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EPILOGUE I cannot do better than conclude with an article I wrote for the celebration of Bhagavan's eightieth birthday which fell on December 17th 1959:
I feel that I should not let the occasion pass without saying a word to those who doubt the continued presence of our beloved Guru amongst us. Though we talk as though he were dead, he is indeed here and very much alive, as he promised, in spite of appearances.
Many will contend that his presence is in no way limited to this single spot, that he permeates everywhere and is to be found in the home of every devotee just as certainly as in his Ashram. But though I must admit the correctness of this view as a theory, in practice I find personally that it does not work out quite in this way.
Once Self-realization has been attained, all the world is the same for us; no spot can be selected as more congenial and powerful than another. Without doubt there are many who had the blessing of His Grace and are Self-realized and live their lives always conscious of His beatific presence wherever they happen to be. And these can vouch for the truth that He is, in fact, to be found everywhere. But for others, like myself, less blessed beings, things are not quite so easy. For many of us find that the world, our families, business troubles, sickness and poverty absorb all our time and attention, so that we cannot even put in a few minutes a day for realizing that He is in truth everywhere and very
