The doctors had not diagnosed any specific illness.
The only symptom of the approaching end, in clinical terms, was extreme weakness.
It was about a year ago, while Shrimadji was in Dharampur, that His health had started deteriorating.
These phases of comforts (shaata) and discomforts (ashaata) arise in obedience to a certain law as Shrimadji himself mentions that all mortals are subject to them according to their respective ‘karma’s’.
He saw life as a consuming flame, burning us up from within and outside.
He called this state as ‘inner burning’ (antar-daya). Shrimadji, having once felt the burst of this all-consuming, would search the right path, so that in the end He would be able to disengage himself completely from all negative states and attain that ultimate omniscience which is the true state of the soul.
In the final days of Shrimadji’s life one found him moving towards His goal and attaining it almost before one’s very eyes.
The only difference that His illness made to His routine was that His correspondence grew thinner.
Shrimadji passed away on Tuesday, 9 April 1901; He was in Rajkot during His last illness.
The stream of visitors had continued unabated almost all the time, and Shrimadji had not slacked in His effort at responding with the same degree of warmth to all those who came, which was much against the advice of His doctors.
The letters written during the last days were addressed to Ambalalbhai, to Tribhovandasbhai, and to Laghuraj swami.
Revashankarbhai and Mansukhbhai, Shrimadji’s younger brother, were with Him when the end came.
On the evening of the day previous to the last, He appeared to give an indication of the approaching end to Mansukhbhai.
The time was now past when He could impart to others some of that immortal lore which it was His mission to communicate.
Yet there was no need for His intimates to be in any perturbed. They should feel themselves fortified in the knowledge that His, "Shrimadji’s soul was for sure to gain, on His death, the direction that was proper to it, i.e. the attachment of salvation.
On the eve of His death, Shrimadji enjoined those near Him to be steadfast in their spiritual efforts.
And so this rare soul departed from this, His earthly stay . . . "There was no trace of anguish, and none of those physical symptoms, which mark the termination of life.
His face was lit up by strange effulgence as He lay on the couch to which He was shifted a few hours before the end came.
He lay there in the posture of one who had risen above the material plane, and who was now completely restored to that principle of consciousness which will remain its true state forever.
In one of the age-old metaphors in the Indian tradition, the body is described as an outer garment, which the soul wears for a time, only to lay it aside when the moment comest.
In Shrimadji's life we find the truth of this metaphor illustrated.
That seed of soul-knowledge (atma-jnana), with which He was born, went on growing until that moment arrived when Shrimadji thought it proper to divest himself of that outer shell (body), and with it the whole web of circumstances one binds around oneself because of the body.
Shrimadji’s one aim throughout his life was the attainment of the state of complete detachment.
One of His associates is reported to have observed when Shrimadji told him of this, that the infinite compassion which moves the truly righteous would bring him too out of his seclusion, at least for the sake of others.
Shrimadji, in reply, said that even this tie has ultimately to be discarded.
Shrimadji allowed the seed of spiritual knowledge to grow in Him until it became a tree, and it is in the same terms that one of His associates, Ambalalbhai, speaks of his sense of loss.
He said " Shrimadji’s presence
was like a sheltering tree to which many come in their hour of need.
To be deprived of His presence was like
having the tree suddenly consumed in flames to the utter bewilderment of all
the birds nesting in it . . . "
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