![Samadhi hall of Sri Ramana Maharishi](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2026-08/Samadhi%20Hall_0.jpg?h=21d0a04b&itok=_fSovoBA) # Weizsäcker’s Experience of Bliss at the Tomb of Sri Ramana Maharishi July 07, 2026 [ Marleen Thaler ](https://rw-ktf.univie.ac.at/en/teaching-fellows/marleen-thaler/) Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912–2007), a physicist and philosopher whose interests included politics, religion, and peace research, belonged to a prominent German family that was granted nobility in 1916. Other renowned family members include his father, Ernst von Weizsäcker, a diplomat and politician, and Carl’s younger brother, Richard von Weizsäcker, who was president of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Weizsäcker studied physics under Werner Heisenberg, who won the 1932 Nobel Prize for his work in quantum mechanics. During Weizsäcker’s career, he was associated with prestigious research institutes, including the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics in Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen. He was a professor of physics at the University of Strasbourg and later a professor of philosophy at the University of Hamburg.\[[1](#notes)\] During the Third Reich, Weizsäcker worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics and the Reich University of Strasbourg and was involved, alongside Werner Heisenberg, in Nazi Germany’s nuclear research program. After the war, he increasingly addressed the ethical and political responsibilities of scientists in the nuclear age, becoming a prominent critic of nuclear armament and an advocate for global peace. His later travels in South Asia and collaborations with religious thinkers further shaped his broader reflections on science, religion, and human responsibility.\[[2](#notes)\] A notable collaborator was the South Asian writer Gopi Krishna, with whom Weizsäcker not only shared an institutional partnership but also a long-lasting friendship. In 1970, along with Krishna and other German scientists, Weizsäcker established the “Forschungsgesellschaft für östliche Weisheit und westliche Wissenschaft” (“Research Foundation for Eastern Wisdom and Western Science”), which applied religious and scientific perspectives to addressing urgent questions concerning peaceful coexistence and the role of religion in shaping humanity’s future.\[[3](#notes)\] During his student years, Weizsäcker developed a fascination with Asian religions and started practicing meditation. His multifaceted practice stemmed from interactions with both South Asian meditation teachers and the Lutheran Michael Brotherhood. Weizsäcker emphasized that he approached meditation less from a theoretical point of view and more as a practice and experience.\[[4](#notes)\] A journey to South Asia in 1969 intensified his interest. During this trip, he encountered several South Asian religious teachers and philosophers, including the religious teacher Anandamayi Ma, monks and students at the Aurobindo ashram, and the Advaita philosopher T. M. P. Mahadevan. His time with Mahadevan, in particular, left a lasting impression on Weizsäcker. It was during this trip that he experienced a moment of bliss, which left a lasting impression on Weizsäcker. Weizsäcker’s interest in Asian religion, his focus on peaceful coexistence in the near future, and his aim to reconcile science and religion were central themes in his life. His influence on twentieth-century religious figures, including Gopi Krishna and the German theologian Karl Rahner, who shared these interests, has often been overlooked but cannot be overstated. ## Source In this source, Weizsäcker describes his experience while meditating at the tomb of Sri Ramana Maharshi at the saint’s ashram in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, in 1969.\[[5](#notes)\] He framed this experience as a moment of pure bliss, granting him a glimpse into the mystical sensation of oneness. T. M. P. Mahadevan accompanied Weizsäcker during this trip and likely contributed to the latter’s interpretation of his experience as mystical and life-changing. When Weizsäcker describes his experience as the reason for surviving “the suffocating experiences of those years”,\[[6](#notes)\] he mainly refers to his deep concerns about the multiple crises of his era, including the threat of nuclear war and the environmental crisis. Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, *The Ambivalence of Progress: Essays on Historical Anthropology*\[[7](#notes)\] > The reader must excuse the fact that I do not actually describe what is indescribable, and yet speak about it; if I did not at least try, I could not have begun this autobiographical report. When I had taken off my shoes and stood before the grave of Maharshi, I knew in a flash: “Yes, this is it.” Actually all questions were already answered. We sat in an amiable circle as a delicious meal was served on large green leafs \[*sic*\]. Afterwards I sat on the stone floor next to the grave. The knowledge was there, and within half an hour everything had happened. I still perceived my surroundings, my hard seat, the buzzing mosquitos, the light upon the stones. But the layers had already been swiftly penetrated, the layers of which words can only give a hint: “You”— “I”— “Yes.” Tears of bliss. Bliss without tears. The experience brought me back to earth very gently. I now knew which love held the meaning of earthly love. I knew all dangers, all terrors, but they were not terrors in this experience. Should I now stay here forever? I saw myself like a metal ball that falls onto a polished metal surface and, after a moment’s touch, bounces back to where it came from. But I now had become somebody completely different: the one I always had been. . . . I slept in the very simple guest house at the ashram, and in the morning my friend \[Mahadevan\] accompanied me to a cave in the mountain, under large trees, where the Maharshi had lived for years. . . . Then we traveled on. The experience left with me incredible gentleness during the next days and weeks. Its substance remained within me. Without it, I might not have survived the suffocating experiences of those years. ## Notes \[1\] Karl Baier, “‘Bewußtseinserweiterung’ eine politische Notwendigkeit? Zur Rolle der Meditation bei C. F. v. Weizsäcker,” *Sol* 22 (1984): 14–17; Ulrich Bartosch, ed., *Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Pioneer of Physics, Philosophy, Religion, Politics and Peace Research* (Springer, 2015), ix. \[2\] Karl Baier, “‘Bewußtseinserweiterung’ eine politische Notwendigkeit? Zur Rolle der Meditation bei C. F. v. Weizsäcker,” *Sol* 22 (1984): 14–17; Ulrich Bartosch, ed., *Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Pioneer of Physics, Philosophy, Religion, Politics and Peace Research* (Springer, 2015), ix. \[3\] Gopi Krishna, “Professor von Weizsäcker as a Thinker of the Future,” in *Physik, Philosophie und Politik: Festschrift für Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker zum 70. Geburtstag*, ed. Klaus M. Meyer-Abich (Carl Hanser, 1982); Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, introduction to *The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius*, by Gopi Krishna (Kundalini Research and Publication Trust, 1972). \[4\] Baier, “‘Bewußtseinserweiterung’ eine politische Notwendigkeit?;” Weizsäcker, *Der Garten des Menschlichen*, 533–36. \[5\] Weizsäcker originally published *The Ambivalence of Progress: Essays on Historical Anthropology* *in German in 1977 under the title: Der Garten des Menschlichen: Beiträge zur geschichtlichen Anthropologie.* The source appears on pages *595–96*. Translation by C.F.v. Weizsäcker. \[6\] Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, *The Ambivalence of Progress: Essays on Historical Anthropology* (Paragon House, 1988), 29. \[7\] Ibid. ## Bibliography Baier, Karl. “ ‘Bewußtseinserweiterung’ eine politische Notwendigkeit? Zur Rolle der Meditation bei C. F. v. Weizsäcker.” *Sol* 22 (1984): 14–17. Bartosch, Ulrich, ed. *Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Pioneer of Physics, Philosophy, Religion, Politics and Peace Research*. Cham: Springer, 2015. Krishna, Gopi. “Professor von Weizsäcker as a Thinker of the Future.” In *Physik, Philosophie und Politik: Festschrift für Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker zum 70. Geburtstag*, edited by Klaus M. Meyer-Abich, 211–28. Munich: Carl Hanser, 1982. Lorenz, Robert. “Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Vom Diktator zum Friedensphilosophen.” In *Göttinger Köpfe: und ihr Wirken in die Welt*, edited by Stine Marg and Franz Walter, 110–116. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019. Schirach, Richard von. *The Night of the Physicists: Operation Epsilon: Heisenberg, Hahn, Weizsäcker and the German Bomb*, translated by Simon Pare. London: Haus Publishing, 2015. Weizsäcker, Carl Friedrich von “Introduction.” In *The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius*, by Gopi Krishna, 1–47. New Delhi: Kundalini Research and Publication Trust, 1972. ———. *Der Garten des Menschlichen: Beiträge zur geschichtlichen Anthropologie*. Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 1977. ———. *Der bedrohte Friede: politische Aufsätze 1945–1981*. Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 1981. ———. *The Ambivalence of Progress: Essays on Historical Anthropology*. New York: Paragon House, 1988. Author Biography ### Marleen Thaler Marleen Thaler holds a PhD in Religious Studies (2024) and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Graz and a research fellow at the University of Vienna. In the past, she has been a research fellow at ETH Zurich (2022), UC Riverside (2022), and UC Santa Barbara (2023), and served as a scholar-in-residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur (2022–2023). Thaler co-edited a volume on *Subtle Energies* (2025), is finalizing her monograph on *John Michell’s Sacred Place Theory* (2026), and is preparing two books on the modern history of kundalini’s transformation (forthcoming). Her main areas of research include global religious history, the modern history of yoga, and alternative religious currents of modernity. ![Marleen Thaler looking into the camera](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_1_1__480x480/public/2025-12/Marleen%20Thaler%20headshot.jpg?h=d6944730&itok=mlsuN1Lc) See also:- [ Archive of Mystical Experiences ](/topic-tags/archive-mystical-experiences)