Ramana Maharishi, the jivanmukta

Among the most famous Indian yogis and gurus of the last century there is undoubtedly Ramana Maharishi , who lived between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, spending his entire life in Tamil Nadu, South India .

He has by right entered the pantheon of jivanmukta , the souls freed when still alive and, despite never having written texts, he dispensed great knowledge to the disciples, always with his serene and smiling air, as can be seen from every photo of him. .

It will then be precisely the disciples who put together his words and all the conversations they had with the Master  to elaborate texts that are still studied today in his Ashram in Tiruvannamalai.

The discovery of Shiva, the Self

Ramana Maharishi was born in Tiruchili , in a totally rural reality of Dravidian India, and spent his entire adolescence in this context when at 16 he experienced a condition of death through which he can reach the authentic Self of which all the mystical texts speak. , the Self beyond all illusion, duality, attachment, form and non-form.

Over the years, to make it understandable to his disciples, he gives it an individualized form rather familiar to their mind still caught in the Maya network, identifying this Self with the god Shiva , in accordance with local tradition.

Just in Tiruvannamalai we can find the large and beautiful temple of Shiva Nataraja (the dancing Shiva ), and the sacred mountain Arunachal, considered by many to be the greatest lingam in existence and material incarnation of Shiva himself.

But beyond this identification with traditional culture , Ramana Maharishi already flies beyond religion, names and forms.

Yoga on Mount Arunachal

It is precisely in the caves of Mount Arunachal that Ramana Maharishi withdraws , becoming a sanniyasin , the one who has renounced everything.

The rumor of the presence of an enlightened one begins to spread not only in the neighborhood, and disciples and visitors from all over India (and later also from other nations) begin to visit him to receive instructions from him.

Although born of humble origins and having received a mild Brahmin education , Ramana Maharishi demonstrates a living and monumental knowledge of Veda and Vedanta , which he reinterprets with solemn depth by resorting only to memory.

He does it thanks to a kind ofInner “plunge” that he makes by detaching himself from the body and immersing himself in the Self of pure knowledge , after which he leaves the task of self-questioning to the mind.

Following this,  the heart begins to live in universal devotion and the whole of nature tends to abandon itself into the hands of the universal Self.

Ramana Maharishi Ashram

Over time, an Ashram is created around the figure of Ramana Maharishi , the Ramanasraman , which in turn has as its center the burial place of Ramana Maharishi’s mother.