He blinked his piercing eyes and leveled them on your father.

"'Bhagabati, you are too hard on your employee!' His words were the
same as those he had used two days before in the Gorakhpur field.
He added, 'I am glad that you have allowed Abinash to visit me,
and that you and your wife have accompanied him.'

"To their joy, he initiated your parents in the spiritual practice
of KRIYA YOGA. {FN1-10} Your father and I, as brother disciples,
have been close friends since the memorable day of the vision.
Lahiri Mahasaya took a definite interest in your own birth. Your
life shall surely be linked with his own: the master's blessing
never fails."

Lahiri Mahasaya left this world shortly after I had entered it.
His picture, in an ornate frame, always graced our family altar in
the various cities to which Father was transferred by his office.
Many a morning and evening found Mother and me meditating before an
improvised shrine, offering flowers dipped in fragrant sandalwood
paste. With frankincense and myrrh as well as our united devotions,
we honored the divinity which had found full expression in Lahiri
Mahasaya.

His picture had a surpassing influence over my life. As I grew,
the thought of the master grew with me. In meditation I would often
see his photographic image emerge from its small frame and, taking
a living form, sit before me. When I attempted to touch the feet
of his luminous body, it would change and again become the picture.
As childhood slipped into boyhood, I found Lahiri Mahasaya transformed
in my mind from a little image, cribbed in a frame, to a living,