Without a doubt, Ramana Maharshi is the greatest Indian sage of the 20th century. He lived an utterly simple existence at Arunachala mountain in South India, until his death in 1950. There are no accounts of Ramana Maharshi stealing from the ashram treasury, dressing in fine clothes, having sex with disciples, or engaging in any other ego-inflating behaviors which often seem the norm in today’s spiritual landscape. Instead, Maharshi lived and slept in a small hall where he also received visitors. People were welcomed from all over the world to ask him questions or sit in his presence.
Ramana Maharshi’s deepest teaching was given in silence. He emanated a force or vibration that stilled the mind and led one to experience what Maharshi experienced. For those that could not sense this emanation, Maharshi verbally answered their questions. Some of these discussions were copied by hand and form the bulk of the written record of Ramana Maharshi’s teaching.
An excerpt:
Q: If “I” am always, here and now, why do I not feel so?
A: That is it. Who says it is not felt? Does the real “I” say it or the false “I”? Examine it. You will find it is the wrong “I”. The wrong “I” is the obstruction. It has to be removed in order that the true “I” may not be hidden. The feeling that I have not realized is the obstruction to realization. In fact it is already realized and there is nothing more to be realized. Otherwise, the realization will be new. If it has not existed so far, it must take place hereafter. What is born will also die. If realization is not eternal it is not worth having. Therefore what we seek is not that which must happen afresh. It is only that which is eternal but not now known due to obstructions. It is that which we seek. All that we need do is remove the obstruction. That which is eternal is not known to be so because of ignorance….
The ignorance is identical with the “I”-thought. Find its source and it will vanish.
The “I”-thought is like a spirit which, although not palpable, rises up simultaneously with the body, flourishes and disappears with it. The body-consciousness is the wrong “I”. Give up this body-consciousness. Seeking the source of the “I” does it. The body does not say, “I am”. It is you who say, “I am the body”. Find out who this “I” is. Seeking its source it will vanish.
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi is the best collection of dialogues. Not only are there intense spiritual discussions, but also a glimpse of everyday life in the ashram. Information on books and current happenings is available at the official Sri Ramana Maharshi website.
Video footage of Ramana Maharshi:
An enormous number of contemporary teachers point to Ramana Maharshi as their guru or part of their “lineage.” While this is well-intentioned in a few case, generally these people simply use Ramana’s name to bolster their spiritual resume. For a picture of this confusion, see the illustration at Advaita.org. Be cautious. Ramana appointed no successors and created no lineage.
Thank you
Great guru
You wrote: “Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi is the best collection of dialogues.” On the contrary, it is certainly not for anyone who has not read Ramana previously. One reason is that the dialogues were written from memory many hours later, and have numerous errors and extraneous material never spoken by Ramana (see David Godman’s blog for details).
The only collection of dialogues that were proofread and verified by Ramana himself IN ENGLISH is the book “Maharshi’s Gospel”, edited by Maurice Frydman (the same person who edited Nisargadatta’s “I Am That”.
The other top Ramana book is David Godman’s own collection of Ramana statements, called “Be As You Are”. Godman was the librarian of Ramanasram, and is a lifelong Ramana scholar.
I have Be As You Are, but the arrangement of diverse quotes into themes by Godman was always less inspiring to me than the atmosphere created by the longer dialogues in Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. I’ll add a link to Godman’s book below.
Could you please leave a link to David Godman’s discussion of this on his blog? I cannot locate it.
Robert Adams should be here…..same scent
Enlightenment or Temporal Lobe Epilepsy?? I have studied and interviewed hundreds of so-called Enlightened Ones since 1975….still haven’t found one. Often, the pursuit of enlightenment, is the first step into total self-delusion; a way of avoiding the real self.
How would you know if you found one?
For one, consistent Love in the nitty-gritty of Life. Many so-called enlightened ones spend the vast majority of their time alone where it’s relatively easy to be “loving.” Others have good words, after having memorized a “good speech” for hours and hours, but in the midst of every-day life demonstrate few good qualities.
What is this “real self” you speak of. Would you be referring to the social indoctrination and compliance to the construct that society considers to be the “norm”? That would hardly be reality if you fully understood the meaning of “enlightenment”.
Yes, many so-called enlightened ones spend the vast majority of their time alone. I do, and I can only speak for myself, I choose “aloneness” mostly to avoid what I consider to be the mass insanity of the majority of humans, doesn’t mean to say that I can’t or won’t demonstrate love for all of humanity.
Trying to give Ramana five stars I pressed four by mistake. Pls correct
Hi Riaz. There’s no way to correct your vote, but I added my own 5-star rating for Ramana so that sort of balances out your vote. Thanks for participating.
Bhagwan’s teachings have given me immense inner Freedom, he is my savior. There is no words to describe the gratitude and love I have, thank you Bhagwan.
OM Namah Shivay
Five stars . Non duality also is an attempt experientially in authntically done hatha yoga. Both the schools eventually resonate , its the same end game. What is Maya in one is asmita/avidya in the other !
Ramana Maharshi: The greatest sage – Contra point
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Quote: “That is it. Who says it is not felt? Does the real “I” say it or the false “I”? Examine it.”
Reply: ‘I’ say it isn’t felt and so does every person reading this if they’re truthful with themselves. And when I say ‘I’, I mean the really real I that you invert and falsely call the false I. Oh, the irony! Also, you exhort that I should examine, but again, which ‘I’ is doing the examining? If your version of the so called ‘real I’ existed then why would a false I ever come to be in the first place that needed to be examined? Or in other words, if god/consciousness/bliss/perfection/whatever was the universe/life/existence’s default state then by definition there should be no such thing as a false I/ignorance/maya/samsara/etc arising from this perfect state of being and the question would never get raised at all. The very fact that such a question DOES get raised totally refutes your contention. The reality is in fact the exact opposite of what you espouse, i.e. only duality/chaos/imperfection exists and what you call the false I is actually the real one. Perhaps if you spent more time outside of caves then you’d come to this understanding and become enlightened as to your true nature.