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List of largest Hindu ashrams

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of largest Hindu ashrams in terms of area.

Rank Name of the ashram Photo Area (m2) Place Country Notes
1 The Art of Living International Center
1,011,714 Bangalore  India The Art of Living International Center is the headquarter of the Art of Living Foundation.[1] The center is located 21 km southwest of Bangalore on Kanakapura road, at the top of the Panchagiri Hills.[2] It is connected by Road via Nice Ring Road or Banshankari - Kanakpura Road.[3]
2 Adiyogi Shiva
607,020[4] Velliangiri Mountains  India Isha Foundation's headquarters are located in an ashram built on the foothills of the Velliangiri Mountains, adjacent to the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve,[5] some forty kilometres from the city of Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India.[6]
3 Mata Amritanandamayi Math
404,686 Kollam  India The Mata Amritanandamayi Math (MAM) is an international charitable organization aimed at the spiritual and material upliftment of humankind. It was founded by spiritual leader and humanitarian Mata Amritanandamayi in 1981,[7] with its headquarters in Paryakadavu, Alappad Panchayat, Kollam district, Kerala. Along with its sister organization, the Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, MAM conducts charitable work including disaster relief, healthcare for the poor, environmental programs, fighting hunger and scholarships for impoverished students, amongst others. It also runs the five-campus university known as Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, an Engineering college Amrita Institutions and classes in yoga, meditation and Sanskrit. MAM is a volunteer organization, basing its activities on the principle of karma yoga [work as an offering to the divine]. Its headquarters are home to more than 3,000 people, a mix of householders, monastics and monastic students. People make the pilgrimage to MAM every day in order to receive the blessings of Mata Amritanandamayi.
4 Osho International Meditation Resort
161,874[8] Pune  India In 1990, Rajneesh died and was buried at the ashram in Poona; which became the Osho International Meditation Resort.[9][10] Identifying as the Esalen of the East, the resort has classes in a variety of spiritual techniques from a broad range of traditions and markets the facility as a spiritual oasis, a "sacred space" for discovering one's self, and uniting the desires of body and mind in a beautiful environment.[11] According to press reports, it attracts some 200,000 people from all over the world each year;[9][12] prominent visitors have included politicians, media personalities and the Dalai Lama.[10]
5 Sri Aurobindo Ashram
38,080 Pondicherry  India The Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a spiritual community (ashram) located in Pondicherry, in the Indian territory of Puducherry. The ashram grew out of a small community of disciples who had gathered around Sri Aurobindo after he retired from politics and settled in Pondicherry in 1910. On 24 November 1926, after a major spiritual realization, Sri Aurobindo withdrew from public view in order to continue his spiritual work. At this time he handed over the full responsibility for the inner and outer lives of the sadhaks (spiritual aspirants) and the ashram to his spiritual collaborator, "the Mother", earlier known as Mirra Alfassa. This date is therefore generally known as the founding-day of the ashram, though, as Sri Aurobindo himself wrote, it had “less been created than grown around him as its centre.”[13]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Art of Living Foundation". Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  2. ^ "How Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Took Forward The Dream Of Martin Luther King". Huffington Post India. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  3. ^ "Art of Living International Center, Bangalore: A Place to Rejuvenate Your Body, Mind, and Soul". Fabhotels. 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  4. ^ "Isha yoga center by Isha foundation". Urbanpro. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  5. ^ Hudson, Simon; Hudson, Louise (2017), Marketing for Tourism, Hospitality & Events: A Global & Digital Approach, London, etc.: SAGE, ISBN 978-1-5264-1437-3
  6. ^ Berghella, Vincenzo (2018). Chennai and Coimbatore, India. Berghella. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-578-20085-9. OCLC 1032025559.
  7. ^ Amma: Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, a Biography, Amrita Books, 2011
  8. ^ "Osho Ashram: Bhagwan Rajneesh Ashram in Pune acquires new face after Rs 50 crore revamp".
  9. ^ a b "Mystic's burial site at commune is reincarnated as posh resort". Mike McPhate. 29 August 2004. Archived from the original on 14 December 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
  10. ^ a b Fox, Judith M. (2002), Osho Rajneesh – Studies in Contemporary Religion Series, No. 4, Salt Lake City: Signature Books, ISBN 1-56085-156-2
  11. ^ Urban, Hugh B. (2005), "Osho, From Sex Guru to Guru of the Rich: The Spiritual Logic of Late Capitalism", in Forsthoefel, Thomas A.; Cynthia Ann Humes (eds.), Gurus in America, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-6573-8
  12. ^ "Osho? Oh No!". Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2009.
  13. ^ Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2006), p. 9.