At 16, a schoolboy named Venkataraman Iyer was gripped by a sudden, overwhelming certainty that he was about to die. Instead of panicking, he lay on the floor, mimicked a corpse, and investigated what exactly was dying, standing up minutes later a transformed person. This episode traces his journey to becoming the sage Ramana Maharshi.

We follow his path from an ordinary South Indian childhood, through his abrupt departure to the sacred mountain Arunachala, his years of extreme absorption and asceticism, and his emergence as a teacher whose method of self-inquiry drew seekers from around the world.

• The 1896 death experience that severed his identification with the body
• His silent immersion in the underground vault where vermin gnawed at his skin
• His mother abandoning her old life to follow him to the mountain
 ...