On one occasion Babaji’s sacred circle in the Himalayas was disturbed by the arrival of a stranger. He had climbed with astonishing skill to the nearly inaccessible ledge near the camp of the master. “Sir, you must be the great Babaji.” The man’s face was lit with inexpressible reverence: “For months I have pursued a ceaseless search for you among these forbidding crags. I implore you to accept me as a disciple.” When the great guru made no response, the man pointed to the rocky chasm at his feet: “If you refuse me, I will jump from this mountain—life has no further value if I cannot win your guidance to the divine.” “Jump then,” Babaji said unemotionally. “I cannot accept you in your present state of development.” The man immediately hurled himself over the cliff. Babaji instructed the shocked disciples to fetch the stranger’s body. When they returned with the mangled form, the master placed his divine hand on the dead man. Lo, he opened his eyes and prostrated himself humbly before the omnipotent one. “You are now ready for discipleship,” Babaji beamed lovingly at his resurrected disciple. “You have courageously passed a difficult test. Death shall not touch you again—now you are one of our immortal flock.”

From Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, Mumbai: Wilco Publishing House, no year (first published in 1946), p. 299.