The degree of freedom from unwanted thoughts and the degree of concentration on a single thought are the measures to gauge spiritual progress.

People came to Ramana Maharshi for darshana devotion to God by looking at him in the person of a guru or incarnation. Measures had to be taken to prevent people touching him. Those are based on written transcripts which were "hurriedly written down in English by his official interpreters".

Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) is widely acknowledged as being one of the outstanding Indian Gurus of modern times. At the age of sixteen Venkataraman became enlightened.