Annamalai swami biography of williams

This is an extract from the first chapter of Living by the Words of Bhagavan. The words in roman are Annamalai Swami’s. The explanations of philosophical or cultural topics that appear as paragraphs in italics are my [David Godman’s] editorial comments:

Sometime in 1928, when I was twenty-one years old, a wandering sadhu passed through the village.

He gave me a copy of Upadesa Undiyar that contained a photo of Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Annamalai swami biography of williams

As soon as I saw that photo, I had the feeling that this was my Guru. Simultaneously, an intense desire arose within me to go and see him.

Upadesa Undiyar is a thirty-verse philosophical poem written by Ramana Maharshi in Tamil.

It was first published in 1927, about a year before Annamalai Swami got to see it. Upadesa Saram is Sri Ramana’s Sanskrit rendering of the same work. Some of the English translations which appear under the title Upadesa Saram are actually translations of Upadesa Undiyar, the original Ta