Living Tiruvannamalai · Satsang

Ganga Maa Tiruvannamalai: Hridaya Kshetram new ashram address, satsang timings & visiting guide

Ganga Maa’s ashram, Hridaya Kshetram, now has a new home on Vediappanur Road, Tiruvannamalai. Satsang is held there in her silent presence, in the lineage of Ramana and Arunachala. This is a plain guide for anyone planning a visit: the new address, how to reach it, the timings, who Ganga Maa is, the books and the official contact details.

Jump to: New ashram address · How to reach it · Timings · Planning your visit · Inside a satsang · Books · FAQ

← Part of Saints of Arunachala

Among the living spiritual life of Tiruvannamalai ~ the satsangs and gatherings that continue the town’s tradition of the Self ~ one that draws many seekers is the satsang held at Hridaya Kshetram in the silent presence of Ganga Maa. What is striking, and very much in the spirit of Arunachala, is how she frames it: Ganga Maa does not consider herself a Guru, nor those who come to be her disciples. She sees everyone, herself included, as a devotee of Arunachala and Sri Ramana Maharshi, and points only to the one Self that pervades all. If you are searching for Ganga Maa in Tiruvannamalai, her new ashram address, or the satsang timings, everything is set out below, drawn from the trust’s own website.

Her path to Arunachala

Ganga Maa writes of her own path as beginning with “a life-long and all-consuming hunger for Self-realisation” ~ a hunger that eventually drew her to Tiruvannamalai, and to the presence of Arunachala and the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. What followed, in her own account, was “a complete and definitive surrender,” after which she describes abiding uninterruptedly in and as the Self. She speaks of this not as an achievement to set her apart, but as the ordinary ground that every sincere seeker can also reach ~ which is precisely why she resists being cast as a Guru in any conventional sense. The satsang held in her presence, at the foot of the hill that drew her, is in that same spirit: not instruction from above, but a shared sitting in what is already true for everyone present.

The satsang

Regular satsang ~ gatherings for Self-knowledge in the non-dual (Advaita) tradition ~ is held in the silent presence of Ganga Maa under the Hridaya Kshetram Spiritual and Charitable Trust. In her own words, as given on the trust’s website: people come from different places, paths and gurus and are seen as one, without differentiation; freedom is the foundation of the satsang; and everyone who comes is understood to have been directed there “by grace alone.” The teaching is squarely in the lineage of Ramana and Arunachala ~ pointing to the Self, the one supreme Master that pervades everyone and everything. The trust is a non-sectarian organisation that also publishes and distributes books of the teachings given in these satsangs.

“Amma does not consider herself to be a Guru… She sees everyone as devotees of Arunachala and Sri Ramana.” ~ from the Hridaya Kshetram website

Inside a satsang: a devotee's question, answered

In one satsang, a devotee balancing family duties asked how to hold dispassion alongside household responsibility; Ganga Maa’s answer was that full renunciation is not what is asked of a householder ~ devotion and surrender allow one to fulfil one’s duties without the grip of ego. In the same session, a visiting bodyworker asked how to help clients facing serious illness disidentify from the body; Maa’s response pointed to accepting one’s karma while recognising that one is not the body, which she described as the real source of freedom from suffering ~ noting that even realised saints have known bodily difficulty, and that the shift that matters is in what one takes oneself to be. Asked, finally, about right action, the answer was characteristically direct: act without an actor; when the sense of a separate doer dissolves, action follows its own natural course.

Her replies, by one first-time visitor’s account, are spare rather than elaborate ~ brief and direct, often more complete for what they leave unsaid. What lingers afterward, by that account, is less a specific teaching recalled than the sense that the question itself has quietly dissolved.

Ganga Maa satsang timings & visiting information

Satsang is held at the new Hridaya Kshetram on Vediappanur Road, Tiruvannamalai. According to the official website, the timings are:

The venue is Hridaya Kshetram, SF No. 38/1, Vediappanur Road, Tiruvannamalai – 606 604, about 1.7 km from the Girivalam Road’s Uthavum Karangal junction (directions below). The trust has not published separate timings for the new venue, and the schedule above is the one currently listed on the official site. Timings and arrangements can change, so please confirm on the official website or the WhatsApp channel before you travel.

Ganga Maa’s new ashram address: Hridaya Kshetram, Vediappanur

Hridaya Kshetram has moved to a larger, permanent home at Vediappanur, on Vediappanur Road, a short way off the Girivalam Road (the trust’s own address line also names Adi Annamalai, the village on the Girivalam circuit). The new premises were formally opened on Thursday, 15 October 2026, in the presence of Ganga Maa, combining the Kumbhabhisekham (consecration) of a new Sri Dakshinamurthy Temple with the inauguration of the larger Satsang Hall. The published order of the day: Homam concluding with Purnahuti from 8:30 AM; the temple’s Kumbhabhisekham and idol consecration, 8:30–9:15 AM; the Satsang Hall’s own Kumbhabhisekham, 9:15–9:45 AM; Go Puja (cow puja) and formal entry into the new hall, 9:45–10:00 AM; satsang, 10:00–11:00 AM; and lunch prasadam from 11:00 AM. Satsang is now held at the new ashram, and the old R.S. Nagar address is no longer the venue.

How to reach Ganga Maa’s new ashram at Vediappanur

The new Hridaya Kshetram is at Vediappanur, on Vediappanur Road, about 1.7 km from the Uthavum Karangal junction on Girivalam Road (the name is also spelt Vediyappanur on some maps and signs). The trust’s own address line also names Adi Annamalai, the village on the western side of Arunachala, at about the midpoint of the fourteen-kilometre Girivalam circuit ~ see our guide to Adi Annamalai for the village and its temple.

By auto-rickshaw or taxi from Tiruvannamalai. Vediappanur is an easy auto ride from the town. Give the driver the address above ~ “Hridaya Kshetram, Vediappanur Road” ~ and, if he is unsure of the new building, ask for the Uthavum Karangal junction on Girivalam Road and continue about 1.7 km from there.

On foot, during Girivalam. Because the Uthavum Karangal junction is on the Girivalam Road, you will pass the turn if you walk the full Girivalam. The ashram itself is about 1.7 km from the Girivalam Road junction named on the invitation, so treat it as a detour of roughly twenty to twenty-five minutes at an easy pace, rather than something on the path itself.

On the map. Google Maps lists the ashram as Hridaya Kshetram – Sri Ganga Maa Ashram, at coordinates 12.2549959, 79.0203483. Open it in Google Maps for live directions from wherever you are. Pins can drift a little, so if the route looks odd near the end, go by the printed address and the Uthavum Karangal junction above, and check the trust’s website or WhatsApp channel for any update.

Planning your visit to Ganga Maa’s ashram

What the official site tells us: satsang runs on the timings above, the gates open 45 minutes before each session (8:45 AM for the morning, 4:45 PM for the evening), the address is as given, and the contact is by email or the WhatsApp channel. It lists no phone number, and it does not mention any booking or fee, so write to publications@hridayakshetram.org if you need to ask anything specific.

Our own suggestions, as for any ashram in Tiruvannamalai: arrive when the gates open rather than at the last minute, dress modestly (shoulders and knees covered), keep your phone silent, and come ready to sit quietly. If you are walking Girivalam, the morning session suits an early start, and the Tuesday and Friday evenings suit those who would rather walk later in the day. Rooms are not mentioned on the official site, so please do not assume you can stay; for guesthouses see where to stay in Tiruvannamalai.

Beyond satsang: seva & Annadhanam

Hridaya Kshetram’s work extends well beyond the satsang hall. The trust runs Annadhanam ~ free community meals ~ for workers, wandering renunciates and visiting pilgrims, with a particular focus around Girivalam, the full-moon circumambulation of Arunachala that brings thousands of pilgrims past the hill each month (see our complete Girivalam guide). The grounds also host festival observances, Vedic recitations, Jayanthi celebrations and sacred-fire homas through the year, and the trust maintains an organic garden on site. A new, larger satsang hall has been under construction on the grounds, reflecting the steady growth of the gathering.

Books & teachings

The trust publishes the teachings given in the satsangs, and has done so with an unusual degree of care about how. Silent Presence, Vol. 1 ~ 283 pages of edited satsang dialogues from July 2022 to January 2024, with an extended introduction telling Ganga Maa’s own spiritual narrative ~ is the principal volume, published in English, with French (Le Silence de la Présence), Italian (Presenza Silenziosa) and Tamil (மௌன சாந்நித்யம்) editions now also available, each including devotee testimonies alongside the transcripts. Notably, Ganga Maa asked that the book not be sold through conventional spiritual bookstore channels, or for profit: within India it is priced modestly (around ₹150 for either format, through Sri Jnana Ganga Mandiram directly), and internationally it is distributed through the respected Ramana-literature site DavidGodman.org. A companion booklet, Jnana Ganga ~ 101 short teachings drawn directly from her responses in satsang ~ is offered entirely free, as a downloadable PDF in English, Tamil, French, Telugu, Hindi, Italian and Russian.

Last updated 21 October 2026. Drawn from the official Hridaya Kshetram website, its published satsang summaries, and the Silent Presence book's own introduction; where an account is traditional, it is told as such.