In a Zoom meeting with the Ramana Maharshi Foundation UK on 11th November 2023, Michael answers various questions about Bhagavan’s teachings.
The first question Michael answered was: "The description of Ramana's death event at age 16 yrs. is said here to have taken about 20 minutes, in which his body actually died. I have not heard this interpretation before, but as Michael James is an authority and went from the Tamil, I would have to presume he is correct. I would like to inquire as to how he arrived at this interpretation, however, if possible. My reading of the English version was that he only pretended to be dying, not in any way that he actually physically died. Also, some seem to think this was over in a matter of a few seconds, not twenty minutes. I would like to know if it was a flash understanding, in seconds, or if it required 20 or so minutes of self-investigation, and how this was arrived at, if possible."
This episode can also be watched as a video here and a more compressed audio copy in Opus format (which can be listened to in the VLC media player and some other apps) can be downloaded from here.