Saradananda used to hold classes regularly in Montclair, New Jersey, where he would stay at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler. Swami Atulananda, a Western monk, wrote in his book With the Swamis in America:
An interesting incident took place when Swami Saradananda was living at this happy home. The swami had often spoken about Sri Ramakrishna and one day he produced his Master’s photograph and showed it to the lady of the house. “Oh, swami,” she exclaimed, “it is the same face!” “What do you mean?” said the swami. And then she told him that long ago, in her youth, before she was married, she had had a vision of a Hindu and that it was the same face that now she saw in the photograph. “It was Sri Ramakrishna,” she said, “but I did not know it until now. I was so much impressed and charmed at the vision at the time, that I remember the face very distinctly, and I have been going about here and there ever since I had the vision, wherever I heard that a Hindu had come to America, but I was always disappointed, not finding the same face. And now at last I see that it was Sri Ramakrishna.”
Referring to this incident, Saradananda later recalled: “The Master chooses his own men and women. We are mere instruments in his hands. It is a privilege to work under his banner. In America he had already prepared the ground for me; I was not alone. He brought to me men and women of exalted character who helped me in our work and bore great love for our Master.”