Annamalai swami biography of michael

Michael James (or Michael D A James, as he is also known) spent more than eight years studying the original Tamil writings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana and his foremost disciple, Sri Muruganar, in minute detail under the clear guidance of another close disciple, Sri Sadhu Om, and since the passing away of Sri Sadhu Om in 1985 he has continued to study, practise, translate and write about the spiritual teachings of Sri Ramana. In all his writings on the teachings of Sri Ramana, Michael focuses on their actual practice, which is ātma-vicāra (self-investigation or self-enquiry), a state of simple self-attentiveness — clear and calm contemplation upon our fundamental consciousness of being, 'I am' (which is also sometimes described in more devotional terms as the practice of complete self-surrender). While describing and discussing this practice, Michael also discusses its philosophical basis, explaining the rationale for seeking to experience true self-knowledge — perfectly clear consciousness of what we essentially are. Together with Sri Sadhu Om, Michael translated into English most of the original Tamil writings of Sri Ramana, and also 'Guru Vācaka Kōvai', which is the most comprehensive and reliable collection of the sayings of Sri Ramana, recorded in 1255 Tamil verses composed by Sri Muruganar, with an additional 42 verses composed by Sri Ramana himself. Their translations of these works, which include detailed word-for-word meanings of most of the original verses composed by Sri Ramana, and their translations of many of Sri Sadhu Om's own Tamil verses, have been published in several volumes. In addition to his translations, Michael has written 'Happiness and the Art of Being', which is a detailed introduction to the philosophy and practice of the spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, and which contains accurate and carefully worded translations by the author of the whole of Sri Ramana’s prose treatise 'Nāṉ Yār?' (Wh

Michelle: After Be As You Are and No Mind – I am the Self came out, you didn’t publish again for many years. What were you doing?

David: I did do a lot of writing and research during this period but none of it ever made it as far as publication, at least not in book form. I decided that I wanted to edit a book about all the various saints who had been associated with Arunachala over the last 1,500 years. Many great saints have lived and taught here during that period. Their writings exist in Tamil and Sanskrit, but virtually none of their output has ever been published in English. I decided to find as much of this material as possible and then find people who could translate it for me. So many bad or weirdly inexplicable things happened to the various people I co-opted into this scheme, I began to believe that this particular project didn’t have Arunachala’s blessings.

All this happened a long time ago. Let me see if I can remember it all. A friend of mine, Robert Butler, had learned classical, literary Tamil. He volunteered to translate some verses for me, but since he was new to the Tamil translation business, he wanted to have his material checked by someone who knew a lot more Tamil than he did.

I approached Sadhu Om, who was generally regarded as being the best Tamil poet and scholar in the vicinity of Ramanasramam, and asked him if he would be willing to check a few of the verses for me, just to see if Robert’s understanding was good enough for him to continue with his work. Sadhu Om said he was very busy on other work, but he promised he would get round to it at some point. Weeks went by and nothing happened. Then Michael James, who was his chief assistant, approached me and said that Sadhu Om had promised to do them the following day. Michael had put the verses on his desk so that he could start work on them the next morning. That night Sadhu Om had a stroke from which he never recovered. He died a few

When outsiders did make up stories about him, Sri Ramana would react with amusement rather than annoyance. When a disgruntled ex-devotee brought out an extremely libellous pamphlet about him in the early 1930s, the ashram manager wanted to go to court and sue the author to protect the good name of Sri Ramana and the ashram.

Sri Ramana dissuaded him and said, ‘Why don’t you instead sell it at the front gate? The good devotees will read it and not believe a word of it. The bad devotees will believe it and stay away. That way we will get fewer visitors here.’

The manager, of course, could never agree to such a proposal since the devotees would not stand for such a scurrilous booklet being sold on the ashram’s premises. However, the whole incident illustrates an interesting aspect of Sri Ramana’s character: not only was he unmoved by personal criticism, he occasionally enjoyed it, and at times even seemed to revel in it. It is said in the sastras that response to praise or blame is one of the last things to go before enlightenment happens. It was definitely absent in Sri Ramana. Let me mention one other story that very few people have heard about. There used to be a scrapbook in the hall where Sri Ramana lived. If there were any stories about him in the newspapers, someone would cut them out and paste them in the book. They were either neutral reports that gave information about his life, teachings and ashram, or they were very favourable testimonials. One day a highly critical report appeared in a newspaper. Sri Ramana himself cut it out and pasted it on the front cover of the scrapbook, overruling the horrified objections of all the devotees.

‘Everyone should have their say,’ he said. ‘Why should we keep only the good reports? Why should we suppress the bad ones?’

This is all a roundabout way of saying that there are no bad stories about Sri Ramana, so the que

Dear Devotees,

May the grace of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, Sri Annamalai Swami, Sri Mahaprabhu and all the Brahma Jnanis guide you and protect you and your whole blessed family.

By the grace of Bhagavan, we have published a new and revised updated edition of Sri Annamalai Swami’s biography – LIVING BY THE WORDS OF BHAGAVAN, on Vijayadasami Day, October 24th 2023. This new edition was released in Sri Annamalai Swami’s shrine by Sri T.S Gopinath, an auditor and an old devotee of Annamalai Swami.

To purchase this new edition within India click here:
https://notionpress.com/read/living-by-the-words-of-bhagavan

To purchase this new edition outside India (eBook or Paperback) click here:
https://a.co/d/g12y61o

The story of Sri Annamalai Swami and Bhagavan is one of the best examples of a Guru-Sishya (disciple) relationship, where the disciple surrenders to the Guru with total unconditional love and the Guru protects and nurtures the disciple with even greater love until his individuality has dissolved and he realises his true nature.

This new edition of ‘Living by the Words of Bhagavan’ has a few changes. We have fine-tuned the Tamil-to-English translation where needed. Authorship of the book has been reattributed to Sri Annamalai Swami. It is his own narration of how he lived by the words of Bhagavan. A new chapter has been added detailing the later years of Sri Annamalai Swami until his Mahā-samādhi. The ‘Diary’ chapter has been removed since a more detailed version of it has already been published by Sri Satguru Annamalai Swamigal Spiritual Trust under the title ‘Nectar Drops’. The ‘Conversations’ chapter has been removed and is being published as a new book soon.

Sri Annamalai Swami’s life is a great example for all sincere seekers of the Truth. His narration of his life with Bhagavan in the form of this book is a great spiritual treasure. We request all devotees to get this book and receive the blessings of Sri Bhagavan and Annamalai Swami and progr