Sri Ramana Maharshi

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Arudra Darshanam, a festival that commemorates the manifestation of Lord Siva as Nataraja, the Lord of Cosmic Dance, was being celebrated with great ardor in the Bhuminatha temple  in Tiruchuzhi, South India, on December 29, 1879. The decorated icon of Lord Siva was ceremoniously carried in procession through the streets during the day and late into the night. Just as the Deity re-entered the temple past midnight on December 30th at 1:00AM, the first cry of a baby boy was heard in a house adjacent to the temple. The fortunate parents were Sundaram Iyer and his wife Alagammal.  The newborn child received the name Venkataraman and was later known as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. As the child was being born, a lady with poor eye-sight exclaimed that the new born was enveloped in light.

....The boy preferred playing sports with his friends over his schoolwork. He had an amazingly retentive memory which enabled him to repeat a lesson after reading it once.  The only unusual thing about him in those days was his abnormally deep sleep. He slept so soundly that it was not easy to wake him up. Those who dared not challenge him physically during the day would come in the night, drag him out of bed and beat him up to their heart’s content while he was still asleep. All this would be news to him the next morning.

....Sometime later he read for the first time the Periyapuranam, the life stories of the sixty-three saints. He was overwhelmed with ecstatic wonder that such love, faith, and divine fervor was possible. The tales of renunciation leading to Divine Union thrilled him with blissful gratitude and a wish to emulate the saints. From this time on a current of awareness began to awaken in him. As he said with his characteristic simplicity, “At first I thought it was some kind of fever, but I decided, if so it is a pleasant fever, so let it stay.”....

Source: www.sriramanamaharshi.org

Quote: "You have to ask yourself the question, ‘Who am I?’ This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem and you will solve all other problems thereby."