Ramakrishna kept close watch over the disciples’ eating, sleeping, and day-to-day behaviour. Since only a good student can be a good teacher, the Master uncompromisingly trained his inner-circle disciples so they could become great spiritual leaders. Self-control and truthfulness are indispensable to spiritual life. Once, on seeing Niranjan take too much ghee (clarified butter), which was believed to create lust, the Master exclaimed: “My goodness! You take so much ghee! Are you eventually going to abduct people’s daughters and wives?” Another day the Master said to a devotee (pointing to Niranjan): “Look at this boy. He is absolutely guileless. But he has one fault: he is slightly untruthful nowadays. The other day he said that he would visit me again very soon, but he didn’t come.” Hearing this, Niranjan immediately apologized.