The Guru went out and sat on the bank of the river in a state of Samadhi ‑ perfectly in tune with the cosmos. As he closed his eyes, the spirits of Kali Yug, the Age of Darkness, trembled at his appearance and let all their fury rage round him. Thunder, lightning and myriad of formless frightening shapes robed in blackness crowded round sharpening their five‑pointed weapons of passion, anger, greed, delusion and conceit; emitting flames of desire and wielding the doubled‑edged sword of hate and harm. He let them pass and remained calm like a lotus amidst stormy waters.
Then there passed before his mind palaces and pleasure domes flowing with milk and honey and swarming with maidens of unsurpassed beauty. The Guru smiled and sang:
Pearl‑built peerless palaces
Adorned with precious gems
Fragrant with all the scents of earth.
These delude fools who forget His Name,
Who have not Him in their hearts.
My Master has told me
There is no other place like His.
Then there passed before his eyes the richness of earth and all the treasured wealth that lies hidden under the sea and mountains. The Guru smiled and sang:
Were earth blazing with diamonds, And sparkling with rubies, Overflowing with maidens of glamorous beauty, These delude only fools Who have not Him in their hearts.
Then, it seemed to him that the kingdom of earth was at his feet. He again smiled and sang:
What does it matter if I become a king,
And command mighty armies,
And occupy a golden throne,
And like the wind my commands encompass the earth?
These delude fools only
Who have not Him in their hearts.
Then it seemed as if he was tempted by the offer of supernatural powers and sovereignty over nature, but he rejected these with the remark,
If I exercise supernatural powers
And can create wealth at a gesture
Can appear and disappear at will
And thus win popular respect,
These delude fools only
Who have not Him in their hearts.
The Guru discarded all that the earth and heavens could offer and with his mind as calm as a placid lake, he lost himself in contemplation and became one with the Supreme.
Next morning people said they saw him walk straight into the river and disappear entirely from sight. It was thought that he had drowned and his sister and brother‑in‑law mournfully searched the water for his body.
The Guru, however, had ascended to the plane of Truth and appeared before the True One. On the third day he reappeared with a luminous aura around him. Crowds gathered and in a trance he pronounced the first principle of his faith: There is only One. All is One.