About Ramana Maharishi
Author of Upadesa Saram
Ramana
Maharshi was a Guru of international renown from Southern India who taught
during the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in 1879 near
Madurai, Tamilnadu. His father was a farmer. He was the second of the three
sons. The family was religious, giving ritual offerings to the family deity and
visiting temples. One unusual aspect of his family history was a curse that was
put on the family by a wandering monk who was refused food by a family member.
The monk decreed that in every generation, one child in the family would
renounce the world to lead a religious life.
Ramana was largely disinterested
in school and absent-minded during work. He had a marked inclination towards
introspection and self-analysis. He used to ask fundamental questions about
identity, such as the question “who am I?” He was always seeking to find the
answer to the mystery of his own identity and origins.
One peculiar aspect of Ramana's personality was his ability to
sleep soundly. In the summer of 1896, Ramana went into an altered state of
consciousness which had a profound effect on him. He experienced what he
understood to be his own death, and later returned to life.
He also had spontaneous flashes of insight where he perceived
himself as an essence independent of the body. During these events, he felt
himself to be an eternal entity, existing without reliance on the physical body
or material world.
Along with these intuitions came a fascination with the word
"Arunachala" which carried associations of deep reverence and a sense
that his destiny was closely intertwined with this unique sound. At the age of
sixteen, Ramana heard that a place called Arunachala actually existed (the
modern town's name is Tiruvannamalai) and this brought him great happiness.
When he was seventeen years old, Ramama left for Arunachala,
arriving after four days of mostly train travel. He went directly to the
central shrine at the temple and addressed the Shiva symbol (linga) stating he
had given up everything and come to Arunachala in response to the God's call.
Ramana spent ten years living in temples and caves meditating, and
pursuing spiritual purification, keeping the disciplines of silence and
non-attachment. At this point, his reputation as a serious teacher (he was
called Brahma Swami) began to grow and other seekers began to visit him. His
disciples, some of whom were learned individuals, began to bring him sacred
books. He became conversant with the religious traditions of South India
written in the different regional languages.
Ramana continued to practice the method of inquiry into the nature
of the self, best expressed by the question “who am I?”
Ramana was not a guru in the classic sense of a teacher who gives
instruction on a regular basis or gives mantras during initiation.
However, Ramana did give informal initiations using a special
glance, or touch, or in dreams. Lex Hixon writes:
... although the Guru , or teacher is within everyone as primal
awareness, an illuminated sage can push us in the direction he described as
inward in the sense of being more primary, or primal. Ramana could give this
initiatory push by touch or by glance. Seated in silence, he would suddenly
turn, fix one with an intense gaze, and the person would become directly aware
of the right-hand Heart (the spiritual center of one's awareness) and its
vibrant current of primal awareness. Those who experienced the power of
Ramana's gaze have reported that the initiation was so clear and vivid that
they could never again seriously doubt that the Guru was none other than their
own primal conscious being.
(Coming Home, The Experience of Enlightenment in Sacred Traditions
by Lex Hixon, Jeremy P. Tarcher - Martin's Press, New York, 1989, p. 46)
Ramana recommended renunciation of enjoyment of physical and
mental pleasures as a means of entering into a state where the oneness of the
self and cosmos could be perceived. He also felt that a person who is not attached
to the results of his actions can live in the world like an actor that plays
his or her part but is immune to emotional disturbance, because he realizes he
is only play-acting on the stage of life.
Ramana was able to demonstrate his own non-attachment when thieves
broke into the ashram and he counseled the disciples and visitors to let them
have anything they wanted. He remained calm during the incident even when
struck by one of the thieves. He also displayed no loss of equanimity at the
death of his mother, who had come to live at the ashram after selling the
family home.
Ramana developed cancer and when his devotees voiced concern about
losing him, he responded with the statement "I am not going anywhere,
where shall I go? I shall be there where I am always." This is the
statement of an enlightened sage - a person where the conflict between life and
death is felt no more.
He died in April, 1950, sitting in lotus position. The final word
that passed from his lips was the sacred syllable OM.
A Sai devotee named Varadu reported what happened:
"...the night when Ramana Maharshi passed away in
Tiruvannamalai [14thApril, 1950], I was with Swamiji [Sai Baba]. Krishna [another young devotee] and myself
were both there. That evening, around
9:00, we continued whatever it was we were doing (I think we were doing a puja)
when suddenly Swamiji looked up at us.
There was a peculiar way of looking He has which means that He
wants to go to His room. The moment
Krishna and I went through the door into the room and closed it, Swami fell
down. I was ready for it. Krishna and I both held hands, and Swami was
lying across them. Then [He] rose up into
the air, from our arms. He was as stiff
as a board. He started murmuring -
something about 'Maharshi has reached my lotus feet.' And then the sole of His right foot split
open, and nearly two kilograms of beautiful, well-scented vibhuti poured out
from the sole of His foot. I collected
the vibhuti while [He] was still levitating in the air.
Then [He] came down and returned to [His] senses and asked what
[He] had said. I said, "Swamiji,
this is what You said: 'Ramana Maharshi has passed away.' And this is what came out of Your feet." He said: "Put it into packets and give
it out as prasadam."
A day or two after this incident, we learned from the newspapers
that [Ramana] Maharshi had died. It had
been at the time that Swami said Maharshi had reached [His] feet."
Love.
