Notable Followers
Over the course of Ramana's lifetime, people from a wide variety of backgrounds, religions, and countries were drawn to him. Some stayed for the rest of their lives (or his) and served him with great devotion, and others came for a single darshan and left, deeply affected by the peace he radiated.
Quite a number of followers wrote books conveying Ramana's teachings. Muruganar (1893–1973), one of Ramana's foremost devotees who lived as Ramana's shadow for 26 years, recorded the most comprehensive collection of Ramana's sayings in a work called Guru Vachaka Kovai (The Garland of Guru's Sayings). Ramana carefully reviewed this work with Muruganar, modifying many verses to most accurately reflect his teaching, and adding in additional verses. Muruganar was also instrumental in Ramana's writing of Upadesa Saram (The Essence of Instruction) and Ulladu Narpadu (Forty Verses on Reality). Sri Sadhu Om (1922–1985) spent five years with Ramana and about 28 years with Muruganar. His deep understanding of Ramana's teachings on self-enquiry are explained in his book The Path of Sri Ramana – Part One. Suri Nagamma wrote a series of letters to her brother in Telugu, describing Ramana's conversations with devotees over a five year period. Each letter was corrected by Ramana before it was sent. Attendants of Ramana included Palaniswami (from 1897), Kunju Swami (from 1920), Madhava Swami, Ramanatha Brahmachari, Krishnaswami, Rangaswamy, Sivananda, Krishna Bhikshu and Annamalai Swami (from 1928). The devoted ladies who cooked for Bhagavan and his devotees in the ashram kitchen include Shantamma, Sampurnamma, Subbalakshmi Ammal, Lokamma, and Gowri Ammal.
Paul Brunton's writings about Ramana brought considerable attention to him in the West. Other Westerners who wrote about Ramana include Arthur Osborne (the first editor of the ashram journal, The Mountain Path), Major Chadwick (who ran the Veda Patasala during Ramana's time), Ethel Merston, and S.S. Cohen. More recently, David Godman, a former librarian at the ashram, has written about Ramana's teaching, as well as a series of books (The Power of the Presence) vividly portraying the lives of a number of lesser-known attendants and devotees of Ramana. Swami Ramdas visited Ramana Maharshi while on pilgrimage in 1922, and after darshan, spent the next 21 days meditating in solitude in a cave on Arunachala. Thereafter, he attained the direct realization that "All was Rama, nothing but Rama".
Maurice Frydman (a.k.a. Swami Bharatananda), a Polish Jew who later translated Nisargadatta Maharaj's work "I Am That" from Marathi to English, was also deeply influenced by Ramana's teachings.
William Somerset Maugham, the English author, wrote a chapter entitled "The Saint" in his last book "Points of View." This chapter is devoted to Ramana Maharshi, whom Maugham had at one time visited before Indian independence.
Indian National Congress politician and freedom-fighter, O. P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar, who served as the Premier of Madras from 1947 to 1949, was also a devoted follower of Ramana Maharshi. Ramaswami Pillai, Balarama Reddy, Ramani Ammal, Kanakammal, Meenakshi Ammal, Perumalswami and Rayar are some of the other long standing devotees who came into the Sannadhi of Bhagavan during his life at Sri Ramanasramam.
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