Ashram

Overview

Traditionally, ashrams would be located far form human habitation in forests or mountainous, "refuges set off from worldly life." The residents of an ashram, often Brahmins, regularly performed spiritual and physical exercises of renunciation. Other sacrifices and penances, such as yajnas, were also performed. Many ashrams also served as gurukulas, residential schools for children under the guru-shishya tradition.

Sometimes, the goal of a pilgrimage to the ashram was not tranquility, but instruction in some art, especially warfare. In the Ramayana, the princes of ancient Ayodhya, Rama, and Lakshmana, go to Vishvamitra's ashram to protect his yajnas from being defiled by emissary-demons of Ravana. After they prove their mettle, the princes receive martial instruction from the sage, especially in the use of divine weapons. In the Mahabharata, the Kaurava and Pandava princes receive weapons instructions from Drona at his ashram.

Ion contemporary times, ashrams may admit other castes or be located in more populated areas.

Schools in Maharashtra

Boarding schools, especially in the tribal areas of Maharashtra and elsewhere in India, are called ashram shala or ashram schools. One such school is the Lok Biradari Prakalp Ashram Shala.

In the West

A number of ashrams have been established outside India. Typically, these ashrams are connected to Indian lineages, focus on imparting Yoga-related teachings, often in residential retreats, and are headed by spiritual teachers of Indian or Western background.