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Dying, Gopal, Ram Das Babu to his devotees, leaves his disciple and closest companion with the essence of his spiritual knowledge. It is the ultimate truth that a lifetime of seeking has revealed to him, made him a Paramahamsa, the most highly evolved of all sadhus.

Ecstasy is a story about the making of a mystic and his astonishing expereinces on the spiritual path in an age that dismisses divine visions as hallucinations, and the desire for a union with God as a symptom of mental illness. It is also the story of the rare relationship betweem two very different men brought together by a fateful meeting. The older man, steeped in the mystical mood of complete surrender and devotion, becomes the unlikely guru of the younger, who has grown up on a diet of Western rationalism and the belief that man is the master of his own fate. The guru opens for his disciple a window to the Soul, and in the process triggers a difficult private battle -- between emotion and reason; faith and logic; the spirit of submission that is the hallmark of bhakti and the militancy of religious pride.

Sudhir Kakar, the best-selling author of The Ascetic of Desire , a novel about sex and sexuality, has written a richly layered and revelatory book about the other great theme of humankind: religion.