No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
This article considers the “perennial” appeal of Ramana Maharshi, the twentieth-century Hindu saint from South India (1879–1950). While not as well-known in the West as either Ramakrishna or Ramana's contemporary, Sri Aurobindo, Ramana's life and teaching have evoked a surprisingly strong positive reaction from Indians and Westerners alike. The reason for this, first of all, is to be located in the perennial philosophy which his life and teaching implicate, and the use made of that philosophy by neo-Hindu apologists or Western scholars and spiritual figures interested in “mysticism” across cultures or interfaith dialogue. Second, the appeal of Ramana can also be located in the compelling attraction of holiness, a phenomenon which raises the fundamental question of what it means to be human. In the case of Ramana, the compelling example of human “being” provokes inquiry into the depth dimension of human existence, where, in the non-dualistic tradition which he represents, one discovers divinity.
1 This essay extends and revises a paper that was delivered as part of a panel on “Mahagurus and Their Movements” at the 2002 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. I am grateful to Cynthia Humes for her inspiration for and organization of that session, the fruit of which one day will be an edited volume of essays. Some material in this essay first appeared in a brief article, “The Sage of Pure Experience” Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin 14 (2001): 31–36. I revised, developed, and extended the trajectory of that article for the AAR session on mahagurus; the essay here marks my continued reflection on the impact and importance of the life and teaching of Ramana Maharshi, a project that will be further extended into a cross-cultural exploration of the meaning and value of saints and saintliness. I wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the essay and also my colleagues in the Religious Studies Department at Mercyhurst for their continued kindness and support. Special thanks in this regard go to Mary H. Snyder, an extraordinary Chair and a great friend.
2 The literature here is vast, but see, e.g., Inden, Ron, Imagining India (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1990), chap. 3Google Scholar, and Halbfass, Wilhelm, India and Europe: An Essay in Philosophical Understanding (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1990), chaps. 5–9.Google Scholar
3 See esp. Rambachand, Anantanand, Accomplishing the Accomplished: The Vedas as a Source of Knowledge in Sankara (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991), chap. 1.Google Scholar
4 The work of Francis X. Clooney stands out in this regard; he epitomized the work of comparative theology as finally having as its ultimate horizon “nothing less than knowledge of the divine, the transcendent” in “The Emerging Field of Comparative Theology: A Bibliographical Review,” Theological Studies 56/3 (1995): 521. See also his Theology After Vedanta (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), Seeing Through Texts (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), and Hindu God, Christian God (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001). See also the work of Malkovsky, Bradley J., esp. his recent book, The Role of Divine Grace in the Soteriology of Samkaracarya (Leiden: Brill, 2001).Google Scholar In terms of the constructive engagement with Indian philosophy in general, the work of Paul Griffiths, Eliot Deutsch, Karl Potter, Karel Werner, Klaus Klostermaier all stand out. Constructive engagement of Western philosophy by contemporary Indian thinkers is perhaps no better represented than by Jitendra Mohanty and Arvind Sharma.
5 See Halbfass, India and Europe, chap. 21, and Rambachand, Accomplishing the Accomplished.
6 Forsthoefel, Thomas A., Knowing Beyond Knowledge: Epistemologies of Religious Experience in Classical and Modern Advaita (London: Ashgate, forthcoming).Google Scholar
7 Katz, Steven T., “Language, Epistemology, and Mysticism,” in Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis, ed. Katz, Steven T. (London: Sheldon Press, 1978), 22–74.Google Scholar
8 Griffiths, Paul J., Apology for Apologetics (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991), 45–59.Google Scholar
9 Forman, Robert K.C., “Introduction: Mystical Consciousness, the Innate Capacity, and the Perennial Philosophy,” in Innate Capacity: Mysticism, Psychology, and Philosophy, ed. Forman, Robert K.C. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 3–41.Google Scholar
10 See esp. Alston, William, Perceiving God (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991)Google Scholar and Plantinga, Alvin, Warrant and Proper Function (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Warranted Christian Belief (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
11 A paper, “The Communion of Saints: Models of Holiness in a World of Conflict,” which I delivered at the University of Massachusetts (Dartmouth) as part of the World Association of Vedic Studies Biennial Conference (July 2002), establishes the rationale and trajectory of this study. The paper is part of a book project of the same title.
12 Maharshi, Ramana, Vicarasangraham (Tiruvannamalai: Ramanasramam, 1994), 14.Google Scholar
13 Osborne, Arthur, ed., The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi (Tiruvannamalai: Ramanasramam, 1993), 91Google Scholar, a Western edition of the same text has recently been published (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1996).
14 Ibid., 96.
15 I say “initially,” since issues of control and authority of the ashram periodically surfaced in the years following his death.
16 Narasimha Swami, B.V., Self-Realization: The Life and Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi (Tiruvannamalai: Ramanasramam, 1993), 21.Google Scholar
17 Maharshi, , Vicarasangraham, 12.Google Scholar
18 Osborne, , ed., Teachings of Ramana Maharshi, 9.Google Scholar
19 Sastri, D.M., “Preface,” in The Maharshi's Way: A Translation and a Commentary on Upadesa Saram (Tiruvannamalai: Ramanasraman), i.Google Scholar
20 Mahadevan, T.M.P., “Preface,” in Self-Enquiry (Vicarasangraham) of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi (Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam), iv.Google Scholar
21 Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, 95.
22 Ibid., 6.
23 Marharshi, Ramana, Who Am I?, trans. Mahadevan, T.M.P. (Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam), 14.Google Scholar
24 Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, 35.
25 Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli, “General Introduction,” in A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, Radhakrishnan, and Moore, Charles, eds. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957), xxiv.Google Scholar
26 Ibid., xxv.
27 Sharma, Arvind, The Experiential Dimension of Advaita Vedanta (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1993), 101.Google Scholar
28 Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, 9th ed. (Tiruvannamalai: Ramanasramam, 1994), 67.
29 Ibid., 114.
30 Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, 67.
31 Flood, Gavin, Introduction to Hinduism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 271.Google Scholar
32 Klostermaier, Klaus, A Survey of Hinduism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 395–96.Google Scholar
33 Zimmer, Heinrich, Der Weg zum Selbst: Lehre und Leben des Indischen Heiligen Shri Ramana Maharshi aus Tiruvannamalai, edited, with a foreword, by Jung, C.G. (Zurich: Rascher Verlag, 1944).Google Scholar Zimmer's book includes a biography and German translations of Ramana's Ullatu Narpatu and satsang conversations. The citation of Jung is taken from the foreword which was reprinted in The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi, Dragon, Shambala Editions (Boston: Shambala, 1988), ix.Google Scholar
34 Jung, , “Foreword,” in The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi, x–xi.Google Scholar
35 Ibid., x.
36 Campbell, Joseph, “Appendix A: The Six Systems,” in Zimmer, Heinrich, Philosophies of India, ed. Campbell, Joseph, Bollingen Series 26 (New York: Pantheon, 1951), 614.Google Scholar
37 Bharati, Aghehananda, The Light at the Centre (London and The Hague: East-West Publications, 1976), 29.Google Scholar
38 Ibid., 89.
39 E.g., T.M.P. Mahadevan, the late chair of the Radhakrishnan Institute for the Advanced Study of Philosophy at the University of Madras, who translated a number of small texts by Ramana, , and Sharma, Arvind, The Experiential Dimension of Advaita Vedanta (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1993).Google Scholar
40 Merton, Thomas, review of Osborne, Arthur, ed., The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi (London: Rider 1959)Google Scholar, Collectanea Cistersciensia, 27/1 (1965): 79–80: “C'est une doctrine qui rappelle Eckhart et Tauler, mais chez le Maharshi le monisme philosophique absolu ne fait pas de doute. Sa doctrine est dans la plus pure tradition de l'Advaita Védantiste. Ce qui nous [sic] importe surtout à nous c'est l'authenticité de l';experience contemplative naturelle chez ce “Père du Désert” contemporain.” English translation above is mine.
41 Merton, Thomas, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton, ed. Burton, Naomi, Hart, Patrick and Laughlin, James (New York: New Directions, 1968), 233–36.Google Scholar Klostermaier cites excerpts from these passages as a side-bar titled, “Thomas Merton's Enlightenment” in his book, Buddhism: A Short Introduction (Oxford: One World, 1999), 186.
42 Griffiths, Bede, The Marriage of East and West (Springfield, IL: Templegate, 1982), 7–8.Google Scholar
43 Griffiths, Bede, Christ in India: Essays Towards a Hindu Christian Dialogue (Springfield, IL: Templegate, 1984), 205.Google Scholar
44 Ibid., 206.
45 Abhishiktananda, , Guru and Disciple (Delhi: ISPCK, 1990), 2.Google Scholar
46 Abhishiktananda, (Delhi: ISPCK, 1974), chap. 2.
47 Ibid., chap. 3.
48 Brunton, Paul, A Search in Secret India (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1970; reprint, 1994)Google Scholar, unnumbered page (Brunton's prose comment is found under a photo of Ramana).
49 Clooney, Francis X., Hindu Wisdom for All God's Children (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1998), 32.Google Scholar
50 Flood, 271. See also Rawlinson, Andrew, The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions (LaSalle, IL: Open Court, 1997), 489.Google Scholar
51 On Hirudayam, see Clooney, , “Three Mentors in India,” America, 1 March 1984, pp. 161–65.Google Scholar
52 As a contribution to this project, see my Knowing Beyond Knowledge.