Everyone must be interested in knowing about the experiences of ideal ones who struggled to arrive at the Truth; for all should have an ideal to strive for, a goal to be reached. For saplings to grow, soil is essential; for ideals to get implanted, knowledge of the struggles and successes of saints and sages is essential. These experiences are not uniform; each spiritual aspirant has a different story to tell, depending upon their equipment and enthusiasm. So the vision and the glory are different, though all are divine. Take the case of Sage Agastya. He is reported to have drunk the ocean completely in one sip. The real meaning of this is, he dried up the ocean of the objective world (samsara), with its waves of grief and joy, prosperity and adversity, success and failure. ‘Drinking the ocean’ is not a special feat; it is a parable explaining that though he was a married man with a son, he conquered all attachments of the world.

- Divine Discourse, Feb 8, 1963.