THE Rules for a sannyasin are extremely hard. He cannot have the slightest contact with ‘woman and gold’. He must not accept money with his own hands, and he must not even allow it to be left near him.
Lakshminarayan Marwari, a Vedantist, used to come here1 very often. One day he saw a dirty sheet on my bed and said: “I shall invest ten-thousand rupees in your name. The interest will enable you to pay your expenses.” The moment he uttered these words, I fell unconscious, as if struck by a stick. Regaining consciousness I said to him:”If you utter such words again, you had better not come here. It is impossible for me to touch money.It is also impossible for me to keep it near me.” He was a very clever fellow. He said: “Then you too have the idea of acceptance and rejection.
In that case you haven’t attained Perfect Knowledge.” “My dear sir,” I said, “I haven’t gone that far.” Lakshminarayan then wanted to leave the money with Hriday. I said to him: “That will not do. If you leave it with Hriday, then I shall instruct him to spend it as I wish. If he does not comply, I shall be angry. The very contact of money is bad. No, you can’t leave it with Hriday, Won’t an object kept near a mirror be reflected in it?” (110)
- At the Dakshineswar Temple Garden to visit Sri Ramakrishna. ↩︎