What if the divine is not just a belief — but an experience that real people, across centuries and continents, have actually lived through? These are not myths. These are documented accounts of ordinary and extraordinary human beings who claim to have seen, touched, or spoken with God.

Sceptic or believer — these stories will stay with you.

1. Ramakrishna Paramahansa — The Man Who Wept for God Like a Lover

In 19th century Bengal, a temple priest named Gadadhar Chattopadhyay — later known as Ramakrishna — would go into spontaneous trances in front of the statue of Goddess Kali. He did not just pray to her. He would weep, plead, and eventually fall unconscious.

One night, in a state of utter despair that God had not appeared to him, he picked up a sword hanging on the wall of the temple, ready to end his life. At that moment, by his own account, the walls of the temple dissolved and a vast ocean of light flooded through him. Kali appeared — not as stone, but as living, luminous, infinite.

His student Swami Vivekananda — who addressed the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 — became Ramakrishna's most devoted student after one question: "Have you seen God?" Ramakrishna replied: "Yes. I see Him as clearly as I see you. Even more clearly."

"I have seen God. I have talked to Him. Why should I not believe in Him? I have touched fire and been burned — I know fire is real." — Ramakrishna Paramahansa

2. Anandamayi Ma — The Woman Born in a Permanent State of God-Consciousness

Nirmala Sundari was born in 1896 in what is now Bangladesh. As a young woman she underwent a spontaneous spiritual transformation without any teacher or guidance. She reported that she felt herself dissolving — her individual identity simply stopped being real to her, replaced by a presence she called "the All."

Mahatma Gandhi visited her. Jawaharlal Nehru visited her. Paramahansa Yogananda wrote about her in Autobiography of a Yogi. All of them described leaving the encounter profoundly shaken — not by magic or miracle, but by the quality of stillness she carried.

3. Eben Alexander — The Neurosurgeon Who Died and Came Back

In 2008, Dr Eben Alexander, a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon with 25 years of experience, contracted bacterial meningitis. His entire neocortex shut down completely. Medically, he was brain-dead for seven days. He woke up.

He had spent his career dismissing NDE accounts as hallucinations. After his own experience, he spent years trying to find a neurological explanation. He could not. He described entering a realm of extraordinary beauty with a being of light — later identified as a sister he had never met who died before they could. The core message: You are loved. You have nothing to fear. You can do nothing wrong.

"I was not the same person who had gone into the coma. What I had experienced was too real to dismiss, and too vast to explain." — Dr Eben Alexander, Proof of Heaven

4. Mirabai — The Princess Who Chose Krishna Over a Kingdom

In 16th century Rajasthan, a princess named Mirabai spent her life in devotion to Lord Krishna. She wrote hundreds of bhajans — devotional poems — that are sung across India to this day. In them she described Krishna not as a deity she worshipped from a distance but as her husband, her lover, the one she conversed with daily. Her final account says she walked into the temple of Dwarkadheesh and never came out — her saree found wrapped around the murti of Krishna.

5. Howard Storm — The Atheist Who Experienced the Divine

In 1985, Howard Storm was a professor of art at Northern Kentucky University and a committed atheist. He died on an operating table in Paris and described encountering a being of absolute, unconditional love — one that knew everything about him and loved him completely anyway. He resigned his professorship, enrolled in seminary, and became a pastor. He has spoken publicly about this experience for over 35 years.

"I was the last person in the world who expected this. I had spent my life arguing that none of this was real. Now I am the evidence I used to dismiss." — Howard Storm

6. The Pattern Across All These Stories

What is striking is how consistent the core experience is across centuries, cultures, and belief systems:

• A dissolution of the self as separate from everything else
• Light that is described as more real than physical light
• An overwhelming, unconditional love that has no human equivalent
• A knowing — not learned but simply remembered

The ancient rishis described it too: Aham Brahmasmi. I am the infinite. Not metaphor. Direct experience.

What This Means for Your Own Practice

Every person in these stories shared one thing before the experience: a turning toward the divine with complete sincerity. Not ritual. Not obligation. Genuine longing. The Mahamrityunjaya Mantra is one of the oldest tools we have for that turning.

Listen to the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra — 18 million listens on YouTube →

Frequently Asked Questions

Are near-death experiences scientifically proven?

Studies at the University of Virginia and University of Southampton have documented cases where patients reported accurate observations of their own resuscitation from outside their bodies. The phenomenon is real. The explanation is still debated.

What does Hinduism say about seeing God?

Hindu philosophy distinguishes between saguna brahman (God with form) and nirguna brahman (pure consciousness). Both are valid paths. Bhakti traditions emphasise personal relationship with a deity. Advaita traditions emphasise realising that the self and God are not separate. Both ultimately point to the same experience.

Can anyone have a divine experience?

Every tradition that has left detailed records answers yes. The conditions are consistent: sincerity, sustained practice, and in most cases, a moment of complete surrender. It is described as our natural state — one we have temporarily forgotten.