On the night of 26th February 1949, during the Mahasivaratri celebrations in the Old Hall, a young foreigner sat in Bhagavan’s presence absorbed in the practice of vichara. He had spent the previous forty days and nights in the Sage’s presence endeavouring to learn the practice that Bhagavan so emphatically recommended for sadhakas. At some point during the all-night vigil, amidst the recitation of the Rudram while standing in the long queue to have darshan, Ramanagiri’s turn came and he approached the “Great Magnet”. His eyes met those of the Maharshi, in what he called, “a piercing yet moon-like look from those sun-like eyes.” In that moment the noise of the hall seemed to fade in the distance and all his earlier efforts would culminate in a singular event. The burdens of twenty-seven years of seeking seemed to fall away—in this first of a series of openings that would fundamentally alter his life.
Who is Swami Ramanagiri?
Per Alexander Westin[1] was born in Stockholm on 19th June, 1921 and showed remarkable spiritual longings from an early age. His eastern journey began with Swami Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga, which profoundly influenced him as a student, leading him to practice its teachings even while still in Sweden. Shaped by the turbulence of the Second World War, Per eventually found his way to India, took sannyass, and became a devotee of Sri Ramana Maharshi.
In his school years he was deeply inspired by India’s rich religious heritage and looked for the opportunity to travel to India. The moment came when under the auspices of Uppsala University where he was studying the history of religions and religious psychology, he was granted permission to attend a two-year programme as a student of philosophy at Benares Hindu University. But once in India, even before his course work began, he was smitten by the longing to seek the Lord—not through books and learning, but directly, apprenticing himself to the teachers and holy men he encountered. He thus gave up his studies and, it would seem, never took a single course at BHU but instead underwent sannyasa diksha shortly after his arrival.
His first guide was the Danish mystic Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sørensen, known by the spiritual name Sunyata, who had come to India fifteen years earlier after meeting the poet Rabindranath Tagore in Europe. Over time Sunyata settled in the Himalayan town of Almora, living in caves near Kasar Devi and came on regular visits to South India to see Bhagavan Ramana. Sunyata tells of his meeting with Per not long after the Swede arrived on the subcontinent:
It was a sunny winter day in holy Benares in the 1940s when I met Per Westin. He came gliding along by the shore where the washermen were busy washing the linen of respectable ego-jies. I was sharing my leftover food with donkey friends, as human friends would always give me too much to eat. Per seemed touched by my donkey friendship. He was in the body of one some twenty-five summers—tall, dark-haired, and slim. He was studious-looking, civilized, respectable and balanced. His upper lip had been slightly disfigured by some explosion he endured during his military service. We went together to see some sadhus, gurus and learned pandits. One guru fastened on Per the name “Sri Hanuman.” I was not much impressed by the competence of that guru nor with the name he had given Per. Since Per had been in holy Bharat only a brief while [and yet, was already greatly inspired by the religious culture of India], I was convinced that he would eventually find his path.[2]
Family Roots in Sweden
Per Westin was born into a family whose story reflected both hardship and perseverance. His Swedish biographer[3] traces the family’s origins to the rugged coastal archipelago north of Stockholm. Per’s grandfathers had been sea captains who combined seafaring with small-scale farming. Life there was shaped by wind, water, and the rhythms of the sea. But the shipping crisis that struck Scandinavia in the late nineteenth century destroyed the fragile prosperity of many such families.
When Per’s grandmother was widowed with five children, she moved the family to Stockholm in search of work. The move marked the beginning of a new chapter. Among the children was Robert Westin, Per’s father, who would rebuild the family’s fortunes through determination and skill.[4]
Per’s father abandoned the uncertain life of the sea while still a teenager and apprenticed as a steel engraver. The craft demanded patience, steady hands, and long years of discipline. Gradually, he mastered the trade and established his own workshop in Stockholm. By the early 1920s he had founded Westins Ateljé, an engraving and goldsmith workshop that produced sports medals, badges, and decorative metalwork.
The business prospered. At its height it employed about thirty workers and even produced royal medals. Through industry and perseverance Per’s father restored a measure of the family’s prosperity that earlier generations had lost.
Even though born into rising prosperity, Per’s early years were not spent in comfort and quiet but in the bustling streets of Stockholm’s Old Town, where the family lived above the busy commercial district of Österlånggatan. The narrow streets were filled with merchants, carts, and crowds. For a sensitive child such surroundings could be overwhelming.
Per would later describe the city as “the nectar of madness.”[5] Even as a boy he seemed to sense that something deeper lay beyond the restless energy of urban life. While the household outwardly reflected success and ambition, inwardly Per was developing a rich imagination and a natural inclination toward solitude and interiority.
A Mysterious Fall
One remarkable story from his boyhood occurred when he was about six years old.
According to later accounts, Per fell from a second-story window into the courtyard below. His family rushed outside expecting the worst. To their astonishment, the child was alive and unharmed.
When he regained consciousness, he asked his mother, “Where is that bird?” He later explained that a great white bird had carried him gently to the ground.
The family could find no explanation for this comment. Years later, when Per was living near Sri Ramanasramam, he saw a white peacock and was deeply moved. Something in him recognized the bird instantly. He felt it was the same presence that had saved him as a child.[6]
In later years he sometimes hinted that the path to India had begun long before he consciously chose it.
A Childhood of Inner Distance
Although Per grew up in a loving household, he seems never to have felt entirely at home in it. After arriving in India, he wrote a touching line that his biographer preserved:
I feel like a little child. I would like to gather all the little children and pray with them, but they probably wouldn’t agree to have a playmate with a big black beard.
The remark reveals both innocence and humour, but it also hints at a deeper transformation. In India Per felt as though he had rediscovered a childlike simplicity that had never adequately expressed itself in his early years.
Djursholm
During the early 1930s the family moved from the crowded streets of Stockholm to the prosperous suburb of Djursholm, an area known for elegant villas and elite schools. The move reflected Robert Westin’s growing success.
Yet the young Per sensed the emptiness that can sometimes accompany wealth and an increasingly elevated social status. The social expectations of this environment did not fully satisfy the deeper questions stirring within him.
Relief came through the surrounding natural world. The family spent summers in the Roslagen archipelago, a landscape of islands, forests, and open sea. Sailing, swimming, and wandering along the rocky coast brought Per a sense of peace that city life could not provide. The natural world awakened in him a love that remained throughout his life.[7]
Religious Influences
Per’s family belonged to the Swedish Mission Covenant Church, a Protestant movement that emphasized humility, discipline, and service. His father served as a youth leader, and the household observed strict moral standards. Alcohol, dancing, cinema, and other amusements were discouraged.
The church cultivated compassion for the poor and enthusiasm for missionary work abroad. Stories of missionaries traveling to distant lands to serve the poor such as in China, Africa, and India were often shared in church circles. No doubt these stories influenced Per in the spiritual traditions of Asia. Yet the church’s emphasis on doctrine and moral regulation did not fully satisfy his longing. Even in youth he appears to have been searching for a more direct encounter with the sacred. He later illustrated this search through a parable:
He compared his childhood world to a deep well inhabited by frogs. From the bottom of the well the frogs could see only a single star in the night time sky. They were told that this star represented heaven. But one frog longed to climb out of the well and see the sky—the entire sky—for himself.
When Per later arrived in India, he said it felt as though he had finally climbed out of that deep dark well. Instead of one star he saw a sky filled with countless stars—and then, too, the rising sun.
Lundsbergs Skola
At the age of eighteen Per entered Lundsbergs Skola, one of Sweden’s most prestigious boarding schools. The fact that his family could afford such an education for their son shows how far his father’s success had carried them.
Lundsberg was modelled after British public schools and sought to train the future leaders of Swedish society. Its motto, “A sound mind in a sound body,” reflected an ideal of discipline, endurance, and physical strength.
Sports such as rowing, shooting, riding, and fencing were central to the school’s culture. Younger boys were expected to defer to older students, creating a strict hierarchy. The environment demanded resilience and self-control.
Yet the school also provided strong intellectual training and powerful social networks. Many of Per’s classmates would later become prominent figures in Swedish public life.[8]
Per entered the school at a late age compared with other students and graduated only at the age of twenty-two. He proved to be an excellent student, especially gifted in languages. By the age of twenty-one he reportedly spoke several languages, including Latin and Russian.
He also developed athletic abilities and artistic interests. Yet even amid this structured environment his love of nature remained strong. The dream of a life closer to the natural world never left him.
The Great Loss
In 1943 tragedy struck. Per’s father Robert had recently suffered severe financial difficulties after investing in a tar factory. Then, only ten days after the death of his own mother Amanda, Robert died in hospital in Danderyd at the age of fifty-two. The official record states that he took his own life.
The shock to the family was immense. Robert had been known not only as industrious, but as a respected man of faith. His death revealed how fragile outward success can be. The funeral drew a large gathering of relatives, employees, church members, YMCA associates, and friends. Per’s father left behind a substantial estate, though debts had reduced its value.
For Per, however, the deeper impact was spiritual rather than financial. The sudden loss of his grandmother and the suicide of his father forced him to confront profound questions: What is the meaning of life? Why does suffering exist? How can faith coexist with despair? These questions intensified the search already arising within him.
Turning East
During this period Per encountered the teachings of Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda offered a spiritual path based on direct experience rather than on dogma. He spoke of self-discipline, meditation, and inner discovery. Such ideas deeply resonated with his own spiritual aspirations.
Military Service
During the war years Per completed his military service in the Gotland Infantry Regiment. Since Sweden was a neutral country, Per saw no combat in the war. However, from 1944 to 1945 he advanced from squad leader to platoon leader trainee and eventually to conscript sergeant and his evaluations were consistently strong. Military life may have provided stability during a period of personal upheaval. Accounts mention an accident involving a rifle or explosion that affected his breathing.[9]
Uppsala and the Final Preparation
After military service Per entered Uppsala University. He initially pursued theological studies but soon turned toward the academic study of religion. Two professors were particularly influential.
One was Geo Widengren, a renowned scholar of the history of religions who explored the experiential aspect of religious life. Another was Helmer Smith, professor of Sanskrit, who introduced students to the sacred literature of India—the Rigveda, the Yoga Sutras, and Buddhist texts.
Through such influences Per began to see India not merely as a distant land but as a force operative in his own life—a living source of spiritual wisdom.
Another powerful inspiration came through the writings of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the South Indian philosopher, scholar of comparative religion, statesman who served as President of India, vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University and as professor who once taught at Oxford. Radhakrishnan’s ideas opened fresh horizons for the young Per.
Europe after the devastation of World War II was searching for deeper meaning, and many were turning to Eastern spirituality for clues. For Per this attraction was more than intellectual curiosity. It was a call.
The Journey
In 1947 the opportunity finally arrived. After completing his studies, Per received permission to continue his research in India at Banaras Hindu University. Uppsala issued a travel certificate in May 1947.
On 20th November that year, after a long sea voyage through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, Aden, and Karachi, Per arrived in Bombay. India had gained independence only three months earlier in mid-August, and the country was experiencing upheaval. But ancient traditions were being reignited, and seekers from around the world came in search of ancient wisdom.
Into this atmosphere arrived Per Westin, carrying grief, questions, discipline, and a longing he did not yet fully understand.
The path that began in the disciplined worlds of Djursholm, Lundsberg, the military barracks of the Gotland Infantry Regiment, and the Religious Studies Department at Uppsala University was leading toward something wholly unexpected—a spiritual rebirth in the land he would soon come to call Mother India.[10] —
(to be continued)
Footnotes and References
[1]Swami Ramanagiri is little known to devotees though some articles have appeared over the decades in the Mountain Path. Till recently, the details of his biography were unclear. But in the last few years, a more detailed account has appeared, clearing up some of the confusion of earlier efforts.
[2]Dancing with the Void: The Innerstandings of a Rare-Born Mystic, Shunyata, pp. 55-59.
[3]The Swedish scholar and writer, Ulf Odehammar, has researched at length Swami Ramanagiri’s early life and written up an engaging and detailed account. The following sections are freely adapted from the careful work of Ulf Odehammar, collated and published at: https://tinyurl.com/mr3dfz35
[4]Rephrased from Ulf Odehammar’s account.
[5] All these details come from Ulf Odehammar’s engaging history.
[6] Ramana devotees will immediately appreciate the striking resemblance of this story to the legend of the Arunagirinathar, who was saved by Lord Murugan, the deity whose vehicle is the peacock.
[7]Reflections from Ulf Odehammar’s account.
[8]Ulf Odehammar points out that Per’s attendance at the prestigious Lundsberg may be the reason that Shunyata and others assumed Per was born to an aristocratic family, which seems not to have been the case.
[9] These details owing to Ulf Odehammar’s meticulous research among the records at various government institutions.
[10] Many thanks to Ulf Odehammar of Gothenburg, Sweden, for his careful research and his comprehensive biography of Swami Ramanagiri’s early life. For the full account, readers are directed to: <https://tinyurl.com/mr3dfz35>.
For further reading, please consult the following bibliography: Dancing with the Void: The Innerstandings of a Rare-Born Mystic, Shunyata pp. 55-59; Swami Ramanagiri: A Tribute, Prof. K.C. Sashi in The Mountain Path, April 1986, pp.71-74; Guru, by ‘a Chela’, The Mountain Path, Oct 1980, pp. 229-30; Swami Ramanagiri, The Mountain Path, Jayanti 1994, pp.145-148; A Pilgrimage, pt II by Dennis Hartel, in The Maharshi, Jul/Aug 2019; Swami Ramanagiri by David Godman, The Mountain Path, Jan 2010, also,<https://tinyurl.com/ymut6mz4>, The Mountain Path, July 1977, p.167; also Arunachala Asrama’s Ramanagiri archives: <https://tinyurl.com/yx2a7cv6>.
