Swami Ramanagiri

Swami Ramanagiri was one of the blessed disciples of Bhagavan Sri Ramana who realised the Self following the path of © Atma Vichara. His sadhana was for a mandala (40 days) only and on holy Sivarathri day in 1949 realisation came to him. “ On that day I became a fool”, was his favourite way of describing the event. To remove the least trace of ego he used to allude to himself as ‘this fool’ instead of “I”.

Born as the only son of very rich parents in Sweden in June 1921, he chanced to come across a copy of Swami Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga when he was still a child. He read it avidly and began to practise it. He got siddbis which astounded his school master and classmates. Time only whetted his desire to come to the land of yoga. Opportunity came to him at the end of the war. He came to India in 1945 and enrolled himself as a student of Philosophy in Benares Hindu University. He soon realised that study could make him only a pundit and that practice or sadhana was what was really necessary. He gave up studies and a holy person of Benares gave him sannyasa diksha,

Swami Ramanagiri, Archival Films

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Thereafter he made intense sadhana visiting all the holy shrines in the North and Himalayas. On his pilgrimage of South India he visited Arunachala (Tiruvannamalai) and was at once drawn by the ‘great magnet’ – Bhagavan. He wanted to practise Atma Vichara; but a doubt arose in his mind whether he could give up the path shown to him by his diksha guru, and follow one who was not his guru. The diksha guru made him know that Sri Ramana was his real Guru and should be followed. Being a ripe soul, his sadhana was brief, though intense. Self realisation dawned on him just in a span of 40 days (on 26-2-1949 — Maha Sivarathri day) through the grace of Bhagavan, to whom he had surrendered himself absolutely.

After the Brabma Nirvana of Bhagavan, he lived in Madras for a short time ‘and friends there persuaded him to stay in Madurai and later at the foot of Sirumalai Hills (about 20 miles away); he moved as Bhagavan directed him in a vision. Here he spent most of the time in bliss with little consciousness of the body or body’s needs. Consumption which had started when he was at Madras returned, and ultimately it consumed his body on May 23, 1955.

His body has been interred at the foot of Sirumalai Hills in what he had named Ramana Padam. A Siva Linga is installed as directed by him. Twice a year (on the day after Sivarathri to mark his enlightenment and again on May 23 of Jeshta month, on which day he attained Mahasamadhi) poor people are fed at the Ashram. On each occasion more than two thousand people assemble and pay homage.