Arunachala Aksharamanamalai

By Ramana Maharshi and Muhuvai Kanna Muruganar

Translation by Robert Butler

Paperback

278 pages

Published by V. S. Ramanan, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, India

ISBN 9788182882348

This is Muruganar's detailed and highly literary commentary on Aksharamanamalai, the 108-verse poem that Sri Ramana Maharshi composed around 1913 at the instigation of devotees who wanted a distinctive song to sing as they went begging for food on the streets of Tiruvannamalai. Sri Ramana joked in later years that this song kept them fed for many years.

Muruganar was fascinated by Aksharamanamalaiand wrote this detailed verse-by-verse commentary on it that analysed and explained the underlying literary structure of the poem. He also shows how its sentiments embody Sri Ramana’s teachings as well as the ideas expressed by previous generations of Tamil saints.