A Short Biography of Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi was born in the year 1879 and he was an Indian saint and a spiritual teacher. He was set himself on the path of self-enquire and devotion to God. His goal was to attain higher consciousness.
Early life
He was born in Tamil Nadu, India. At the age of 16, he had a near-death experience. Post that, he turned away from the material life and focus on his spiritual practice. He travelled to the sacred Arunachala in Tamil Nadu. It was his home till he passed away, in 1950, aged 70. His spirituality attracted followers from both India and the West. They all felt uplifted from his peaceful vibration.
It is to be noted that he never claimed to be a guru but encouraged his followers to follow the path to self-enlightenment.
Childhood
He was born in the village of Tiruchuzhi, located near Madurai on December 30, 1879. He was born Venkataraman Iyer and his family was an affluent Hindu Brahmin family. The religion that the family followed was Smarta denomination. It is a path in Hinduism that involves many different deities and spiritual traditions. Goddess Shakti, Vishnu, Ganesh and Shive were worshipped alike.
Post his basic education in the Hindu scriptures, he developed a knack for Tamil poetry. His father hoped that he would enter the civil services and took efforts to teach him English. He was an admired student, both by teachers and friends. He also enjoyed his childhood by playing games like football and wrestling. Even the dangerous rivers did not stall his swimming plans.
After this pilgrimage to Arunachala, something shook him from within. He could not completely understand what it was, but he was curious to find out more about it.
Self-realisation
In July of 1986, Venkataraman was 16 when he experienced an overwhelming fear of death. Though he was physically healthy, he kept sensing that he was going to die. He even became a virtual corpse and could not function due to this fear. This inspired him to search more about his inner being, apart from the body he is existing at.
He began to drop his fear of death and began to meditate to get his thoughts together. After his enlightenment, all the worldly affairs lost their charm and set him out on the path of self-realization.
He decided to spend the rest of his days meditating and left home with barely five rupees in his pocket. He discarded all of his clothes from his previous life and sat in a semi-loin cloth, which was his attire for the rest of the time.
