Hindu Gurus and Saints
Shankaracharya Adi Shankara (788-820 C.E.), along with Madhva and Ramanuja, was instrumental in the revival of Hinduism.	Mahavir Mahavir (599-527 B.C.), also known as Vardhamana, established core tenets of Jainism. Mahavir was the 24thand the last Jain sage.
Ramanuja Sri Ramanuja Acharya (1017-1137 C.E.) was great Hindu philosopher and thinker. He is the most venerated Acharya in the philosophy of Sri Vaishnavism.	Gautama Buddha Gautama Buddha(563-483 B.C.) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded.
Madhvacharya Sri Madhvacharya(1238-1317 C.E.) was the proponent of Dvaita Vedanta which is also known as Tattvavada - the Philosophy of Reality.	Jhulelal Jhulelal Jayanti day is celebrated as Cheti Chand by Sindhi people of Pakistan and India and it is celebrated one day after Ugadi.
Maharishi Valmiki Maharshi Valmiki was a great sage who wrote the epic Ramayana in Sanskrit which consists of 24k verses and 7 cantos including the Uttara canto.	Sant Kabirdas Sant Kabirdas (1440-1518 circa) was a famous poet, saint and social reformer of India.
Tulsidas Tulsidas (1497-1623 C.E.) was a Hindu saint and the poet. Tulsidas is renowned for his great devotion towards Lord Rama.	Kavi Surdas Surdas (1478-1581 C.E.) was a great poet and musician known for his devotional songs dedicated to Lord Krishna.
Tailang Swami Tailang Swami (1607-1887 C.E.) was a great Hindu Yogi who has divine powers.	Ramakrishna Ramakrishna (1836-1886 C.E.) was a famous Saint in the 19thcentury India.
Guru Ravidas Guru Ravidas (1377-1527 C.E.) was a famous saint of the Bhakti Movement.	Vallabhacharya Vallabhacharya (1479-1531 C.E.) was a devotional philosopher, who founded the Pushti sect in India.
Guru Nanak Guru Nanak (1469-1539 C.E.) was the founder of the religion of Sikhism and the first of the Sikh Gurus.	Guru Gobind Singh Guru Gobind Singh(1666-1708 C.E.) was the tenth Guru out of total eleven Sikh Gurus.
Meerabai Meerabai (1498-1547 circa) was a great Hindu poet and ardent devotee of Lord Krishna.

I went out of body again last night, but this time I didn’t go in order to escape.  I went out to see the bigger picture of the purpose for this situation between Fallon and myself.  After coming back, I can clearly see my vibrational match for Fallon.  And how he is a match for me.  And after much deliberation, I’ve found it!

 We both suffer from monophobia; and this is a reincarnation of my childhood abuser, who like Fallon is also a psychopath.   Here’s how this goes:

Me:  I had an inconsistently nurturing mother.  She would vacillate between passively devaluing me, being hostile, and loving me.  My home environment was extremely confusing and invalidating.  So I doubted that she loved me.  I felt confused by her and completely unable to self regulate or separate from her with confidence.  When it came to establishing independence as a toddler, she would vacillate between shaming me for being selfish, congratulating me and frustratingly trying to push me into being more independent when I’d cling to her pant leg for dear life.  I could not find autonomy because of it.  I developed extreme separation anxiety as a toddler because of it.  My mother was the byproduct of an incredibly invalidating father.  He even disowned her for a time.  So it is no great mystery why her parenting style ended up like it did.

My father learned his “hands off” approach to parenting from his parents.  He was sent away to boarding schools as a child and was raised by wet nurses and nannies.  He was a good father when it came to spending time with us and teaching us things about science.  But he had no role in discipline.  Despite the extreme personality conflicts between my mother and I, he let my mother take the lead role with parenting me and did not argue with her about any of her decisions when it came to me.   To say that my father is diplomatically passive is an understatement. Growing up, he didn’t feel like an advocate, instead he felt like a mouthpiece for my mother.

Sri Anandamayi Ma (Bengali: শ্রী আনন্দময়ী মা) (30 April 1896 - 27 August 1982) was an Indian saint from Bengal. Swami Sivananda (Divine Life Society) described her as "the most perfect flower the Indian soil has produced."^[2] Precognition, healing and other miracles were attributed to her by her followers.^[3] Paramhansa Yoganandatranslates Anandamayi as "joy-permeated". This name was given to her by her devotees in the 1920s to describe what they saw as her habitual state of divine joy and bliss.

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

Anandamayi Ma was born Nirmala Sundari (নির্মলা সুন্দরী; Nirmôla Shundori, English: "Immaculate, Beautiful") on 30 April 1896 to Bipinbihari Bhattacharya and Mokshada Sundari Devi in Kheora, Brahmanbaria District, British India, in what is now Bangladesh. Her father, originally from Vidyakut in Tripura, was a Vaishnavite singer known for his devotion. They lived in poverty. Nirmala attended the village school for approximately two years.^[4] Although her teachers were pleased with her ability, her family thought she was dullminded because of her indifference and constantly happy demeanor. When her mother once fell seriously ill, relatives remarked with puzzlement about the child remaining apparently unaffected.

In 1908 at the age of thirteen, in keeping with the rural custom at the time, she was married to Ramani Mohan Chakrabarti of Vikramapura, whom she would later renameBholanath.^[4][5] She spent five years after her marriage at her brother-in-law's home, where she was in a withdrawn meditative state much of the time. It was here that a devout neighbour considered insane, Harakumar, developed a habit of addressing her as "Ma", and prostrated before her morning and evening in reverence.^[6] When Nirmala was about seventeen, she went to live with her husband in Ashtagram. In 1918, she moved to Bajitpur, where she stayed until 1924. It was a celibate marriage—whenever thoughts of sexuality occurred to Ramani, Nirmala's body would take on the qualities of death.^[7] On the full moon night of August 1922, at midnight, twenty-six-year old Nirmala enacted her own spiritual initiation. She explained that the ceremony and its rites were being revealed to her spontaneously as and when they were called for.^[6] She later stated, "As the master (guru) I revealed the mantra; as the disciple (shishya) I accepted it and started to recite it."^[8]

In Dhaka[edit]

Nirmala moved to Shahbag with her husband in 1924, where he had been appointed caretaker of the gardens of the Nawab of Dhaka.^[5] During this period Nirmala went into ecstasies at kirtans in a manner similar to that of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.^[4] Nirmala continued to perform household tasks, and also continued to practice silence, and was in a withdrawn state of ecstasy much of the time. These states began to interfere with her daily work.^[9] In 1926, she set up a Kali temple in the Siddheshwari area and devoted herself to spiritual practices.^[5] Nirmala underwent a mystic experience while praying in the temple one day.^[5] In a deep meditative state, she held difficult yogic positions for long periods and spontaneously formed complex tantric hand positions and gestures.

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) is widely acknowledged as one of the outstanding Indian gurus of modern times.^[1] He was born as Venkataraman Iyer, in Tiruchuli,^{[note 1]} Tamil Nadu (South India).^[2]

At the age of sixteen, Venkataraman lost his sense of individual selfhood,^{[3][note 2]} an awakening^[4] which he later recognised asenlightenment.^{[4][note 3]} A few weeks thereafter he travelled to the holy mountain Arunachala, at Tiruvannamalai, where he remained for the rest of his life.^[3]

His first years were spent in solitude, but his stillness and his appearance as a sanyassin soon attracted devotees.^[5][6][7] In later years, he responded to questions, but always insisted that silence was the purest teaching.^[6] His verbal teachings flowed "from his direct knowledge that consciousness was the only existing reality."^[8] In later years, a community grew up around him, where he was available twenty-four hours a day to visitors.^[8] Though worshipped by thousands, he never allowed anyone to treat him as special, or receive private gifts. He treated all with equal respect.^[3] Since the 1930s, his teachings have also been popularised in the west.^[9]

Venkataraman was renamed Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi by one of his earliest followers, Ganapati Muni.^{[note 4]} This was the name he became known by to the world.^[3]

In response to questions on self-liberation and the classic texts on Yoga and Vedanta, Ramana recommended self-enquiry as the principal way to awaken to the "I-I",^{[web 1]} realising the Self^[10][11] and attainingliberation.^{[12][note 5]} He also recommended Bhakti, and gave his approval to a variety of paths and practices.^{[web 2]}