In order to facilitate the Master’s cancer treatment, he was moved from Dakshineswar to Shyampukur in Calcutta and then to Cossipore. The Holy Mother moved to Calcutta to serve the Master. Later Lakshmi joined the Holy Mother at Cossipore. At Cossipore the Master one day worshipped Lakshmi as the goddess Shitala. He also asked Girish Ghosh to feed her with sweets. About this same time the Master expressed a desire to give Lakshmi a pair of bangles and a necklace. But Lakshmi told him that she did not care for jewellery and that she would be happy to visit Vrindaban with that money. Later, when some of the devotees heard about the Master’s desire, they had the jewellery made for her. Lakshmi put them on once and then gave them away out of renunciation.
One day the Master sent Lakshmi and M.’s wife (M. was Mahendranath Gupta, the recorder of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna) to beg for food. “Go from door to door and spread the Lord’s name,” he said to them. “People may criticize you, but still their homes will get the touch of your blessed feet, and this will bring good to them.” The Master also told them to beg from the homes of the poor and not from the rich. Lakshmi was a beautiful young woman, and seeing her begging, a compassionate lady said to her: “Why are you begging? Why don’t you stay at my home as my daughter-in-law? I shall give you ornaments.” Later, when that lady found out that Lakshmi was Sri Ramakrishna’s niece, she was quite embarrassed and sent vegetables and other articles to her at the Cossipore garden house.
Sri Ramakrishna blessed Lakshmi at Cossipore, saying: “Don’t worry about yourself. Many people will come to you to hear about God, and they will look after you.”
Lakshmi’s account of the Master’s last day is very moving: “He was reclining against a pillow on his bed. There was silence all around, and all were worried about him. Earlier he could not speak, but when Mother and I went to him, he feebly whispered: ‘You have come. You see, I feel I am going somewhere, to a distant land through water.’ Mother started to cry. Then the Master said to her: ‘Don’t worry. You will live as you are living now. As Naren and the others are serving me, so they will also take care of you. Look after Lakshmi and keep her with you. She will manage herself and will not be a burden.’”
After Sri Ramakrishna’s passing away in 1886, Lakshmi travelled with the Holy Mother to different holy places in India and then moved back to Kamarpukur. But sometimes she would visit Calcutta and stay at the Kankurgachi Yogodyana or with the Holy Mother. (Source: They Lived with God)