Ramana Maharshi's life, teachings and devotees
Homage to the Presence of Sri Ramana
By Sri Muruganar
Translation by Prof. K. Swaminathan
Paperback
176 pages
Published by V. S. Ramanan, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, India
At one of their early meetings Bhagavan asked Muruganar if he could write like Manikkavachagar, a Tamil saint who lived more than a thousand years ago. His most famous work, Tiruvachagam, is one of the classics of Tamil devotional poetry. Muruganar said that he could not, but he took this as an invitation and an order to at least attempt to create a similar work that praised Bhagavan, his Guru. The resulting work, entitled Sri Ramana Sannidhi Murai, took more than ten years to complete. When it came out, Bhagavan praised it effusively and arranged for it to be read communally in the old hall. This text has never been fully translated into English.
Prof. Swaminathan translated about a quarter of the verses in the 1970s and 80s, and these are the ones that appear in this anthology. These were published in 1994 to commemorate Muruganar’s birth centenary. Additional translations from the original Tamil can be found here:
https://davidgodman.org/newsite/wordpress/upadesa-tiruvahaval