Ramana Maharshi — The Sage of Arunachala
Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) is the 20th century's most celebrated Advaita sage — who at 16 experienced the direct recognition of the Self and spent the rest of his life guiding seekers through Self-inquiry.
Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) was born Venkataraman Iyer in Tamil Nadu. At age 16, he experienced a spontaneous death-like crisis in which he recognized the eternal, deathless nature of the Self — 'I am not this body; I am the Self.' He left home and settled permanently at the foot of the sacred mountain Arunachala. His primary teaching method was silence (Mauna) — he held that the silence of the realized Self directly transmits recognition to the sincere seeker more powerfully than any verbal instruction. His verbal teaching centered on one practice: Atma Vichara (Self-inquiry) — the question 'Who am I?' followed until the questioner dissolves into the recognition of the Self. He confirmed that his experience was identical with the Upanishadic Brahman-Atman and expressed through Advaita Vedanta, though he himself had no prior Vedantic education. His influence continues through texts like 'Who Am I?', 'Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi', and 'The Collected Works.'
The Self is within everyone. Look within. The answer will be found there.
Psychologist Arthur Deikman's research on contemplative experience ('The Observing Self') documents a mode of awareness that corresponds to Ramana's 'Self' — a witnessing awareness distinct from all thought, emotion, and sensation, which all meditators eventually discover as the background of all conscious experience.
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi