At first a well-known wrestler of Baghbazar and a hired goonda whom once Yogin-Ma’s hostile brother Hiralal had engaged to scare away the Master from Yogin-Ma’s house during his visit to her. Having seen the Master and heard his words, Manmatha saluted him and in tears, admitted his guilt. The Master asked him to go to Dakshineswar and, having gone there twice, was transformed after receiving his grace. “The Master had bestowed the sacred thread on him” (Smritisanchay, p. 67). Referred to as Manmatha Bhattacharya in the Srima Darshan (5.51– 53). Had visited Dakshineswar dressed up fashionably and the Master treated him as a pal. A devotee of Shiva, told the Master of the miraculous manner of his procuring bilva leaves for worship of Shiva. Had a close friend named Priyanath and subsequently repeated the name continually as advised by the Master (ibid). Visited the Baranagore Math once (1890) in an exalted spiritual state. “Manmatha used to live in his maternal uncle’s house near Siddheswaritala in Baghbazar. A lock of hair on his head was full of lice. If the lice, fell off his head, would put them back there,” so said Swami Shivananda (Udbodhan, 85.8.435). After receiving the Master’s grace lived for ten years, dying of cholera. Swami Akhandananda’s Smritikatha (pp. 42-47) gives an exhaustive account of Manmatha.
Pleased with Yogin-ma’s devotion, Sri Ramakrishna visited her home on 28 July 1885, accompanied by a few devotees. Some musicians entertained them in her parlour, and then the Master was asked to go to Yogin-ma’s room in the inner apartment for some refreshments. Golapma, Yogin-ma’s neighbour, said to Sri Ramakrishna: “Ganu’s mother [Yogin-ma] requests you to bless the room with the dust of your feet. Then the room will be turned into Varanasi, and anyone dying in it will have no trouble hereafter.”
In his reminiscences Swami Akhandananda described an interesting incident that occurred that day at Yogin-ma’s house:
Once Sri Ramakrishna went to Yogin-ma’s house at Nebubagan, Baghbazar. Hiralal, a brother of Yogin-ma’s, did not like the fact that his sister went to Dakshineswar. We heard that when Yogin-ma invited the Master to her house, Hiralal brought a famous gymnast and wrestler named Manmatha, who lived in Gosainpara, to frighten him. After Manmatha saw the Master and heard a few words from him, he fell at his feet and said to him, weeping: “My Lord, I am guilty. Please forgive me.” The Master replied: “All right. Come one day to Dakshineswar.”
According to Swami Akhandananda, Manmatha was a ruffian and an expert fighter. Some days later Manmatha asked Swami Akhandananda to accompany him to Dakshineswar to see the Master. Sri Ramakrishna touched Manmatha and blessed him; and that touch transformed his life. (Source: They Lived with God)