Chapter 13 Summary and Analysis

Mukunda requests a trip to the Himalayas to get away from his academic and hermitage duties, and proceeds without master's permission. Mukunda asks his professor for the address of Ram Gopal Muzumdar, the sleepless saint, who stays awake in ecstatic consciousness in Ranbajpur. On his way, Mukunda ignores the large sacred stone in Tarekeswar, where many people have been healed. Traveling on foot, Mukunda takes a wrong turn, going far out of his way. His destination seems no closer as he walks in the hot sun through paddy fields.

He finally meets Ram Gopal, who explains that some holy shrines are nuclear centers of spiritual power, noting that he knows Mukunda ignored the stone. Gopal tells Mukunda that the little room where he meditates at Yukteswar's hermitage serves as his meditation cave, and he does not need the mountains to find...