The day before, the birthday of Shri Rama-krishna, twelve of the novices had been initiated into Sannyasa. Today they begged a ruppe of a lay devotee, hired a boat and went to the Dakshineswar temple. Swami Premananda did not like this. He said to them:
“You shaved your heads (became monks) but yesterday, and you already think that you are beyond all disciplinary restrictions? Unless one observes disciplinary rules, can one go beyond them? Those who have renounced, who are Sannyasins, are the teachers of men. And you, having renounced, have become such. But how is it that you begged money today to pay for the boat-hire? Is that spirituality? If you were so eager to see the place of the Master’s Sadhana, why, instead of begging money, did you not go to Bally and beg the ferryman to take you over, or swim across the Ganga? Or you could have walked all the way via the Howrah bridge. Then I would have known that you are indeed fit to be teachers of men. You are thinking that you will have Maths and from there will spread the ideas of the Master, and that otherwise the Master’s ideas will vanish from the earth! You may build as many Maths as you like, or you may take Sannyasa, but if you have no spirituality, all will be in vain. On the other hand, those who are not building Maths or taking Sannyasa, the householders if they have spirituality and live the true life, will surely be worshipped by people even though they may not wear the ochre robe. Whoever will assimilate the ideals of the Master in his life, be he a Sannyasin or a householder, will be great. The Master himself is spreading his own ideas. Never think that if you Sannyasins do not preach his ideas, these will not be known! Rather thank your stars that you have better opportunities than the house-holders and are living in the blessed company of these great souls (the direct disciples of the Master).”
Swami Akhandananda: “Six of us at one time lived in the same cottage at Hrishikesh for nearly two months. This very much astonished the other Sadhus of the place. They said to us, ‘How do you brother-disciples live together ? If only two of us, brother-disciples, should live for two days together we will begin to quarrel.’ Once I told this to Vijaya Krishna Goswami at Vrindaban. He was overjoyed to hear me and said, “There is nothing surprising in this. It is no ordinary thread that binds you. Was your Master an ordinary man and saint? Had he been an ordinary man, could he have trained you Calcutta boys up in this fashion ? I do not wonder that there is such love and union amongst you.”
Swami Premananda: “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 Någ Mahâshaya (saint Durga Charan Nag-a disciple of Shri Rama-krishna). He did not wear the ochre cloth, and yet what a great soul he was and how great was his renunciation!
“When I visited Dacca last time, I went to Nâg Mahashaya’s place before I left. One of his friends told me that a Brahmana used to come to his house to read the Bhagavata. He would read a verse and Nâg Mahâshaya would expound for a long time. Pandits read the Bhagavata, but Nâg Mahâshaya had actually realized the truths it contained; and they were, therefore, as vivid to him as any sensible object. His father, however, did not like his long ex-position. He would get angry and say, ‘Well, won’t you allow me to listen to the reading of the Bhagavata? Nâg Mahashaya was infinitely patient. He would remain silent.”
Swami Akhandananda: “Suren Mukherji, afterwards Bâbâ Premânanda Bharati, was devoted to the Master. He used to visit the Barânagore Math for some time. He went to preach Hinduism in America. Once he went on a visit to Nâg Mahashaya’s village. As soon as Nâg Mahashaya saw him, he began to dance in joy raising his hands and crying out, ‘Cal-cutta’! ‘Calcutta’! That is to say, he had come from the very place where the Master used to live. Shri Gaurânga also, you know, went into ecstasy when he learnt that the musical instrument called khol which is played in devotional music, was made of the clay of the village he was just then visiting.
“You will be surprised to hear of the hard austerities Swamiji (Vivekananda) practised. When he was wandering as an itinerant monk all over India, I would follow him sometimes. In those days, before he left for America, he used to carry with him a coarse blanket, and a bag full of books weighing about twenty seers. Once he fell on hard days at Limdi, when a poor Brahmana gave him shelter. He lived with him for a few days. The Maharajah of Limdi, in the meantime, came to know of his greatness and requested him to come to his palace and live there. But Swamiji refused lest his removal to the palace might cause pain to the Brahmana. The Maharajah, however, used to send him various royal dishes, and the poor Brahmana also would partake of them.” (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)