At a time the spiritual glory of Bharat was taking the world by storm through her great children, Sri Ramakrishna & Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Swami Rama Tirtha, Swami Shivananda, and Paramahamsa Yogananda, this sacred soul was performing a 45-year long intense, incessant and penetrating penance in a small village 15 km north of Thiruvananthapuram in the southern tip of India, quite unknown to the human world outside. A “Spiritual Swayambhoo” i.e., a self-made Saint with no Guru or Teacher, Gurupadar was recreating one of the most pristine aspects of India’s spiritual heritage i.e., enlightenment and realisation through Upasana of Rama.

The Ramopasana (worship of Rama) that transformed a hunter-thief, Ratnakara, into Aadi Kavi Valmiki and gave birth to the foremost and finest poetic expression Ramayana, the same Ramopasana that laid the divine foundation for the Karnatic Classical Music through Saint Thyagaraja, was given its subtlest and luminous expression by Gurupadar through his own life and institutions he brought to life.

A Life of Penance and Truth:

Gurupadar was born on the 23rd of December 1900 in Uliyazhthura village near Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, in the very land sanctified by the birth of the great spiritual and social reformers of Kerala – Chattampi Swamikal and Sree Narayana Guru. Even as a child Gurupadar used to recite ‘Rama‘ manthram and Adhyatma Ramayana by Thunchat Ramanujam Ezhuthachan, a great sage-poet who lived in the 15th century. After having meditated and practiced penance at Madavooppara Cave Temple and Subramanya temple at Veli Mala, he moved into the 14 cents of land at Chenkottukonam around 1920 and established a hermitage. He continued his silent and penetrating penance for the next 45 years without moving out of the Ashram. Through the continuous recitation of Ramayana and Upasana (worship) of Rama, His Holiness attained the state of ‘Atmarama‘ or oneness with the cosmic self quite akin to Sree Ramadasa, Hanuman.

Gurupadar was the embodiment of divine light and wisdom. Though uneducated in the ordinary sense of the term, H.H. used to correct wrong recitation of the Vedas and the Upanishads. He had the divine power of knowing everything beforehand, disappearing from the eyes of others while being present amongst them, assuming the form of any living being and being present at distant places. Though nothing remained beyond his reach and power, he led a simple and ordinary life clad in a short piece of dhoti. Gurupadar welcomed everyone without distinction of community, class, creed or religion as he visualised the whole world as one family. However, he was uncompromising with untruth and egoism in anyone. This hermitage came to be known as Swamiyarmadom. He instituted unique and luminous institutions to instill reverence and piety in the hearts of common people.

• Aaradhana and Bhajans

• Uninterrupted Recital of Ramayana

• Sree Rama Pattabhishekam in the Atmarama State

• Sree Rama Navami celebrations, to commemmorate the birth of Lord Rama