David Godman

Ramana Maharshi's life, teachings and devotees

Be As You Are

This is the chapter from Be As You Are that explains the practice of self-enquiry. A brief explanatory introduction by the editor is followed by dialogues in which Bhagavan himself explains the method and answers questions about it put to him by visitors.

‘I’ and ‘I-I’, a Reader’s Query

In this article I discuss the meaning and significance of the term ‘I-I’ in the writings and dialogues of Sri Ramana. I attempt to make the case that the experience of it is a precursor to Self-realisation, not a consequence of it.

Glimpses of the Self

In 2008, in response to some comments and queries that had appeared on my blog, I put together this post in which I outlined what I had learned from Ramana Maharshi, Lakshmana Swamy and Papaji on the nature of temporary experiences of the Self.

Relations with the Guru

In this article I discuss the relationship that should exist between the Guru and disciple. The primary sources are Bhagavan himself and some of his senior devotees such as Muruganar, Lakshmana Sarma and Annamalai Swami.

Revisions to ‘Spiritual Instruction’

In 2006 I helped T. V. Venkatasubramanian make some changes to Spiritual Instruction (Upadesa Manjari), a small book of dialogues with Ramana Maharshi that was compiled by Sadhu Natanananda. Since they were never published, I have included them here.

Renunciation

This is an article I assembled in 2008 and posted on my blog. It was a response to several readers who were discussing Bhagavan’s teachings on renunciation.

Through Knowledge or Through Practice

I wrote this article in 2008 in response to online discussions about whether knowledge of Vedanta was a prerequisite for Self-realisation. One school of Vedanta was claiming that Ramana Maharshi couldn’t be enlightened because he hadn’t studied Vedanta properly. I found this proposition to be so absurd, I wrote this article as a kind of refutation of this point of view.