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True. The Master remarked that Gopal did not belong to the circle of his devotees. But I saw him show great reverence for Sri Ramakrishna.
At that time I was just becoming acquainted with Sri Ramakrishna. One day after the meeting of the devotees in his room had broken up, I came out and saw Gopal on the foot-path, kneeling with folded hands before the Master.
The moon was shining brightly overhead. It was the red path sprinkled with brick-dust, just outside the long verandah north of the Master’s room. Nobody else was there. It appeared to me that Gopal had taken shelter at Sri Ramakrishna’s feet and the Master was encouraging him.
NARENDRA: “I didn’t see it.”
Speaking to me about Gopal, the Master asked why, if Gopal was a real Paramahamsa, he should hanker after money.‘He doesn’t belong to this place’, the Master said.‘Those who are my own will always come here.’ He used to be angry with T - because he was Gopal’s constant companion and didn’t come to the Master more often.
‘Gopal has spiritual realizations, no doubt,’ the Master said to me, ‘but he has attained them all of a sudden, without the necessary preparations. He is not one of my own. If he is, why haven’t I wept for him?’
“Some are proclaiming Gopal as the reincarnation of Nityananda. But times without number the Master said to me: ‘In me alone are embodied Advaita, Chaitanya, and Nityananda. I am all these three.’”
Friday, April 8, 1887
About 8am, 2 devotees, one a householder and the other a monk, were conversing in a room in the Barangore monastery, when M. came in.
The devotees were of the same age 24-25 years old. M. intended to spend 3 days at the monastery. He went to the shrine and saluted the Deity. After visiting Narendra, Rakhal, and the other brothers, he at last came into the room where the two devotees were engaged in conversation. The householder devotee wanted to renounce the world, The monk was trying to persuade him not to do so.
Why don’t you finish the few duties you have in the world? Very soon they will be left behind,“A man was told that he would go to hell. He asked a friend, ‘What is hell like?’
Thereupon the friend began to draw a picture of hell on the ground with a piece of chalk. No sooner was the picture drawn than the man rolled over it and said, ‘Now I have gone through hell!’”
Śaśi finished the regular worship in the worship hall. About 11, the brothers of the Math returned from the Ganges after taking their baths. They put on clean cloths, went to the shrine, prostrated themselves before the Deity, and meditated there a little while.
After the food was offered to the Deity they had their meal. M. ate with them.
It was evening.
Incense was burnt before the pictures of gods and goddesses and the evening service was performed. Rakhal, Śaśi, the elder Gopal, and Harish were seated in the big hall. M. also was there.
Rakhal’s reminiscences of the Master
Rakhal warned one of the brothers to be careful about the food to he offered to the Master in the shrine.
Rakhal (to Śaśi and the others): “One day I ate part of his [meaning the Master’s] refreshments before he took them. At this he said: ‘I cannot look at you. How could you do such a thing?’ I burst into tears.”
THE ELDER GOPAL: “One day at Cossipore I breathed hard on his food. At this he said, ‘Take that food away.’ "
M. and Narendra were pacing the verandah and recalling old times.
NARENDRA: “I did not believe in anything. At first I did not accept most of what the Master said. One day he asked me, ‘Then why do you come here?’ I replied, ‘I come here to see you, not to listen to you.’ He was very much pleased.”
Saturday, April 9, 1887
The Master and Narendra
The members of the Math were resting a little after their meal. Narendra and M. sat under a tree in the garden to the west of the monastery. It was a solitary place and no one else was present. Narendra was recounting to M. his various experiences with Sri Ramakrishna, Narendra was about twenty-four years old, and M. thirty-two.
M: “You must remember vividly your first visit to him.”
NARENDRA: “Yes. It was at the temple garden at Dakshineswar, in his own room. That day I sang two songs.”
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