L āhirī Mahāśaya lived in the association of Vaiṣṇavas in Śrī. Godruma for three or four years, and thus his heart became fully pure. At all times he chanted hari-nāma: while eating, walk-ing, and sitting; before sleeping, and after rising. He wore simple
clothes and did not even use shoes or sandals. He had relinquished
his pride in his caste so completely that as soon as he saw a
Vaiṣṇava, he would offer him daṇḍavat-praṇāma, and forcibly take the dust from his feet. He would seek out pure Vaiṣṇavas in
order to honor the remnants of their meals. His sons came to
him from time to time, but when they understood his mood, they departed quickly, not daring to propose that he should come
home with them. To look at Lāhirī Mahāśaya now, one would
certainly take him to be a Vaiṣṇava Bābājī.
From the philosophy of the Vaiṣṇavas of Śrī Godruma, Lāhirī
Mahāśaya had understood that the essential principle is genuine
detachment within the heart, and not the adoption of the external
dress of renunciation. In order to minimize his needs, he followed the example of Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī and tore one piece of