Bagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi

............ Bagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi ......................

......Chanting Vedas at Ramana Ashramam .... a daily schedule at Ashram...

............Ramana Ashramam.............

...................Arunachal Hill ------ Thiruvannamalai......

Tiruchuli a village situated about 30 miles South of Madurai in Tamil Nadu in South India is the birth place of Bagavan Sri Ramana Maharashi. He was born on December 30, 1879. (My Birth Day also falls on December 30 !!) His father named him Venkataraman. When Venkataraman was at the age of 12, his father passed away and so Venkataraman went to live with his uncle in Madurai. (This house was situated at Madurai near Meenakshi Ammman Temple and now maintained by Ramana Ashram wherein Sathsang, Bajan, Annathanam are being held frequently) So he frequently went to Meenakshi Amman Temple. Though he was studying in American Mission High School. his mind moved towards spiritual things. When he was at the age of 16, he realized a near – death experience while he was sleeping in his room and after a gap of six weeks, he ran away by train to the holy hill of Thiruvannamalai. He did Meditation without leaving the place physically and stopped talking for several years. Venkataraman attained Samathai Stage. When he began to speak again, people came and asked questions and soon Venkatraman got a reputation as a Sage. When Venkatraman was at the age of 28, one of his early devotees named him as Bagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi. From 1907, Maharishi became world famous and an ashram was built for him. His devotees and westerners used to come to his Ashram.

Ramana Maharishi always recommended self enquiry. Self enquiry is a practice of meditation designed to rapidly bring about self realization, self awareness, spiritual liberation or enlightenment. Sri Ramana Maharishi always recommended Self enquiry and for the most effective practice to facilitate Self awareness he recommended Satsang also ie. in the form of mental contact with a realized Guru, or more properly the One Guru “Within”. (Satsang means literally association with Sat or Being). Sri Ramana taught that since the individual “I” thought cannot exist without an object, if attention is focused on the subjective feeling of “I” or “I am” with such intensity that the thoughts “ I am this” or “I am that” do not arise, then the individual “I” will be unable to connect with objects. If this awareness of “I” is sustained, the individual “I” (the “I” thought) will disappear and in its place there will be a direct experience of the Self. This constant attention to the inner awareness of ‘ I’or ‘I am’ was called self enquiry by Sri Ramana Maharishi and he constantly recommended it as the most efficient and direct way of discovering the unreality of the ‘I’ thought. He taught that the ‘I’ thought only finally disappears when the perception of all objects, both physical and mental, ceases and only self awareness exists. This is not brought about by being aware of an ‘I’ but only by BEING the ‘I’. This stage of experiencing the subject rather than being aware of an object is the culminating phase of self enquiry.

The voice of the God only heard in the depth of silence. His powerful silence radiating from his presence taught a lot. He gave verbal teachings only for the benefit of those who could not understand his silence. Ramana Maharisi died at the age of 70. Ramana Maharisi lived in Ramana Maharisi Ashram and where he provided spiritual guidance. His devotees believes that his spiritual presence is as alive as ever and so they are visiting to Ashram to derive considerable spiritual benefit. This Ashram is located about 2 miles from Thiruvannamalai at Ramana Nagar, Chengam Road.

For further details please visit

http://www.sriramanamaharshi.or/visiting.html