Btw. Ramana Maharshi got his title / name by Ganapathy Shastri Muni, also called Nayana, a Shri Vidya practitioner from Andhra Pradesh. He was the first one to make Ramana known to a larger audience within India. After finding his guru in Ramana, he composed a 1000 versed poem, which was actually transmitted to him by Ramana, called Uma Sahasranam. The first book about Ramana he composed, in verse form, representing Q&A, was called Ramana Gita, still at Virupaksha times.
http://the-wanderling.com/ganapati_muni.html Ganapathi Muni had disciples of his own, one was Kapali Shastry, another Shri Vidya practitioner and tantric. After Nayana died, Kapali Shastri switched from Ramana to the Aurobindo Ashram, becoming a disciple of Mirra Alfassa. He also had a disciple of his own, M.P. Pundit, who later became a personal secretary of Mirra Alfassa. He wrote many books correlating tantra to Sri Aurobindos philosophy. I mention this because of their Shri Vidya association, and because of the link Kapali Shastri presented between Aurobindo and Ramana, as he was still revisiting and speaking with Ramana after switching to Aurobindo. Also, one of the chapters in Ramana Gita are questions of Kapali pertaining to Shakti in the light of Ramanas teaching. I like this link between two worlds, the tantric Shakti world of Aurobindo, and the Kevala Advaita world of Ramana, represented by these persons. ---In [email protected], <[email protected]> wrote: Another prominent south-Indian (Tamil), who: Venkataraman was popular, good at sports, mischievous, and was very intelligent with an exceptional memory which enabled him to succeed in school without having to put in very much effort. He had a couple of unusual traits. When he slept, he went into such a deep state of unconsciousness that his friends could physically assault his body without waking him up. He also had an extraordinary amount of luck. In team games, whichever side he played for always won. This earned him the nickname 'Tanga-kai', which means 'golden hand'.[web 6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi#cite_note-autogenerated2-26 When Venkataraman was about 11, his father sent him to live with his paternal uncle Subbaiyar in Dindigul because he wanted his sons to be educated in English so they would be eligible to enter government service, and only Tamil was taught at the village school in Tiruchuzhi. In 1891, when his uncle was transferred to Madurai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madurai, Venkataraman and his elder brother Nagaswami moved with him. In Dindigul, Venkataraman attended a British School. In 1892, Venkataraman's father Sundaram Iyer suddenly fell seriously ill and unexpectedly died several days later at the age of 42.[15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKrishna_BikshuYear_unknown-27 For some hours after his father's death he contemplated the matter of death, and how his father's body was still there, but the 'I' was gone from it.
