The depression brought about by the loss of a gold watch led the young Sarada Prasanna to Dakshineswar seeking peace. Master Mahashaya, the celebrated author of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna who was his teacher, led him to his future guru. The first visit itself forged strong links between the them. Fearing that his religious inclination and frequent visits to the Saint of Dakshineswar might ultimately induce him to become a monk, his relatives tried hard to change his mind, taking recourse to, in the process, religious rites and charms. But nothing worked. And, Sarada Prasanna became `Swami Trigunatitananda'.

The Swami had a strong constitution and was a dare-devil. During his itinerant days, he had often been on the brink of disaster and was miraculously saved. It is said that he once underwent surgery for fistula without anesthetics.

He never cared for his personal comforts but was eager to serve others. The famous relief work he organized at Dinajpur (now in Bangladesh) bears testimony to this.

At the behest of Swami Vivekananda, Swami Trigunatitananda started the Udbodhan, the Bengal Monthly of the Ramakrishna Order, and assiduously built it up.

When Swami Turiyananda returned back to India from San Francisco, it was Trigunatitananda who was entrusted with the responsibility of organizing the Vedanta work there. It was he who built the first Hindu Temple in the West.

The great life came to an abrupt end as a result of a mad man's act of throwing a bomb. He breathed his last on 10th January 1914.

Teachings

People talk of finding out the proper kind of guru. But that is not a reasonable position in all cases. Whoever the guru may be, everything will progress nicely if the disciple is earnest and sincere.

People of all castes can be initiated by a good guru who has attained perfection. What caste can a true devotee or the perfect soul have? When the individual soul merges in God (like rivers in the sea), they can no more have any individuality. So how can there be then, the distinction of caste, as Brahmin, Shudra etc., belonging to the body and never to the soul?