SOURCE: Ramana Maharshi: The Sage of Arunacala, George Allen & Un win Ltd., 1977, pp. 81-116.

In the following essay, Mahadevan explains the origins and meanings of many of Ramana Maharshi's poems, hymns, and philosophical teachings.

Self-enquiry (vicara-sangraham)

This work which is in Tamil prose consists of forty questions with the answers, covering the entire range of disciplines required for gaining the spiritual goal of Self-realisation. About the year 1900, there was a municipal overseer at Tiruvannamalai, Gambhiram Seshayya by name, who was an ardent devotee of God in the form of Rama, and also a student of yoga-practice. He used to read the lectures of Svami Vivekananda that had just then been published, as also some classical texts on Yoga. While reading these books some doubts would arise in his mind and he found some difficulties in understanding it all. From time to time, he used to climb the hill...