________________
104 A Sadhu's Reminiscences of Ramana Maharshi much alive. For such, a visit to the Ashram acts as a refreshing draught and gives renewed zest to their Sadhana.
But people may say that I am hardly the one to judge fairly; I am prejudiced. So I will not restrict myself to my own experience, but rather to the witness of the many visitors who return here after some years of absence. “There is no point in going there,” they had argued previously, "he is no longer there.”
“Where has he gone?” one asks them. But they are vague in their reply, they haven't much faith that he is anywhere at all, one feels. In spite of this, something draws them back here, they don't really know what, and then those who will sit quiet for a while and try to forget for a few moments their little worries are amazed at the potency of the atmosphere.
Often visitors have remarked, “But one can feel him more strongly than ever. Of course one misses the physical presence, the opportunity to ask questions, the delight of his greeting, the humour of his approach, and most of all his understanding and sympathy.”
Yes, one certainly misses all that, but one never doubts for a moment that he is still here, when once one has taken the trouble to visit his tomb.
“Propaganda!” you will retort, thinking that as I live here I have an axe to grind. But actually the truth is exactly the reverse. Everyone knows that I prefer to shut myself off and avoid visitors, so why should I now be so foolish as to encourage them if I did not feel compelled to do so by some force beyond my control?
