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.

Aunachala, the Hill of the Holy Beacon.

In a second extract from my forthcoming book, The Nirvaneans, Ramana is seen as a youngster discovering that Arunachala Hill, the site of his future ashram, is a real place.

Arunachala, the Hill of the Holy Beacon, in the North Arcot district of Tamil Nadu, has always had a powerful reputation among devout Hindus. Regarded as one of the five (some say eight) forms of Siva, and older than the Himalayas, it is said that just by thinking of Arunachala one can attain enlightenment.

The numinous presence of the place is further enhanced by a remarkable multi-towered temple spreading over more than twenty-five acres at the foot of the hill. This monumental structure, dedicated to Arunachaleswara, is one of the oldest in Southern India.

Although the young Ramana spent his first years at Tiruvannamalai in various parts of the temple precincts, its intricate complexity and formal grandeur seem almost set against the spirit of the later Maharshi, who was renowned for his tolerant, unstructured, even Taoist, picture of the world.

The serenity of Ramana’s subsequent life and ministry belies the dramatic suddenness and shock of his early enlightenment. His was a road to Damascus experience, devastatingly complete in turning round his consciousness from a dull life in a quiet Indian backwater, to a continuous inner absorption in the Self thereafter.

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Continuing our series on Ramana Maharshi, the greatest Indian sage of the 20th century, here is an extract from my book, The Nirvaneans:

That there is “nothing but the Self” is the central premise from which Advaita Vedanta takes its source. All else flows from this austere statement. Vedanta”s greatest modern exponent, the Nirvanean, Ramana Maharshi, (1879 - 1950) continually emphasised the point to visitors at his ashram in Southern India.

“That silent Self alone is God; Self alone is the individual soul. Self alone is this ancient world.”

The “mind” is only a collection of thoughts, a pale reflection of the universal Self; and the mind distorts the light of the Self into the appearance of the world. It is as if a piece of ornamental glass, irregular and multi-coloured, had been inserted between us and the pure, white light of the Self. The kaleidoscopic dazzle of hues refracted through it make up our world, which distracts us from the original truth of what we are. The glass is the mind and ego which gives rise to it, and is fundamentally illusory.

It is the role of religion, at its best, to convince us of this reality and direct our efforts along the simplest path for achieving our own experience of it. The admittance of other matters or complications, for example, rituals, multiple deities, institutional hierarchies or the working of wonders, is the result of ego activity and leads us away from the goal not towards it. By this definition of religion: non-dual, simple and direct, Sri Ramana’s life is exemplary.

Despite the exalted reputation built up during his lifetime, some learned Hindus found Ramana’s teachings hard to follow. Although he had a deep knowledge of the scriptures and often quoted the Bible, he preached an extraordinarily pure distillation of the highest truth free from jargon and philosophical embellishment.

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