It was March 1886. During Shivaratri (the spring festival of Lord Shiva) the disciples of Ramakrishna observed a fast and a vigil, worshipping the Lord four times throughout the night. During the break after the first worship, all left the room except Narendra and Kali. Suddenly Narendra wanted to use Kali to test his power to transmit superconsciousness. He said to Kali, “Please touch me for a while.” A little later another disciple entered the room and found Narendra in deep meditation and Kali seated, touching Narendra’s right knee, his hand rapidly trembling. After a few minutes Narendra opened his eyes and inquired, “How did you feel?” Kali replied, “I felt as if a current were entering into me, just as when one holds an electric battery, one’s hand trembles all the while.”
During the second worship Kali went into deep meditation and lost outer consciousness. His body became stiff, and his neck and head were a little bent. After the last worship Shashi came to the worship room and informed Narendra that the Master wanted to see him. As soon as Narendra entered the room, the Master said: “Well, you are frittering away your power before you have accumulated enough. Gather it first and then you will understand how much of it you should spend and in what way. Mother will let you know. Do you understand what great harm you have done to that boy by infusing your idea into him? He had been following a particular line for a long time. All is spoilt now. Well, what’s done is done. Never do it again. However, the boy is lucky.” Narendra was dumbfounded.
From that time onward, Kali defended his actions through nondualistic Vedanta. Studying the Ashtavakra Samhita and practising discrimination between the real and the unreal through the “neti neti” (not this, not this) process of nondualistic Vedanta, Kali began to argue against others’ ideas about blind faith in God. When the elder Gopal reported to Ramakrishna that Kali had become an atheist, the Master smiled. However, when Kali was serving the Master one night, he said, “Hello, I hear you have become an atheist.” Kali kept quiet. The Master questioned him further: “Do you believe in God? Do you accept the validity of the scriptures?” “No, sir,” replied Kali. To this the Master said, “If you had said this to another holy man, he would have slapped your face.” “Sir, you are free to do so. As long as I do not realize that God exists and that the Vedas are true how can I blindly accept these things? If you kindly enlighten me and give me spiritual insight, I shall accept them all.” Kali’s sincerity impressed Ramakrishna who said with delight: “A day will come when you know and accept everything; but don’t be one-sided. I don’t care for one-sidedness.”