You Don’t Know Ramana Maharshi? You Don’t Know Ram Dass?

In the weeks following my awakening, I was chatting with B every day about spirituality.

I came to learn that 30 years earlier, when he was working on a building site, he’d become close with an older guy on-site who had a lot of interesting things to say. His name was AB. From the way B spoke about him, it was clear this man had made a lasting impression.

AB had taken B under his wing back then and shared all sorts of spiritual ideas with him. Even decades later, I could tell B still thought very highly of him.

One afternoon we were deep in conversation, and I asked B who he thought I should look into. He didn’t even hesitate:

“Well, definitely Ramana Maharshi and Ram Dass.”

I looked at him blankly.

“Who are they?”

The look on his face, it was like I’d just committed the ultimate sin.

“You don’t know Ramana Maharshi? You don’t know Ram Dass?

Fucking hell, mate look them up.”

So I whipped out my phone and typed in Ramana Maharshi. I landed on his Wikipedia page.

I can’t explain what happened when I saw his photo for the first time — but something moved in me. Something I didn’t understand at the time. It was like a strange, long-lost recognition. I couldn’t explain it intellectually, and I didn’t yet have the intuitive sensitivity to feel into it clearly. But something was going on.

Over the next few months, I dove headfirst into Ramana’s teachings. I listened to hours of Ram Dass lectures on YouTube. It was a beautiful time in my life. It felt like the sun had just risen for the first time. Everything I was reading and hearing, it was like being handed pieces of a map I didn’t know I was missing.

B also confided in me that my awakening had triggered something in him, something he hadn’t touched in 30 years.

At the time, I was too raw and green to fully grasp the depth of that comment.

But now, I understand.