2 IN THE VISION OF GOD
What was his condition at this momentous hour? He
was a dazed and helpless creature caught in the grip of an
all-powerful Being. He did not know what he was doing.
He was under the full control of an almighty Power with-
out any offer of resistance on his part—just as a baby in the
hands of its mother. Verily, it was God alone who held
him—a God who is at once his divine mother and master,
so real, loving, kind and good. Blessed indeed is the day
when God made Ramdas entirely His own. 0 mother and
master divine, all glory to thee! How tenderly He nursed
and guided His new-born offspring during his first year's
itinerant life all over India forms the theme of "In Quest
of God".
During that period what was his mental state, manner
of life and outlook upon the world? His mind was merged
in a unique stillness of peace; his life was one of unreserved
self-surrender; and, as regards the world, in a sense it was
not there for him, that is, he was dead as it were to the
world. He was travelling from place to place like an
automaton as if in a dream, indifferent to—nay, un-
conscious of—his body and environments. All through it,
God to whom he had surrendered up his life was
mysteriously influencing his movements and controlling and
taking care of him in every way. It was really an entire
dedication on one side and a watchful, benevolent protection
on the other.
He experienced that he was living and moving in a new
world in which he felt that there was none other than him-
self and his great master—Ram—his all in all. In this
wonderful vision of inexpressible ecstasy and peace he
struggled to dwell always. This exalted consciousness,
possessing as it did the characteristic of perfect vacancy or
emptiness, was filled with an ineffable rapture of peace,
silence and repose. The dual throng, pleasure and pain
good and evil, cold and heat, etc. relating to the physical
body affected him not-, for his mind was not there to take