PANCH PANDAV CAVE	3
having stopped automatically, he beheld a small circular
light before his mental vision. This yielded him thrills of
delight. This experience having continued for some days, he
felt a dazzling light lite lightning, flashing before his eyes,
which ultimately permeated and absorbed him. Now an
inexpressible transport of bliss filled every pore of his
physical frame. When this state was coining on, be would
at the outset become oblivions of his hands and feet and
then gradually his entire body. Lost in this trance state he
would sit for two to three hours. Still a subtle awareness
of external objects was maintained in this state.
Some friends would pay him visits early in the morning
when he \vas absorbed in the trance, and he had at the time
a hazy recognition of their presence. He could hear sounds
of talk, if any, —mere sounds without sense or meaning for
him. Whenever he fell into the trance he would feel its
grip so firmly that he could not easily shake it off, At the
longest it would not last more than three hours. After
returning to body-consciotisness he would be engaged in
singing to himself some hymns glorifying God, and also in
the loud recitation of the mantram. In fact, except when
conversing, reading or writing, he used to utter the mantram
ceaselessly throughout the day.
The trance experience brought about another change,
viz. sleep thereafter became a state of half-wakefulness or
awareness during which he was filled with pure ecstasy.
Sometimes, at dead of night, a friend would pay him a
surprise visit. Although Kamdas was in the trance state, lie
could know the friend's approach even when he was yet a
furlong from the cave. It was during this time that Ram das,
as willed by the Lord, devoted two hours past midnight
to the work of writing the book "In Quest of God". The
last days in the cave also saw the trance condition encroa-
ching upon the hours of the day while no visitors were
present. The utterance of the mantram would stop of
itself and he would transcend the "body-consciousness.