Spiritual life is not always smooth and easy. Without exception every seeker of God faces internal as well as external obstacles. After his first visit Kali had felt an attraction for the Master, and whenever he could he went to see him in Dakshineswar. His father did not approve of these frequent visits, and he locked the main door of the house so that Kali could not go to Dakshineswar. One afternoon someone left the door unlocked; Kali ran to the Ahiritola ghat and went to Dakshineswar by boat. That night he stayed with the Master.
Kali began to practise spiritual disciplines under the Master’s guidance and through his grace was blessed with many wonderful visions of gods and goddesses. One day while meditating at home, Kali saw various gods and goddesses and divine incarnations — Krishna, Christ, Chaitanya, and others — merge one by one into the luminous form of Sri Ramakrishna. He hastened to Dakshineswar and narrated this experience to the Master. To this Sri Ramakrishna said: “Ah, you have seen Vaikuntha [the abode of Vishnu]! Henceforth you will no longer have these visions. You have risen to the formless state.” This proved to be true. From then on, during meditation Kali’s mind was absorbed in the infinite — the vastness of the Impersonal Brahman, rather than divine forms. After this vision Kali was fully convinced that the Master was an avatar, as he later wrote in a Sanskrit hymn to Ramakrishna. (Source: God Lived with Them)
The moment the mind and the buddhi abide in the Self, in the Atman, one lives not in the body or the world; but on the divine plane. Bhagavan says, “Hereafter, you will live in Me, O Arjuna. The moment you surrender, you no longer live on this earth—you are in Vaikuṇṭha! There is no question of reaching Vaikuṇṭha only after death. From this moment onwards, you are in Vaikuṇṭha.” Kuṇṭha means duality, and Vaikuṇṭha means non-dual; that is, there is no duality or vikalpa in your awareness. You are free of all disturbances because, for you, from now onwards, the Lord alone exists. Tukaram, a saint of Maharashtra, sings, “I have found my true home in the taintless—nirañjana. Here is my Vaikuntha.” (Source: BG 12.8, Bhagavad Gita – Elixir of Eternal Wisdom)