After Sri Ramakrishna passed away, Hriday came to Calcutta to find a job. Ram Chandra Datta, a devotee of the Master, had installed the relics of Sri Ramakrishna in his garden house at Kankurgachi Yogodyana, and had begun daily worship there. He asked Hriday to perform the worship of the Master in exchange for a monthly salary and free board and lodging. Hriday accepted the offer, but within a few days he started disrupting things as before. He would eat butter and rock candy in the morning before offering them to the Master, and again in the evening he would eat the food that was meant to be offered. Ram was disgusted and sent him packing.
Then Hriday became a hawker and started selling clothing from door to door in Calcutta. Sometimes he would visit the Alambazar monastery where the monastic disciples of the Master had installed the shrine of Sri Ramakrishna. Hriday used to have his lunch there and would relate to the disciples stories of Sri Ramakrishna’s sadhanas, pilgrimages, and meetings with distinguished people, and of the old days at Dakshineswar, Rasmani, Mathur, and also about Kamarpukur. Since none of Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples had known the Master until after 1879, without Hriday it would have been almost impossible for Swami Saradananda to complete the biography of the Master. Hriday was able to provide details about the Master’s personal and public life, because he had been Sri Ramakrishna’s companion longer than anyone else.
Sometime in the 1890s, Nag Mahashay, a great devotee of the Master, visited Dakshineswar along with Suresh Chandra Datta and Sharat Chandra Chakrabarty. This was Sharat Chandra’s first visit and he later wrote in his book Saint Durga Charan Nag: “Hriday Mukhopadhyay, a nephew of the Master, also happened to come to the garden that day. [It seems the temple officials overlooked him or simply paid no attention.] He had a pack of clothes with him and he looked very sad. Hriday was at that time earning his livelihood by hawking clothes. He was known to Nag Mahashay, and both began to talk about Sri Ramakrishna. Hriday sang a few songs about the Divine Mother. Nag Mahashay said that the Master used to sing those songs. After a long conversation, Hriday said: ‘What a transformation has come to your lives through the grace of the Master! But alas! I have still to walk from door to door as a street hawker for my bread. Uncle did not extend his grace to me.’ Saying this, he cried bitterly like a child.”
When the light of the full moon is reflected on shallow water, the small fish become happy and they play, thinking the moon is their companion. But when the moon sets they become miserable, missing their luminous friend. In a similar way Hriday missed the Master terribly. His body was in the world but his mind was on his beloved uncle in Dakshineswar. Again in 1895 during the birthday celebration of Sri Ramakrishna, Hriday was present in the temple garden of Dakshineswar and told the devotees many stories about the Master. He lamented: “When nobody came I served the Master; and now nobody cares for me. If a cat spoils the master’s milk, does the master throw the cat away?” Knowing Hriday’s pitiable condition, some devotees of the Master began to help him financially.
While Hriday was living with the Master at Dakshineswar, he was strong and quite healthy. But in later years his health slowly broke down under the pressure of hawking clothes all day and practising left-handed Tantric disciplines at night. Brokenhearted, Hriday at last returned to Sihar, his country home, where he died in 1899 (Vaisakh 1306). One day before he left for home, Hriday came to the Alambazar monastery and bowed down to the Master in the shrine. Swami Niranjanananda, one of the Master’s disciples, greeted him, saying, “Hello, Mukherjee. How are you?” Hriday answered: “Brother, I am living-dead! Those days are gone. Uncle passed away, and my heart has also gone with him. I am moving in this world with this lifeless body.” (Source: They Lived with God)