Sri Ramana Maharshi was born on 30th December, 1879. He
was known as Venkataraman. Born in a pious middle class Brahmin family,
he went to a mission school and learnt a little English.
On the 29th of August 1896, Venkataraman left his home
in the district of Madurai in search of his Father, Lord Arunachala, to
whom he reported himself on the 1st of September 1896, thus:
O Lord, obedient to Thy call
Here have I come, deserting all,
No boon I ask; no loss bemoan,
Take me in and make me Thine own.
From that day till the end of his earthly sojourn,
Venkataraman made Arunachala (Tiruvannamalai) his abode, transmitting
through Mouna, the golden language of his egoless state, the Message of
Eternal Truth, to the four corners of the globe.
Venkataraman left a note behind to his rebuking
brother: "I have, in search of my Father, according to His command,
started from this place. On a virtuous enterprise, indeed, I have this
day embarked. Therefore, for this action none need grieve or trace this
one. No money need be spent for searching me".
"It was about six weeks before I left Madurai for good,
in the middle of the year 1896, that the great change in my life took
place" said Sri Ramana Maharshi, when asked by devotees as to how he
was transformed, "It was so sudden. One day I sat up alone on the first
floor of my uncle’s house. I was in my usual good health. But a sudden
and unmistakable fear of death seized me. I felt I was going to die and
at once set about thinking as to what I should do. I did not care to
consult anyone, be he a doctor, elder or friend. I felt I had to solve
the problem myself then and there. The shock of the fear of death made
me at once introspective or ‘introverted’. I said to myself mentally,
‘Now that death is come, what does it mean? Who is it that is dying?
This body dies’. I at once dramatised the situation. I extended my
limbs and held them rigid as though rigor mortis had set in.
I imitated a corpse to lend an air of reality to my further
investigation. I held my breath and kept my mouth closed, pressing the
lips tightly together, so that no sound could escape. ‘Well then’ I
said to myself, ‘this body is dead. It will be carried to the crematory
and there burnt and reduced to ashes. But with the death of my body, amI dead? Is the body I? This body is silent and inert.
But I am still aware of the full force of my personality and even of
the sound of I within myself as apart from the body. The material body
dies, but the Spirit transcending it cannot be touched by death. I am
therefore the deathless Spirit’. All this was not a feat of
intellectual gymnastics, but came as a flash before me vividly as
living Truth, which I perceived immediately, without any argument
almost. I was something very real, the only real thing in
that state, and all the conscious activity that was connected with my
body was centred on that. The I or myself was holding the
focus of attention with a powerful fascination. Fear of death vanished
at once and for ever. The absorption in the Self has continued from
that moment right up to now".
Ramana practised Tapas in the thousand-pillared
Mandapam, near the Patala Linga, in Subrahmanya’s shrine, in the Mango
garden, the Sadguru Swami cave and Cora hills. From 1909 to 1916 he
lived in the Virupakshi Cave.
During his days of Tapas, mischievous boys pelted him
with stones and hurled tiles at him; and yet Ramana was ever peaceful
and calm through the strength of meditation and penance.
Ramana Maharshi was known as Brahmana Swami in
Tiruvannamalai. Kavya Kanta Ganapathy Sastri, the great Sanskrit
scholar, came to Ramana’s Ashram in 1908 and stayed with Maharshi and
wrote the Ramana Gita.
The life of the Maharshi was one continued meditation,
Ananda Anubhavam. Maharshi established peace within. He lived in the
Light of the Lord within. He encouraged others to do the same thing. To
him all the world was one.
Maharshi seldom talked, and whenever he did speak, he did so only because it was absolutely necessary.
Ramana was a living example of the teaching of the
Upanishads. His life was at once the message and the philosophy of his
teachings. He spoke to the hearts of men.
The great Maharshi found Himself within himself and
then gave out to the world the grand but simple message of his great
life, "Know Thyself".
"Know Thyself. All else will be known to thee of its
own accord. Discriminate between the undying, unchanging,
all-pervading, infinite Atma and the ever-changing, phenomenal and
perishable universe and body. Enquire, ‘Who am I?’ Make the mind calm.
Free yourself from all thoughts other than the simple thought of the
Self or Atma. Dive deep into the chambers of your heart. Find out the
real, infinite ‘I’. Rest there peacefully for ever and become identical
with the Supreme Self." This is the gist of the philosophy and
teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Sri Ramana says, "The world is so unhappy because it is
ignorant of the true Self. Man’s real nature is happiness. Happiness is
inborn in the true Self. Man’s search for happiness is an unconscious
search for his true Self. The true Self is imperishable; therefore,
when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end.
"In the interior cavity of the heart, the One Supreme
Being is ever glowing with the Self-conscious emanation I...I... To
realise Him, enter into the heart with an one-pointed mind—by quest
within or diving deep or control of breath—and abide with the Self of
self".
Sri Ramana’s Who am I?, Upadesa Saram and Ullathu Narpathu are pearls of direct wisdom, expressed in aphoristic terseness.
Sri B.V. Narasimha Swami, the late President of the All
India Sai Samaj, has published a thrilling life of Ramana entitled,
"Self-realisation". Yogi Suddhananda Bharati has written the life of
Sri Ramana in Tamil.
Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi has set at naught the prattle
of materialists that Self-realisation and Samadhi are things of the
remote past, and that in the present age, they are impossible of
achievement to man. He has shown by his lifelong Samadhi that it is
still possible to realise the Supreme and live in that realisation.
Beloved aspirant! Take heart. Gird up your loins. Apply
yourself intensely to Yoga Sadhana. You will soon attain Videha
Kaivalya and shine for ever as an illumined sage.
Lieut-Col. P.V. Karamchandani, I.M.S., D.M.O., North
Arcot District, attended on Sri Ramana when the latter suffered from a
kind of malignant tumour in his upper left arm above the elbow. The
Maharshi was operated four times.
A meteor hit the sky at 8-47 p.m. on the 14th April,
1950, when Sri Ramana Maharshi left his mortal coil and entered
Mahasamadhi.
The all-pervading Light which shone through the
embodiment of that Light in Maharshi Ramana had once again resolved
itself into its original state. A lifelong proof of the Upanishads was
what we called Maharshi Ramana. That proof will for ever exist,
reassuring us of the Ultimate Reality.
The saint is no more in his mortal frame. But the Light
of his soul is now merged in every receptive individual soul. Maharshi
Ramana lives in our heart. His passing away should not be grieved for.
For he had fulfilled the mission of his life. He had achieved the
highest goal, Self-realisation. So there is nothing to grieve for. The
death of only those that are not able to achieve the goal of life or do
their duty has any reason to be mourned. The Light of the Maharshi’s
soul shines today brighter than ever.
In the heart of humanity the saint shall live for ever,
guiding, encouraging, goading and inspiring, so that millions and
millions might seek and find the Great Truth that Ramana realised.
Too well did Sri Ramana expound the Vedanta philosophy,
not through bookish knowledge, but by practical experience. His
teachings imparted through all-absorbing ‘Silence’ embodied the highest
ideals and the ultimate reaches in divine realisation. To ever assert
one’s latent divinity, to ever strive to live in the consciousness of
the immortal Self and to remain as an unaffected witness of the
transitory phases of life immersed in that Supreme Silence—was the
clarion call of the Maharshi. Dogmas and religious prejudices he cared
not for! For he was far above those mundane limitations. With him lived
orthodox Brahmin priests, Moslems and Christians and the so-called
Indian untouchables. They were all alike to him.
As an architect-supreme of Truth-transcendental, Ramana
Maharshi led, and now leads on, the weary travellers on earth towards
the Goal through his unfathomable Silence.
To pay the most befitting homage to that saintly personality is to follow his teachings and to grow up in that ideal model.
May peace be unto all!
Ramana Maharshi
