Dr. V. Balasubramaniam, one of the pioneers of Neurosurgery in India, was the author of over 200 scientific papers and four monographs on Neuroscience. The Glory of Arunachala was his maiden venture into the field of spirituality and was motivated as much by his abiding devotion to Ramana Maharishi as his desire to propagate the contents of Mr. Bharanidharan's book Arunachala Mahimai to a wider, non-Tamil speaking reading public.

Having specialized both in General Surgery as well as Neurosurgery, he held the position of Honorary Clinical Professor at the Institute of Neurology, Madras Medical College. During this time he did path breaking work in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, which also served as the basis for his Doctoral degree. He worked for the Government Mental Hospital, Chennai and for the Southern Railways as a Consultant Neurosurgeon. In addition, he was Consultant and Surgeon in charge of the Pain Clinic, Cancer Institute, Chennai and the CHILDS Trust Medical Research Foundation, Chennai.

In his long and illustrious career, he received numerous awards and academic distinctions, chief among which were the Johnstone Gold Medal, the Panagal Gold Medal and the Sri Rameshwardasji Birla Smarak Kosh Award. (Dr. Balasubramaniam passed away in Aug. 2006 much before this book could be published.)