In Bombay they (Swami Brahmananda and Swami Turiyananda) again met Vivekananda, who was then getting ready to go to America to represent Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Every evening many people would come to Swamiji to listen to his spiritual discourses. However, one evening Swamiji was not well, so he asked Turiyananda to speak to the devotees. When the talk was over, Swamiji said to Turiyananda: “Why did you talk to these householders about fiery renunciation? You may be a monk, but they have families. You ought to have told them something that would be useful to them. They will be terrified to hear such things, and their minds will be disturbed.” Turiyananda apologized, saying, “I thought that you were listening, so I spoke about something inspiring.” He then realized that one should keep one’s audience in mind before one speaks.
Sri Ramakrishna advised his young monastic disciples to renounce both externally and internally; he advised his householder disciples to renounce internally. Many years later Baburam (Swami Premananda) related how the Master taught the monastic disciples: “Very little of the Master’s teachings is recorded in the Gospel. M. used to visit the Master occasionally and would note down his teachings as he heard them… . His teachings to the monastic disciples were given in private. As soon as the householder devotees would leave the room, he would get up and lock the door and then speak to us living words of renunciation. He would try to impress upon our young minds the emptiness and vanity of worldly enjoyments.”