A tranquil ashrama in Halasuru turns 125

A souvenir chronicles the ashrama’s history since the 1900s, when Swami Vivekananda’s teachings first inspired a small group in Bengaluru, writes S R Ramakrishna.

It is widely known that Chamaraja Wadiyar X, maharaja of Mysuru, was among the patrons who funded Swami Vivekananda’s 1893 trip to Chicago to address the World Parliament of Religions.

In a letter from Chicago, the monk thanked the king, and famously said, “(T)he vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.”

Old Mysuru (then spelt Mysore) and Bengaluru have enjoyed a historical connection with the Ramakrishna movement, of which Swami Vivekananda was the foremost proponent.

In Bengaluru, an ashrama located in Halasuru, founded in 1906, celebrated its 125th year with the release of a souvenir in January this year.

Called Vivekananda Ashrama till 1999, it was rechristened Ramakrishna Math that year, when it acquired the status of an independent centre of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.

Origins

Talks delivered by the charismatic Vivekananda (1863-1902) were winning him followers across India. Out here in Bengaluru, in 1900, a young devotee wrote to the Advaita Ashrama, a branch of the Ramakrishna Mission, for instructions on how to start activities in line with the master’s teachings.

Swami Vimalananda, a direct disciple of Swami Vivekananda, responded to him with the details. Thus was born the Vedanta Society in Bengaluru. Many inspired by Swami Vivekananda’s teachings came together and rented a cottage in Halasuru (then spelt Ulsoor), and began using it as a centre for prayer and meditation. It was called the Old Mandap.

On May 5, 1906, Swami Vimalananda consecrated the centre with pictures of Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi and Vivekananda. A memory shared in the ashrama is that, in 1903, 53 bhajana mandalis gathered at the Cantonment railway station to welcome Swami Ramakrishnananda, who steered the south India activities of the math then, as he arrived from Madras (now Chennai). About 4,000 devotees received him, and the groups sang all along the four-hour procession, reminding us of a time when Bengaluru was a stranger to traffic jams and road rage.

Thanks to the efforts of Dr P Venkatarangam and his friends, the ‘mandap’ was expanded and formally inaugurated on November 17, 1907. That was when it got the name of Vivekananda Ashrama. The medical doctor’s family was devoted to the cause, and his daughters had visited Kolkata for initiation into the order. The road on which the ashrama is located is now called Swami Vivekananda Road, and a Namma Metro station nearby is named after it.

Spread across three acres, the ashrama has 30 rooms. It now houses 13 monks. Fragrant flowers from old trees carpet the pathways and welcome the 50-60 visitors who walk in every day. Weekends are busier, with the prayer hall filling up to capacity.

Over the decades, the Halasuru centre has evolved into a space with a distinctive role within the Ramakrishna Mission. While the Basavanagudi math became the city’s more visible spiritual hub, Halasuru became a quiet retreat for senior monks.

Some monks have served the Ramakrishna Mission for decades and are now devoted to study and contemplation. The quiet of the Halasuru centre is considered especially conducive to scholastic and educational work.

Among the ashrama’s more recent public initiatives are the Sarada Devi Study Centre — 29 cubicles where students can study without distractions. To mark the 125th anniversary, the ashrama gave away 125 cycles to students and funded 125 eye operations. Its ‘smart classrooms’ are used to address people from specific walks of life — IT engineers were among the invitees for one such season. The ashrama also grants scholarships, and conducts daily yoga classes between 5.40 and 7.40 am.

The souvenir, commemorating 125 years of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda movement in Bengaluru and 25 years of the Ramakrishna Math in Halasuru, was released by Swami Gautamananda, the 97-year-old president of the Ramakrishna Mission. It contains detailed information about the making of one of Bengaluru’s preeminent monastic centres, now headed by Swami Bodhaswarupananda.

A view of the Ramakrishna Math in Halasuru Bengaluru. DH PHOTO by PUSHKAR V

Ramakrishna Math at Halasuru in Bengaluru which has completed 125 years. DH PHOTO/PUSHKAR V