Ramana Maharshi's Biography-Early Days

Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 14:29

“They who always perceive Him as seated in the heart, Him who is the Eternal among all non-eternal things, the Consciousness among all conscious things, and He who fulfills the desires of many — to those men of discrimination belongs eternal peace, to none else," proclaims the Upanishad. This eternal Peace or Silence bodied forth, as it were, as Sri Ramana Maharshi in the later part of the last century. (Ramana Maharshi's biography) His life was a conquest of spirit over matter, of silence over the din of life. His luminous life was a shining commentary on the teachings of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. (A peep into Ramana Maharshi's biography reveals the truth)

The Vedic mantras once again derived their authenticity and validity from the life of this sage (Ramana Maharshi's biography), whose compassion and love extended to all beings — humans and sub-humans alike — in as much as he perceived the same Self in all beings and all beings in the Self.

Venkataraman — that was the Ramana Maharshi's early name — was born in 1879 at Tiruchuzhi, a village in the Madurai district of Tamil Nadu. His father Sri Sundaram Iyer was a pleader, and had three sons and a daughter. Venkataraman, his second son, grew up a normal, healthy boy. He was sent to a local school and later to a school at Dindigul. When Venkataraman was twelve his father passed away. The children went to live with their paternal uncle at Madurai. Their mother, presumably, went to Manamadurai and stayed with her relatives.

At Madurai Venkataraman was first sent to Scott's Middle School and then to the American Mission High School. There was no sign during his school days of his ever becoming a scholar. But he had an astonishingly retentive memory which enabled him to repeat a lesson on hearing it once. Another thing unusual about the boy was his abnormally deep sleep. His schoolmates never dared touch him when he was awake, but if they had a grudge against him they would carry him while asleep wherever they liked, beat him to their hearts' content and place him back on his bed. Venkataraman would not know anything until they told him the next day.

When he was sixteen, he met an elderly relative and asked him where he came from. The old man replied: 'From Arunachala.' Venkataraman had known that Arunachala was a very sacred place and the sudden realization that it was a real, tangible place on earth overwhelmed him with awe. Some days later he chanced to come across a copy of the Periyapuranam, a Tamil classic on the lives of the sixty-three Tamil saints called Nayanmars. As he read the book he was overwhelmed with ecstasy that such faith, such yearning and such love for God were possible and that such a divine dimension existed in human life. The saints' renunciation and divine love inspired him with a desire to emulate them.

To be continued To be continued

About the author

Swami Yuktatmananda

Swami Yuktatmananda of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Coimbatore, is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order. This article is an excerpt from His 'The Holy Beacon of Arunachala,' a beautiful attempt to unravel Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi's biography-Early Days. The biography states that Ramana was the embodiment of the highest truth.