Mountain Path

Ilse Lowenstern

Most probably the oldest Western student of Sri Ramana Maharshi, she merged in the Self on November 7th 2014. She was born near Frankfurt, Germany in 1911. Having escaped Nazi Germany as a Jew, she taught English in North India, where she read Paul Brunton’s A Search in Secret India. She first visited Tiruvannamalai and received Bhagavan’s darshan in 1940. It was his deep ‘Silence’ she felt most attracted to. Later in life she returned to Germany as an English, German and Music Teacher, and continued her inner journey and love towards Bhagavan with several visits to the Ashram until 1990. She was an avid reader of Mountain Path. She was a trusting, loving, self-reliant and friendly devotee.

Swami Shantananda Puri

Born on 6th May, 1928 (Anuradha), Swami Shantananda Puri hailed from Tiruvaiyaru. A disciple of Swami Purushottamananda Puri of Vasishta Guha, (a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna’s disciple, Swami Brahmananda), Swamiji took sannyasa diksha in Uttar Kashi in 1992. Versed in Gita, Bhagavatam, Yoga Vashishta and Ashtavakra Gita, together with his vast knowledge of Sanskrit, Swamiji was respected for his deftness in answering listener’s questions. His doors were always open to sincere devotees. He wrote more than 30 sadhana-friendly books. His writing was unpretentious and light-hearted, laced with humour and informed philosophical depth. Fond of story-telling, he often illustrated the subtler aspects of advaitic teaching with anecdotes and stories. His commentaries and synopses covered works dear to Ramana devotees, as well as the great classics such as the Kenopanishad, Narada Bhakti Sutra, Lalita Sahasranamam, Vivekachudamani, and Ribhu Gita among others. Soon after coming here he composed the Sri Matrubhuteswara Ashtottaram and Sri Ramana Suprabhatam. Peripatetic for much of his later life, in recent years, he divided his time between Vasishta Guha and Sri Ramanasramam from 1992. At the end of September this year, however, after having been in critical condition for some weeks in a Puducherry Hospital, he requested that for a return to Ramanasramam one last time. Deemed to be in imminent danger, he was rushed back to the hospital the same evening and survived two more weeks till the 14th October. The following day, his mortal remains were interred in the lotus posture facing the Holy Hill at his samadhi in the solemn manner of a renunciate on the Perumbakkam Road, Tiruvannamalai, in the land belonging to a close disciple, about 7 kms from Sri Ramanasramam.

Apr 1975, p.124