Another day, the Master took Damodar aside and said, "Damodar, go to Navadwip, and stay there with my mother. I do not see any other guardian for her than you. You have warned me even! I have no candid friend like you among my followers. Unless a man is candid (lit., impartial), virtue cannot be guarded. You have done something which even I cannot do. You have reprimanded me, what shall we say of others? Go to my mother's house and remain at her feet. In your presence nobody can act freely. Come here occasionally to see me, and then return there quickly. Convey to mother my millions of salutation. Make her happy with the news of my happiness. Say that I have sent you to her to tell her constantly of me. So saying delight her heart."
(The miracles of the Vaishnav saint Haridas Thakur, not translated).
When Rup Goswámi, after visiting the Master at Puri, went to Bengal for returning to Brindában, his brother Sanátan came from Mathura to Niláchal. He travelled by the Jharikhand jungles (Santal parganas), now fasting, now chewing [dry grains]. Scabs broke out on his skin from the bad water of Jharikhand and the irregularity of diet, and exudations ran down his body.
On the way he sadly reflected, "I belong to a low caste. My body is vile. I shall fail to see the Master when I go to Puri. He lives, I hear, near the temple. But I dare not go near it, as the servitors of Jagannáth are constantly passing there on business and it will be a sin if I [accidentally] touch them. Therefore, I shall renounce my body by throwing myself under the wheels of Jagannáth's car when the god is taken out in the car procession; thus shall I attain at a holy place relief from my pangs and the salvation of my soul."
So resolving, he came to Niláchal and alighted at Haridas's place. He bowed at the feet of Haridas, who learning his name embraced him. His heart yearned for the sight of the Master. Haridas assured him that He would soon come.
The Master, after witnessing the Upala-bhog of Jagannáth, came there with His disciples to meet Haridas. The two prostrated themselves at His feet. The Master raised Haridas and embraced him. Haridas said, "Here is Sanátan, bowing to you." The Master looked at Sanátan with interest and advanced to embrace him, while Sanátan ran backwards shouting, "Touch me not, Master, I beseech Thee. I am of low caste, and in addition my skin is running with exudations." But the Master embraced him by force, and His fair body was stained with Sanátan's sores. He introduced all His disciples to Sanátan, who bowed at their feet. With them all the Master sat down on the raised terrace, while Haridas and Sanátan sat below. He inquired after Sanátan's health, who replied "My supreme bliss is that I have gazed on Thy feet." The Master then asked about the Vaishnavs of Mathura, and Sanátan reported that they were well.
The Master said, "Rup [your brother] was here for ten months, and he left for Bengal only ten days ago. Your [youngest] brother Anupam has died on the bank of the Ganges. He was a staunch devotee of Ram." Sanátan replied, "I have been born in a low family; All sorts of wickedness and wrongdoing were my hereditary burden. Such a family thou hast accepted, without scorning it! My whole family has been blessed by thy grace. This Anupam was devoted to Ram-worship from his childhood. Day and night he used to meditate on the name of Ram, hear the Ramayan read, and chant it. He used to live with Rup and myself constantly and listen with us to Krishna's deeds and the Bhágabat. We one day tested him saying, Listen, dear, Krishna is very delicious; he abounds in beauty, sweetness, love, and grace. Do you, therefore, adore Krishna in our company. We three brothers shall dwell together in the delights of discourses on Krishna. So we two urged him again and again. Our influence turned his mind a little and he responded, How long can I resist your command? Initiate me in the mantra and I shall adore Krishna [in future]. So saying, he paced up and down all the night, waking and crying how he could leave Ram's feet. Next morning he told us, I have sold my head to the feet of Ram, and it pains me excessively to draw my head away thence, Have mercy on me and permit me to worship Ram's feet birth after birth. Then we two embraced him and praised him saying noble is the firmness of thy faith. Master, when you bless a family, it enjoys every good, and all its troubles, disappear."
The Master replied, "Just in the same way did I test Murari Gupta before. That bhakta is noble who does not leave his Lord's feet. That Master is blessed who does not abandon his own devotee. It is well that you have come here. Dwell in the same house with Haridas."
One day the Master came there, as was his daily wont, to meet the two, and began abruptly to speak, "Sanátan! If giving up life could have made one gain Krishna, I could have sacrificed my life a million times over in a moment. It is not by courting death but by adoration that we can gain Krishna. There is no other way of gaining him than bhakti. Suicide and the like are a low dark (támas) kind of dharma. But the támas and rajas kinds of dharma cannot give us the essence of Krishna. Without bhakti there cannot be love, and without love Krishna cannot be attained.
"Suicide and the like are a támas dharma, and the cause of sin; through them a devotee cannot attain to Krishna's feet. The loving bhakta wishes to quit his body when separated from his Lord; but when love has brought Krishna to him, he cannot think of death.