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| Ramana Maharshi 1879-1950 |
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Ramana had a life-changing experience in mid-July,
1896 (he was 16 then): while sitting alone
in a small room in a relatives house in India.
A great fear arose in him for no particular reason
that he was going to die
and he ventured to examine it:
in Sri Ramana's words
"Yes, death has come; let it come.
What is death? To whom does it come? To me.
Who am I?
What is it that is dying?
Yes, it is this body that is dying; let it die ".
So he layed down stretched his arms and legs
and turned his attention very keenly towards himself.
In this state of rigor mortis, he realized:
"All right, this body is dead.
Now it will be taken to the cremation ground and burnt.
It will become ashes.
But with the destruction of this body, am I also destroyed?
Am I really this body?
Untouched by this death which has turned the body into a corpse,
here and now I am still existing and shining.
Then I am not this perishable body.
I and it[the body] are different.
I am the indestructible I..."
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