Michael James

Whilst travelling in India in 1976 Michael James, an Englishman, heard about the teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana and as a result decided to visit Tiruvannamalai in order to learn more. In his own words:

"Fortunately, after I had been just a few weeks in Tiruvannamalai, I was lent the book 'The Path of Sri Ramana by Sri Sadhu Om'. In this book, Sri Sadhu Om clearly explained that 'self-enquiry' is simply the practice of self-attention, that is, the practice of turning our attention or power of knowing away from all thoughts and objects, towards our fundamental consciousness of our own being, which we always experience as 'I am'. So clear and convincing was this explanation of Sri Sadhu Om that I was left in no doubt that this was the real meaning of the term atma-vichara or 'self-enquiry' used by Sri Ramana.

[photograph of Sri Sadhu Om in front of Arunachala]

Soon after reading his book, I met Sri Sadhu Om, and I found that he was able to answer in an extremely clear, simple and convincing manner all the questions that I asked him about the philosophy and practice of the teachings of Sri Ramana. For the next eight-and-a-half years, until his passing away in March 1985, I was fortunate to be able to spend most of my waking life in the company of Sri Sadhu Om, and to imbibe from him a clear understanding of the philosophy, science and art of true self-knowledge as taught by Sri Ramana."


Michael James ended up living at Arunachala for the next twenty years. He has now launched a website and hopes to continue adding more content to his site in the form of e-books, articles, translations and explanations of all the original writings of Sri Bhagavan.

At present the main content of the site is a PDF version of his new book, 'Happiness and the Art of Being', which is intended to serve both as a layman's introduction to the philosophy and practice of Bhagavan's teachings and as a detailed and in-depth exploration of the core elements of those teachings. To find out more about the life of Michael James, his teacher Sadhu Om and the teachings of Self-Enquiry please visit: www.happinessofbeing.com