An autobiographical interpretative work, The Children of Nature is an attempt to understand the role of spirituality and its social relevance. Susan Visvanathan also tries to comprehend the volatility of the town of Tiruvannamalai: abode of Ramana Maharshi. Using published material as well as diaries and letters from Sri Ramanasramam, the author uses the method of collage to splice together many moments in telling of history. Battling her own illness, Susan meets people, makes friends and learns that solitude has a grammar which is completely acceptable within community life. Ramanasramam becomes home to her, and a place she associates with a sense of well-being and life. The book tries to explicate the extent to which a person's experience of the divine can be explained by social anthropology. What are the limits of interpretation, how can boundaries of a discipline get extended when its object of study is often a moment of subjective revelation, and how far is it possible to understand the interweaving of the sacred and the profane in the lives of ordinary human beings.
