31/03/2016
Place to Visit
Anandashram (Hindi: अनंदाश्रम) (English translation = "Abode of Bliss") is a spiritual retreat located in the city of Kanhangad, a city and a municipality in Kasaragod district in the Indian state of Kerala. Anandashram was founded by Swami Ramdas and Mother Krishnabai, also called Papa Ramdas and Pujya Mataji, in 1931.
The idea of setting up an ashram or spiritual centre called "Anandashram" seems to have first occurred to Swami Ramdas in Bombay. He had recently stayed in Kasargod in North Kerala where he had been, according to his memoirs, "put up in a thatched hut on the Pilikunji Hill." While in Bombay, Swami Ramdas wrote to Anandrao (his brother in Kasargod) "expressing a wish to have an Ashram in that place on the Pilikunji hill. [Swami Ramdas] also suggested that it might be named 'Anandashram.'" A small Ashram consisting of a tiny room and an open veranda was constructed upon the hill, to the south of which flowed the Payashwini river. This Anandashram was inaugurated on 3 June 1928. In a letter dated 14 June 1928, Swami Ramdas describes the Ashram thus: "For about a fortnight last, Ramdas has been occupying the new Ashram, got ready for His child by Sri Ram. It is situated in a jungle, at the foot of hills, near a swift running stream. The place is calm and blissful. Morning and evening, the sweet notes of birds fill the air with thrills of ecstasy. Within the Ashram, hymns are sung, and the chanting of God's names goes on, all day and night. Devotees of God are pouring in numbers. Ramdas is merged in a sea of bliss. The Ashram is named "Anandashram".