Sri Maharshi as the Inner Guru...

April 14 1950, “Unexpectedly, a group of devotees sitting on the veranda outside the hall began singing ‘Arunachala-Siva’. On hearing it, Sri Bhagavan’s eyes opened and shone. He gave a brief smile of indescribable tenderness. From the outer edges of his eyes tears of bliss rolled down. One more deep breath, and no more. There was no struggle, no spasm, no other sign of death: only that the next breath did not come. 
The singing continued. The French press-photographer came up to me and asked at what precise minute it had happened. Resenting it as journalistic callousness, I replied brusquely that I did not know, and then I suddenly recalled Sri Bhagavan’s unfailing courtesy and answered precisely that it was 8.47. He said, and I could hear now that he was excited, that he had been pacing the road outside and at that very moment an enormous star had trailed slowly across the sky. Many had seen it, even as far away as Madras, and felt what it portended. It passed to the north-east towards the peak of Arunachala”. Arthur Osborne
His promise was. “I am not going away. Where could I go? I am here.” Not even “I shall be here” but “I am here. What he affirmed was his continued, uninterrupted Presence, his continued guidance. Long ago he had told Sivaprakasam Pillai, “He who has won the Grace of the Guru shall undoubtedly be saved and never forsaken,” and when devotees spoke during the last sickness as though he was forsaking them and pleaded their weakness and continued need of him he retorted, as already mentioned, “You attach too much importance to the body.”
May 4, 2016: Devotees discovered today that nothing has changed in 66 years after Maha Samadhi. More than ever he is the Inner Guru. Those who depend on him feel his guidance more actively, more potently now. Their thoughts are riveted on him more constantly. The vichara, leading to the Inner Guru, has grown easier and more accessible."