One day in February 1882, M. entered Sri Ramakrishna’s room in Dakshineshwar with his friend Sidhu. This was his first visit to the Master. He describes:
Entering the room, they found Sri Ramakrishna alone, seated on the wooden couch. … Sri Ramakrishna asked them: ‘Where do you live? What is your occupation? Why have you come to Baranagore?’ M. answered the questions, but he noticed that now and then the Master seemed to become absent-minded. Later he learnt that this mood is called bhāva, ecstasy. It is like the state of the angler who has been sitting with his rod: the fish comes and swallows the bait, and the float begins to tremble; the angler is on the alert; he grips the rod and watches the float steadily and eagerly; he will not speak to anyone. Such was the state of Sri Ramakrishna’s mind. Later M. heard, and himself noticed, that Sri Ramakrishna would often go into this mood after dusk, sometimes becoming totally unconscious of the outer world.
This bhāva, the divine mood, is the essential ingredient in the spiritual sadhana of Sri Ramakrishna. The story of his sadhana is marked by the gradual evolution of divine moods culminating in the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Swami Saradananda, in his magnum opus Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play, records this progression of divine moods of the Master enumerating in detail its philosophical and mystical significance.