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Initially Ramalinga Swami was a traditionel practitioner of Bhakti Yoga, but he ended his life as a revolutionary reformer, taunted and prosecuted by the orthodox priest caste who saw itself as the protector of the tradition. He was born in 1823 in an small village in the region of Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu. His father, Ramayya Pillai, died shortly after his birth and the family moved to Chennai, earlier Madras. Ramalinga showed little interest in his studies, but still he pursued obtaining a profound knowledge of the Tamil literature. His first poems give witness to a very sensitive nature, with aversion to the coarseness of daily life, but filled with an overwhelming love for Shiva.
Around thirty five years of age Ramalinga returned to Karunkuzhi, a village in the area of his birthplace. Here he led a simple life, meagerly clothed and barely eating. More and more students began to collect around him. He taught that there is only one God, who through the means of love can worshhip in the form of Light. The key to a righteous life is compassion and an essential expression of compassion is giving food to the hungry, through which the different beliefs and castes must be transcended.
In 1872 he founded the Satya Gnana Jabhai. This ‘Tempel of divine knowledge’ consisted of a meditation hall with a simple oil lamp in the center, which symbolized God as Light. Seven curtains hung before the lamp, representing the veils of illusion, which every visitor must penetrate before he can see the Divine Light.
While Ramalinga was devoted to Shiva in his youth, he arrived at the insight that every religion was just an obstacle on the spiritual path. His students promised not to strive for book knowledge and even siddhis, the wonderful capacities one can obtain through the practice of yoga.
These same viewpoints brought Ramalinga into conflict with the priest caste. His opponents spread pamphlets in order to make him look bad and caused him a lawsuit. His students began to praise his diverse extravagant qualities and began, against his expressed wish, to venerate him as divine. Finally he closed the Satya Gnana Sabhai and bid each to persue his own sadhana. In his last talk, held in January 1894, he said: “Friends, I opened a store, but no one came to buy. Now I have closed the shop back up. For a certain amount of time I will not be visible to you, even though I am present everywhere in the world … Revere God in the form of Light and obtain enlightenment.”
The poem below comes from the sixth book of the Thiruvarutpa. Here, Ramalinga puts his experience of mystical unity into words. He speaks in the voice of a young girl who is both amazed and overjoyed by the "affinity" that has developed between herself and her Lord.
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There was a high pillar
with no peer to it here on earth.
As I shinnied up and up the pillar,
it tapered to the size of a thread.
When I faltered to go further up,
and was perturbed and grieved,
ridding me of my perturbation,
You lifted me up and placed me on high,
that I may be well established [atop that pillar]!
What kind of affinity is the affinity
between you and me?
Is this affinity an affinity
which others in the world can gain?...
O King! Desire wells up in me to embrace You.
On account of the certainty that I will embrace You,
my life lingers on.
My hand stretches forward in a hurry
to take hold of the fragrant feet.
Whenever my hand reaches it and grasps them,
joy reigns in my mind!
What kind of an affinity…
If I forget You, Oh my Father,
will my soul dwell in the body?
Will my mind ever think about anyone but You?
With what idea did You accept me
when I offered myself to You?
Oh my Father, will you come today
to give Yourself to me?
What kind of an affinity?...
Tightly I have taken hold of Your feet,
would I ever let them go any more?
Would I ever touch anything else
with the hand which has grasped those feet?
Death, afraid to approach me,
has run away in consternation!
Oh King, Your gracious effulgence of gnosis
has become mine!
What kind of an affinity…
Oh just Effulgence Who forcibly enslaved me!
Oh immaculate Effulgence Who brings me up
to sing to You!
Oh righteous Effulgence Who came and protected me
like a very mother!
Oh Effulgence Who bestowed on me
omnipotent mystic powers!
What kind of an affinity…
Oh Effulgence Who taught me the art of not dying!
Oh Effulgence Who placed on my head
a crown just like the crown of Yours!
Oh Effulgence Who raised me to the golden seat
of one-pointed contemplation!
Oh Effulgence Who bestowed on me
rule over mystic powers!
What kind of an affinity…
Obeisance to You, the Just Effulgence
of the Pure Blissful True Creed!
Obeisance to the Effulgence in the Hall of Gnosis
Who bestowed on me a life of joy!
Obeisance to the Effulgence
Who dances in the Golden Hall scintillating with purity!
Obeisance to the Effulgence
Who shines that all other effulgences may shine!
What kind of an affinity…
From: Indian Religions, A historical reader of spiritual expression and experience, Edited by Peter Heehs, New York University Press, New York 2002
(J.C.)
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Spiritual Path 
