Fear of death vanished at once and for ever. The I or myself was holding the focus of attention with a powerful fascination. I was something very real, the only real thing in that state, and all the conscious activity that was connected with my body was centred on that. All this was not a feat of intellectual gymnastics, but came as a flash before me vividly as living Truth, which I perceived immediately, without any argument almost.
The material body dies, but the Spirit transcending it cannot be touched by death.
RAMANA MAHARSHI MEDITATION FULL
But I am still aware of the full force of my personality and even of the sound of I within myself as apart from the body. But with the death of my body, am I dead? Is the body I? This body is silent and inert. It will be carried to the crematory and there burnt and reduced to ashes. ‘Well then’ I said to myself, ‘this body is dead.
I held my breath and kept my mouth closed, pressing the lips tightly together, so that no sound could escape. I imitated a corpse to lend an air of reality to my further investigation. I extended my limbs and held them rigid as though rigor mortis had set in. I said to myself mentally, ‘Now that death is come, what does it mean? Who is it that is dying? This body dies’. The shock of the fear of death made me at once introspective or ‘introverted’. I felt I had to solve the problem myself then and there. I did not care to consult anyone, be he a doctor, elder or friend. But the mind desires such food as it is accustomed to and considers tasty. The food material is to be had both in vegetarian and non-vegetarian diet equally well. The fact is that the mind has been trained to think certain foods tasty and good. I felt I was going to die and at once set about thinking as to what I should do. Ramana Maharshi : Habit is only adjustment to the environment. But a sudden and unmistakable fear of death seized me. One day I sat up alone on the first floor of my uncle’s house. "It was about six weeks before I left Madurai for good, in the middle of the year 1896, that the great change in my life took place" said Sri Ramana Maharshi, when asked by devotees as to how he was transformed, "It was so sudden.
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