From the Jacket

Ramana Maharshi was a true sage of the people. A thinker and teacher who guided people through all the joys and sorrows of life with profound and gentle wisdom. Living simply in his Spartan ashram in the Arunachala Hills. Ramana Maharshi became the source of enlightenment to anyone who came to him for help. The doors of his ashram were open to everyone and his patience with people was inexhaustible. Leading his followers through personal example, he guided everyone on the path to self-realisation.

This is the story of the great Saga of Arunachala, whose words and deeds have become even more relevant and meaningful in today's complex word.

About the Book

All eyes in the large crowd were on the open doorway of the small room. He lay inside, his body weakened and shrunken after many months of painful illness. Soon after sunset he asked his attendants to sit him up. A doctor tried to give him oxygen but he waved him away. Suddenly devotees outside his room began singing. Arunachala Shiva, a beloved hymn he had himself composed with much emotion. For a moment his eyes opened and shone, tears of bliss trickling from them.

He took one more deep breath-and then no more. At that very moment, an enormous star trailed slowly across the sky towards the peak of Arunachala, the sacred hill.

"When beggars die there are no comets seen

The beggars themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

And yet this 'prince' among men lived a life more austere perhaps than a beggar's. Always barefoot, clad only in a loin-cloth, his worldly possessions-a walking stick and a water pot. He lived practically without food and months at a time, begged for food in the streets when necessary, consistently refused special treatment in the ashram that grew up around him and to which rich and poor thronged alike.

This extraordinary personality was the gentle saga of Arunachala, known to the world as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Of Related Interest:

Raman Maharshi and the path of Self-Knowledge (Paperback Book)