In spite of all the spiritual experiences and visions Hriday had attained by the grace of Sri Ramakrishna, he was basically a family man. Shortly after the first year’s Durga Puja, he married a second time and again devoted himself to the worship of Kali and the service of his uncle in Dakshineswar. Yet even while working as a priest in the temple, his thoughts were on his wife and home. Sri Ramakrishna told this incident to his devotees:
Once Hriday brought a bull-calf here. I saw, one day, that he tied it with a rope in the garden, so that it might graze there. I asked him, “Hriday, why do you tie the calf there every day?” “Uncle,” he said, “I am going to send this calf to our village. When it grows strong I shall yoke it to the plough.” As soon as I heard these words I was stunned to think: “How inscrutable is the play of the divine maya! Kamarpukur and Sihar are so far away from Calcutta! This poor calf must go all that way. Then it will grow, and at length it will be yoked to the plough. This is indeed the world! This is indeed maya!” I fell down unconscious. Only after a long time did I regain consciousness. (Source: They Lived with Them)