From a very early age, A. Ramana (Arunachala Ramana) intentionally sought a deeper understanding of the truth of God, or the true source and cause of all that is, of himself and the real meaning and purpose of life. He was born in El Paso, Texas on 1 November, 1929, with the name Dee Wayne Ray. At 13 months, he was adopted by foster parents from his unwed mother, who gave him their surname, Trammell. However, they did not tell him he was adopted until the age of 16, which made for a inevitable degree of confusion in his early years like being a fish out of water; and later, between age 9 and 16, the feeling he was "a stranger in a strange land."

His parents were simple, uneducated people of below average means bordering on poverty. During the 1930s depression his father could find only menial work. At this time the family lived in a small town in East Texas, in a one room tent in a clearing at the edge of a woods with the landowners permission. At age 5 he was accidentally severely burned when a pot of boiling water toppled into his lap. There was no hospital, and the one doctor in the town was away. To calm his screams and soothe his pain, his parents were convinced to send for "Uncle Billy," a hermit living in a small shack deep in the nearby woods. It was believed by the local people that he had the ability to "remove the heat from fire."

The old hermit was considered strange by most of the town people, and was even feared by some who labeled him as weird, since he always remained alone and isolated from the world hardly ever speaking to anyone. Nevertheless the distressed parents, knowing the mixed tales about him, consented to him being sent for. He walked the few miles distance through a freezing rain to where Ramana was still writhing and screaming in pain. Without speaking, with only a gesture he motioned the parents away from the boy and everyone out of the tent as he sat down on a wooden box beside the cot which served as a bed where Ramana was lying. Uncle Billy slowly moved his left hand back and forth about an inch above the major area of the burn, which was concentrated on Ramana’s left thigh and leg, with the other hand alternating between stroking Ramana’s head or resting gently on the area of his heart, as he silently whispered a few non-discernible words some of them in Ramana’s ear. Immediately the pain was gone and Ramana stopped crying. Without saying a word, Uncle Billy left the room and returned to his shack. Everyone was amazed! Outstanding among them was Ramana’s parents whose amazement was second only to their sense of gratitude and relief, for Ramana was at last quiet and at peace, where he remained indefinitely after that!

Following this incident Ramana recalls how he was clearly aware of his oneness with all of life. This clarity remained steadily with him, but his destiny then was for this highest awareness to be lost from his experience. Lasting only 4 years, it proved to be only tenuous at that time for other childhood traumas eventually brought about the loss of this all-encompassing, transcendental awareness. Around the age of nine years, one evening during the dinner meal there occurred a harsh scolding from his mother as she bellowed, "Will you hurry up and finish your meal!" In her frustration with his dawdling, as she spoke she banged the table with her hand so hard everything on the table jumped in the air and a cup fell to the floor breaking into pieces. Shocked by his mother’s barrage he gulped down the remaining food and in that moment fell back into the amnesia of Self-forgetfulness, the state of everyone else around him. For the 4 year period following the "miracle" with Uncle Billy until this incident at the family dinner table, Ramana took great pleasure in and amazement from eating. With extreme precision he would very slowly watch his food being consumed as he delightedly experienced it as himself eating himself. However, since the evening of that shattering event he has been a very fast eater not even sufficiently chewing his food. But, Ramana never fully forgot his early cognition and experience of this all-encompassing awareness. It just moved out of reach, deep into the background of his memory, much like the declining memory of a vividly impressive dream that gradually fades as the years go by. Though unreachable, it was always there beckoning him onward in his quest to regain it, which he sought steadily and often feverishly. But he was not able to directly access it, or bring himself into its pure experience for very long.

During the years before his return into full conscious awareness, Ramana examined and practiced most of the traditional paths and usual methods of seeking. He studied the Bible and other sacred scriptures, along with the methods, teachings and philosophies of both West and East. His early years were spent in the life and practice of traditional Christianity. But each gain in traditional knowledge only left him as incomplete as before. The intuitive awareness always remained present deep within him that seeking after what one already is, is futile. Yet he was still compelled to keep on seeking, for he had not yet regained the state of natural abidance that he sought. It was as though a thick veil was concealing it which, on rare occasions, allowed him a momentary glimpse that quickly receded; yet this was enough for him to continue his quest.

His ordinary adult life has included the various roles of husband (in four marriages), father of three children, including the agonizing loss from the death of a child; his first daughter drowned in a swimming pool at the age of eighteen months. He was the founder of two successful businesses, he spent a few years both as a clergyman, a counselor, and as a successful self-improvement instructor. His life has been both full and interesting, in his words "having experienced just about everything a person can experience in one lifetime." He has lived from coast to coast in the United States, and with a short time in the Orient while in the U.S. Army. He now makes annual visits to India. This started with visits to the ashram of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, his final Teacher and Guru, taking students to experience the potent Peace and Presence of Sri Bhagavan which still continues at his burial shrine, and that manifests in the holy hill, Arunachala, which Sri Bhagavan considered to be His Guru.

In the summer of 1973, Ramana’s spiritual search was concluded and his abidance in the Self at last stabilized or made permanent by his "discovery" of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, his real and Ultimate Teacher (Guru). This occurred by means of an unexpected, mystical experience. Ramana’s body was forcefully "taken" to a bookstore in Houston, Texas (where he was living at the time), and his hand and sight simultaneously directed to a specific book of Sri Bhagavan’s teachings. Opening the book the pages unexpectedly parted at the picture of the gentle Sage. As he simply peered into the intense compassion, beauty and wisdom radiating from the Sage’s eyes, Ramana directly experienced an immediate, engulfing and radical transformation throughout his entire being, reawakening him once and for all into that very awareness he lost during his childhood, and which he learned or again understood to be the very Self. With his spiritual Heart now fully re-Awakened, when any thought arose Ramana simply used the newly found Self-Inquiry process of Sri Bhagavan, and gently and easily settled back into the Self, or the Heart.

He saw the newly acquired Self-Inquiry process to be the end of all seeking. For those just starting to use it, it is the "beginning of the end" of their seeking, and the only true method of ending all methods of seeking.

In the early spring and summer of 1974, Ramana underwent a series of experiences resulting in an even deeper stabilization of this final transformation. This resulted in part from his regular use of the simple yet powerful process of Self-Inquiry; and, was further intensified and his spiritual state formally confirmed by a significant meeting with the renowned Swami (Baba) Muktananda Paramahansa, from Ganeshpuri, India. Baba being a Siddha Yogi (Perfected Being) immediately recognized Ramana’s spiritual state and gave him the spiritual name "Ramana," after his beloved Guru. Baba told him that the name means, "one who plays (or revels) in God." "Ram" and "Rama" both mean "God" in Sanskrit. Ramana now "revels in God," for he lives and plays in the awakened Heart or Self as his natural state.

There is nothing mysterious or "other worldly" about Ramana. He is a very ordinary man, who has a regular, daily, work schedule (he puts in from 4 to 6 hours a day on the computer in the AHAM office both in the USA and when in India), alongside everyone else living and working at either AHAM Center. He is easily available, talks directly and very plainly, and jokes and laughs with everyone who comes to visit AHAM’s Centers, and to sit with him or ask him questions while taking AHAM’s Conscious Curriculum for Self-awakening or realization, the majority of which he personally wrote, developed or compiled. Much is taken from transcripts of his many meetings and talks with students of the various AHAM programs.