It is remarkable that in this present age a person can live in the world without having or even touching money, without building a home or even owning any possessions. Sri Ramakrishna demonstrated to modern man the ideal of renunciation through his life. Once he said: “A man cannot realize God unless he renounces everything mentally. A sadhu cannot lay things up. ‘Birds and wandering monks do not make provision for the morrow.’” Indeed, those who depend wholly on God are provided with everything they need. This also was verified in Sri Ramakrishna’s life. The Master said: “The Divine Mother showed me in a vision the five suppliers of my needs: first, Mathur Babu, and second, Shambhu Mallick, whom I had not then met. I had a vision of a fair-skinned man with a cap on his head. Many days later, when I first met Shambhu, I recalled that vision; I realized that it was he whom I had seen in that ecstatic state.”
Shambhu served Sri Ramakrishna and the Holy Mother for four years, but he eventually became bedridden with diabetes. The Master went with Hriday to see him while he was ill and found that he was quite cheerful and had no fear of death. Shambhu said to Hriday, “Hridu, I have packed my things and am ready for the journey.” When the Master told him not to say such ominous words, Shambhu replied, “No, please bless me that I may cast aside all these possessions and go to God.”15 While returning to Dakshineswar, the Master told Hriday, “The oil in Shambhu’s lamp has run out.”16 Shambhu died in 1877.
One day several years later, while talking about Shambhu, Sri Ramakrishna said to the devotees: “God’s devotees have nothing to fear. They are His own. He always stands by them.”