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| Conversations with God
Venkataraman, who was born in the small village of Thiruchulli in Tamil Nadu, had a sudden spiritual awakening when he was sixteen. Consequently, he felt no interest in worldly affairs. He left home and went to live on mount Arunachala where he spent days in deep meditation and prayer. Soon he attained self-realization and came to be known as Raman Maharshi. Following the philosophy of non- duality of soul (Advait Siddhant) his saintliness brought him a great renown.
But, as always happens with remarkable personalities, there were many traditionalists and pretentious Pundits who were jealous of his spiritual greatness. One day a small group of his opponents came to him and said, “You are a fraud. No one in this world has seen God and you have been leading the gullible people on the wrong path. You only talk about uninterrupted spiritual practice and you claim that you talk to God for 3 hours everyday. Would you show where your God is? Your hypocritical talk of devotion and God will no longer fool us. Either you show us your God or confess your pretence, which is misleading the innocent people."
Their shouting disturbed the quiet of the mountainside and troubled the disciples. 16 Path to Righteousness Jain Education international For Private Personal use only
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