ABSTRACT
This chapter consists of an analysis of the ashram phenomenon. Attention is paid first to the inspirational model for the Christian Ashram Movement, which is the ideal and considerably idealized concept of the ancient ashram. Far more important, however, seems to be the reinterpretation of such a concept in the context of the needs and possibilities of Christian churches in the 20th century. A brief overview of several different definitions of the ashram from the pen of Christian authors is followed by a critical analysis of its constitutive traits and characteristics. They can be described as types of the essential given features of every ashram. The variety of approaches to these features eloquently points to the fact that the ashram phenomenon itself has undergone a fairly dramatic development and never represented an idea that could be unequivocally grasped. This variety of the means and ends that were attributed to ashrams and also the external and internal forms of individual ashrams at the same time is a source that springs up into an opportunity to classify them into several categories and according to different perspectives.
