Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo and Paramahamsa Yogananda are three Indian gurus of the 20th century. They are well known both in India and internationally. They are generally regarded as fully self-realized masters.
Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950)
Ramana Maharshi was only a teenager when he experienced a sudden and spontaneous spiritual transformation. Soon after this dramatic realization, he left home and travelled to the holy mountain of Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, where he eventually became known as Ramana Maharshi. Ramana never left Arunachala until his death.
He lived on the holy hill and soon, people came to seek his blessings and teachings. Thus, an ashram grew around him, the latest of which was called Sri Ramanashram which is still open for visitors and pilgrims today.
Ramana Maharshi is famous for this teachings on self-knowledge and Advaita Vedanta, although he usually taught through silence. Ramana often recommended the practice of self-inquiry.
Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950)
Sri Aurobindo was born in Kolkata (Calcutta). His father was a westernized, well-educated Indian who sent his seven year old son to England for his education.
However, Aurobindo had a mind of his own. After his return to India at the age of 21, he immersed himself in studying his native Indian culture and religion. He soon became actively involved in the independence movement and even founded a revolutionary party and became editor of a nationalist newspaper.
In 1908, the British put Aurobindo in jail because of his revolutionary activities. Prison was a turning point in his life and suddenly, he turned strongly towards yoga and spirituality. After his release, Aurobindo went to live in Pondicherry, near Chennai (Madras) in Southern India, where he established an ashram and developed his integral yoga.
Aurobindo is a unique figure among Indian yogis since he went beyond the traditional yoga teachings, including an evolutionary approach. Aurobindo believed that spirituality not only consists of a personal quest for spiritual perfection and liberation, but that each seeker should also work towards the spiritual transformation of the earth.
In other words, it is not enough to ascend towards the Divine, the Divine Consciousness ("the supramental") has to descend to earth.
Paramahamsa Yogananda (1893 – 1952)
Paramahamsa Yogananda has attained worldwide popularity through his book titled Autobiography of a Yogi.
He grew up in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and underwent spiritual training under his guru Sri Yukteshwar. Yogananda went to the United States in 1920 in order to attend the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston.
That very year, he founded the Self-Realization Fellowship, which was to be an instrument in disseminating his yogic teachings, especially the Kriya Yoga meditation. Yogananda made America his permanent home from 1920 through 1952. Yogananda died in 1952 just after finishing a public lecture.
Related Reading
Readers may also enjoy More Famous Indian Gurus of the 20th Century and Famous Indian Gurus of the 19th Century.
Sources
Godman, David (editor). Be as you are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. Penguin, 1989.
Feuerstein, Georg. The Yoga Tradition.Hohm Press, 2001.
