The mystical vision of a “Thapaswini has taken visible shape as a breathtaking 91-feet tall marble lotus at Santhigiri Ashram on the outskirts of the state capital.
The lotus-shaped structure, which has been named Parnasala, will be formally unveiled by the President, Ms Pratibha Patil, on Friday.
It was the revered Karunakara Guru who established the Santhigiri Ashram in 1964 by building a small hut in Pothencode. One day, his prime disciple, Amritajnana Thapaswini, had an effulgent vision in which she saw a gigantic white lotus surging up towards the sky. “Soon there were lotuses everywhere... as many as there are solar systems in the Universe,” she later wrote in ecstasy.
When she narrated her vision to the guru, he told her with a smile that her dream would become the symbol of Santhigiri in course of time. The guru passed away in 1999 and the ashram, now headed by the Thapaswini, took up the construction of the lotus at the spot where his mortal remains were kept. It took close to 10 years to complete. The lotus is 84 feet wide and has 12 gigantic petals facing upward and nine petals facing downward. The ashram has spent Rs 30 crore to construct the lotus and the “spiritual zone” that surrounds it.
“We have used 1,00,000 square feet of costly Makrana marble from Rajasthan, mined from below 250 feet, to construct the lotus,” said Mr M.G. Jayakumar, the assistant general manager of the ashram committee.
“After Taj Mahal, this is the first structure to use so much Makrana marble.”
“The lotus, as everyone knows, is the symbol of purity and spirituality,” said Swami Janananma Jnanatapaswi of the Ashram.