At Meerut they found Akhandananda at the house of Dr. Trailokyanath Ghosh. This was about the second week of November, that is, after the time of year when Mother Kali is offered special worship. (According to another view, based on Swami Akhandananda's letters of November 20 and December 5, 1890, Swamiji and party did not reach Meerut earlier than the first week of December. In the former letter Akhandananda had written to Shivananda about Swamiji and his party: "I came alone from Dehra Dun; since then I don't know anything about them, nor do they know anything about me." Even in Akhandananda's letter of December 5, there is no news of the party's arrival at Meerut.)

Akhandananda was very happy to see the Swami, and the other brother-monks; but he was dismayed to see the ravages that illness had made on their leader. "I had never seen him thinner," Akhandananda said; "he was worn to e shadow. It seemed that he had not as yet recovered from his terrible illness at Hrishikesh." The Swami stayed at the house of the doctor with Swami Akhandananda, while the others went to stay with one Yajneshwarbabu, who later on embraced the monastic life and became Swami Jnanananda, the well-known leader of the Bharat Dharma Mahamandal. After staying at the doctor's house for about a fortnight, the Swami and Akhandananda went to stay at a Shethji's garden-house, where the other brother-disciples also joined them. The Shethji was a friend of Yajneshwarbabu, and gave them everything they needed. The monks cooked their own food, and spent their time in spiritual practices. The Swami was still taking medicine to help him recuperate from the recent illness, and the frequent relapses of fever that he had had since leaving Almora. The austere life he had led during his wanderings, and the haphazard eating, had weakened him greatly; but here he was growing stronger.

At this time Advaitananda, also on pilgrimage, came to Meerut; and the Shethji's garden was transformed into a second Baranagore Math, with the Swami, Brahmananda, Saradananda, Turiyananda, Akhandananda, Advaitstnanda and Kripananda living there. They passed their time in meditation, prayer, singing devotional songs, and study of the scriptures and other literature in Sanskrit and English. In the evening they used to go for a walk, and watch the sports and games of the troops on the parade ground.

At the Swami's bidding, Akhandananda used to bring books for him from the local library. Once the Swami asked him to bring the works of Sir John Lubbock. Accordingly Akhandananda brought them, one volume each day. The Swami would finish a volume in a day and return it the next day, saying that he had read it. The librarian argued with Akhandananda that the Swami had surely returned the volume without reading it, and remarked that the latter was only making a show of reading. Hearing of this the Swami himself went to the librarian and said, "Sir, I have mastered all those volumes: if you have any doubt, you may put any question to me about them." The librarian then examined the monk, and by doing so became fully satisfied. Great was his astonishment. Later Akhandananda asked Swamiji, how he could do it. The Swami replied, "I never read a book word by word. I read sentence by sentence, sometimes even paragraph by paragraph, in a sort of kaleidoscopic form."

While in the Shethji's garden-house, Akhandananda brought to the Swami an Afghan gentleman who was a refugee Sardar and a relative of the Amir Abdar Rahaman of Afghanistan. In coming to see the Swami this gentleman took the same care as Hindus themselves do when approaching a sadhu. He had performed his ablutions, and then came with a basket of sweet meats in his hand, to present to the Swami. During his talk he referred to a well known Muslim fakir of Swat. Many Bengali gentlemen and others also came to the garden to hear religious discourse from the Swami's lips.

After staying for some weeks at Meerut the Swami again grew restless. He remembered the free, stern life of the ascetics in the Hardwar and Hrishikesh areas. "I saw many great men in Hrishikesh", said the Swami in later life: `One that I remember was a man who seemed to be mad. He was coming nude down the street, with boys pursuing him and throwing stones at him. The whole man was bubbling over with laughter, while blood was streaming down his face and neck. I took him and bathed his wound, putting ashes (made by burning a piece of cotton cloth) on it to stop the bleeding. And all the time, with peals of laughter, he told me of the fun the boys and he had been having, throwing the stones. `So the Father plays', he said. Many of these holy men hide in order to guard themselves against intrusion. People are a trouble to them. One had human bones strewn about his cave and gave it out that he lived on corpses. Another threw stones, and so on." The Swami continued, "The sannyasi needs no longer to worship or to go on pilgrimage or perform austerities. What, then, is the motive of all this going from pilgrimage to pilgrimage, shrine to shrine, and austerity to austerity? He is acquiring merit, and giving it to the world!"

On the eve of the Swami's departure, Akhandananda said to him, "It was for you that I cancelled my plan of going to Central Asia, and came to Baranagore Math; and now you are going away leaving me here!" The Swami replied, "The company of the brother-disciple is a great hindrance to spiritual practices. Just see, it was because of your illness that I could not practise any spiritual disciplines at Tehri. It is not possible to perform any spiritual disciplines, unless the Maya [bondage] of the brother-disciples is given up. Whenever I plan to practise disciplines, the Master puts some obstacle in my way. Now I shall go alone. I shall not tell anyone where I am staying." Akhandananda said, "Even if you go to Patal [the nether regions], I shall hunt you out."