Construction Period:
Pillars and slab - 07/2005;
all else, 12/2008 - 12/2014 - on and off, for 6 years!
| Advaita
Ananda Samadhi Ashram - Ellora, INDIA (The India branch of the Samadhi Hermitage, Madrid, New Mexico, USA) Our India Ashram was
under construction, off and on, from Fall, 2008 - Dec. 2014!!
(The slab and pillars were constructed in July, 2005 .. and then it waited 3 years, for stage 2, start of construction.) Local volcanic stone was used for internal walls, the Meditation Cave, and garden stone walls, giving an ancient temple/cave-like atmosphere. The pics below tell some of the story. The final stage was construction of our small gym room; and that replaced construction work, as the 50 years of exercise & yoga which kept Ananda's body fit and strong! |
Ellora is a place of Ancient Buddhist, Hindu & Jain Spiritual
Caves carved
into a beautiful Volcanic Hillside,
near to Aurangabad, in the western state of Maharashtra, approximately 7 hours journey from Mumbai.
We are building internal walls, and other places, from old volcanic stone blocks, to give an ancient temple/cave-like atmosphere.
The black stone shown below was used only for boundary and retaining walls; very sharp edges, and not fun to work with.
Ananda set the very first 3 stones, on 1st January 2009, in the corner behind the 3 ladies (below) … and then handed the work over to the crew!!
PHASE 1 - Brick and black-stone walls -- boundary and exterior.
PHASE 2 - Fun Stone Work
The stone work shown below was done by Ananda and friends.
This type of stone masonry is a specialty of Ananda and friend JT from USA.
near to Aurangabad, in the western state of Maharashtra, approximately 7 hours journey from Mumbai.
We are building internal walls, and other places, from old volcanic stone blocks, to give an ancient temple/cave-like atmosphere.
The black stone shown below was used only for boundary and retaining walls; very sharp edges, and not fun to work with.
Ananda set the very first 3 stones, on 1st January 2009, in the corner behind the 3 ladies (below) … and then handed the work over to the crew!!
PHASE 1 - Brick and black-stone walls -- boundary and exterior.
 July, 2005 |
 1st January 2009 Lunch time, 1st construction day. Ladies do the grunt work; guys set the stones! |
 9th
January 2009 - so much work completed, in just one week!
|
 Building a stairway, India style! 9/2009 |
 31 December, 2009 |
 The Cement Mixer!! |
PHASE 2 - Fun Stone Work
The stone work shown below was done by Ananda and friends.
This type of stone masonry is a specialty of Ananda and friend JT from USA.
 So happy to get this collection of old stone blocks (90 pieces for $1/each!!). See the "Heart-Temple wall" pictured below. |
 Ananda's first stone project .. constructing a giant plant pot for a Chickoo/Saporta tree. |
 One day, my source came to see what I was doing. He said, "You are using our waste to do art-work!" (They toss these stones in a ditch with cement, making a foundation for walls.) |
 Heart-Temple in wall of our "Crystal Meditation Cave". Ananda and JT Grosch (October, 2010) |
 "The Crew!!" JT, Stacey, and Yuki visited for 3 weeks, including a 2 week "masonry marathon" constructing the Meditation Cave, and some other walls in the Ashram building. We had a blast; Sita, Sagar & mom, also helped alot. |
 Heart Mandir (temple) in middle of Satsang wall. All stone walls are two sided; backside of this is Kitchen on left; desk and bed on right |
  Two sides of Satsang Hall wall. |
 Night-time
stone layout; ready for next morning's cement mix!
|
|
 A wall in the making. |
 Verandah - backside is Ananda's bed (sitting w. Sita & Sagar in pic. below, to right) |
 Kitchen Dining area … a "T"- shaped wall. Desk is behind left side of the wall; as is the bed under the window. |
 Close-up
of Kitchen wall to the left;
top central |
 That's
Sagar, my very good work buddy.
We did that floor we are sitting on together. Hardly a lazy bone in his body!! |
 And … here is our most precious Sita and brother Sagar visiting the Hermitage! Sita's also a great team player! |
 Meal Time with Sagar and Sita. Chapatti & veges in the evening; a dozen or more Bananas & other fruit are Ananda's diet during day of Stone masonry. Sagar helped build that wall to my right! |
The "Samadhi Hermitage-India" is here to serve your visit to India.
If you are coming to India, and this feels of interest to you, then please do come for a visit.
email: ananda (@) samadhihermitage.org
Ananda's phone # in India is 95451-63039.
Back to: Samadhi Hermitage - India Ashram
