Ramana Maharshi came to be known as the “Sage of Arunachala” because his realization, his way of life, and his teaching were all inseparably bound to the sacred hill of Arunachala at Tiruvannamalai. After a profound death-like inner awakening at the age of sixteen, he felt an overpowering attraction to the very name “Arunachala,” and, upon learning that it was a holy Śiva-kṣetra, he left home and went straight there. From the time of his arrival, he regarded Arunachala as the physical manifestation of Śiva, a living spiritual presence and, in a very real sense, his guru. This was not a mere geographical preference but a recognition of the hill as the embodiment of the Absolute, the silent power that draws the mind back to its source.

From that first journey onward, he never left the vicinity of Arunachala for the rest of his life. He lived initially in the precincts of the Arunachaleswara temple and then in caves on the hill, such as Virupaksha Cave and Skandashram, absorbed in Self-abidance. Later, Sri Ramanasramam took shape at the foot of the hill, and there he continued to dwell, surrounded by seekers who came for guidance in Advaita and the practice of Self-enquiry. His presence at Arunachala was thus not episodic but continuous, so that the hill and the sage came to be perceived as a single spiritual center.

In his hymns and spoken words, he repeatedly affirmed that Arunachala itself was the true teacher and the power behind all that unfolded around him. He praised the mountain as a force capable of granting liberation to those who approached it with devotion, and he saw his own role as transparent to that deeper agency. Devotees and visitors therefore did not see him merely as an individual teacher who happened to live near a sacred place; they experienced him as the human face of Arunachala’s grace, a realized Maharshi whose very being expressed the mountain’s silent wisdom.

Over time, this unbroken association—inner and outer—with the hill naturally gave rise to the epithet “Sage of Arunachala.” He was recognized as a great seer whose Advaitic teaching, especially the method of Self-enquiry, was inseparable from the presence of Arunachala, which he honored as the supreme Self in visible form. To speak of Ramana Maharshi was, for many, to speak in the same breath of Arunachala, the sacred mountain that had drawn him, sheltered him, and, in his own understanding, stood as the real guru behind his life and work.