One morning Girish went to Balaram Basu’s house and found Balaram cleaning rice. Balaram was a rich landlord and had many servants, but nevertheless he was doing this menial work himself. Girish was amazed and asked Balaram the reason for this. Balaram replied: “The Master is coming today, and he will have his lunch here. So I am cleaning the rice myself.”
Girish was impressed by Balaram’s devotion, but again it saddened him that he could not also serve the Master in that way. He returned home and, closing the door, thought: “Indeed, God comes to the homes of those who have devotion like Balaram. I am a wretched drunkard. There is no one here who can receive the Master properly and feed him.” Girish lay down on his bed. At 1:30 p.m. he heard a knock at his door. Opening it, he found the Master standing there. “Girish, I am hungry,” said the Master. “Could you give me some food?” And yet Sri Ramakrishna had finished his meal at Balaram’s house only a little while earlier! As there was no food in his house, Girish asked the Master to wait. He then hurried to a restaurant where he purchased some fried bread and potato curry and brought it back to the Master. This food was coarse and hard to digest — not at all the kind of food usually served to the Master. But Sri Ramakrishna ate it with great joy. (Source: They Lived with God)