Sanátan in time reached Benares, where he was glad to hear of the Master's arrival. Going to Chandra Shekhar's house, he sat down at the gate. The Master, knowing it, told Chandra Shekhar, "There is a Vaishnav at the gate. Bring him in." Chandra Shekhar reported to the Master that there was no Vaishnav but only a darvesh at the gate. The Master replied, "Well, bring him in." Glad to be called, Sanátan entered. When he was in the court-yard, the Master rushed out and embraced him in rapture. At His touch Sanátan was overcome by love and cried out in a faltering voice, "Touch me not! touch me not!" The two wept ceaselessly, clasping each other's necks, to the wonder of Chandra Shekhar. Then the Master took him by the hand and seated him by His side on the veranda of the house, stroking Sanátan's body with His own hands. Sanátan cried, "Touch me not, Master!" but the Master answered, "I touch you to purify myself. Through the strength of your faith you can cleanse the whole universe. Witness the Bhágabat, I. xiii. 8, VII. ix. 9. By seeing, touching, and praising a bhakta like you, all my senses are gratified, as the scripture asserts. Vide the Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya, xiii. 2."
The Master continued, "Listen, Sanátan! Krishna is very kind, the saviour of the fallen. He has delivered you from the worst hell (rauraba). Limitless and profound is the ocean of his mercy." Sanátan objected, "I know not Krishna. I recognize your grace as having effected my deliverance." Then at the Master's request he told the whole story of his flight. The Master told him, "I met both your brothers, Rup and Anupam, at Prayág. They have gone to Brindában." Then He introduced Sanátan to Tapan Mishra and Chandra Shekhar. Tapan Mishra invited him, the Master adding, "Go, Sanátan, shave yourself," and telling Chandra Shekhar to take away the rags of Sanátan. They made him bathe in the Ganges, and Chandra Shekhar gave him a new garment, which he refused to accept. At this the Master was delighted exceedingly.
After His noon-day prayer, the Master went with Sanátan to dine at Tapan Mishra's house. As He sat down to His meal He ordered the Mishra to serve Sanátan also, but he replied, "Sanátan has some rites to perform. You dine first. I shall give him your prasád." After dinner the Master rested. The Mishra gave Sanátan His leavings and offered him a new cloth, which Sanátan declined to accept, asking instead for one of the Mishra's old clothes. So the Mishra gave him an old cloth, which he cut into a waist-band and wrapper.
Sanátan was introduced by the Master to the Maratha Brahman, who gave him a general invitation to dinner during the whole of his stay at Kashi. But Sanátan declined saying, "I shall rove (begging alms) like the bee. Why should I procure all my food from one Brahman's house."
Exceedingly pleased was the Master at Sanátan's detachment from the world, and He often cast glances at the Bhutia blanket, from which Sanátan guessed that He disapproved of it. So Sanátan planned to get rid of the blanket. When he went to the Ganges to perform his noon-day rites, he met a Bengali drying his quilt, and asked him to exchange it for his blanket, as a favour. The man retorted, "Why are you, a venerable man, mocking me? Why should you exchange your costly blanket for a quilt?" Sanátan replied, "I am not joking but am in earnest. Do make the exchange." So saying he gave up the blanket, placed the quilt on his shoulders and came to Chaitanya. At the Master's query he told the whole tale. The Master remarked, "I have thought of it. Krishna, who has delivered you from attachment to earthly goods, cannot have left a remnant of that attachment in you. No good physician leaves even a trace of the disease unremoved. You were living on alms from door to door, and yet there was a three Rupee blanket on your back! It spoiled your virtue and made you a mock unto the beholders." Sanátan replied, "He who has released me from worldly ties has also cured this last remnant of worldliness in me."
The pleased Master showed grace to him, and thus emboldened him to put questions. Formerly the Master had put questions to Rámánanda Ray, which the latter had answered under His inspiration. So, now, inspired by the Master, Sanátan put questions, while He established spiritual truths.
Then Sanátan, biting a blade of grass as a token of abjectness, clasped the Master's feet; and said, "Low-born, with low comrades, a fallen wretch, I have wasted my life, plunged in the well of vile worldliness. I know nothing of my own good or evil, but I have held as truth whatever was approved in vulgar practice. As you have graciously saved me, tell me of your grace what my duties are. Who am I? Why are the three afflictions (tápa) oppressing me? I know not what will do me good. I know not even how to ask about the truth of sádhya and sádhan. Do you of your own accord, unfold all these truths to me." The Master replied, "Full is Krishna's grace to you. You know all the truths and are not subject to the three afflictions. You are strong in Krishna's strength, you know the truths already. It is the nature of sádhus to inquire about what they know, only to confirm it.
"You are a proper agent for preaching bhakti. Listen to all the truths as I tell them in due order:
"The soul of man is the eternal servant of Krishna. The tatasthá power of Krishna manifests differences [between the Creator and His creatures], just as a ray of the sun transforms itself into a flame of fire. Krishna has by nature three powers:-viz., the chit, the life, and the illusion powers. Vide the Vishnu Puran I. xxix. 50, VI. vii. 60 and 61, I. iii. 2, the Gitá vii. 5 and 14, and the Bhágabat, XI. ii. 35.
"When a creature forgets Krishna, his face is ever turned to external things, and therefore under the influence of illusion he undergoes the misery of being born in the world, now rising to heaven, now sinking to hell, just as a criminal is ducked in water by royal command.