In the course of the weeks at Ramanasramam, Per kept silent, never asking questions of his own. The conversations in the hall would have taken place in various South Indian languages, most of which would not have been familiar to Per who only arrived in India some fourteen months earlier.

One night, however, while he lay resting on a simple cot in a small room with a door made of woven reeds, something strange took place. Suddenly, the door opened and a small light entered the room. The light moved toward him and entered through his right big toe, spreading slowly through his body like a current. When the current reached his head, it emerged again, forming a radiant figure before him. In this dream-vision, he saw Bhagavan Ramana before him—luminous and alive as light. The figure asked him gently:

“What are your doubts?”

Per began asking questions that had arisen during meditation, questions about the practice of vichara, about his decision to live as an ascetic, and about earlier spiritual experiences. Although Bhagavan spoke to him in Tamil, Per heard fluent Swedish.

During the encounter, Per’s uncertainties were resolved. He came to see that the Sage had been guiding him long before they met. The karmic burdens of the past seemed to dissolve through a budding knowledge of the Self.^[12] 

Per later described the effect on him, “like someone who has found a long-lost treasure.”

In the early hours of the morning, the energy in his dream became so intense that he fell out of bed. He later wrote that he had taken up “the way Sri Ramana taught during the Sage’s silent days on Holy Arunachala.  —

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