Greatness of Sri Gnanananda Giri

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Sri Gnanananda Giri was a contemporary of Sri Ramana Maharshi, and another

Advaita Vedanta jivanmukhti living near Arunachala.

 

He wandered for many years throughout India, established, then left, a

number of ashrams, and finally settled in Tirukkoyilur, because of the

spiritual power he perceived in this place. He had close contact with

spiritual gurus such as Ramana Maharshi , Ramakrishna Paramahamsa,

Aurobindo, Seshadri Swami, Vallalar, Shudhananda Bharati and Yogi

Ramsuratkumar.

 

It is believed that that Swami Gnanananda was born long ago at Mangalapuri

in the North Kanara district to an orthodox Brahmin couple Sri Venkoba

Ganapatigal and Smt. Sakkubai. The child was named as Subramanya. At his

young age Subramanya did not show interest in formal education. He was

indifferent to external things of life and deeply absorbed in knowing thy

self. At the age of 12 Subramanya followed a divine light and reached

Pandharpur. There, he had a divine darshan of Lord Panduranga and-Rukmayi.

It is in this place boy met his Guru, Swami Sivaratna Giri of Jyotirmutt,

one of the four mutts established by saint Adi Sankara.

 

After long period of spiritual discipline, meditation and Samadhi, swami

Gnanananda traveled extensively on foot, spanning the whole of India, Tibet,

Nepal, Burma and Sri Lanka. He stayed in the famous Shri Lankan Shrine of

Kathirgamam for 60 years. In Tamilnadu itself the sage had stayed for more

than a hundred and seventy years in various places – Kalpattu, Kolli Malai

hills, Polur etc.

 

For those ready to plunge into the deepest practice, he taught that dhyana

(meditation) was what is needed, and that all other forms like karma yoga,

bhakta yoga, chanting, austerities, etc. are not only not needed but can get

in the way of deep practice. For those not ready to plunge in, he taught to

follow the traditional practices to ready the mind for practice. At

Thapovanam, the traditional practices and rituals are done every day.

 

The swami never bothered about the status of a person. The swami had a very

nice way of deflating people’s ego, so that the self may be renounced.

Indeed there is no other way of describing the personality of the swami than

by calling Him a “Paramananda Vigraham”.

 

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More Details with photos of his and his ashram can be found in below site

 

http://richardarunachala.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/tirukkoyilur-sri-gnananandas-t\

hapovanam-ashram/

 

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram