Sri Ramanasramam

Sri Ramanasramam grew around Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi from 1922 onward, after he descended from the caves of Arunachala (where he had lived for over 20 years in silent realisation) to the southern slope of the hill, where his mother Alagammal had taken samadhi. The ashram developed slowly — first as a shrine over his mother's samadhi, then with simple thatched halls, eventually with the Old Hall where Bhagavan sat for decades in mostly silent darshan.

Unlike most modern Indian ashrams, Ramanasramam was not built for organisational growth. Bhagavan refused to start any movement, write a system, or take disciples in the formal sense. Yet the ashram has drawn seekers from across the world — Paul Brunton, Arthur Osborne, Robert Adams, and many others wrote books that brought self-inquiry (atma vichara, "Who am I?") to a global audience. After Bhagavan's mahasamadhi in 1950, the ashram continues to be run by his family lineage. Arunachala itself — believed to be a manifestation of Bhagavan Shiva as a hill — is the primary object of pilgrimage; the pradakshina around the hill is a 14-kilometre walk.