Arunachala
The earlier posts have been about the story of how a boy named Venkataraman came to be known as the sage Ramana Maharshi. Ramana is now in his 30’s and has reached a spiritual state where he is freed from the burden of having to meditate all the time to remain in divine communion.
His ability to talk and interact with people, and his total access causes Ramana Maharshi’s fame to spread. The flow of disciples slowly grew from a small trickle to a steady flow. Many of these came from the west. A few of his devotees from the west wrote books about him or mentioned him in their books and the resulting fame further increased the flow of devotees. Throughout his life Ramana Maharshi never called attention towards himself nor did he ask for or allow anybody else to collect money in his name. Anybody could come and see him at any time, including late at night. He was totally accessible at all times.
In 1916 his mother and younger brother joined Ramana Maharshi as disciples. They all moved from the smaller Virupaksha cave to the larger Skandashram cave. Ramana began giving his mother intense spiritual instructions and she made rapid spiritual progress. In 1920 his first disciple Palaniswami died and his mother’s health began to deteriorate. Two years later she was near death. Ramana sat next to her for the entire day with one hand on her heart and other on her heart. When she died, he pronounced her liberated, having experienced all her future births in rapid succession as she lay dying. His mother was buried at the foothill and in 6 months Ramana moved down to the site and began the process of building a simple hut nearby where he and a few other disciples began staying. Ramana never gave any reason why he moved down to this site other than saying that he never got the urge ever to go back to his cave dwelling. The initial structure that was built was a very frail looking hut that probably leaked when it rained and could barely accommodate two or three persons. Continue reading
