Most humans follow a slow and painstaking journey towards the goal. But a few are born geniuses, flying non-stop to the common home of all beings: The Supreme Self. From the Scriptures, it has been cleared that the tracing of the paths as sage follows is difficult. With the coming of Maharshi Sri Ramana, a Sage, Jnani and Jivamukta, a saint of matchless purity, a witness to the eternal truth of Vedanta mankind feels uplifted by his presence. Born into a Brahman family in southern India, he left hias village at 17 to become a hermit on Mount Arunchala, where Shiva was said to have entered the world at creation.

Ultimate magnitudes like Sri Ramana, a spiritual genius happens very rarely. He held that evil and death were an illusion, which could be dissipated through his technique of vichara and that to achieve liberation from rebirth it was neccesary to practice Bhatki either to Shiva or to himself. All humanity benefits with such an event and a new era of hope opens before it. Sri Ganapathi Sastri, a Vedic scholar of repute in his age, came to visit Sri Ramana and after incurring instructions from him, he exalted him as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Sri Ramana was famous for his belief in the power of silence and relatively sparse use of speech.

An uncertified pleader, Sundaram Aiyar with his wife Alagammal in the latter part of the nineteenth century on the 30th of December 1879, gave birth to Venkataraman--who later came to be known to the world as Ramana Maharshi. On the day of `Ardra Darshanam`, Ramana Maharshi was born in a village called Tiruchuzhi near Madurai in Tamil Nadu, South India. He was the second of four children of the couple and the other siblings were Nagaswamy (1877-1900), Nagasundaram (1886-1953) and sister Alamelu (1891/92-1953). When Venkataraman was twelve, his father died in 1892 at the age of 47, so he moved to his paternal uncle Subbaiyar`s house in Madurai. He attended Scott`s Middle School and the American Mission High School at Madurai. He was not at all serious about his studies, a deaf student.

In 1895, on his way to school, he met an elderly relative who came "From Arunachal". The very name `Arunachala` acted as a magic spell on Venkataraman. As Krishna Bikshu describes in `Ramana Leela`, the word `Arunachal` was familiar to Venkataraman from very early age of his. The word to him meant something great, an inaccessible, important, utterly blissful entity. So he asked the relative and the relative answered, "Haven`t you heard of Tiruvannamalai? That is Arunachala." After the incident he came across a copy of Sekkilar`s Periya Puranam. It is a book which describes the lives of Shaivite saints, and became enamored by it.

Venkataraman had a life changing experience, soon after, in mid-July 1896, at age sixteen. How a sudden and unmistakable fear of death had change his life, Ramana Maharshi narrated this occurrence later on for the benefit of his devotees. It seemed as though this was a process of logical thinking. In a flash of a moment, the awareness came to him. He comprehended the truth directly. To him "`I` was something very real, the only real thing.

Fear of death vanished once and for all. From then on, `I` continued like the fundamental sruti note that underlies and blends with all the other notes." Thus without any strenuous or elongated sadhana, young Venkataraman found himself on the acme of spirituality. In the flood of Self-awareness the ego was lost. Happening unexpectedly the boy that used to be called Venkataraman had bloomed into a sage and saint. Utter indifference had grown up into him to his surroundings. Humility, humbleness, non-resistance and other qualities became his ornamentation. The new vision was perpetually with him and He began to live the spiritualized life. He later described as "an inexpressible anguish, which I suppressed at the time".

He decided to leave his home and go to Arunachala. After wandering for a considerable span, on the morning of the 1st of September (now observed as Advent Day), 1896, he boarded the train and traveled the remaining distance to reach Tiruvannamalai. After getting down from the train at Tiruvannamalai he went straight to the temple of Arunachaleswara. He found the doors to the inner shrine of the temple open and not a single person, even a priest, was in the temple. He addressed Arunachaleswara by entering to the sanctum sanctorum, "I have come to Thee at Thy behest. Thy will be done." He comprehended the `linga` in raptus. He experienced the same burning sensation that had started back at Madurai merged in Arunachaleswara.

He used to spend several days undisturbed in deep concentration. Without being aware of, at long last he was moved out from the pit by devotees and deposited in the backyard of a shrine of Subrahmanya. Ramana shifted his residence a little less than six months after his arrival at Tiruvannamalai to a shrine called Gurumurtam. After about a year`s stay at Gurumurtam, the Swami moved to an adjacent mango orchard. Nelliyappa Aiyar, his uncle traced him out. He tried his best to take Ramana along with him to Manamadurai. But swami Ramana did not show any sign of interest in the visitor. On his returning to Manamadurai, withal, he conveyed the news to Alagammal, Ramana`s mother.

In December of 1898, that his mother and brother Nagaswami found him and his mother bagged him to return day after day. But he remained silent and still. With a heavy heart, his mother returned to Madurai.

In February of 1899, Sri Ramana moved further up Arunachala. In 1916 his mother Alagammal and younger brother Nagasundaram joined Sri Ramana at Tiruvannamalai and they both took `sannyasin`. Nagasundaram assumed the name Niranjanananda became known as Chinnaswami. Sri Ramana composed `The Five Hymns to Arunachala`during this period, his work of art in devotional lyric poetry. Of them the first is `Akshara Mana Malai`. On May 19, 1922, his mother died. The place where she was buried away, a tomb was made and Raman visited the place every day until he permanently came to stay where Ramanasramam is still located today. A temple was raised over the tomb and was devoted in 1949. An ashram was established centering on the temple. Echamma (1945), attendant Madhavaswami (1946), Ramanatha Brahmachari (1946), Mudaliar Granny and Lakshmi (1948) were the most ardent devotees of Sri Ramana.

On 14th April 1950, Sri Ramana passed away. As narrated, "Sri Bhagavan`s breathing became gradually slower and slower and at 8:47 p.m. it subsided quietly." Millions in India sorrowed his passing. In the New York Times, Mercedes De Acosta notes a long article about his death ended with: "Here in India, where thousands of so-called holy men claim close tune with the infinite, it is said that the most remarkable thing about Ramana Maharshi was that he never claimed anything remarkable for himself, yet became one of the most loved and respected of all."

Sri Ramana taught about self-enquiry. It is the practice with which he is most widely associated with. This teachings, among the Indian schools of thought, have been classified as the Path of Knowledge (Jnana marga). Though his teaching is coherent with and broadly tied in with Hinduism, the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta, there are some differences with the traditional Advaitic school. Sri Ramana gave his consent to a variety of these paths and practices from various religions. His soonest teachings are substantiated in the w (Who am I), originally written in Tamil. One line from the book: "Knowledge itself is `I`. The nature of (this) knowledge is existence-consciousness-bliss."

Sri Ramana has also counseled against considering self enquiry as an intellectual exercise. He was also known to have advised the practice of bhakti and self surrender. The traditional Advaitic school of thought pioneered by Sri Sankaracharya and teachings of Sri Ramana have many things in common. Sri Ramana did not announce himself as being a guru so he never nominated any successors, and he also never claimed to have any disciples, either. Sri Ramana adjudged himself an atiasrama who has no lineage. The Self, which he considered as his own guru to be, in the form of the sacred mountain Arunachala.