21st January 1997

At that time, Bhagavan had six devotees that had left home and, although they had not been initiated into sannyasa, they lived the life of renunciates. On the day in question, Bhagavan gave a teaching to some of these devotees about performing all works with utmost perfection. Following that, he went into samadhi. Still in samadhi, he called one of the devotees and ordered him to offer him bhog. A while later, he woke up and asked, “what did I say?” The devotee replied, “You asked me to offer you bhog”. He said that a tremendous event had occurred. God had manifested totally within him. That day would be the start of a new era from which the world would hear about the appearance of God Incarnate.

Bhagavan told the devotees to worship Thakur Ramakrishna on that auspicious day. Hence they did so and performed arati. Bhagavan was very pleased at this and said they had done the right thing, for Thakur had come out from him totally that day. Another desire had come to his mind. He said, “I will give you all sannyasa. From today, you will know yourselves to be sannyasis, but the ritual will take place later.”