Aged 16, Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) from Tamil Nadu in south India had a profound realisation of the deathless, the fusion of atman and brahman in the midst of experiencing fears of death.
I quickly also found "The Aham Sphurana Hoax" by Áine Keenan, and read that short piece first. I think it saved me alot of time, if I would have ever got around to reading the work anyway, my reading list being too long and not at all tackled systematically.
Be well and happy CT, enjoying your presence and musings always
The article "The Aham Sphurana Hoax" was written and published after the 1st edition of the original Aham Sphurana manuscript was made available to purchase on Amazon online. The manuscript is on sale under the name "Aham Sphurana: Scintillations of Jnana from Sri Ramana Maharshi" and subtitled "A Journal Containing Previously Unpublished Conversations with the Master". This original text is enormous, around 1700 pages on Kindle, and is an unedited hotchpotch of material, where detailed and profound dialogues with Ramana are interspersed with a lot of added on material that is often silly, irrelevant, offensive, and impossible. The compilers of the manuscript sold on Amazon explained that they included everything that was in their possession into the manuscript, leaving to others the job to find and take out the genuine material from what would have been added in later. They were very aware that large portions of this original text include episodes that could not possibly have occurred, such as the parts where Ramana Maharshi is speaking with people in languages he couldn't have known, especially German and Latin.
The compilers put out a 2nd edition of the unedited Aham Sphurana manuscript, some time after Keenan's article was published, where they respond to the accusations that Keenan made in her article.
A large part of the originally published "Aham Sphurana: Scintillations of Jnana" manuscript include dialogues with Ramana that are the most detailed, practical and illuminating instructions that I've read. They come from someone who has a thorough realization, and are expressed with lucidity. The difficulty with that manuscript, is that one has to skip over many other parts which are obviously later additions, which range from being absurd to disgusting, and because of that, people get dissuaded from reading the text after a short while, and miss the many extraordinary gems of wisdom and instruction.
The Open Sky Press people did a huge service to those who are inspired by Ramana, by publishing the excerpts from the original manuscript that are likely to have occurred. The Foreward to this edition was written by Swami Hamsananda, the highly respected head of Athithi Ashram in Tiruvannamalai, who lived with Annamalai Swami for years, who was one of Ramana's closest and most respected disciples. Hamsananda also lived at Ramana ashram for years, where he was working in the ashram publications department, and taking care of many of the old disciples of Ramana Maharshi, with whom he had lengthy conversations with. He is someone who would be as qualified as anybody alive, to be able to tell what would be genuine recountings of Ramana's conversations and activities, and this book has his enthusiastic approval and endorsement, as shown in his Foreward.
Thank you Christopher for this beautiful review of this important publication. Reading the dialogues with Ramana, my heart sings in jubilation. There is a second volume of excerpts from the original Aham Sphurana manuscript, published by the same group, titled "Vichara - Self Enquiry", which has more illuminating dialogues with Ramana Maharshi.
Thanks for bringing my attention to this book.
I quickly also found "The Aham Sphurana Hoax" by Áine Keenan, and read that short piece first. I think it saved me alot of time, if I would have ever got around to reading the work anyway, my reading list being too long and not at all tackled systematically.
Be well and happy CT, enjoying your presence and musings always
The article "The Aham Sphurana Hoax" was written and published after the 1st edition of the original Aham Sphurana manuscript was made available to purchase on Amazon online. The manuscript is on sale under the name "Aham Sphurana: Scintillations of Jnana from Sri Ramana Maharshi" and subtitled "A Journal Containing Previously Unpublished Conversations with the Master". This original text is enormous, around 1700 pages on Kindle, and is an unedited hotchpotch of material, where detailed and profound dialogues with Ramana are interspersed with a lot of added on material that is often silly, irrelevant, offensive, and impossible. The compilers of the manuscript sold on Amazon explained that they included everything that was in their possession into the manuscript, leaving to others the job to find and take out the genuine material from what would have been added in later. They were very aware that large portions of this original text include episodes that could not possibly have occurred, such as the parts where Ramana Maharshi is speaking with people in languages he couldn't have known, especially German and Latin.
The compilers put out a 2nd edition of the unedited Aham Sphurana manuscript, some time after Keenan's article was published, where they respond to the accusations that Keenan made in her article.
A large part of the originally published "Aham Sphurana: Scintillations of Jnana" manuscript include dialogues with Ramana that are the most detailed, practical and illuminating instructions that I've read. They come from someone who has a thorough realization, and are expressed with lucidity. The difficulty with that manuscript, is that one has to skip over many other parts which are obviously later additions, which range from being absurd to disgusting, and because of that, people get dissuaded from reading the text after a short while, and miss the many extraordinary gems of wisdom and instruction.
The Open Sky Press people did a huge service to those who are inspired by Ramana, by publishing the excerpts from the original manuscript that are likely to have occurred. The Foreward to this edition was written by Swami Hamsananda, the highly respected head of Athithi Ashram in Tiruvannamalai, who lived with Annamalai Swami for years, who was one of Ramana's closest and most respected disciples. Hamsananda also lived at Ramana ashram for years, where he was working in the ashram publications department, and taking care of many of the old disciples of Ramana Maharshi, with whom he had lengthy conversations with. He is someone who would be as qualified as anybody alive, to be able to tell what would be genuine recountings of Ramana's conversations and activities, and this book has his enthusiastic approval and endorsement, as shown in his Foreward.
Love this Christopher! Thank you :)
hello christopher, we met over 30 years ago in waldhaus. i have kept up the path until now (75) and will continue....
thank you for your work!
smile, susan
PS: i am a singer, may i send you my 2 latest CDs? -songs for coming -
i just read your book review. it draws tears to my eyes. thank you christopher❣️🙏🏻
susan
💖✨
Thank you Christopher for this beautiful review of this important publication. Reading the dialogues with Ramana, my heart sings in jubilation. There is a second volume of excerpts from the original Aham Sphurana manuscript, published by the same group, titled "Vichara - Self Enquiry", which has more illuminating dialogues with Ramana Maharshi.