Ma Anandamayi Ashram, Kankhal

The Ma Anandamayi Ashram at Kankhal is the principal Haridwar seat of the Shree Shree Anandamayee Sangha, the spiritual body devoted to Sri Ma Anandamayi (1896-1982), one of twentieth-century India's most revered mystics.

• Born Nirmala Sundari in Kheora, Bengal (in present-day Bangladesh), she came to be known as Anandamayi Ma, "the Bliss-Permeated Mother," and drew a remarkable circle of devotees that included saints, scholars and public figures across India.
• Her teaching was famously simple and non-sectarian, centred on love of the divine and self-enquiry, and she travelled ceaselessly rather than founding a fixed sect.
• After her passing on 27 August 1982, a samadhi shrine was raised in the courtyard of this Kankhal ashram, and it has since become a place of quiet, continuous pilgrimage.
• The heart of the complex is the white-marble samadhi mandir enshrining Ma's resting place, kept luminous and spotless, where devotees offer flowers, sit in silent meditation and join the daily rounds of kirtan and arati.
• Around it the ashram gathers a cluster of dharmic spaces: a small museum and archive preserving Ma's personal effects, photographs and writings; yagnashalas where fire rituals are performed on festival days; and the Shankaracharya Hall used for discourses, scriptural recitation and the ashram's larger gatherings.
• The atmosphere is deliberately unshowy - long verandahs, shaded courtyards and the murmur of chanting - reflecting Ma's own emphasis on inner stillness over spectacle.
• Kankhal itself is one of Haridwar's most sacred quarters, home to the ancient Daksha Mahadev Temple and a dense weave of ashrams strung along the Ganga canal, making the Anandamayi Ashram a natural stop on a slow, walkable spiritual circuit.
• Each winter the Sangha hosts the Samyam Mahavrata, a week of collective meditation, silence, religious discourse and devotional music that draws devotees from across the country - the most vibrant time to witness the ashram's living tradition.
• For vegetarian travellers the setting could not be simpler: Haridwar and Kankhal are wholly vegetarian and alcohol-free by long custom, and the ashram environs follow strict satvik norms, with much of the food cooked without onion or garlic.
• Visitors are welcomed to observe respectfully - remove footwear, dress modestly, keep silence in the shrine and ask before photographing - and the surrounding Kankhal lanes offer simple pure-vegetarian bhojanalayas and sweet shops serving the pilgrim community.