One day he went to Sarnath, close to Varanasi, where, in the Deer Park, the Buddha had preached the first of his Sermons. But in those days, when the Swami visited the place, the Stupa or Topa, and the ruins of the Buddhist monastery, were still overgrown with jungle.

At Varanasi the Swami stayed at the Ashrama of Dwarakadas, where he met many sannyasis and scholars. This gentleman introduced him to the celebrated pandit and Bengali writer, Bhudev Mukhopadhyaya. The Swami and the pandit held long conversations on the merits of various Hindu ideals. When they parted, the pandit said, "Wonderful! Such vast experience and _x000d_ insight at such an early age! I am sure he will be a great man."

The Swami also visited the great saint Trailanga Swami, who lived in a Shiva temple, lost to all outward activity, absorbed in the deepest meditation, eating only when anyone fed him. It was only in his later days that he sometimes came down from that state to answer in writing a question which had been put to him. Shri Ramakrishna had also visited him many years before, and had put the question whether Jiva and Brahman were one or two entities. Trailanga Swami had answered by sign that they were two so long as duality was seen, but that ultimately they were one.

The Swami next went to Swami Bhaskarananda, a celebrated ascetic of great learning, who lived almost nude in his Ashrama. The conversation between them drifted to the subject of the conquest of lust and gold. This was one of the main conditions insisted on by the Master for the realization of God. Bhaskarananda, speaking ex cathedra as it were, said, "No one can completely renounce lust and gold." The Swami replied, "What do you say, sir! There have been many who have done so, for this is the very basis of the sannyasi's life and aspiration. And I myself have seen at least one who had completely conquered lust and gold." Bhaskarananda smiled and declared, "You are but a child. What do you know!" Finding his Master's life, his own aspiration, and the basic principle and norm of the monk's life challenged, the Swami rose to the occasion in animated defence. Bhaskarananda and his disciples were struck by his fire and eloquence. Turning to those who were present the re¬nowned monk said, "This man has Saraswati [the Goddess of Iearning) on his tongue. His mind is like a great light." But the Swami, fuming, left the place.

Coming now to such details as we have of his extended pilgrimages, the first of these was to Varanasi, the home of monks, the centre of learning, and the Seat of Shiva. He set out from the Baranagore Math, accompanied by Premananda and Fakirbabu, a lay devotee of the Master. The sacred Ganga, the praying votaries, the numerous temples, especially those of Vishwanath, Annapurna and Durga, the atmosphere of holiness, the thought that it was here that the Buddha and Shri Shankara had preached all these made a vivid impression on him.

One morning, after visiting the temple of Mother Durga, the Swami was passing through a place where there were a large tank of water on one side and a high wall on the other. Here he was surrounded by a troop of large monkeys. They were not willing to allow him to pass along that way. They howled and shrieked and clutched at his feet as he strode. As they pressed closer, he began to run; but the faster he ran, the faster came the monkeys, and they began to bite at him. When it seemed impossible for him to escape, he heard an old sannyasi calling out to him: "Face the brutes." The words brought him to his senses. He turned and boldly faced the irate monkeys. As soon as he did that, they fell back and fled. With reverence and gratitude he gave the traditional greeting to the sannyasi, who smilingly responded with the same, and walked away. In a New York lecture years later, the Swami referred to this incident and pointed to its moral: "That is a lesson for all life-face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. If we are ever to gain freedom, it must be by conquering nature, never by running away. Cowards never win victories. We have to fight fear and troubles and ignorance if we expect them to flee before us."