Yogis are frequently tested in their spiritual lives through temptations. Although some fail to pass the tests, these fallen yogis are also great teachers. Their lives reveal to us the pitfalls along the spiritual path so that we might avoid them. A real yogi, however, does not take a false step. Nag Mahashay did not wear the ochre cloth of a monk, but he was a true yogi. Once a middle-aged widow was much drawn to him. She visited him quite often and showed him much love and respect, but Nag Mahashay understood her worldly motive. He said to his wife one day: “Look, I think even the dogs and the vultures would not relish this rubbish body, and that woman has a craving for it. The Master is testing me in many ways. Victory to Sri Ramakrishna!” His wife forbade the widow to visit their house again. Later, however, the woman’s life was changed, and she became a sincere devotee of Nag Mahashay.
To Nag Mahashay all women were the veritable manifestation of the Divine Mother. “I have never touched a woman in my life, so I have nothing to do with this world,” he said to his father when the latter scolded him about his disregard for the household. Nag Mahashay’s purity was almost tangible. Desire for progeny, wealth, and name and fame simply could not appear in his mind. But as he himself observed: “A man can overcome the temptation of gold and diamonds through renunciation, but he needs the grace of God to overcome lust. Where there is lust, there God is not; and where God is, there cannot be lust. As long as your body is not burned into ashes, do not be proud of your chastity. No one can escape maya unless the Divine Mother allows one to pass.” Without having taken any monastic vows, he was a true monk. Swami Premananda once said:
I tell you for a fact, I am not enamoured of the mere ochre cloth. I want renunciation and dispassion. I very much appreciate the life of Nag Mahashay. He did not wear the ochre cloth, and yet what a great soul he was and how great was his renunciation!
When I visited Dhaka the last time, I went to Nag Mahashay’s place before I left. One of his friends told me that a brahmin used to come to his house to read the Bhagavata. He would read a verse and Nag Mahashay would expound for a long time. Pandits read the Bhagavata, but Nag Mahashay had actually realized the truths it contained, and they were, therefore, as vivid to him as any sensible object.
He who seeks Self-knowledge shuns carnality like poison, comfort like a demon, and crowds like a snake. Nag Mahashay, like other mystics, loved obscurity and preferred to be away from the eyes of the public. Normally he visited Sri Ramakrishna on weekdays, when few visitors were present, avoiding Sundays and holidays when crowds would come, so there is no mention of his name in the huge volume of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. (Source: They Lived with God)