I HAVE seen the acharya of the Adi Brahmo Samaj, I understand that he has married for the second or third time. He has grownup children. And such men are teachers! If they say, ‘God is real and all else is illusory’, who will believe them? You can very well understand who will be their disciples.
Like teacher, like disciple. Even if a sannyasin renounces ‘Woman and Gold’ mentally, but lives with them outwardly, he cannot be a teacher of men. People will say that he enjoys ‘molasses’1 secretly.
Once, Mahendra Kaviraj of Sinthi gave five rupees to Ramlal. I didn’t know about it. When Ramlal told me about the money, I asked him, “for whom was the money given?’ He said it was for me. At first I thought that I should use it to pay what I owed for my milk.
But will you believe me? I had slept only a little while when I suddenly woke up writhing with pain, as if a cat were scratching my chest. I went to Ramlal and asked him again, ‘Was the money given for your aunt?2 ‘No’, Ramlal answered. Thereupon I said to him, ‘Go at once and return the money.’ Ramlal gave it back the next day. (169)
- Reference is to the parable, “The Physician with his Jars of Molasse“. ↩︎
- The Holy Mother, his wife. ↩︎