Ramana Maharshi
Guru Ramana is a 20th Century Saint, Shiva devotee, philosopher, and he lived like an ancient Rishi. He never married, and he sacrificed his entire life towards rendering divine service to his beloved god Lord Arunachala at Tiruvannamalai. He had made his abode as Tiruvannamalai at his young age onwards. He is such a pure and a pious saint who has ever and never committed any mistakes.
Similar to Shirdi Saibaba and Guru Raghavendra, still he is also considered to be a living saint, and he fulfills the wishes of his devotees by living in the Holy Mountain Kailash along with his divine parent, Lord Shiva and Ma Shakti Devi.
Some of the interesting incidents happened in his life are as follows:-
1. Guru Ramana had meditated in the Pathalalinga Cave for several days, even without having proper food and water, he tolerated the great pain which was caused due to ant bites, and attained great spiritual enlightenment in that holy cave.
2. Seshadri Swamigal is ten years elder than Guru Ramana. He has protected Ramana from some arrogant boys, during his stay at the Pathalalinga Cave.
3. During his stay at Tiruvannamalai, most of his devotees used to feed food for him, and even if he refuses to have it, some of them would even forcibly feed the food from their own hands.
4. In course of time, Ramana’s mother and brother also began to stay along with him, assisted in the Ramanashram activities without disturbing his penance.
5. One of his devotees, Sri Ganapati Sastrigal had kept great faith and bhakti on Guru Ramana, and he has given him the title as “SRIRAMANA MAHARISHI”.
6. Sri Sivaprakasam Pillai was one of the sincere devotees of Guru Ramana. Due to his bhakti on Guru Ramana, he has left his government job, and began to visit him at Ramanashram. One day, to his eyes, Guru Ramana had appeared in the form of Child Shiva (Bala Sivan).
7. Manavasi Rama Swamy had attained great spiritual satisfaction when Ramana has touched his head, for three times, and he has been advised by Guru Ramana to realise the god within his soul.
8. Once, the great poet Sri Bharathiyar had nice darshan of Guru Ramana by sitting before him for a few minutes.
9. Similar to Lord Dakshinamoorthy, Guru Ramana has clarified the doubts of many people, even without opening his mouth.
10. Once some thieves entered into the Holy Ramanashram, and when they didn’t find any valuables, they began to beat Guru Ramana and some of his disciples. But even then, our Great Guru didn’t get anger with them, but borne the pain with a divine smile and even he didn’t lodge any complaint about them with the police department.
11. Once a foreigner named as Paul Brandan visited Ramana at Ramanashram, and though he was a non-believer of god, but after getting proper spiritual clarification from Guru Ramana, he has become a great devotee of Guru Ramana.
12. Guru Ramana has also admitted the lower class people into his Ashram and provided sufficient food to them with great love and affection.
13. Guru Ramana had showed his kindness even to birds and animals like dogs, cows and peacocks, and daily he used to provide food to them from his own hands.
14. Once Ramana had suffered from a big tumour on one of his hands. Even during the time of operation, Guru Ramana didn’t complain of any pain out of the operation.
15. Guru Ramana had wilfully admitted some poor helpless destitute women, and made them to permanently stay at his Ashram, and also gave them some responsibilities at his Ashram like cooking, cleaning and maintenance.
16. When Guru Ramana had breathed his last, a divine star had arisen from his body and merged with the Arunachala Mountain.
17. Through his great spiritual powers, after the death of his mother, Guru Ramana was able to send her soul to the divine world.
18. Those who call the name “RAMANA”, from any corner of the world, would be immediately blessed by our great Guru Ramana, and all of their problems would come to an end.
“OM SRI RAMANA BHAGAVANE NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR