When you dive into the sea, you take off your clothes beforehand. When you dive into the Self in samadhi you must put aside your outer self. The thoughts and emotions must be discarded, at least temporarily, before samadhi can be experienced. Many books could be written about these experiences, but they would be of little use without the practice of Vichara. And then everything comes of its own accord. As Maharshi says: 'Knowing the Self by means of the Vichara you will find your Master within yourself'.
Now it may be clear why disciples of the Master are always conscious of his presence. Every devoted seeker will find him in his own heart, though he has not seen him in his physical form. And this invisible presence is as potent as was his physical one.
Nevertheless, there is a strange power and inspiration in the pictures of Maharshi. Were it not so he would never have permitted them to be made.
~ Mouni Sadhu, In Days of Great Peace
