Narayan was now seventeen. Although young, he was attaining the spiritual consciousness of a true Master and the moment of uniting with his Lord Dattatrey was near. This moment of union could not be postponed, so he allowed Lakshmi to accompany him when he left for Ganagapur. On the journey, however, the woman fell ill with fever. Narayan could not abandon her, so, frustrated with the turn of events, he accompanied her back to Arvi.
After Lakshmi recovered, her tears could not stop Narayan when he resumed his journey to Ganagapur. When he arrived, Narayan remained under a neem tree near the confluence of two rivers, where he gradually became God-intoxicated through overwhelming bliss. His longing had reached a fever pitch. Now more of a mast (God intoxicated individual) than a devoted sadhu, the youth appeared mad. U Unconscious of hunger or thirst, if he ate at all, he roamed through the streets begging and would consume any food given as if he were possessed. Even when the river flooded due to the monsoon, Narayan would climb the neem tree and remain unaffected, sitting on a branch absorbed in his spiritual enchantment.
Eventually, Narayan was drawn to climb a nearby mountain and live in a cave, where he did not eat or drink, but burned in a divine fire. In this fire of love, he experienced both pain and joy simultaneously. The pain of his longing was now so intense that it maintained his link with the physical body, while his spiritual joy surged to be free of it. The suffering overcame him and he cried out, "Alas, my Beloved, why won't you meet me? Why have you turned away? Why don't you show me your glorious face?"
Crying with pain, Narayan tossed from one side of the cave to the other, struggling in a sea of fire. Although he was drowning in this all-consuming fire of longing, Narayan longed to burn further. For, strangely, without this pain there was no bliss for him.
Quite emaciated, Narayan abandoned the cave and wandered along the mountain cliffs. Days later, dazed and absorbed in his inner state, he was sitting one evening alongside a mountain monastery when a voice aroused him out of his trance. He heard the voice calling to him clearly to enter the chambers of the monastery, where at the end of a passageway he saw an old man. When Narayan went up to him and bowed, the old man's gaze turned his sea of restlessness into a sea of divine tranquility.