Overview

These paintings represent the paradox of materializing worship. Ramesh anticipates and resolves this contradiction through the abstraction of mass and volume, which implicate and yet release the body. Ramana Maharishi (1879-1950) belongs among the galaxy of rishi-reformer figures whose careers cohere with Indian independence and the urgently articulated need for reform. Ramana’s choosen path was advaita or nondualism, a principle introduced by shankaracharya, which Ramana redefined and furthered in contemporary terms, laying the onus of realization on the individual. He was born in a village in Tamil Nadu and named Venkatraman. At the age of twelve his father died and Ramana moved to his uncle’s house at Madurai. At the age of 16 he had a transcendental experience. The fear of certain death seemed to overcome him, which he scrutinized in a state resembling rigor mortis, leading him to conviction of his oneness with the universal spirit. A few months later, in this spirit of extreme introspection, Ramana left for Tiruvannamalai and never left the small town for the rest of his life, advocating the path of self enquiry for spiritual realization.