The title, like everything else about this book, is more easily misunderstood than understood.

We think we know what this means, "Be As You Are," but our ordinary understanding is nothing like what Ramana Maharshi intends to convey.

Ramana Maharshi is generally regarded as the greatest holy man in India in the twentieth century. He had a spontaneous awakening as a 17year old and the folk of the nearby town were so swept away by his subsequent presence that they insisted on building an ashram for him where seekers could receive satsang.

If you have a general idea that "being enlightened" is much the same as being who you generally think you are now, but with deeper insight, then this book takes a totally different approach.

This book takes as its starting point the position that you are not a physical being, not a person with characteristics, not an individual, (all of which are destined to grow decrepit and die) but pure consciousness, immortal and blissful.

Ramana Maharshi stressed this again and again. He told his visitors that they are made of the same stuff as God, that they cannot see God but they can be God.

It is not easy to follow, but the editor, David Godman, gives very lucid explanations.
Of course, understanding what Ramana says is the booby prize; the real point of reading the book is to have this as one's own experience.