My brother Mantu's renunciation-life

My brother Mantu is three years older than I am. God created this brother of mine without any desires. When he was born, five religious mendicants — we call them baouls — came to our place out of the blue and started singing in front of the house. Baouls are singers who have renounced the whole world, so they were singing songs of renunciation.

One of the members of the family went out to see them and they said, "The boy that has been born in this house today will renounce the whole world." They were so right. From the dawn of his life, my brother Mantu has not had any desire to possess anything and he has no desire for name and fame. Renunciation is in his backbone. In his previous incarnation, he was a very close disciple of Sri Chaitanya. He used to sing and dance in the street.

So these baouls appeared from nowhere to give the family that message. How did they know Mantu had taken birth on that day? They had inner knowledge and wisdom.