Ramana Periya Puranam

After I posted this, a friend emailed me the following paragraph:

We have read and re-read Ramana Periya Puranam and every time I read it, tears start to flow down my face. I feel an outpouring of grace whenever I read it. It’s one of the most powerful books that both my husband and I have come across, and I was very happy to see it mentioned in your blog.

That’s a better introduction to this book than anything I wrote, so I’m making it the new beginning of this post. Here’s what I wrote originally:

If you’ve been captured by Ramana’s gravitational field like I have been, you’ve probably read or at least heard of many books about him. I think there are well over two hundred.

I want to briefly mention a book that you may not have heard of: Ramana Periya Puranam by V. Ganesan.

This book will probably bring you as close as you can come to knowing what it felt like to be a direct disciple of Ramana at his ashram.

The author is Ramana’s grandnephew. As a boy he spent a lot of time in Ramana’s ashram and got to know many of Ramana’s direct devotees. This book contains biographies and reminiscences of 75 of them. Lots of photos, too.

Ganesan passes on to us teachings which he received from these people, which they in turn received from Ramana.

The subtitle is Inner Journey of 75 Old Devotees.

This book is in the same category as David Godman’s Power of the Presence series, which is also worth reading.

Because of Ganesan’s affectionate personality and, in some cases, because of his personal relationships with the people he writes about, the book is suffused by warmth and love.

It’s a lovely book, but probably only for people who love Ramana, but maybe also for people who are going to start loving Ramana. If you’re one of them, I recommend it.

Ganesan gives this book away for free. This is a legal copy.

Download legal copy free from Aham.

Photo: Ramana at Skandashram in early days surrounded by visitors, from Ramana Periya Puranam.

5 thoughts to “Ramana Periya Puranam”

  1. Thanks a million, Freddie, for such a wonderful opportunity to re-live the lives of Bhagavan’s devotees, to glean from their experiences and thereby to enrich our spiritual sadhana. I am also very thankful for your earlier effort in making widely available “Final Talks – Annamalai Swami”, another gem that would be very uplifting for our daily sadhana. Thanks again, Freddie.

  2. Thank you Freddie for posting Ramana Periya Puranam!
    Gems will be found like the following.
    Vichara jumps out of dry letters as it were, and is as vivid as it can be. :))

    By the way, the link is still working.

    Swami Madhavtirtha p.310
    I would like to quote some of the important spiritual instructions that Swami Madhavtirtha elicited from Bhagavan during his short stay:
    >> “Do not reply to questions of the mind, like, “Should I say I am Siva”, or, “I am not the mind”, “I am not the intellect”, etc., while pursuing Self Enquiry. Pursue the enquiry “Who am I”? relentlessly and the Heart will reveal the answer by itself.
    >> The state of the silent “I”, behind the speaking “I”, is the greatest mantra. This “I” state is the greatest mantra.
    Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says that the first name of God is “I”. Om, the primal sound and vibration, came into existence only later. There is no japa at all without the doer of the japa. All do the japa of “I” only. How many times we say “I-I-I” in our lives.
    >> Be as you are. Reality, pure awareness right now, is the real japa. Japa and God are one and the same. You are perfect. Abandon the idea of imperfection. There is nothing to be destroyed. Ego is not a real thing. Just as it is not necessary to kill the snake which one imagines to be a rope, there is no need to destroy the mind. Knowing the form of the mind benumbs the mind and makes it disappear. One cannot destroy what is eternally destroyed. Stability in the Self is the real posture. Be steady in that real posture.”

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