Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was born in Bombay in 1897. His parents, who gave him the name Maruti, owned a modest farm near the village of Kandalgaon, where Maruti spent the first years of his life, alternating between primary school and helping with the farm work. When his father died in 1915, the young Maruti had to leave for Bombay. After a short period working as an employee, he opened a small shop selling bidis (hand-rolled cigarettes). In 1924 he married Sumatibai, who bore him one son and three daughters. At the age of 34, a friend introduced him to the man who would become his guru: Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj. This meeting would change his life forever. After a short period of visions and trances, he realized the Self, the only Reality and the source of all-embracing Love. Then taking the name Nisargadatta, he initially decided to retire to the Himalayas, but soon abandoned the idea. The marvelous simplicity of his teaching has made Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj one of the foremost masters of Advaita philosophy of the last century.