At the age of sixteen he had a spontaneous awakening, attaining complete and full enlightenment when a sudden and unexpected feeling that he was about to die prompted him into a spontaneous act of self-inquiry. IYM: Would you tell us something about Sri Ramana’s own spiritual journey?ĭG: He had a normal, ordinary childhood in which he exhibited little or no interest in spiritual matters.
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Day by Day with Bhagavan, and Maharshi’s Gospel are good places to start. For those who want more, I can suggest some of the primary texts in which Sri Ramana’s teachings were recorded by those who were listening to him. For a good introduction to Sri Ramana’s life, I would recommend Arthur Osborne’s Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self Knowledge. Anyone in that category should find this book a good place to start. IYM: Are there books on Ramana Maharshi you would recommend for a beginner?ĭG: When I compiled Be As You Are: the Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi I specifically targeted westerners who had never heard about Sri Ramana, and who knew little or nothing about the Hindu tradition and its terminology. I looked after their library from 1978 to 1985, edited their magazine for a short period of time and, from 1985 onward, did research for my various books. In 1978, I began to do voluntary work for Sri Ramanasramam. I spent my first eighteen months here just meditating, practicing self-inquiry and occasionally walking round Arunachala. I spent about a year reading the teachings and practicing the technique of self-inquiry, mostly in Ireland, and then, in early 1976, I decided to go to India to visit Sri Ramana’s ashram. In that silent space, I knew directly and intuitively what Sri Ramana’s words were hinting and pointing at. It was more of an experience in which I was pulled into a state of silence. It wasn’t that I had found a new set of ideas to believe in. My mind stopped asking questions and abandoned its search for spiritual information. Reading Sri Ramana’s words for the first time completely silenced me. Integral Yoga Magazine: How did you first become interested in the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi and go to India?ĭavid Godman: In the mid-1970s, I read Arthur Osborne’s The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words. David has published more than thirteen books on Sri Ramana Maharshi, his teachings, and his direct disciples, and shares the inspiration and wisdom of Sri Ramana with our readers. He now lives in a new home he built about two miles from the base of Sri Ramana’s beloved Arunachala, a holy mountain in South India. Since then, he has lived almost continuously in Tiruvannamalai, the town where Sri Ramana spent all his adult life. David Godman (his family’s actual surname!) read a book in 1974 about the great sage and jnani, Sri Ramana Maharshi, and two years later traveled to his ashram in India.
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