Parnasala is a monument in the shape of a full bloomed lotus in white marble, located at Santhigiri Ashram, 21 km from Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram. The monument is at the final resting place of Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru (1927–99), the founder of Santhigiri Ashram. The Parnasala, which rises to a height of 91 ft., was inaugurated by the then President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, on 13 August 2010. It was opened for public 12 September 2010. History and significance Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru was born on 1 September 1927, in a simple family in Chandiroor village in the Alappuzha district of Kerala. Named Karunakaran by his parents, he was a quiet, contemplative boy who his followers believe received mystical experiences since childhood. He left home at the age of 14 years to lead a monastic life. After serving in Varkala-based Sivagiri Mutt and its various institutions for 17 years, Guru, by then known as Karunakara Swami, moved to live permanently at Pothencode in 1968. The first form of the Guru’s ‘Parnasala’ (hermitage) was that of a thatched roof supported by four tapioca stems. In the 1970s, this simple structure was converted into a one-room tenement with a tiled roof. It was in these austere environs that Guru lived and daily met the people who thronged the simple hermitage looking for solutions to everyday problems, including chronic ailments, or in search of higher truths. After the Guru’s death on 6 May 1999, his followers interred his body in the Parnasala and raised it as a monument. The foundation stone for the Lotus Parnasala was placed by Sishyapoojitha Amritha Jnana Thapaswini, the foremost disciple of Guru and his spiritual successor, on 17 November 1999. The construction work went on uninterrupted for ten years, backed by the unstinted prayers and support of the Guru’s disciples and followers in different parts of the world such as the late former President of India, Sri K.R. Narayanan and noted author, Sri O.V. Vijayan A lamp lit by Guru when he established the Ashram, has been kept burning ever since and is placed inside the Parnasala, which symbolises the Guru’s life and message of universal peace, spirituality and fraternity propagated through a Guru-Disciple order. Design and dimensions The Parnasala is not designed by a professional architect. Its shape and structure were conceived by the head of Santhigiri Ashram, Sishyapoojitha Amritha Jnana Thapaswini, in inner visions. Nearly 100,000 Sq.