written or edited fourteen books on topics related to Sri Ramana Maharshi. He continues to live near the ashram. Niranjananda Swami, younger brother of Ramana Maharshi, who had moved to the ashram along with his mother in 1916, stayed at the ashram for the rest of his life and handling its management. His son and grandson have looked after the ashram in turn. Osborne, p. 119

Gallery

File:Ramanasaramam Compound.jpg, Ramanasaramam Compound. File:Sri-Ramana-Sramam.jpg, The Entrance of Sri Ramanasramam. Tiruvannamalai, Sri Ramana Ashram, Sri Ramanasramam, India.jpg, Campus File:Raman Maharishi main temple.jpg, Main temple decorated during Maharishi's birthday celebrations Tiruvannamalai, Sri Ramana Ashram, India.jpg, Hall File:Sri-Ramana-Sramam-photo46.jpg, A shrine inside Ramana Ashram

Notes

References

* * *''Self-Realization: The Life and Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi'', by B.V. Narasimha Swami () * * *
online text

External links

A Day in the Life at Ramana Maharshi AshramSri Ramanasramam, Official websiteSri Ramana Ashram on the mapSri Rudram Namakam chamakam chanting Live Video from Sri Ramana AshramRamana Maharshi Upadesa Saram Chanting Live
{{Hindu reform movements Religious organisations based in India Ashrams Hindu new religious movements Tiruvannamalai district Religious organizations established in 1922 Advaita Vedanta

History

Gallery

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links