Ramanasramam
Sri Ramanasramam, where Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi lived and taught his Eternal Message of Advaita Vedanta, is situated in a picturesque spot on the western end of the sacred town of Arunachala – Tiruvannamalai – and the air of calm, peace and beauty that prevails in the noble buildings that constitute the Asramam, where several activities are carried on, has to be experienced to be believed. The entire Asramam is an ideal spot for calm and quiet meditation. People of all nationalities look upon it as their own home.
About Ramana Maharshi
It was apparently by accident that Venkataraman heard about Arunachala when he was sixteen years of age. One day an elderly relative of his called on the family in Madurai. The boy asked him where he had come from. The relative replied “From Arunachala”. The very name ‘Arunachala’ acted as a magic spell on Venkataraman, and with an evident excitement he put his next question to the elderly gentleman, “What! From Arunachala! Where is it?” And he got the reply that Tiruvannamalai was Arunachala.
Referring to this incident the Sage says later on in one of his hymns to Arunachala : ‘Oh, great wonder! As an insentient hill it stands. Its action is difficult for anyone to understand. From my childhood it appeared to my intelligence that Arunachala was something very great. But even when I came to know through another that it was the same as Tiruvannamalai I did not understand its meaning. When, stilling my mind, it drew me up to it, and I came close, I found that it was the Immovable.’
