This is a novel which blends fiction with facts. Ramana Maharshi, Seshadri Swami and their devotees (with the principal exception of Sundaresa Sarma) are historical figures and the events concerning them are true and by and large wellknown. Somu, the cartman from whose point of view the novel is written, his friends and others mentioned are fictitious; any resemblance to anyone dead or living is coincidental. I adopted the names of those persons as they came to my mind.
The idea of writing on the Hill Arunachala and the two saints in the mode of a novel occurred to me since it would help the events to be seen from the viewpoint of a common man at the time they occurred and in the social context of the times. This has also helped bringing out some interesting events about the saints which are not wellknown. Ramana's teachings figure in the story but in a way that is relevant to the common man. It is the grace of Ramana that has made my writing this novel possible.
Meera, my first daughter and a staunch devotee of Ramana, took Padma, my wife and me to Tiruvannamalai a number of times. The Ramana literature she had collected enabled us to read a large number of books concerning Ramana. I dedicate the book to her, as the one who took us there and as a token of our deep affection. In fact, the idea of the book came out of our conversations.
I am grateful to Sri V.S. Ramanan, President, Sri Ramanasramam, for his encouraging comments on the draft and for permitting the use of the cover design of an issue of the 'Mountain Path' for the cover of this book.
Dr. Krishnaswamy Venkataraman belongs to a family of Ramana devotees. Though he has published books on public finance, technology and development issues, this is his first novel. His forthcoming titles are Parables for the Soul and Shirdi Stories.
The sacred Arunachala Hill in Tiruvannamalai in South India has been revered for centuries. Even now thousands go round it on full moon days. The annual festival of lighting a fire on the crest of the Hill is a major event.
Two great saints whose lives closely mingled with the Hill are Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and Seshadri Swami. Their following is growing day by day even decades after their death. The year 2000 is the fiftieth year of Ramana's passing away.
Ramana Maharshi was a realised soul who taught mostly by silence and the grace of his eyes. Always clad only in no more than a loin cloth his presence was such that he looked as dapper as one dressed in a suit from Bond Street, according to the note book of Somerset Maugham. Paul Brunton found him as one who had freed himself from life's problems and in his presence all doubts and questions became unnecessary. Seshadri Swami, a great saint himself, was a contemporary for over thirty years and spoke of Ramana as his younger brother. The two held each other in mutual respect and affection.
The story, which mixes fiction with the facts about the saints, is written from the eyes of a humble cart driver against the background of the social and economic life of the first half of the twentieth century and, of course, of the Hill itself.
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