Ehsan Fazili/Achabal, South Kashmir

It sounds unbelievable but is true that an Ashram founded by a disciple of Swami Vivekananda in South Kashmir for spiritual and religious purposes has been helping local Muslim farmers grow apples and walnuts using modern techniques that improve the yield of their cash crops.

The Shree Ramkrishna Mahasammelan Samiti Ashram (SRMA) of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, Kerala, is located at village Nangdandi, close to the Achabal resort in the Anantnag district. The Ashram was founded by Swami Ashokananda, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda 87 years ago.

Nestled in the pine forests on 87 kanals of land at the baseline of forests near Achabal, the SRMA was set up in 1937 with the purpose of “working on the path of Sanatan Dharma and performing human services.”

The statue of Swami Vivekananda at the Nagdandi Ashram

The Ashram continued to function during the peak of insurgency and more so when that area was infested with terrorists both locals and mercenaries sent by Pakistan to push up violence and mayhem in the name of religion in Kashmir. 

Brij Lal Bhat, Chairman of the Administrative Committee at the Ashram told Awaz-the Voice that, as part of its infrastructure development, the Ashram has developed a high-density apple orchard. The fruit is sold to raise the revenue.

“However, it also serves as a demonstration block for local populace,” he said. The local farmers freely visit the Ashram to learn and understand the techniques employed in the apple orchard.

“We encourage them to use their unproductive and barren lands for fruit farming using modern techniques so that they get better returns of their produce,” Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit from the Anantnag town who retired from the J&K government, as Director of Horticulture, Marketing & Planning, said.

A natural spring in the compound of the Nagdandi ashram

The Ashram has also developed a high-density walnut variety that starts fruiting in its second year. A walnut tree otherwise takes about 8-9 years to bear fruit.

Swami Vivekananda visited the nearby Mughal Garden at Achabal on July 27, 1898. He also meditated at this place. The Ashram has two more units----one at Chunar in Ganderbal, spread over 55 kanals, and Trahpoo, Achabal.

Bhat categorically said the ashram never faced a problem or disturbance all these years of insurgency.

“Our objective is to teach, preach and propagate Sanatan Dharma…..to help humanity, develop self-control, transparency and almost all positive and virtues of living”, Bhat explained. “Our job is that of ‘man-making and nation-building’ and helping those in need”.

Besides, the Ashram offers great support to the miniscule community of Kashmiri Hindus who continue to live in Kashmir even after the mass exodus of the community in 1989-90 due to violence and targeted killings of its members.

The Ashram sets up Langar (community kitchen) at the annual Mata Kheer Bhawani festival at Tulmulla in Ganderbal district. Bhat said the Ashram was conducting many programs to connect displaced Kashmiri Hindus to their homeland.

The Ashram offers them lodging and boarding during their pilgrimages to various religious sites. He said it was in 1997 that the Ashram set up its first free Langar for the pilgrims during the annual festival at Mata Kheer Bhawani shrine. That year, it served 400-500 pilgrims.

The entrance to the Nagdandi Ashram

However, this year during the festival in June, the Ashram served 35,000 pilgrims. “The devotees are hosted by the Ashram, funded through donations made by the Kashmiri Hindus. We wanted to create the facilities so that they don’t feel inconvenienced”, Bhat said. 

Terming the mass exodus of the KP community 35 years ago as unfortunate, Bhat said most of them were keen to “return to Kashmir”.

Such initiatives are aimed at further strengthening the bond of relationship between the local Muslims and migrant Kashmiri Pandits, who had to migrate with the eruption of militancy in the valley in 1989-90. “All communities in Kashmir want to return to the old traditional harmonious relations with the spirit behind the slogan of Hindu-Muslim-Sikh Ittehad ”, Bhat commented.

The Ashram holds programmes aimed at “promoting intra and inter-State integration from Kashmir to Kanyakumari”, Bhat told Awaz-The Voice. It also celebrates Kashmiri festivals like Navreh, the new year of the Kashmiri Pandit calendar, Sonth, spring festival, and other religious festivals like Ram Navami, Durga Ashtami, Jeshth Ashtami and Nag Panchmi, etc.

The Ashram also organizes annual Yoga Day each year. This year 250 students drawn from ten different schools of south Kashmir participated in it.

The Ashram conducts a ten-day Yoga Shiksha Show attended by participants from at least 15 States. Bhat said, initially, the visitors were apprehensive but after living in the Ashram and experiencing the Kashmiri hospitality, they enjoyed it.

The Youth center at the Nagdandi Ashram

“They go back as the ambassadors of Kashmir and help in changing the perception about the situation in the Valley”, Bhat said. Through such programmes, traders and other visitors from Kashmir go with a sense of pride to other parts of India, he said. 

The Nagdandi Ashram also conducts five-day spiritual retreats, and personality development courses for the youth working under PM’s employment package in different areas of the Valley, Bhat said.

It also conducts training programmes at the Vivekananda ashrams for those serving people on different occasions. “We have a calendar of operations for the whole year….we are busy in different activities even during the winter season now”, when the whole area close to the forests remains under a thick blanket of snow for a couple of months, B L Bhat told Awaz. “People regularly visit the place which has become a center of activity with a locational advantage”.

Being close to the pilgrim spots like the Amarnath cave, Martand temple, the shrine of Sheikh Zainuddin Wali, and tourist spots like Pahalgam, Achabal, Kokernag, Verinag, Daksum, and Sinthan Top, the Ashram has been included in the itinerary of tourists by many online websites.

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The Ashram is located on a detour of 250 meters from Achabal-Shangus road, 2 km from Achabal Mughal Gardent, 70 km from Srinagar. The infrastructure includes 4,000 sq feet Vivekananda Bhawan, Eknath Bhawan with 24 beds which is being upgraded to have 250 beds. Its compound has capacity for parking of 400 vehicles.