saints, sages, and teachers
Who was Ramana Maharshi and what is the practice of self-inquiry he taught?
Who he was
Ramana Maharshi spent nearly his entire life at Arunachala, a hill in Tamil Nadu that the tradition treats as sacred. He arrived there as a teenager after a sudden, deep experience of what he described as his own true nature. He stayed, and people came to him from across India and later from around the world. He gave no formal initiation and belonged to no particular lineage. His teaching was rooted in Advaita, the non-dual view that the self and the deepest reality are not two separate things.
What self-inquiry is
The practice he taught is called Atma Vichara, which means inquiry into the self. Its starting point is a simple question: 'Who am I?' The idea is not to think up an answer with the mind. Instead, the question is used to turn attention back toward the one who is asking. Ramana Maharshi held that most suffering comes from taking the mind and body to be the real self. By tracing the sense of 'I' back to its source, the practice aims to reveal what was always there beneath thought and feeling. He described this source as pure awareness, unchanged by anything that comes and goes.
Where his teaching is recorded
His conversations with visitors were written down and collected. Two well-known records are the Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi and a short text called Ulladu Narpadu, which he composed himself. These give a clear picture of how he explained self-inquiry in plain, direct language. He rarely gave long lectures. He often sat in silence, and many who came to him said they felt something simply from being in his presence.
His reach today
Ramana Maharshi has had wide influence far beyond India. His teaching reached Western seekers during his own lifetime and has continued to spread through translations and teachers who drew on his work. People from many backgrounds, Hindu and otherwise, use his approach to self-inquiry today. Some practise it as part of a broader spiritual life, others as a standalone form of meditation. His ashram at Arunachala still draws visitors from around the world.