Chapter 2 of 10

Madurai

When Venkataraman was twelve, Sundaram Iyer died. This was perhaps the first time that the child contemplated on the mystery of death. Sitting by His father’s corpse, He reflected, “Where has my father gone? Till yesterday, he was in this body. Now he is not, and this body has become a corpse. So, he is not this body.”

Shortly after His father’s demise, the family was split up. Venkataraman, who had been studying in Dindigul for a short time, went to live with His uncle, Subba Iyer, who had a house in the nearby city of Madurai.

Sepia photograph looking down a narrow street lined with houses toward the tall carved gopuram of the Meenakshi temple; a few people walk in the street. — *View of Sri Meenakshi Temple from Ramana Mandiram* *— from the house of Subba Iyer*

Though endowed with a stronger constitution than most of His school friends in His boyhood years, He was prone to abnormally deep sleep. Speaking of this in later years He said, “The boys didn’t dare touch me when I was awake. But if they had any grudge against me, they would come when I was asleep, carry me wherever they liked, beat me, paint my face with charcoal and then put me back, and I would know nothing about it until they told me the next morning.”

Was He immersed so deep in the Light of the Self that He did not know the punishment His friends meted out to his body? Was this a precursor to His later period in Paatala Lingam shrine when insects bit and fed on His body while he sat absorbed in the Self?

There was yet another facet of Primordial Pillar of Fire that manifested itself in young Venkataraman: The steady throbbing of its ancient name, ‘Arunachala-Arunachala,’ at the very Core of His Being. Yes! As the concluding verse of Sri Ramana Ashtotharam, the 108 Names of his Praise says, “He was born with the constant remembrance of Arunachala…”

It was therefore an enthralling surprise when in Madurai, a relative came home one day and on being asked where he was coming from, replied, “Arunachala!” “Arunachala! Where is that?” Venkataraman asked in wonder. “Why, don’t you know even this? It is Tiruvannamalai,” replied the relative. A shiver of Ecstatic Light rippled through the boy. He had never even imagined that “Arunachala” was actually on Earth and that it was a place one could go to.

Referring to this, He would later write a verse beginning with the words, “From the age of innocence it had shone within my mind that Arunachala was something of Surpassing Grandeur.”

Perhaps, it was this constant and enlightening remembrance that inspired Him to write later in the very first verse of Sri Arunachala Akshara Manamalai, “Thou dost root out the ego of those who always meditate on Thee in the Heart, O Arunachala!”

Black-and-white photograph, set at an angle, of an old open book: an engraved illustration of seated and standing figures on the left page and Tamil printed text on the right page. — *Page from Periya Puranam - book*

Around the same time, another significant event occurred. This time it was through the book Sekkizhaar’s “Periya Puranam”. It was given to the boy by His uncle who got it from a holy man living nearby. As Sri Bhagavan later recalled, “Coming across the book that thus happened to be in our house, I looked into it first out of curiosity and then, becoming interested, read the whole book. It made a great impression on me.”

The book was about the lives of Nayanmars, the Sixty-Three Saint-devotees of Lord Shiva, their bone-melting devotion, and Heart-stirring songs. It also described incidents of some of the Saints being drawn to Arunachala and their outpourings to the Divinity there. All of which added more fuel to the Fire of Devotion that was growing in young Venkataraman’s Heart.

With this unexpected revelation that “Arunachala” was a place one could go to and become one with God, the stage was set for the Great Transforming Event in the boy’s life. It would be a trial by fire. Literally !