Ramana Maharishi
Sri Ramana Maharshi (December 30, 1879 – April 14, 1950) (born Venkataraman Iyer) was a Tamil Hindu Jivanmukta (Sage/Jnani) who, after an awakening considered Moksha/Mukti (spiritual liberation/enlightenment) at age 16, left home for Tiruvannamalai, and subsequently lived on the nearby sacred mountain Arunachala, in Tamil Nadu, South India. Although born a Brahmin, after Moksha, he declared himself "Atiasrami" (or "Atyashrami"), a Sastraic state of unattachment to anything in life and beyond all restrictions.
Sri Ramana maintained that a powerful silence radiating from his presence that quieted the minds of those attuned to this was the purest form of his teachings, that he gave verbal teachings only for the benefit of those who could not understand his silence. "The highest form of grace is silence. It is also the highest upadesa [spiritual instruction]," he said. According to David Godman, Sri Ramana's "verbal teachings flowed authoritatively from his direct knowledge that Consciousness was the only existing reality". When asked for advice, he recommended self-enquiry as the fastest path to Moksha. Though his primary teaching is associated with Non-dualism, Advaita Vedanta, and Jnana yoga, he highly recommended Bhakti, and gave his approval to a variety of paths and practices, saying: "To each person that way is the best which appears easiest or appeals most. All the ways are equally good as they lead to the same goal, which is the merging of the ego in the Self. What the Bhakta (devotee) calls surrender, the man who does Vichara (self-enquiry) calls Jnana (knowledge). Both are trying only to take the ego back to the source from which it sprang and make it merge there".
