Sri Ramanasramam

Upcoming dates - July 2008

2008-07-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

July 14th is Cow Lakshmi Day, the day Bhagavan's beloved Lakshmi was absorbed into Him.
July 17th, is roughly the day Bhagavan had the death experience, which resulted in "Self-Realization".
July 18th is Guru Poornima.

A kind reader sends us this link to some other caves frequented by Bhagavan during his Virupaksha days.

A Walk around the Sri Ramanasramam

2008-02-15T04:04:00.000-08:00

Preferably seen full-screen.

A Walk up the Arunachala Hill

2008-02-15T03:56:00.000-08:00

Preferably seen full screen.

More Movie Clips of Arunachala

2007-02-09T22:01:00.000-08:00

I have added the earlier movies to youtube. You can see them there now, and download using keepvid.com if you wish to. -- Feb 2007.

Last time (see this entry) I missed out taking a clip of Skandashramam. Here are two:
Skandasramam Interior (5.7MB)

Skandasramam Exterior (10.2MB)

This one is a rotating shot of Arunachala on the way up to the Skandasramam.
Arunachala (10MB)
Inner Pradakshina Route - 1 (6.6MB)

Inner Pradakshina Route - 2 (4 MB)

There are several clips of the Annamalai Swamy Temple in the same folder, along with the older clips (of the Ashram Halls and Virupaksha Cave). New ones have 2007 appended to them.
MOVIES FOLDER

Request to readers: if you have taken some nice photographs or movie clips of the Sri Ramanasramam or Arunachala, i would be happy to link to your blog/flickr, or add them to mine. If you have taken movie clips, you can host them free on a picasaweb.google.com for which you need a gmail account. (Currently, they don't support movie uploads from a Mac, so i can't upload it there.)
You may host clips on youtube, and also high quality, large size videos on stage6.com.

Samadhi of Lakshmi

2007-02-08T04:52:00.000-08:00

A photograph of Lakshmi, absorbed into Sri Bhagavan on 18th June, 1948.
Some endearing accounts of Lakshmi:

The darling of all ashramites, Lakshmi the cow was
believed to be Keerai-patti reborn. She had a free run of
the Ashram ground. She would often trample upon
vegetable beds and have her fill and if anyone tried to
chase her away, the Maharshi would intervene and say, "It
was your fault that you did not properly fence off the
area. Why blame her?" On such occasions, Lakshmi would
walk into the hall and stand close to Bhagavan as if she
was innocent. Nobody could do anything about it.

Followers (Ramana Leela)

It was 1948, the next one to leave Bhagavan was
Lakshmi the cow. We have already seen the love and
affection Bhagavan showered on the cow. She lived at the
Ashram for well over twenty years....

Moving accounts of the passing of several followers

... and said, “Oh Lakshmi, Lakshmi,” and then, to us,
controlling his tears, he said, “Because of her, our family
(the Ashram) has grown to this extent.”

The Deliverance of Lakshmi

Burial of Lakshmi

Bhagavan Jayanthi 2007 pictures

2007-02-08T04:02:00.000-08:00

Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya !
The Bhagavan Jayanthi 2007 was a simple celebration. Chanting of Vedas and other Tamil works of Bhagavan, starting about 4:30 am. The rush started about 10am, the Samadhi Hall was full by then. The program finished at about 11 am.

Over the period of the Jayanthi week there were huge crowds visiting the ashram and the caves. A full-moon night fell before the Jayanthi.

For more pictures of Arunachala, please visit this url. There are pictures of the samadhis of Sri Kunju Swami, Sri Ramaswami Pillai, Sri Muruganar, Sri Vishwanath Swami, devotees of Bhagavan who attended on Him for many years. Also pictures of the samadhis of Sri S.S. Cohen, Sadhu Arunachala, and Lucy Ma. Of Lakshmi, beloved of Bhagavan. Of Sri Annamalai Swamis temple. These pictures did not figure in the previous visits album at this url.

Some movies will be uploaded in a day - nothing great or ego-shattering!

Here are some references to earlier Jayanthi's that should interest you. Kindly click on the link to see the full articles.

It was the month of December and Bhagavan's jayanthi
was arriving. I used to talk to my doctor friend about the
speciality of jayanthi darshan, for on the jayanthi day
Bhagavan had a special glow of light about him and his starry
eyes shed a special lustre and those around experienced the
ambrosia or the elixir of life. It is for experiencing this light
or bliss of being that devotees flocked to him from near and
far. Though this experience was obtained on normal days
too, it was very intense on particular occasions like jayanthi,
Mahapooja and Karthikai days, as also it was when great souls
met him.

From Silent Power

After the preliminary enquiries about his welfare, Bhagavan told us that it was this Sastry who started the Jayanthi celebrations. A devotee asked, “Is he the person who got frightened, and hid himself when a tiger appeared?” “Yes. It is he,” Bhagavan replied.

From Letters (80)

On special festival occasions
such as the birthday celebrations (Jayanthi) and Maha Puja, the students do not commence the Vedic recitations at the Brahma Muhurtham time (a couple of hours before sun rise), being tired with work on the previous night, but Bhagavan gets up as usual and keeps himself ready. If he is ever in ill health and his personal attendants request him to sleep a little longer, he replies, “What is the point in sleeping at the
time of the Brahma Muhurtham? If you want, you may sleep.”

From Letters (106)

Meanwhile, the jayanti of Bhagavan neared.
Dandapani wished to celebrate the jayanti at the samadhi.
A week before the jayanti Bhagavan visited the samadhi
and stayed back. Nobody knew the reason for it, ...

From Ramana Leela (c. 1922)

Visiting Ramanashramam for Jayanthi '07

2006-12-16T05:43:00.000-08:00

The great news is that I shall be visiting the Ramanashramam during the Jan 4th 2007 Bhagavan Jayanthi and shall come back loaded with photographs and movies of the celebrations.

There is also a very serious plan to impose my presence on the Holy Town during Bhagavan's samadhi in mid April, Mahapuja (Mothers samadhi) in mid-may, Advent Day Sept 1st, and the Deepam in Nov-Dec (Bhagavan willing, of course). A sort of spiritual grand-slam!

If you wish me to say any prayers for you while I am there, please leave as a comment here, before Dec 29th, 2006 as that is when i depart for Tiruvannamalai.

Movie Clips of Sri Ramanashramam

2006-04-28T01:34:00.000-07:00

Presented here are some movie clips (MOV format) of Ramanashramam, Virupaksha cave and Tiruvannamalai. Each is about 10 MB each, and may be viewed using Quicktime.

There are no copyrights to these files, feel free to use them in any way you wish - to copy, distribute, mirror, etc, them. No permission or credit required.

Ashram Old Hall
Ashram Samadhi Hall
Ashram Samadhi Hall - Prayers
Ashram Samadhi Hall - 360 degree view
Virupaksha Cave
Tiruvannamalai view taken from near Skandashram
Ashram entrance - 360 view

The media files have now moved to: Movies site and Music site.

Arunachala Akshara Mana Maalai (32 MB - mp3)

Visiting Sri Ramanashramam

2006-03-14T08:39:00.000-08:00

This blog contains some details and photographs of my recent trip to the Sri Ramanashramam (Jan 26, 2006 to Feb 10, 2006). These photographs can in no way substitute for an actual trip to the ashram, they are more to refresh the memory of those of us who have been there already, or who for whatever reasons cannot travel to the ashram.

May Bhagavan's grace always inundate you.

The entrance of the Sri Ramanashramam, in Tiruvannamalai. The ashram is about 4-5 hours (by bus) from Chennai.

A view of the Arunachala hill from the ashram. The picture is taken from the doorway of the Bhagavan's mother's samadhi hall. Arunachala is revered since ancient times as Lord Siva manifest in the form of a sacred mountain. Please see The Power of Arunachala to learn more.

The following pictures were taken in the Mother's Samadhi Hall. This houses a statue of Bhagavan, with the heart cave sutra above.

This picture is of the heart-cave sutra engraved in stone over the statue of Bhagavan. sutra text,
gif (48k)

The following pictures are of the room where Bhagavan spent his last weeks/months, when it was difficult for him to walk much.

A close-up taken through the window showing the bed where Bhagavan lay, and attained Mahanirvana.

The following pictures are of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi's samadhi hall. This hall is where many ceremonies and pujas are conducted daily. Notice the back-lit photographs behind the samadhi.

You may see devotees doing the pradakshina (walking around a revered person/object keeping it to one's right).

A close-up of the statue of Bhagavan at the samadhi, the foundation stone was laid by Indira Gandhi in 1970.

These pictures show the back wall of the samadhi hall on which beautiful back-lit photographs are hanging. These photographs cannot capture the mood of that portion of the hall.

This picture shows the samadhi hall from the statue side.

The following pictures are of the Old Hall where Bhagavan gave darshan. The wooden fence was put by ashram management to keep devotees from getting to close to Bhagavan. Bhagavan joked that the fence was to keep him inside.

The Old Hall is where people may be seen meditating from the early hours of the day till 8:30 pm, with a 2-hour break between 12:30 and 2:30pm.

The following photographs are of the Virupaksha Cave where Bhagavan meditated from 1899 to 1916 (from the age of 20 to 37).

These pictures are of the walls of the room built outside the actual cave. I have taken a broad sweep of the cave and this room in
mov format (mov 10 MB). I have not photographed the interior of the cave due to a meditator inside.

The following pictures are of the Skandashramam where Bhagavan spent the years from 1915 to 1922 (until the age of 43).

This is a picture of the room in which Bhagavan's mothers attained Nirvana. Bhagavan sat with her for many hours, her head on his lap, his hand on her head or heart preparing her for nirvana.

Some more photographs may be viewed at this site . I shall upload all the photographs in a short while. I have no server space on which to upload the movie pictures of the Ashram exterior, Old Hall, Skandashram and Virupaksha Cave (10 MB each). If you can host them somewhere, please let me know, i can mail them to you.

I was unable to take pictures of the Dining Hall - but then this is a place that should be experienced personally. Photographs cannot do justice to the environment - they would only spoil the fun.

(If you are unable to see some pictures, that means that geocities' hourly limit has been exceeded. Let me know, i would have to upload these pictures separately)

There are no copyrights on these photographs. Please feel free to use them without permission.

Other links:
Ramana Maharshi
Girivalam
Climbing Mt Arunachala
Biography of Sri Bhagavan

Virupaksha Cave movie (mov 10 MB)

aruNAchala akshara maNa mAlai (mp3 - 32 MB)

Tags: RamanaMaharshi

I thank beloved Bhagavan Ramana for the great blessing, of being His devotee in this life.