[Place: Belur Math. Beginning of 1899.]

The disciple has today come to the Math with Nāg Mahāshaya in company.

Swamiji to Nāg Mahāshaya (saluting him): You are all right. I hope?

Nāg Mahāshaya: I have come today to visit you. Glory to Shankara! Glory to Shankara! I am blessed today verily with the sight of Shiva!

Saying these words, Nāg Mahāshaya out of reverence stood with joined hands before him.

Swamiji: How is your health?

Nāg Mahāshaya: Why are you asking about this trifling body—this cage of flesh and bones? Verily I am blessed today to see you.

Saying these words, Nāg Mahāshaya prostrated before Swamiji.

Swamiji (lifting him up): Why are you doing that to me?

Nāg Mahāshaya: I see with my inner eye that today I am blessed with the vision of Shiva Himself. Glory to Ramakrishna!

Swamiji (addressing the disciple): Do you see? How real Bhakti transforms human nature! Nāg Mahāshaya has lost himself in the Divine, his body-consciousness has vanished altogether. (To Swami Premānanda) Get some Prasada for Nāg Mahāshaya.

Nāg Mahāshaya: Prasāda! (To Swamiji with folded hands) Seeing you, all my earthly hunger has vanished today.

The Brahmachārins and Sannyāsins of the Math were studying the Upanishads. Swamiji said to them, “Today a great devotee of Shri Ramakrishna has come amongst us. Let it be a holiday in honour of Nāg Mahāshaya’s visit to the Math.” So all closed their books and sat in a circle round Nāg Mahāshaya; Swamiji also sat in front of him.

Swamiji (addressing all): Do you see? Look at Nāg Mahāshaya; he is a householder, yet he has no knowledge of the mundane existence; he always lives lost in Divine consciousness. (To Nāg Mahāshaya) Please tell us and these Brahmachārins something about Shri Ramakrishna.

Nāg Mahāshaya (in reverence): What do you say, sir? What shall I say? I have come to see you—the hero, the helper in the divine play of Shri Ramakrishna. Now will people appreciate his message and teachings. Glory to Ramakrishna!

Swamiji: It is you who have really appreciated and understood Shri Ramakrishna. We are only spent in useless wanderings.

Nāg Mahāshaya: What do you say, sir? You are the image of Shri Ramakrishna—the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Those who have eyes, let them see.

Swamiji: Is the starting of these Maths and Āshramas etc. a step in the right direction?

Nāg Mahāshaya: I am an insignificant being, what do I understand? Whatever you do, I know for a certainty, will conduce to the well-being of the world—ay, of the world.

Many out of reverence proceeded to take the dust of Nāg Mahāshaya’s feet, which made him much agitated. Swamiji, addressing all, said, “Don’t act so as to cause pain to Nāg Mahāshaya; he feels uncomfortable.” Hearing this everybody desisted.

Swamiji: Do please come and stay at the Math. You will be an object-lesson to the boys here.

Nāg Mahāshaya: I once asked Shri Ramakrishna about that, to which he replied, “Stay as a householder as you are doing.” Therefore I am continuing in that life. I see you all occasionally and feel myself blessed.

Swamiji: I will go to your place once.

Nāg Mahāshaya, mad with joy, said, “Shall such a day dawn? My place will be made holy by your visit, like Varanasi. Shall I be so fortunate as that!”

Swamiji: Well, I have the desire. Now it depends on “Mother” to take me there.

Nāg Mahāshaya: Who will understand you? Unless the inner vision opens, nobody can understand you. Only Shri Ramakrishna understood you; all else have simply put faith in his words, but none has understood you really.

Swamiji: Now my one desire is to rouse the country—the sleeping leviathan that has lost all faith in his power and makes no response. If I can wake it up to a sense of the Eternal Religion then I shall know that Shri Ramakrishna’s advent and our birth are fruitful. That is the one desire in my heart: Mukti and all else appear of no consequence to me. Please give me your blessings that I may succeed.

Nāg Mahāshaya: Shri Ramakrishna will bless! Who can turn the course of your will? Whatever you will, shall come to pass.

Swamiji: Well, nothing comes to pass without his will behind it.

Nāg Mahāshaya: Your will and his have become one. Whatever is your will is his. Glory to Shri Ramakrishna!

Swamiji: To work one requires a strong body; since coming to this country, I am not doing well; in the West I was in very good health.

Nāg Mahāshaya: “Whenever one is born in a body,” Shri Ramakrishna used to say, “one has to pay the house tax.” Disease and sorrow are the tax. But your body is a box of gold mohurs, and very great care should be taken of it. But who will do it? Who will understand? Only Shri Ramakrishna understood. Glory to Ramakrishna!

Swamiji: All at the Math take great care of me.

Nāg Mahāshaya: It will be to their good if they do it, whether they know it or not. If proper attention is not paid to your body, then the chances are that it will fall off.

Swamiji: Nāg Mahāshaya, I do not fully understand whether what I am doing is right or not. At particular times I feel a great inclination to work in a certain direction, and I work according to that. Whether it is for good or evil, I cannot understand.

Nāg Mahāshaya: Well, Shri Ramakrishna said, “The treasure is now locked.”—Therefore he does not let you know fully. The moment you know it, your play of human life will be at an end.

Swamiji was pondering something with steadfast gaze. Then Swami Premānanda brought some Prasāda for Nāg Mahāshaya who was ecstatic with joy. Shortly after Nāg Mahāshaya found Swamiji slowly digging the ground with a spade near the pond, and held him by the hand saying, “When we are present, why should you do that?” Swamiji leaving the spade walked about the garden talking the while, and began to narrate to a disciple, “After Shri Ramakrishna’s passing away we heard one day that Nāg Mahāshaya lay fasting in his humble tiled lodgings in Calcutta. Myself, Swami Turiyānanda, and another went together and appeared at Nāg Mahāshaya’s cottage. Seeing us he rose from his bed. We said, ‘We shall have our Bhikshā (food) here today.’ At once Nāg Mahāshaya brought rice, cooking pot, fuel, etc. from the bazar and began to cook. We thought that we would eat and make Nāg Mahāshaya also eat. Cooking over, he gave the food to us; we set apart something for him and then sat down to eat. After this, we requested him to take food; he at once broke the pot of rice and striking his forehead began to say: ‘Shall I give food to the body in which God has not been realised?’ Seeing this we were struck with amazement. Later on after much persuasion we induced him to take some food and then returned.”

Swamiji: Will Nāg Mahāshaya stay in the Math tonight?

Disciple: No, he has some work; he must return today.

Swamiji: Then look for a boat. It is getting dark.

When the boat came, the disciple and Nāg Mahāshaya saluted Swamiji and started for Calcutta.