Can you show me God?

Meanwhile, there was a knock on a door in a part of India that later became Pakistan. Harilal went to the door to see who was there. Could it be one of his sisters, coming to visit, he wondered?

No. Definitely not a sister.

Standing at the door was a sadhu. Harilal, having stolen his mother's white sari as a child and dyed it ochre and gone out begging, was very well disposed toward sadhus.



"Come in," he said. Surely the sadhu would take some food? Likely the sadhu was hungry, wandering about as he seemed to be.

And what a beautiful sadhu! Radiant like no sadhu had even been. Beautiful beyond all description! (Harilal was not paying any particular attention to this, but no description of this event would be complete without dwelling for a bit on the radiance, the perfect features, the luminous eyes, the kissable feet of that sadhu.) Harilal fed him and asked him the question he asked all those who seemed even remotely likely to have an answer.

"Can you show me God? If not, do you know of anyone who can?"



"Yes, I know a person who can show you God," said that radiant sadhu, "If you go and see that man, everything will be alright for you. His name is Ramana Maharshi."

Harilal's spirits rose. What?! He has asked this question all over India, and so far no answer as promising as this had been forthcoming. He had never heard of this Ramana Maharshi before, so he asked where he lived, and listened with great interest.



"Take a train to Madras. When you get to Madras, go to Egmore station. That is where the metre gauge trains leave from. Take a train from there to a place called Villupuram. You have to change trains there. Then catch a train from there to Tiruvannamalai."

Harilal was both happy and concerned when he heard this. What a relief it was to know there was someone, somewhere, who could show him God! But he had no money to get there. And he knew his father disapproved of his spiritual pilgrimages. He decided to ask his father anyway. What other options did he have? How could he carry on with his life, knowing that somewhere ELSE a person existed who could show him what he most longed for? He could not!

So after the Sadhu left, he gathered his courage.

"Father," he began. "There is just one more swami I need to go and see ... in the South."



His father exsploded with anger. "What about your wife and cubs! Was it not enough to leave the army that you must now rush to the other end of India in your mad search for spiritual adventures?"