One night Hriday saw Sri Ramakrishna going towards the Panchavati. Thinking that the Master needed his water pot and towel, Hriday took them and followed him. Suddenly he saw a wonderful sight. His uncle’s ordinary human body was transformed into a luminous form that radiated light in all directions. The shining feet did not touch the earth at all. Hriday rubbed his eyes again and again to make sure it was not a hallucination. He looked around and found that the Ganges, the trees, and the cottage were as usual, but he repeatedly saw the Master in that luminous form. Hriday then looked down at his own body and saw that it, too, was shining and full of light, and he became aware that this light was no other than the light that formed Sri Ramakrishna. He realized that he was a part and parcel of that luminous God, but he now had a separate entity in order to serve him. This revelation made him overwhelmed with joy. Forgetting himself and his surroundings, he shouted frantically again and again: “O Ramakrishna, we are not men. Why are we here? Let us go from place to place and save human beings from bondage. You and I are the same!”
Sri Ramakrishna immediately turned to him and begged him to be silent. He told Hriday that if he continued shouting that way the people of the temple garden would come running to see what was wrong. But Hriday did not stop. Sri Ramakrishna then touched Hriday’s chest and prayed, “Mother, make this rascal dull and stupid again.” Immediately Hriday lost that vision and the joy it brought. He came down with a jolt to the worldly plane. Sobbing, he protested: “Why did you do that to me, Uncle? You’ve taken that blissful vision away from me. Now I’ll never have it again!”
“I didn’t say you would never have it again,” Sri Ramakrishna told him. “I only wanted to calm you down. You were making such a fuss over that little vision of yours — that’s why I had to ask Mother to make you dull. If you only knew how many visions I have every day! And do I raise such a racket? You’re not ready for visions yet. The time will come for them.”
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