Ramana Maharshi's life, teachings and devotees
Ramana Puranam
By Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Muruganar
Edited by David Godman
Translation by Robert Butler, T. V. Venkatasubramanian and David Godman
Paperback
104 pages
Published by V. S. Ramanan, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, India
ISBN 81-8289-059-9
In the 1920s and 30s Muruganar wrote Sri Ramana Sannidhi Murai, an anthology of devotional poems in praise of Bhagavan that was modelled on the Tiruvachakam of Manikkavachagar. While he was composing, in Bhagavan’s presence, the poem that would eventually be called Ramana Puranam, he took a break to go out and think about the title. When he returned to the hall, he was astonished to discover that Bhagavan had not only named the poem Ramana Puranam by writing this title on every page of the manuscript, he had also completed it by composing and adding about 300 extra lines. In his contribution to Ramana Puranam Bhagavan not only continued with some of Muruganar’s own devotional themes, he also expanded the range of the work by including many lines that summarised key aspects of his own teachings, particularly ideas that he had written about in Ulladu Narpadu. This work, larger than any of Bhagavan's other poetical works, has languished in an undeserved obscurity for many decades, accessible only to those few who knew enough literary Tamil to read the original.
