RAMANA MAHARSHI

A great sage who embodied supreme purity, wisdom, and other-worldliness, Ramana Maharshi was born Venkataraman Iyer in 1879 in Tiruchuli, South India. During his birth, a blind nurse saw an amazing light and told his mother that he must be a divine being. He grew to be a strong boy who preferred sports to his studies. He was also prone to unusually deep sleep. When Ramana was 12, his father died, and he went to live with his uncle in Madurai. In 1895 he heard a visitor speak of 'Arunachala', which he recognized as the inner sound that had pulsated inside him from childhood, and learned it was a Holy Hill, one of the oldest and most sacred of all India's holy places. Within months, he had a 'Death Experience' at Madurai that spontaneously transformed the young schoolboy into a sage—a sudden Realization of the Self that was both complete and permanent. Several weeks later, he renounced everything and journeyed to the Holy Arunachala Hill in Tiruvannamala where he lived immersed in Samadhi. For the rest of his life he never left Arunachala Hill. A group of devotees gathered around him and an ashram came into being. Lives were transformed by his glance or merely his presence. Eventually, he began writing responses to the questions of his followers. His simple and direct teachings were preserved by his disciples. He passed on in 1950.