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PROLOGUE
Venkataraman, later to be known as Ramana Maharshi, was born at the end of 1879 and left his body in April 1950. He was very well-known in Tamil Nadu, his home, and parts of India, while he had an extensive following in Europe and America.
He was a fully Realized Sage, that is to say he was always consciously one with the nameless Supreme, though he functioned as a normal human being, his body being no different from ours except perhaps more frail than that of a normal person.
He was born in a small village some twenty miles from Madurai, where he lived for the first years of his life, moving, after his father's death, to his uncle's house in Madurai. He was a normal boy loving games but not much interested in his lessons, though he had a good memory when he cared to study. He was an abnormally heavy sleeper and once they had to break open the door of the room in which he slept before they could wake him up. His friends took advantage of this abnormality, they would pull him off his bed while still asleep and take him with them, buffeting him and playing on him every trick which they would not dare to try when he was awake. For he was a strong boy for his age and quite capable of looking after himself. I think that this heavy sleep of his must have been associated with his future attainment, the tremendous power of his concentration being here illustrated.
