"Their windows – whether opened or closed – don't make much difference.

"Perhaps once in a while a rare animal uses the window.

"In Shri Ramana Maharshi's ashramand he was one of the most significant people of this century. He was not a master; that's why people don't know him as they know George Gurdjieff or J. Krishnamurti. They don't even know him as they know Sri Aurobindo or P.D. Ouspensky who were only teachers – profound teachers, but not mystics.

"Ramana Maharshi was a silent pool of energy. Every morning he used to sit for a silent satsang, communion. He never talked much, unless asked something. Then too his answer was very short – having profundity, but you had to look for it. There was no explanation in it. His literature is confined to two, three small booklets.

"His teaching was mostly to be in silent communion with the disciples. Naturally, very few people were benefited by him. But every morning he was sitting, people were sitting, and a cow would come and stand outside, putting her neck through the window, and she would remain standing there while the satsang lasted. It must have continued for years. People came and went, new people came, but the cow remained constantand at the exact time, never late. As the satsang would disperse she would move away.

"One day she did not appear, and Shri Ramana said, 'Today satsang cannot be held, because my real audience is absent. I am afraid either the cow is very sick or she has died, and I have to go and look for her.' He lived on a mountain in the south of India, Arunachal. The cow belonged to a poor woodcutter who lived near the ashram. Ramana left the temple where they used to meet, went to the woodcutter and asked, 'What happened? The cow has not come today for satsang.'

"The woodcutter said, 'She is very sick and I am afraid she is dying, but she goes on looking out of the door, as if she is waiting for someone. Perhaps she is waiting for you, to see you for the last time. Perhaps that is why she is hanging around a little longer.'

"Ramana went in and there were tears in the eyes of the cow."