Spiritual life is not always smooth. Ram and the other devotees would be absorbed in their singing until the late hours of the night, but this naturally caused much disturbance. Soon Ram’s neighbours began to complain. He then decided to buy a secluded garden house where he could hold kirtans and practise spiritual disciplines. When he informed the Master of his intention, Sri Ramakrishna advised him, “Buy such a solitary garden house that if a hundred murders were committed there no one would know it.” Accordingly, in the middle of 1883 Ram purchased a garden house at Kankurgachi, a suburb just east of Calcutta.
After a few months the Master said to Ram: “How is it that you have not yet taken me to the new garden you have purchased for holding kirtan? Let us go one day to your garden to see what it is like.”21Ram was exuberant. Immediately he arranged everything for the Master’s visit. On Wednesday, 26 December 1883, M. recorded in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:
Sri Ramakrishna, accompanied by Manilal Mallick, M., and several other devotees, was in a carriage on his way to Ram’s new garden.
Master (to Manilal): “In order to meditate on God, one should try at first to think of Him as free from upadhis, limitations. God is beyond upadhis. He is beyond speech and mind. But it is very difficult to achieve perfection in this form of meditation.
“But it is easy to meditate on an Incarnation — God born as man. Yes, God in man. The body is a mere covering. It is like a lantern with a light burning inside, or like a glass case in which one sees precious things.”
Arriving at the garden, the Master got out of the carriage and accompanied Ram and the other devotees to the sacred tulsi-grove. Standing near it, he said: “How nice! It is a fine place. You can easily meditate on God here.”
Sri Ramakrishna sat down in the house, which stood to the south of the lake. Ram offered him a plate of fruit and sweets which he enjoyed with the devotees. After a short time he went around the garden.
In sacred memory of Sri Ramakrishna’s visit to the garden, and because he had mentioned that it was an ideal place for meditation, Ram named the place “Yogodyana” (a garden for practising yoga). Ram gave the mango tree the name “Ramakrishna-bhog” (delight to Ramakrishna), and to the lake where the Master had washed his hands and feet he gave the name “Ramakrishna-kunda.” At the Master’s suggestion Ram planted a Panchavati (a grove of five trees) in the northeast corner of the garden. After the Master passed away, a portion of his relics was enshrined on the spot near the tulsi grove where the Master had bowed down. A temple was later erected there. (Source: They Lived with God)