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.