He walked in silence, preparing his heart for the prayer that he was about to offer. Three bullets stopped him. He gave himself up to the Rama nama.

His intense longing and desire was to attain self-realisation, to see God face to face, to attain moksha. He lived and moved and had his entire being in pursuit of this desire. Prayer was the very core of his life. Medieval devotional poetry sung by Pandit Narayan Moreshwar Khare moved him. He drew sustenance from Mira and Charlie Andrews’ rendition of ‘When I survey the wondrous cross,’ while young Olive Doke healed him with ‘Lead Kindly Light.’ He recited the Gita everyday. What was this intense need for prayer? What allowed him to claim that he was not a man of learning but a man of prayer? He knew that mere repetition of the Rama nama was futile if it did not stir his soul. A prayer for him had to be a clear response to the hunger of the soul. What was this hunger that moved his being?

His was a passionate cry of the soul hungering for union with the divine. He saw his communion with God as that of a master and a slave in perpetual bondage, prayer was the expression of the intense yearning to merge in the Master. Prayer was the expression of the definitive and conscious longing of the soul; it was his act of waiting upon Him for guidance. His want was to feel the utterly pure presence of the divine within.

... contd.