10. Ramana Maharshi. The Sage of Arunachala.

Sri Ramana Maharshi.

" Do you know what Moksha (liberation) is?


   Getting rid of non-existent misery and


   attaining the bliss which is always there,  that is Moksha."


                                                                      
Sri Ramana Maharshi, was the living embodiment of a Master, par excellence.


He led a life of utter simplicity and  humility. This man could have passed for any one of millions of Indian men, in appearance.  Yet, in the quietest and most unassuming manner he had the whole world bowing at his feet.


From princes to paupers, from the old to the young, from the richest to the most humble in circumstance.  Animals of various kinds were also inexplicably attracted to this man.   All manner of people and from all corners of the globe were drawn to him like the iron filings to a magnet.


Yet, here was an uneducated man, who never traveled anywhere.  Whose wanderings in five and a half decades took him no further than the circumference of a modest 'hill', in a small dusty town, in the South of India.


His story is remarkable and has been told countless times, but it has such a profound significance for us all that it can bare retelling endlessly. 


 At only sixteen years of age, for no reason that could be outwardly accounted for, he felt that he was about to die.  This inexplicable certainty, arising as it did, seemingly out of nowhere, was so shocking that it had the effect of turning his mind inward.


Normally we move through life with our minds always attuned towards the world and it 'happenings'. In other words, 'outwardly'.   When the mind is focused 'inwardly' however, even if only for a short time, one has the opportunity to see 'what is'. The intense fear of being suddenly confronted with 'death' focused all the boy's energy into looking at 'what it actually is' that is going to 'die'. 


He realized that the very awareness, that knows itself as "I" is in actuality, the only thing that 'exists'.  Realizing this completely transformed his life. Tears of joy and gratitude flowed like a river during those early days and he lost all interest in worldly living. 


When the 'vase' (body) that contained the 'air' (awareness) was shattered by the realization of its true nature, it simply became one with the greater atmosphere, (air). There was no inherent 'change' as such.


How could there be? To put it metaphorically,  air, however it is contained, is always air...


To be continued...