Men of God

FIRST GREAT SHOCK

He next undertook an extensive scholastic tour in Eastern Bengal, holding disputations and teaching from town to town. He went as far as Dhakadakshin where his uncles and grandfather were still living. During his absence on the tour, his beloved wife died of snake bite on a toe of her right foot. Before her death the sacred thread of Nimai was put on her breast at her wish; herself a good painter she had drawn a picture of her husband on a canvas framed with wood, and with her eyes fixed on it she breathed her last. Nimai returned in a jovial spirit with considerable money which he had received as honorarium. When he found his mother weeping and learnt the sad news, he showed remarkable calmness and advised his mother not to regret what was irretrievable. But from that moment no one saw him indulging in his wonted frivolities. He now sought his mother’s permission to visit Gaya —to offer Pinda to the spirit of his father according to the convention of pious Hindu families. Sachi Devi got him married again—to Vishnupriya, the beautiful daughter of a Nadea Pandit, and then granted him permission. Soon after this marriage, he joined a few pious pilgrims bound for Gaya. On the way he did not speak much. A change was fast coming upon him though he was only 22 years (1508 A.D.) The prolific speaker had now become a quiet boy which was very striking to his companions. Entering Gaya, he saw Ishwara Puri, the great apostle of Vaishnavism whom he had criticised and even looked upon with scoffing spirit at Nadea. He longed for a sight of him now. In trembling emotion he said: “My visit to Gaya is a great success. I have seen you, Master, you are the holiest of shrines. If offering pindas to the spirit of my forefathers would save their souls, a mere sight of you would do so a hundred times more."

The haughty youth of Nadea no longer existed. He heard the priests and devotees singing the praise of Hari and was overpowered with emotion. He saw, as it were, the whole world bending low before the Lotus-feet of Vishnu from which flowed the Ganga to save humanity from sin. He wept and fell senseless. On recovering he cried: “O Krishna, my father, where art Thou? I thought I had found Thee, but Thou art not now with me.” He cried aloud, recited some moving verses, and asked his fellow-pilgrims to return home saying: “Think of me as one lost. I have no other home than the Brinda-groves."