God-Experience (Vol-I)

Swami Ramdas, who was known as P. Vittal Rao during Li his pre-Sannyas days, was leading an ordinary life till God's grace descended on him in or about the year 1920. Then he was made to think deeply on the futility of worldly pursuits and the necessity of pursuing the divine path and 'realizing one's identity with the Supreme Being, which alone can lead one to 'Peace-eternal'. He placed himself totally at the altar of God. At this time his father initiated him with the holy and all-powerful Name of God - RAM MANTRA. He took to ceaseless chanting of the holy Name. When the prompting came from within to renounce the worldly life he took to a wandering mendicant's life. Fiery aspiration coupled with intense practice to attain the Highest, hastened his spiritual progress and, in a short time, he could behold his Beloved - God - everywhere, both within and without. He thus showed how absolute surrender to God, arising from His constant remembrance by chanting of His name could lead to ultimate Realization quickly and to getting himself established in unending Bliss.

Having thus attained spiritual liberation and God-vision, he started on his mission to awaken mankind to the awareness of God. In 1931 he and Mother Krishnabai, his foremost disciple and a Self-realized soul, founded Anandashram with the object of propagating the ideal of Universal Love and Service. This spiritual centre offers every kind of facility for spiritual regeneration of the soul so that it may realize its pristine divine nature.

Swami Ramdas attained Mahanirvana in July 1963 and Mother Krishnabai in February 1989.

The books authored by Swami Ramdas which come from the deeps of Reality continue to inspire innumerable devotees both inside and outside India.

We are glad to bring out this book which is a report of the talks given by Swami Ramdas, affectionately called 'Papa' by devotees the world over, at Anandashram during Satsang since the beginning of 1961. The book has been prepared from the authentic notes of talks lovingly recorded by Swami Krishnananda Das, a disciple of Papa. The moments spent by the devotees with the Master at Satsang are the most precious, and a feeble attempt has been made to recapture, in the pages that follow, something of the joy of Satsang and of the mature divine wisdom ever flowing from the lips of the Master.

In the course of these talks, reference has been made about Mataji. Here 'Mataji stands for Mother Krishnabai of Anandashram.

The book is fittingly titled GOD-EXPERIENCE, because it comprises the teachings of Papa based upon the fulness and richness of his Spiritual Experience.

**Contents and Sample Pages**