Paragraph 18

In plain words

Vidyasagar has many virtues. First, his love of learning. One day, while telling M. of it, he actually wept: "I had such a wish to study, but how could it be? Caught in the world, I never found the time." Second, compassion for every creature: Vidyasagar is an ocean of compassion. Seeing that the calves did not get their mothers' milk, he himself gave up drinking milk for several years, and took to it again only long afterwards, when his health had broken down badly. He would not ride in a carriage, for the horse cannot tell of its own suffering. One day he saw a porter lying in the road, struck down by cholera, his basket lying beside him. He took the man up in his own arms, brought him home and nursed him. Third, love of independence. Because he could not agree with the authorities, he gave up his post as principal of the Sanskrit College. Fourth, he cared nothing for what people would say. He was fond of a certain teacher, and when that teacher's daughter was married he turned up himself with the bride's cloth for the eve-of-wedding meal under his arm. Fifth, his devotion to his mother and his strength of mind. His mother had said, "Ishwar, if you do not come to this wedding, I shall be terribly unhappy"; it was his brother's wedding. So he walked from Calcutta. On the way was the Damodar river, with no boat, and he swam across. In his wet clothes he arrived at his mother's side at Birsingha on the wedding night itself: "Mother, I have come!"