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If the return to nature and the simple life means nothing better than living as savages live--a primitive animal existence, uncivilized, uncultured, unaesthetic--then its denial of intellect, art, and comfort is mere retrogression. When the spiritual forces overwhelmed the young lad of seventeen who later became Ramana Maharshi of South India, he fled his village and eventually finished up in a cave on a mountainside. People today admire this spirituality. But he himself once remarked to me: "Had I then known what I knew in later years I would not have left home!"

-- Notebooks Category 3: Relax and Retreat > Chapter 4 : Retreat Centres > # 107