Faith in the Master

Either three days or four days or five days before Sri Ramakrishna left his earthly body, he expressed a desire. Perhaps you could say that it was all an examination, a test. He wanted to have one particular fruit called amalaki that was out of season. There were many of his disciples who did not try to find it for him because it was out of season, thinking how could you get it? Swami Vivekananda was one of those. He did not try because it was out of season.

But since the request came from his Master, from Sri Ramakrishna’s mouth, Nag Mahashay went from village to village, and finally he found one. God knows how many tried, but Nag Mahashay was successful. This was his faith in his Master. Once the request came from his Master’s mouth, he went to find the fruit. When Nag Mahashay was standing in front of his Master after giving him the fruit, Sri Ramakrishna said, “This is called faith in the Master.”

In my case, this kind of thing has happened quite a few times. At nine o’clock at night I will ask for something. Even though it seems too late, my disciples go and find it. Once a disciple was driving me somewhere to find a violin, but it was so late, we were not finding a store open with musical instruments. Can you imagine? We went into an exercise store that had exercise machines, and a violin was hanging up in the store. Somebody had given it to the owner to sell. Believe it or not, we bought a violin at an exercise store. This is called faith in the Master. Sometimes when the Master requests something, it is there somewhere, somewhere, somewhere.

A few days before his earth departure to Heaven, Sri Ramakrishna wanted to examine his disciples. Otherwise, why was he hungering for amalaki? Nag Mahashay always went to the extreme. They used to serve food on a plantain leaf. Everybody would eat the food from the plantain leaf, but Nag Mahashay went to the extreme and he used to eat the plantain leaf as well since it was blessed by the Master. Everybody would laugh when he ate the plantain leaf. This is his story.

After Sri Ramakrishna’s earth departure, Nag Mahashay would not eat or drink anything, not even water, for days, so everybody was worried. Then his fellow disciples came and said, “It is a great sin if you do not feed the guests. A guest is God. You have to show your hospitality to the guests.” So Nag Mahashay went out and bought things from the grocer because it was a great sin not to feed and show hospitality to the guests. He cooked and served his fellow disciples. Then Swami Vivekananda said, “I am not going to leave until you eat.” Nag Mahashay had to eat at Swami Vivekananda’s request. Nag Mahashay was a great soul, a great soul.

8 February 2007 Chiang Mai, Thailand