An icebreaker
A householder in Lucknow who met his teacher in 1944 spent his later years receiving Western seekers by the hundreds, many of whom left believing they were fully awakened after a single encounter. His own biographer later questioned how often that belief actually held.
As the tradition holds, after realizing the Self in his own teacher's presence in 1944, he spent his later decades in Lucknow telling visitors that freedom required no practice or path, only direct recognition of what was already true.
As his student recounted it, rather than granting a vision of God, he redirected the young man's attention inward, telling him God is not an object to be seen but the seer himself, and pointed him toward that direct recognition instead.
Chronicling his final years in a three-volume biography, he documented visitors who experienced powerful but temporary glimpses of the Self during satsang, glimpses that often faded within days, and noted how easily such moments could be mistaken for permanent realization.
After visiting him in Lucknow, she returned home describing her own realization and began teaching in her own right, becoming one of several Western students who went on to found their own independent satsang followings.