Ramana Maharshi (1879 to 1950) was an Indian sage and one of the most influential teachers of Advaita Vedanta in the modern era. Born Venkataraman Iyer in Tamil Nadu, he underwent a spontaneous awakening at the age of sixteen and soon left home for the sacred hill of Arunachala, where he remained for the rest of his life. He taught self-enquiry, the practice of tracing the sense of ‘I’ back to its source, and received seekers from across the world in near-continuous silence. His teaching, recorded by Indian and Western devotees alike, remains a central reference point for the direct path to self-realisation.
