The young disciples took turns around the clock serving the Master. Moreover, they were practising spiritual disciplines according to his instruction. They renounced hearth and home and surrendered themselves to Sri Ramakrishna. The following incident reveals how the Master protected his disciples: One evening Niranjan and a few other disciples decided to get juice from a date palm near the southern boundary of the garden. The Master knew nothing about this. When it was dark, Niranjan and others walked in the direction of the tree. In the meantime, Holy Mother saw the Master running down the steps and through the door. She wondered: “How is it possible? How can one who needs help even to change his position in bed run like an arrow?” She could not believe her eyes, so she went to the Master ’s room to see if he was there. Ramakrishna was not in his room. In great consternation she looked all around, but she could not find him. At last Holy Mother returned to her room, extremely confused and with much apprehension.
After a while Holy Mother saw the Master running swiftly back to his room. She then went to him and asked about what she had seen. He replied: “Oh, you noticed that. You see, the boys who have come here are all young. They were proceeding merrily to drink the juice of a date palm in the garden. I saw a black cobra there. It is so ferocious and it might have bitten them all. The boys did not know this. So I went there by a different route to drive it away. I told the snake, ‘Don’t enter here again.’” The Master asked her not to divulge this account to others.