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30th December is the birth anniversary of Sri Ramana Maharshiji.
When Ramana was twelve years old, his father passed away. Seeing people around his father’s dead body crying and lamenting, the young Ramana was puzzled and wondered, “Father is right here, so why are people saying that he has gone?” Someone then explained to him the meaning of death. The distinction between the conscious and the inert became deeply engraved in his heart. Thus, at the tender age of twelve, the seed of Self-realization was sown in him, and by the age of sixteen it had grown into a mighty tree. After his father’s death, he lived in Madurai with his uncle.
One night, while sitting alone in an upstairs room, an intense fear of death suddenly overwhelmed him. Accepting this powerful fear, he stretched out his arms and legs, closed his eyes, slowed his breathing, and turned completely inward. He began to directly observe death itself and contemplated: “What is death? To whom does it come? To me? But who am I? The body dies—let it die. People will burn it, and it will turn to ashes. But will I be destroyed by that? Am I the body? peaceful.
Solitude began to appeal to him more and more. His interest in school, friends, relatives, food, and worldly life seemed to vanish. Gradually, living among people became very difficult for him; it was as if he had stepped out of the crowd and could no longer fit into ordinary life. Then suddenly, the thought of Arunachala Mountain arose within him. As if receiving a divine command, one day he boarded a train and reached Tiruvannamalai. Going to the Arunachaleshwar Temple, he said to Lord Shiva, “Father, I have come.”
With that, he tore off all his clothes, kept only a loincloth, and, in the form of Shiva himself, sat for his entire life in the lap of the Arunachala mountain. Just as bees are drawn to a blossoming flower to drink its nectar, seekers from abroad and India began coming to him in large numbers. By pointing them toward the inquiry “Who am I?” he guided countless people onto the spiritual path. Let’s pray to the divine soul of Shree Raman Maharshiji to shower his blessings and guide us all.
