Ramana Maharshi's Realisation of the Self
It was about six weeks before I left Madura for good that the great change in my life took place. It was quite sudden. I was sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle's house. I seldom had any sickness, and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a sudden violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for it, and I did not try and account for it or to find out whether there was any reason for the fear. I just felt ' I am going to die' and began thinking what to do about it. It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or my elders or friends; I felt that I had to solve the problem by myself, there and then. The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally, without actually framing the words: 'Now death has come; what does it mean? What is is that is dying? The body dies.' And I at once dramatized the occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out stiff, as t...