M., the recorder of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, was one of Sri Ramakrishna’s householder disciples. In later years, people would say: “If you want to forget the world, go to see M. He knows how to remove worldly desires from the mind and instill the thought of God there.” People flocked to him, and he would talk to them only about God. When they would say, “Please tell us something about Sri Ramakrishna,” he would quote the conversation between the disciple and the teacher in the Kena Upanishad: The disciple said, “Teach me the Upanishad,” and the preceptor replied, “I have already told you the Upanishad.”3 By this, M. meant that as he knew only Sri Ramakrishna and nothing else, whatever came through his lips was about him.
Once Sri Ramakrishna asked Subodh, one of his young disciples, to visit M. and talk with him about God. The boy, who was later to become a monk, replied: “Sir, he lives with his wife and children. What could I learn from him?” Sri Ramakrishna smiled at these words of stern renunciation, but told Subodh: “He will not talk about his personal life. He will talk only of what he has learned here.” When Subodh went to see M., he related this conversation to him. M. said humbly: “It is quite true. I am nobody, but I live beside the ocean, and I keep a few pitchers of that water with me. When a guest comes, I offer that to him. What else am I to talk about?” (Source: They Lived with God)
Swami Ramakrishnananda later recalled: “Bhavanath was one of those whom the Master spoke of as having been ‘born perfect’. He also said that Bhavanath and Narendra had a special affinity. But Bhavanath married. One day the Master told me to go to him, saying I could learn much from him. I wondered why he should send me to a householder to learn, but when I saw Bhavanath I understood. As we sat talking of God, he went into meditation, and tears of bliss and devotion poured down his cheeks. One could see that he was completely immersed in God.” (Source: They Lived with God)
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