Adhar had previously asked Sri Ramakrishna to pray to the Divine Mother to grant him the job of vice-chairman of the Calcutta Municipality. The salary for this job was one thousand rupees a month. In his efforts to get it, Adhar had talked to many rich and prominent men of Calcutta. But the Master did not like the idea that Adhar had flattered so many people just to get a job. The Master said: “I said to the Mother: ‘O Mother, Adhar has been visiting You. May he get the job if it pleases You.’ But at the same time I said to Her: ‘How small-minded he is! He is praying to You for things like that and not for Knowledge and Devotion.’” The Master then continued: “Nivritti [inwardness of the mind] alone is good, and not Pravritti [the inclination to outer enjoyment]. Be satisfied with the job you have. People hanker after a post paying fifty or a hundred rupees [a month], and you are earning three hundred rupees!” . . . Adhar replied: “Well, Narendra can support his family with fifty or with a hundred rupees. Will he not try for a hundred?” Immediately the Master said: “Worldly people think highly of their wealth. They feel that there is nothing like it. But does God care for money? He wants from His devotees knowledge, devotion, discrimination, and renunciation. Listen. There is no scarcity of moths when the lamp is lighted. When God is realized, He Himself provides everything for His devotees.”
Though Sri Ramakrishna asked Adhar to be content with his present position, one day when he met Jadu Mallick, a very wealthy and influential man of Calcutta, he asked him to help Adhar get the job. Sometime later, however, the Master saw Jadu again and told him that Adhar had not been accepted for the position. Jadu comforted the Master, saying that Adhar was still young and could try for it later.
Sri Ramakrishna never forced his devotees to renounce the world. He helped people to grow in their own ways. Once he told Adhar, “You have both — yoga and bhoga [enjoyment].” But at the same time the Master did not hesitate to speak harsh truths to his beloved devotees when necessary. On one occasion he said to Adhar: “You are a scholar and a deputy magistrate, but with all that you are henpecked. Go forward. Beyond the forest of sandalwood there are many more valuable things: silver mines, gold mines, diamonds, and other gems. The woodcutter was chopping wood in the forest; the brahmachari said to him, ‘Go forward.’” (Source: They Lived with God)