The Swami remained in Bombay for about two months, and then went to Poona, again on his way to South India. At the station, when the Swami was leaving Bombay, he was introduced to Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the renowned scholar and patriot, who happened to be his fellow passenger. Later, in his reminiscences, Mr. Tilak wrote:_x000d_ ABOUT the year 1892, i.e., before the famous Parliament of Religions in the World's Fair at Chicago, I was once returning from Bombay to Poona. At the Victoria Terminus a Sannyasin entered the carriage I was in. A few Gujarati gentlemen were there to see him off. They made the formal introduction and asked the Sannyasin to reside at my house during his stay at Poona.

We reached Poona, and the Sannyasin remained with me for eight or ten days. When asked about his name he only said he was a Sannyasin. He made no public speeches here. At home he would often talk about Advaita philosophy and Vedanta. The Swami avoided mixing with society. There was absolutely no money with him. A deerskin, one or two clothes and a kamandalu were his only possessions. In his travels some one would provide a railway ticket for the desired station.

The Swami happened to express a strong hope that as the women in the Maharashtra were not handicapped by the purdah system, it was probable that some of the widows in the higher classes would devote their lives to the spread of spirituality and religion alone like the old yogis of the Buddhist period. The Swami also believed like me that the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita did not preach renunciation but urged every one to work unattached and without the desire for fruits of the work.

I was at that time a member of the Deccan Club in the Hirabag which used to hold weekly meetings. At one of these meetings the Swami accompanied me. That evening the late Kashinath Govind Nath made a fine speech on a philosophical subject. No one had to say anything. But the Swami rose and spoke in fluent English presenting the other aspect of the subject very lucidly. Every one there was thus convinced of his high abilities. The Swami left Poona very soon after this.

After this incident [the Swami's discourse at the Deccan Club] many people of the city started flocking around the Swami. The Swami used to talk to them on the Gita and the Upanishads. But the Swami never told his name. . . . When people started coming to him in large numbers, he said to me one day, "I am leaving tomorrow" ; and really he went next morning, before anyone in the house had woken up.