RAMANA MAHARSHI

born Dec. 30, 1879, Madurai, Madras states, India died April 14, 1950, Tiruvannamalai original name Venkataraman Aiyer Hindu philosopher and yogi called Great Master, Bhagavan (the Lord), and the Sage of Arunachala, whose position on monism (the identity of the individual soul and the creator of souls) and maya (illusion) parallels that of Sankara (c. AD 700750). His original contribution to yogic philosophy is the technique of vicara (self-pondering inquiry). Born to a middle-class, southern Indian, Brahman family, Venkataraman read mystical and devotional literature, particularly the lives of South Indian Saiva saints and the life of Kabir, the medieval mystical poet. He was captivated by legends of the local pilgrimage place, Mt. Arunachala, from which the god Siva was supposed to have arisen in a spiral of fire at the creation of the world. At the age of 17 Venkataraman had a spiritual experience from which he derived his vicara technique: he suddenly felt a great fear of death, and, lying very still, imagined his body becoming a stiff, cold corpse. Following a traditional not this, not that (neti-neti) practice, he began self-inquiry, asking Who am I? and answering, Not the body, because it is decaying; not the mind, because the brain will decay with the body; not the personality, nor the emotions, for these also will vanish with death. His intense desire to know the answer brought him into a state of consciousness beyond the mind, a state of bliss that Hindu philosophy calls samadhi. He immediately renounced his possessions, shaved his head, and fled from his village to Mt. Arunachala to become a hermit and one of India's youngest gurus. The publication of Paul Brunton's My Search in Secret India drew Western attention to the thought of Ramana Maharshi (the title used by Venkataraman's disciples) and attracted a number of notable students. Ramana Maharshi believed that death and evil were maya, or illusion, which could be dissipated by the practice of vicara, by which the true self and the unity of all things would be discovered. For liberation from rebirth it is sufficient, he believed, to practice only vicara and bhakti (devotional surrender) either to Siva Arunachala or to Ramana Maharshi.