ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a version of Advaita, that of Ramana Maharsi of Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu. It briefly outlines Ramana’s life and works and articulates what the author take to be Ramana’s principal philosophy, referring both to his writings and to his dialogues with disciples which have been recorded and collected by various editors. The chapter demonstrates the manner in which Ramana relativizes or refashions traditional cultures of liberation, thus paving the way for such a universal soteriological programme. It focuses on philosophical – namely, Nan Yar, Upateca Untiyar, Ullatu Narpatu, and Vicaracankirakam. Ramana’s foundational religious experience is fascinating on account of its apparent absence of doctrinal content or religious training. Ramana represents the knowledge gained from that experience as direct, immediate and alive; for him this experience was an encounter with ‘living truth’ and no ‘mere intellectual process’.
