Ramana Maharshi

Ramana Maharshi (born Venkataraman Iyer; 30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was a Tamil sage who lived for over fifty years at the holy mountain Arunachala at Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, and who is widely regarded as one of the greatest exemplars of Advaita Vedānta in modern times. His teaching centred on a single practice: self-inquiry (ātma-vicāra) — asking “Who am I?” and tracing the sense of “I” back to its source, where, he taught, it dissolves into the pure, unchanging awareness that is the true Self.

Life

At sixteen, in July 1896, in his uncle’s house in Madurai, Venkataraman was seized by a sudden fear of death. Instead of running from it, he lay down, held his breath, made his body rigid like a corpse, and asked: “Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body dies… But with the death of this body am I dead? Is the body I?” He felt the full force of his personality, the “I”, apart from the body — “the deathless Spirit”. The experience, he said, never left him. Six weeks later he left home without telling anyone and travelled to Arunachala, the mountain sacred to Śiva, where he sat in deep absorption in the underground vault of the temple, oblivious to insects eating his legs. For years he barely spoke. Gradually disciples gathered; an ashram grew at the foot of the mountain; visitors came from all over India and the world. He lived simply, helped in the kitchen, treated animals as equals, and taught mostly in silence and in answer to questions. He died of cancer in 1950; at the moment of his death, observers reported, a bright star moved slowly across the sky toward the peak of Arunachala.

Teaching

Who am I? Ramana taught that all suffering arises from the identification of the Self with the body and mind through the “I-thought” (aham-vṛtti). Every thought presupposes the “I” that thinks it. If, whenever a thought arises, one asks “To whom does this thought arise?” — “To me” — “Who am I?”, the mind turns back to its source, the “I”-thought subsides, and the Self shines alone. “The thought ‘who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts, and like the stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed.” He also taught surrender to God or the guru as an equal path, since complete surrender, like complete inquiry, ends the ego.

His philosophy was strict Advaita: the Self alone is real; the world is real only as the Self; and ultimately, following Gauḍapāda, nothing has ever been born (ajātivāda). His few writings — Who Am I? (Nān Yār?), Upadesa Saram, Forty Verses on Reality — and the records of his conversations (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi) have influenced countless seekers.