Ramana Maharshi - A Bibliography

Under the ICPR Documentation Series the Indian Council of Philosophical Research has published Author and Subject Index of the Philosophical Quarterly, Author and Subject Index of the Indian Philosophical Annual, Select Bibliography of Journal Articles on Philosophy, Religion, Science and Related Aspects of Indian Culture, A Union Catalogue of Philosophical Periodicals, and Author and Subject Index of the Journal of the Indian Academy of Philosophy. The Council decided to bring out the Documentation Series with a view to take stock of 'the philosophical activities in this country within the last five or six decades'. This Bibliography on Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi published in the Documentation Series has the Same end in view.

Though Ramana Maharshi did not philosophize systematically like an academic philosopher, the Hindu tradition looks upon him as an Advaita 'philosopher' in the mainstream flowing from the Upanishads through Gaudapada, Sankara, and other illustrious preceptors of Advaita. We have to gather his philosophy from his answers to the questions put to him by his disciples, from his talk to, and conversations with, spiritual aspirants, from his occasional writings selected and arranged by his disciples, and from the devotional hymns to Arunachala composed by him, which serve as a rich treasure-house for use by scholars and lay people. Articles and books on the philosophy of Ramana Maharshi are numerous. A compilation of a bibliography on Ramana Maharshi, it was felt, would be useful to scholars as well as laymen interested in the study of Advaita in general and Ramana Maharshi in particular. This Bibliography which is in three parts, comprising Subject, Author and Title Indexes, was compiled by Sri K. Subramaniyam, a devotee of Ramana Maharshi. The Council is grateful to him for preparing this Bibliography to be published under the ICPR Documentation Series.

I had the opportunity of staying at Tiruvannamalai for a few weeks during December 1989. One day I had an intense feeling that I should compile a bibliography on Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. I had some material on Bhagavan already. Then I started visiting the Ramana Centenary Library at Tiruvannamalai.

After my return to Bangalore, I continued the work in the library of Ramana Maharshi Centre for Leaning. Sri A.R. Natarajan, President of the Centre, evinced keen interest in the work. Thereafter, I visited a few libraries at Bangalore and Madras and collected further material.

This Bibliography in three parts-Subject, Author and Title Indexes-contains about 1475 entries, both books and articles, under various heads. A list of the Journals and periodicals consulted up to the end of June 1991 has been furnished elsewhere. Books and articles have been alphabetically indexed under various heads. The names of the authors under each subject group are alphabetically arranged, as they appeared in the journals and periodicals.

Author's name followed by initials, title of the book, place of publication, name of the publisher, year of publication, and pagination are furnished; wherever possible, the review available is included below the book, with the name or initials of the reviewer, name of the journal, volume and page numbers.

My thanks are due to the librarians of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras, Adyar Library, Madras, Indian Institute of World Culture, Bangalore, and Mythic Society, Bangalore, for their kind cooperation. I am especially thankful to Sri J. Jayaraman, librarian, Ramana Centenary Library, Tiruvannamalai for his cooperation, suggestion and valuable help; Sri Vajendra Joshi, chief librarian, NISTADS, Delhi; and Sri B.G. Satish, KGCC for computerizing the work. I would also like to express my thanks to Sri A.R. Natarajan, President, Ramana Maharshi Center for Learning, Bangalore, for his encouragement.

While working on this Bibliography I have received many useful suggestions from Professor R. Balasubramanian, Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, for making the publication conform to international standards for research.

I shall feel amply rewarded for my labour if this volume meets the requirements of scholars and researchers in the area of Indian philosophy in general and the philosophy of Sri Ramana Mahashi in particular.

With all the humility at my command, I offer this work at the lotus feet of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.