Will, whenever they 'saw him'  and whenever they 'were in his presence' have quite different meanings.  How many people do you know who you would say 'when I am in your presence' to?   Most people that I know would think I was fawning or mad if I said that. Can I just make a strong request here that people understand that altering the language of quotes and paraphrasing like this is not innocent because the sum of the many such revisions and modern interpretations of original language amounts to giving the reader a very different impression of the relationship that Rawat had with his devotees  than was implicit in the original language. It's just more weasely revisionism. Please can just stop this premie habit.