The following extract from my forthcoming book, The Nirvaneans, covers Ramana’s initial enlightenment experience:

The second incident occurred when, at an uncle’s house, he chanced upon a book describing the lives of Tamil saints. Ramana felt a strong reaction while reading through it and, although he put the volume aside without much comment, the yeast had been added to the must.

It was not until the year 1896, at the age of sixteen, that the event which tore him apart erupted from within. That he was ready for it there can be no doubt, given his subsequent history. The founder of Christianity is attributed with the enigmatic statement that “whosoever shall lose his life shall find it.” No timid “rebirth by declaration” is prefigured here. It is nothing less than the death of the personal ego, which may happen gradually over a period of time, or in a mighty upheaval as in the case of the young Venkataraman.

… It was so sudden. One day I sat up alone on the
first floor of my uncle’s house. I was in unusual health.
… a sudden and unmistakeable fear of death seized me. I
felt I was going to die … I did not however trouble
myself to discover if the fear was well grounded…I felt
I had to solve the problem myself then and there.

The shock of this “seizure” forced the boy’s thoughts inward, introverting deep into the mind and its functioning.

“What is it that is dying,” he questioned? “This body dies,” came the reply. He followed the train of thoughts ever more inward and physically imitated the state of death by stiffening his limbs and holding his breath.

This body is dead. It will be burnt to ashes.
But with the death of this body, am “I” dead? Is the
body “I”? This body is silent and inert. But I feel
the full force of my (self) and even the sound
“I” within myself, apart from the body…I am
therefore the deathless spirit.

In later years he explained this part of his experience in terms of the “aham sphurana” which is an intermediate state between normal ego-mindedness and full realisation of the Self. The aham sphurana is a kind of emanation of “I” or, as he puts it above, “I feel — the sound “I” within myself.”

This sphurana clings to the Self as a prelude to enlightenment: “When the mind…remains attending to the aham sphurana, which is the sign of the forthcoming direct experience of the Self — the Heart — remains in the form of That (the Self).”

Ramana stressed that this was not a mere intellectual process. The insight “flashed before me vividly as living truth … The material body dies, but the spirit transcending it cannot be touched by death.”

The form of this realization, “I am not the body. Who am I?” was to set the tone for his highest teaching throughout the rest of his life.