Page 77 - SBV (English)

Early Life 17

after death. For that reason I don’t like to discuss about Bhagavän, but teach only
conventional moral instructions that I can understand and abide by.” Siddhänta
Sarasvaté retorted, “Why then did you write in your book Bodhodaya, éçvara-
niräkära-caitanya-svarüpa: ‘The Supreme Lord is comprised of consciousness
and is formless’? Did you write this after actually seeing Him, or did you merely
rely on stereotyped doctrines?”
10 *
In 1892 Çré Siddhänta Sarasvaté entered the Sanskrit College in Calcutta.
But he showed little enthusiasm for the prescribed books, being more interested
in philosophical works in the college library. He kept Narottama däsa’s Prärthanä
and Prema-bhakti-candrikä in a drawer of his desk at Bhakti Bhavan, and while
pretending to do homework would instead read them, during which he was once
caught by a family elder and stiffly reprimanded. He also read Kåñëa-karëämåta,
Géta-govinda, and other esoteric texts, keeping to himself editions of these works
in the original Sanskrit and without translations, so that others would have no
access to them. Despite neglecting the required course materials, he became
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proficient in the six Vedäìgas (branches of auxiliary Vedic knowledge), namely
çikñä (pronunciation), kalpa (procedures for performing prescribed activities),
vyäkaraëa (grammar), nirukta (word meanings), chanda (meter), and jyotiña
(astrology and astronomy). He also began tutoring in jyotiña.
Despite being schooled alongside the fashionable and well-to-do, Çré
Siddhänta Sarasvaté was never inclined to explore the delights of the world.
Throughout his life he never engaged in any kind of sensuousness. Yet he did
not shun society. Dressed like a typical young sophisticate—in a spotless white
dhoti, with a white päïjäbé or other garment fully covering his upper body, and
in winter also a cädar—he mingled with students, Englishmen, and other well-
informed gentlemen in Beadon Square (adjacent to Bhakti Bhavan) and other
parks of Calcutta, and during school recesses informally discussed with them
about religion, politics, current affairs, and similar topics.

One time on entering Beadon Square, Çré Siddhänta Sarasvaté encountered
a crowd listening to the well-known Christian preacher Reverend Lal Bihari
Dey. Joining the audience, Çré Siddhänta Sarasvaté was particularly struck by the
cleric’s praise of Bhärata-varña: “India being full of sannyasis and renunciants,
such an excellent ideal of renunciation is found nowhere else.” Reverend Dey

* Bodhodaya (The arising of knowledge) was a widely read children’s book. When relating
this incident many years later, Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté simply mentioned that a
“staunch theist” objected to Éçvara Candra’s statement, without specifying who it was.
B. R. Çrédhara Mahäräja later clarified that it was Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté himself.