(This article appeared in Mountain Path, Jan.- Mar. 2016)
*
Reflect for a moment. Bhagavan Ramana was just sixteen years old; basically a normal village boy
virtually devoid of any religious vocabulary. He had never heard the terms: Brahman, Atman, Moksha,
Sadhana.
One day, at the age of sixteen, He spontaneously lay down in a first floor room of His uncle's house,
held His breath, kept His lips tightly closed, and a death experience happened to Him. He did none
of this consciously. As the experience unfolded, He inquired, 'Who am I who is dying?' and a force arose
in Him. 'Well then,' I said to myself, 'this body is dead and will be reduced to ashes. But with the death of
this body, am 'I' dead? Is the body 'I'? This body is silent and inert. But I felt the full force of my
personality and even the sound 'I' within myself, apart from the body. So 'I am a Spirit, a thing transcending
the body. The material body dies, but the Spirit transcending it cannot be touched by death. I am therefore,
the deathless Spirit.' (B.V.Narasimha Swami: 'The Life and Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Chap.
'Born Anew.')
From that moment on, the 'I' or Pure Consciousness was experienced as the only Reality. And this
never ceased. Years later, when Sri Ramana was speaking of this event, He said: 'Absorption in the
Self has continued from that moment right up to this time. (ibid.)
Whether His body was engaged in talking, walking, sitting, eating, or anything else, it would forever more
be centered on the Imperishable.
contd.,
Arunachala Siva.