Ramana Maharshi

Ramana Maharshi was an Indian sage and one of the most revered Hindu spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. He taught the practice of self-inquiry (vicara) — asking "Who am I?" — as the direct path to realising the non-dual nature of the self and attaining liberation.

Ramana's teaching was notable for its simplicity and directness: all philosophical questions dissolve when the enquirer turns attention back to the source of inquiry itself. His influence extended to Western intellectuals including Paul Brunton and W. Somerset Maugham, who fictionalised him in The Razor's Edge.