Ramana Maharshi

Ramana Maharshi was born in 1879 near Madurai in Southern India. In his early years, Ramana was uninterested in school and little interested in anything else than play and physical activities. In the summer of 1896, upon a sudden outburst of fear of death, he experienced a spiritual awakening that made him realize that he was none other than Atman. Soon thereafter, he left for the sacred mountain of Arunachala, in the vicinity of which he spent ten years living in temples and caves, meditating and pursuing spiritual purification, and maintaining the disciplines of silence and non-attachment. At this point, his reputation as a serious teacher began to grow and other seekers began to visit him, even though he was at that time conveying his teachings exclusively in silence. A few years later, Ramana’s devotees constructed an ashram and temple to accommodate the many visitors. Ramana laid emphasis on the method of inquiry into the nature of the Self, best expressed by the question, “who am I?” He developed cancer and died in April 1950. His life is the subject of Timeless in Time: Sri Ramana Maharshi. Sri Ramana Maharshi’s article “Advaita and Japa” in Pray Without Ceasing: The Way Of The Invocation In World Religions