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44
A Sadhu's Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi
only answer to this in the method taught by Bhagavan: enquire to whom is the fear, get behind it to the witness and fear will automatically cease.
In the supplement to the Ulladu Narpadu it says that one look of a Mahatma is sufficient to give us initiation and is far more effective than any number of pilgrimages, the worship of images and other devotional practices. I asked Bhagavan about this, saying foolishly that I had already been staying with him for some months and yet I did not yet feel any change in myself. It is the look that purifies, he told me, but it is not a visible purification. Coal takes time to ignite, but charcoal is proportionately quicker, while gunpowder ignites immediately. So it is with men under the powerful glance of a Jnani.
Some thirty years ago a series of books was written about the Masters in the Himalayas which had a considerable vogue in some occult quarters. These books were translated into various languages and had quite a success in Germany. A German friend tells me that they caused quite a sensation at the time among people he knew. It is years since I read them myself, so I can only remember but little about them, but I thought them pretty cheap trash at the time, the sort of occult sensationalism which a certain class of people mistake for spiritual. Amongst other absurd things, it was recounted how the Masters lived, hidden in the very insides of the mountains, among whom the Master Jesus was to be counted, and whom, if I remember rightly, one approached by an
