Page 70 - SBV (English)

10 Çré Bhaktisiddhänta Vaibhava

any part of any book he had read fifty years back. His precocious genius was
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accompanied by a gravity and intensity of purpose uncommon at such a tender
age. Like Prahläda Mahäräja and other great child-devotees before him, Bimalä
Prasäda did not waste time in frivolous sports or similar nugatory diversions.
From the beginning, he was absorbed in fulfilling the mission of human life and
spontaneously attracted to Kåñëa-bhakti. Çré Bihäré däsa Bäbäjé, the personal
servant of Çréla Jagannätha däsa Bäbäjé Mahäräja, described young Bimalä:

I often saw Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta in his childhood in Calcutta
at the house of Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura whenever I visited
there with Bäbäjé Mahäräja. Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta would wear
only a pullover shirt. He struck me as having a serious nature.
I was attracted by his effulgence and learning. He was always
attached to the holy name. In his earlier years his frame was
very lean. Bäbäjé Mahäräja loved him dearly. 8
Once a reputed bäbäjé noticed that Bimalä had failed to pay him obeisance.
When the bäbäjé asked Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura why this was so, he was told,
“Because he does not offer daëòavat to sahajiyäs.” 9
Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura saw in this son the potential to carry forward
the propaganda work he had begun. Thus he took him to preaching engagements,
to holy places, and to meet sadhus, and directed him to apply his scintillating
intelligence in studying Vaiñëava philosophy and doctrines opposed to it. Young
Bimalä took naturally to such training, osmotically imbibing his father’s mood
of full surrender to Kåñëa and compassionate desire to inspire Hari-bhakti in
others.
Çréla Bhaktivinoda also wanted that Bimalä receive the best of secular
education. The emerging Bengali bhadra-loka placed much importance on
Western schooling as the key to success, prestige, and culture, for in those days
preceding mass education, degree-holders were few and there were marked
differences between the educated and those with little or no schooling. Çréla
Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura was not enamored by worldly academics—he declared
that materialistic knowledge converts the jéva into an ass—but he knew that if
Bimalä Prasäda were to reach the leaders of society he would have to be culturally
attuned to them and be able to present Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s message in a
manner they could accept. *

* “Materialistic knowledge converts the jéva into an ass”—jaòa-vidyä … jévake karaye
gädhä. (Çaraëägati)