Swami Akhandananda faced terrible provery in the Sargachi where he later started an Ashrama to help the orphans. He wrote letters to some of his old acquintances asking for financial help. Pramadadas Mittra, a great scholar of Varnasi wrote back to him mentioning that it is better for a monk to travel, study and practise meditation than to get involved in social service.

Swami Akhandananda replied: "I am delighted that you have reminded me about my olden days. Those days are gone, and now a new era has sprung up. The Atman never changes, but life changes. Now I don't enjoy travelling anymore.When I first went to Himalayas, I was a different person. Now I wonder upon seeing myself. At that time, I would avoid seeing human beings, and leaving the village, I loved to live the secluded caves of the Himalayas surrounded by ferocious animals. In this way, I lived for some years. Now I see God living in all human beings, and I have realized that the service to man is service to God. God, as it were, is whispering in my ears, "Verily these human beings are the Vedic sages; they are divine incarnations like Rama and Krishna - they are everything."

Source: God Lived With Them by Swami Chetanananda

Source: God Lived With Them by Swami Chetanananda

In 1897, Swami Subodhananda gave a lecture to the Young Men’s Hindu Association in Madras on “Sannyasa and Brahmacarya” and following are some excerpts of his speech:

Sannyasa is the renunciation of all selfish motives and desires. Before I explain what sannyasa is, I should speak to you about brahmacharya; for unless the latter is realized, no sannyasa or renunciation is possible. The observance of brahmacharya requires strict regulation of one’s diet, habits, and thought. Of all the injunctions prescribed for this stage, the greatest stress is laid by the scriptures upon the complete mastery of the sexual instinct. Nothing should be sensed or done by the aspirant that might directly or otherwise tend to arouse the animal in him or her. In this way one is directed to bring one’s mind, but on the contrary has made them his slaves, is a true brahmacharin. All the religions of the world preach this brahmachaya and sannyasa, both of which have one and the same end in view, namely ,  to lift the mind of from all sensual      concerns towards God. When the mind reaches God it enjoys bliss….

Our Master (Sri Ramakrishna) used to say that if we wanted to pass a thread through the eye of a needle all the scattered fibers of the thread should be brought to a point and then alone could we make it go through the needle; otherwise, if the fibers were allowed to point in all directions they would prevent the thread from passing through the eye; similarly, if we want to lift our mind up forwards God, we must bring it back from all external things and concentrate it on one point….

Our Master says that as rain water does not stand upon high ground but always seeks the lowest level, similarly, those who are puffed up with vanity cannot retain any faith in themselves, for faith always seeks the hearts of the nimble and the meek.

As long as there are quarrels among different individuals and sects, they do not rise up to realize the highest truth. When truth shines, the darkness of ignorance and its crew of narrowness, bigotry, and fanaticism that deluge the earth with murder and bloodshed, shall all vanish. “My God is the true God, your God is false,” are the words of men groping in the darkness of ignorance. Once Keshab Chandra Sen. the leader of the Brahmo Samaj, asked our Master, “Since there is only one God, how is it that there are so many sects quarreling with one another?” The Master replied: “You see, people always quarrel over their lands, properties, and other things of the world, saying, ‘This land is mine, and that is thine.’ In this way, they divide this earth in various ways by drawing lines of demarcation to distinguish their respective properties; but no one ever quarrels about the open space that is above the earth, for that belongs to none, as there can be drawn no lines on it to distinguish one’s property from that of another; similarly, when the mind rises above all worldly concerns he cannot quarrel, but when he is below the right mark, that is, when he is distant from God, he is more or less given to quarrelling, although you may have many occasions for it, and thus at last end all these disagreements by realizing universal harmony and agreement, which are only to be found in God, who is both within and without you.

Source: God Lived With Them by Swami Chetanananda

Source: God Lived With Them by Swami Chetanananda