Heritage Sites: Old Dining Hall and Kitchen
Heritage Sites: The Old Ashram Dispensary
The Ashram Vedic School was established in 1937 for the regular instruction in the Krishna Yajur Veda with the students performing daily recitation of the Vedas in the hall. Prior to this, pundits from town had come each day for morning and evening recitations and would chant before Bhagavan who, it is said, would sit bolt upright each time they began. Among the group from the school in town was a senior student, Sri Krishna Ganapatigal, who was selected as the first Ashram Veda Patasala teacher in the presence of Sri Bhagavan, and who in time proved instrumental for the steady growth of the newly formed Ashram school. After Bhagavan’s Mahanirvana, the school closed temporarily for lack of funds and it seemed that the chanting of the Vedas, which had become such a regular part of Ashram life, might come to an end simply because there was no one to carry it on. In 1953 the Ashram Managing Committee authorized Major Chadwick to solicit funds to revive the school and to initiate the Sri Chakra puja in the Mother’s Shrine. Under Chadwick’s stewardship, funds were raised and, five days after the Sri Chakra puja was inaugurated, the Ashram school was reopened in March, 1953.
In 1970s the school again suffered from lack of funds and candidates, and appeals were made for support. Finally thanks to Sri Vaidyanatha Ganapatigal of Mysore, the school was revitalised. In 1980, after 40 years of service, Sri Krishna Ganapatigal retired and was succeeded by Sri T.S. Ramaswamy Ganapatigal. Today, under the guidance of Sri Sentilnatha Ganapatigal, the school enjoys a vitality and regular influx of students unknown since the Patasala’s inception 65 years earlier.
