On the night of 26th February 1949, during the Mahasivaratri celebrations in the Old Hall, a young foreigner sat in Bhagavan’s presence absorbed in the practice of vichara. He had spent the previous forty days and nights in the Sage’s presence endeavouring to learn the practice that Bhagavan so emphatically recommended for sadhakas. At some point during the all-night vigil, amidst the recitation of the Rudram while standing in the long queue to have darshan, Ramanagiri’s turn came and he approached the “Great Magnet”. His eyes met those of the Maharshi, in what he called, “a piercing yet moon-like look from those sun-like eyes.” In that moment the noise of the hall seemed to fade in the distance and all his earlier efforts would culminate in a singular event. The burdens of twenty-seven years of seeking seemed to fall away—in this first of a series of openings that would fundamentally alter his life. —

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