Ramana's life · The silent years
The silent years: from the temple vault to the caves
For years after his arrival, the young Ramana sat so deep in absorption that others had to feed him and lift him from the vault where insects fed on his flesh. He sought no one ~ and his silence became the teaching that drew the first devotees.
The short version
- Where
- The Patala Lingam vault beneath the temple, then shrines and groves, then the hill caves.
- His state
- So absorbed in the Self that he neglected the body ~ others fed him and cared for him.
- The vault
- Insects fed on his flesh unnoticed; devotees physically lifted him out.
- The teaching
- He kept silence for years ~ yet simply sitting near him stilled people's minds.
← Part of the life of Ramana Maharshi
When the boy of sixteen walked into the great temple at Tiruvannamalai and told his Father he had come, the dramatic part of the story ~ the leaving, the journey ~ was over. What began then was stranger and quieter and, in its way, more astonishing: some years in which a young man sat so utterly absorbed in the awareness he had woken into that he all but forgot he had a body at all, spoke almost not a word, sought nothing and no one ~ and drew, by that very silence, the first of the seekers who would never afterward leave him. This is the account of those hidden years, out of which everything else grew.
The underground vault
In the first weeks, the young Ramana sat in the great thousand-pillared hall of the Arunachaleswarar temple, lost in a depth of absorption that made the outer world almost nothing to him. To escape the local boys who, seeing this strange motionless youth, teased and pelted him, he moved down into an underground vault beneath the temple called the Patala Lingam ~ a dark, damp, neglected pit. And there he sat, so completely withdrawn into the Self that he did not notice, or did not mind, that vermin and insects were feeding on his flesh, leaving sores and scars he would carry for life.
He would not have moved at all, it seems, had others not intervened. Devotees who had begun to notice him ~ among them a holy woman and some temple people ~ eventually found him in the vault, unable or unwilling to attend to himself, and physically lifted him out. He let himself be moved as an object might; the body's fate was simply not his concern. This detail, hard to imagine, is the truest picture of those first years: a soul so absorbed in what it had found that the body was left almost entirely to the care of others.
Cared for by strangers
From the vault he was moved to other spots in and around the temple ~ shrines, gardens, a place called Gurumurtam, a mango grove ~ and at each, people quietly took over the keeping of him. They brought food and, when he would not feed himself, put it into his mouth or into his hand. One devotee, Palaniswami, attached himself to the young sage and became his devoted attendant for years, guarding him and begging food for them both. Around the silent youth, without his asking or arranging anything, a small circle of care assembled itself, as though the world had recognised what it was looking at and moved to protect it.
The silence that taught
Through all of this the young Ramana kept silence ~ for years he simply did not speak, not from any vow he made a show of, but because words had become unnecessary, even irrelevant, to the state he lived in. And here is the quiet marvel that sets the pattern for his whole life: the silence itself began to teach. People came ~ at first the curious, then the troubled, then the genuinely seeking ~ and found that merely to sit near this wordless young man was to feel their own minds grow still, their questions loosen and fall away, something in them settle that no sermon had ever settled. He gave no discourses. He performed no miracles for show. He sat, and was, and that being was itself a transmission. Those who received it never forgot it, and many never left.
He gave no discourses and sought no one. He simply sat, and was ~ and that being was itself the teaching.
The move to the hill
In time the young Ramana moved from the temple in the town up onto the slopes of Arunachala itself, to the cave called Virupaksha and later to Skandashram a little higher ~ closer to the heart of the hill he loved. Here the silent years slowly ripened into something more settled: still absorbed, still spare of speech, but now beginning, when a sincere question was put to him, to answer ~ sometimes in writing, sometimes in a few plain words. It was in this period that the young devotee Sivaprakasam Pillai put his questions and received the answers later gathered as Who Am I?, the seed-text of the whole teaching. The great silence was beginning, very gently, to speak ~ and what it said would in time reach around the world.
The absorption of these years is the direct continuation of what he saw at sixteen ~ a young man simply living, unbroken, in the deathless awareness he had met. From this silence the ashram and the teaching would grow. See the whole life of Ramana Maharshi, and the caves where these years were spent.
Frequently asked questions
What were Ramana Maharshi's silent years?
After arriving at Arunachala in 1896, the young Ramana spent years in deep absorption in the Self, keeping silence and neglecting his body entirely. He sat first in the temple's Patala Lingam vault, then in shrines, groves and the hill caves, cared for by devotees who fed and protected him. His silence itself began to draw and teach seekers.
Did Ramana really let insects feed on him?
Yes ~ the traditional and well-attested accounts record that, absorbed in the Self in the damp underground Patala Lingam vault, the young Ramana took no notice of vermin and insects feeding on his legs, leaving sores and scars he carried for life. Devotees eventually lifted him out, as he would not attend to the body himself.
Who looked after Ramana in his silent years?
A circle of devotees assembled around him without his asking. They brought food and, when he would not eat, fed him by hand. The devotee Palaniswami became his close attendant for years, guarding him and begging food for them both.
How did Ramana teach if he was silent?
Through silence itself. He gave no discourses and sought no followers, yet those who sat near him found their minds growing still and their questions dissolving. This wordless transmission remained the heart of his teaching all his life. In time he began to answer sincere questions, including those that became the text Who Am I?
Last updated 7 October 2026. Following the documented record preserved by Sri Ramanasramam and his devotees; where an account is traditional, it is told as such.