One day Ramakrishna’s whole attitude to Narendra suddenly seemed to change. The Master looked at him without the least sign of pleasure and remained silent. Narendra thought that the Master was in a spiritual mood. He waited for a while, and then went to the veranda and began talking to Hazra. In the evening Narendra bowed down to the Master and left for Calcutta. On his next several visits, the Master’s mood towards Narendra did not change. He received him with the same apparent indifference. Ignored by the Master, he spent the days with Hazra and other disciples and returned home as usual. Finally, after more than a month, the Master asked Narendra, “Why do you come here, when I don’t speak a single word to you?” “Do you think I come here just to have you speak to me?” Narendra answered. “I love you. I want to see you. That’s why I come.” The Master was delighted. “I was testing you,” he told Narendra, “to see if you’d stop coming when you didn’t get love and attention. Only a spiritual aspirant of your quality could put up with so much neglect and indifference. Anyone else would have left me long ago.”
Narendra was very bold and frank. He did not speak about people behind their backs. He took delight in criticizing the Master’s spiritual experiences as evidence of a lack of self-control. He would even make fun of his worship of Kali. “Why do you come here,” the Master once asked him, “if you do not accept Kali, my Mother?” “Bah! Must I accept her,” Narendra retorted, “simply because I come to see you? I come to you because I love you.” “All right,” said the Master, “before long you will not only accept my blessed Mother, but weep while repeating her name.” (Source: God Lived with Them)
On another occasion, the Master put Narendra to a difficult test. He said to him: “As a result of the austerities I’ve practised, I have possessed all the supernatural powers for a long time. I am thinking of asking the Mother to transfer them all to you. She’s told me that you’ll be able to use them when necessary. What do you say?”
“Will they help me to realize God?” Narendra asked. “No,” said the Master, “they won’t help you to do that. But they might be very useful after you have realized God and when you start doing His work.” “Then let me realize God first,” said Narendra. “After that, it will be time enough to decide if I need them or not. If I accept them now, I may forget God, make selfish use of them, and thus come to grief.” The Master was greatly pleased to see Narendra’s single-minded devotion. (Source: God Lived with Them)