Sorupananda’s Sorupa Saram

Sorupananda, who lived and thought in South India about 500 years ago, was an immensely powerful Guru who had that rare power to silence the mind of even skeptical visitors. Ramana Maharshi frequently told the story of how Sorupananda had effortlessly emersed a group of critical pandits in the silence of the Self, for three days after they had complained about the literary style of his chief disciple, Tattuvaraya.

Sorupananda’s only known work, Sorupa Saram is an uncompromising exposition on the state of liberated beings who abide in and as the Self. Ramana Maharshi valued it so highly, he included it on a six-item reading list of philosophical texts he gave to Annamalai Swami.

The original Tamil text has been out of print for decades, and it is unlikely to be reprinted again. We have therefore included both the original Tamil verses and an English translation of them in this new edition of the work.

There is also a twenty-page introduction by David Godman that details all the known biographical information about both Sorupananda and his chief disciple Tattuvaraya, and the Guru-disciple relationship that existed between them.