ABSTRACT
In her later years, Janaki ‘mata’ (mother) as she was known, had established a well-known ashram (a sort of commune focused on spiritual activity) in Thanjavur, Tamilnadu. She was a guru to many men and women who, years after her death, continue to revere her memory and come together on special days to celebrate and commemorate at a temple which has been consecrated over her samadhi, where her body was interred at Thanjavur. Janaki mata considered herself to be in the spiritual lineage of Ramana Maharishi, whose philosophical enquiries into the nature of the self and whose own life at Tiruvannamalai made him a highly respected sage with a multitude of followers from India and abroad.
