Ramana Maharshi

Ramana Maharshi and the path of self-inquiry

The sage whose presence drew the world to this hill ~ his life, his single luminous question, the devotees who gathered around him, and how to meet his teaching today, whether or not you ever visit.

Sri Ramanasramam at the foot of Arunachala

Many people arrive at Arunachala because of Ramana without quite being able to say why ~ a book found at the right moment, a photograph of an old man with extraordinarily steady eyes, a friend who came back changed. This is the gateway to everything we have written about him: the whole life, told in chapters; the teaching, laid out plainly; and the remarkable souls who gathered around him. Begin wherever you are drawn.

Start here

Who was Ramana Maharshi? His life, simply toldThe whole story in one moving sweep ~ and the doorway to the eight-chapter life. A shorter introductionIf the full life is more than you want right now ~ the essentials in brief.

His life, in chapters

The complete story, told as a coherent series ~ each chapter deep on one movement of the life.

1 · The boy in MaduraiThe ordinary schoolboy it all happened to. 2 · The death-experience at sixteenThe single hour that turned his life inside out. 3 · The journey to ArunachalaThe famous note, the train, the arrival at the hill he never left. 4 · The silent yearsThe temple vault and the caves ~ how his silence taught. Also: the Skandashram yearsThe golden in-between time on the green hillside ~ mother, family, the teaching born. 5 · The mother's liberationAlagammal, set free by her son at her death. 6 · Daily life & how the ashram grewBhagavan cutting vegetables ~ and the world arriving. 7 · The animals of the ashramLakshmi the cow and the creatures he loved. 8 · The last days & mahasamadhi“Where could I go? I am here.”

His teaching

The teaching in depthThe ‘I’-thought, the Self, the Heart, the two paths, and silence ~ laid out plainly. How to practise self-inquiryHis method of ‘Who am I?’ ~ not as philosophy, but as something you actually do. Upadesa Saram: the Essence of InstructionThirty verses mapping the whole path ~ action to devotion to inquiry to being. Ulladu Narpadu: the Forty Verses on RealityThe philosophical heart ~ his tightest statement of what truly is. “Who Am I?” (Nan Yar): the seed textThe little book that holds his whole teaching ~ where to begin. The Five Hymns to ArunachalaHis own love-songs to the hill ~ where knowledge and devotion become one. Aksharamanamalai: the Marital Garland of LettersHis greatest hymn ~ 108 verses of love sung to the hill as to a bridegroom. The Ribhu Gita: the text he lovedThe torrential song of non-duality chanted daily in his presence. The sacred sounds of ArunachalaThe chanting, hymns and bhajans of the hill ~ and where to listen. Where to start reading RamanaA short, honest shortlist ~ his own words are the best doorway. From Ramana to the West: Papaji, Mooji & the lineageHow his self-inquiry travelled the world ~ heart to heart, from a hill to the modern satsang movement.

The devotees who gathered

The remarkable souls drawn to Ramana ~ a poet, a weaver, a soldier, a grieving mother, and more. See all the devotee stories →

Muruganar: the poetThe scholar-poet who drew out the teaching and sang his master in an ocean of verse. Mastan Swami: the weaver saintThe Muslim weaver Ramana called the ripest soul he had met. Annamalai Swami: the builderWho built the ashram, then was told to lay it down and simply be. Echammal: grief into graceWho lost her whole family, found refuge in Ramana, and fed him daily for decades. The Western devoteesBrunton, Chadwick, Osborne ~ how the world found Ramana, and wrote him down.

At Arunachala

Visiting Sri RamanasramamThe ashram that grew around him ~ what to see, and how simply to be there. Virupaksha Cave & SkandashramThe hillside caves where he spent his silent early years. Jayanti & Aradhana: the ashram’s great daysThe two days that belong to Ramana ~ his birth, and his mahasamadhi. The ashrams of TiruvannamalaiRamanasramam, Seshadri Swamigal, Yogi Ramsuratkumar and more.

A growing collection

More is coming ~ further devotee stories (Echammal, Annamalai Swami, the Western devotees), Ramana's own hymns to Arunachala, and the lineage that carried his teaching west. This pillar is being built into the fullest, most human account of Ramana in English.