There was utter silence. Even Keshav Chandra could not say anything: from where to start? Ramakrishna said, “You start from anywhere. Whatever you want to say, say it. I will love it!”

Keshav Chandra was an atheist, he did not believe in God. So it was obvious that he should start by saying, “There is no God. What is your opinion?”

Ramakrishna said, “It is not a question of opinion. If a man of your knowledge says there is no God, how can I deny it? But to me you are a proof, an evidence, that existence is not without consciousness. Such beautiful logical acumen! From where does it come? That very source is God, you are the proof. But if you say there is no God, I will agree with you absolutely.”

Keshav Chandra had debated with many people, he was a supreme court attorney, and he found himself completely voiceless before a man who had studied only the first two primary classes and had no knowledge of anything. But the way Ramakrishna said, “If you say so, I trust you. You are such a great rational being you must have known whether God is or not. I am uneducated; all that I know is to sing songs and dance and play music. I can do all this without God, but God is a good excuse. Otherwise it looks crazy. If I go into a house and start dancing and singing, it looks crazy, but in a temple it looks very devotional. God is a good excuse. Have you ever danced in a temple? We have here a beautiful temple…”

Keshav Chandra had never thought that dance would come into an argument. And it looked appealing, because the man was so sincere. Ramakrishna said, “If you, a man of great intelligence, say to me, who is an uneducated man, I will believe it; I will drop all gods. Just say it to me, that you have explored the whole universe and found no God.”

Keshav Chandra could not say that. Nobody has explored the whole universe. But without exploring the whole universe, how can you be so decisive that there is no God? Keshav Chandra said, “I cannot say that I have explored the whole universe. Naturally, my statement that there is no God is not valid. But what about you?”

Ramakrishna said, “About me? I have danced with him, I have loved him. I have threatened him; there have been times we have not been on talking terms. I sometimes close and lock the door of the temple and keep him hungry for days. But then I start feeling compassion for the poor fellow. I open the door, I bring food for him, and he is so nice that he has not said a single word to me.”

And he told Keshav Chandra, “One day it happened that there was a sword hanging by the side of the Mother Goddess in the temple of Dakshineshwar. I told the Mother Goddess, ‘If you don’t appear to me today I am going to cut off my head.’ I took the sword from Mother Goddess’ hand and I danced from morning till evening. I told her, ‘As the sun is setting, if you don’t show yourself to me, remember: you will be responsible for my murder.’”