PANCH PANDAV CAVE	IS
spent the night in the open on the hill, lying down. oil hare
ground.	'«     V      .»     ^     -   *• " ,
At noon a party of four men arrived at the cave. These
were the young man's friends. His parents lived in a village,
and he was in Mangalore for his studies. His friends asked
him to go with them but he refused point-blank to do so.
Then they appealed to Ramdas to advise him. Ramdas
assured them that he had used all his powers of persuasion
to induce him to return to his house but he had failed. How-
ever, he called the young man by his side and resting his
hand on his shoulders said: "Ram, don't cause any further
sorrow and pain to your parents. Do please go back.'1
Strange as it would appear, the young man now obeyed
and left with the friends who had come in search of him.
(iv) The True Vision: Samadarshan
For two years from the time of the significant change
which had come over him, Ramdas had been prepared to
enter into the very depths of his being for the realization
of the immutable, calm and eternal spirit of God. Here he
had to transcend name, form, thought and will—every
feeling of the heart and faculty of the mind. The world
had then appeared to him as a dim shadow—a dreamy
nothing. The vision then was mainly internal. It vas only
for the glory of the Atman in His pristine purity, peace and
joy as an all-pervading, immanent, static, immortal and
glowing spirit.
In the earlier stages this vision was occasionally lost,
pulling him down to the old life of diversity with its
turmoil of like and dislike, joy and grief. But he would be
drawn in again into the silence and calmness of the spirit,
A stage was soon reached when this dwelling in the spirit
became a permanent and unvarying experience with no
more falling off from it, and then a still exalted state
came on; his hitherto inner vision projected outward*
First a glimpse of this new vision dazzled him off and on.