CHAPTER VI
THE PARTING
A friend asks Vidyâsâgar the meaning of châtar.
Vidyâsâgar (smiling): Châtar, i. e., chattâra or uthân the quadrangle of a house; or the market-place.
Master (to Vidyâsâgar): Exactly. Oh! you must know, pandit as you are (laughter).
Master (to Vidyâsâgar): Well, what is your idea of the Deity?
* Brahman of the Vedanta both Saguna and Nirguna, Personal and Impersonal.
Vidyâsâgar (looking round on the company present): Excuse me, sir, I am afraid I must look for another occasion to talk with you by myself (laughter).
Master (smiling): Oh, You must know all. Only, I suppose, you do not care to say. The 'Lord1 of the Ocean' is the master of untold treasures,—gold, diamond, jewels. But it is hardly to be expected that the presiding god of the sea should take note of each of the valuable things that could be found in his vast domain (laughter).
Again, very often, thou wilt find a big Babu, the owner of vast wealth, quite ignorant of even the names of his servants! (laughter).
The Babu is too big to be on terms of familiarity with such commonplace people! (laughter).
* * * *
Master (to Vidyâsâgar): Will you not once come to the garden? It is a charming place, so grand, so beautiful.
Vidyâsâgar: Certainly. You have been so kind as to come here. Is it not my duty too to pay you a visit?
Master (smiling): Visit to me! Oh! for shame, for shame!
Vidyâsâgar: My dear Sir, this from you! I have a right to ask for an explanation.
Master: (facetiously) Well, my good Sir, I tell you what. We are but fishing boats, small and light enough to row about to all sorts of places (laughter). You are a big merchant-man! Who knows but you may run against a sand-bank if you venture too far up stream? (laughter.) But the season—the present occasion—makes some difference. Does it not? (laughter).
1 Varuna.
Vidyâsâgar (smiling): Oh, I see; the rains have recently set in (laughter).
It is about 8 P.M. The carriage is ready to take the Master back home to the Thakurbadi at Dakshineswar. The Master becomes absent in mind for a while. He is evidently meditating upon the Divine Mother. Is He asking for Her blessing upon his good host?
It is the dark fortnight of the month of Sravana. The Master rising to depart, Vidyâsâgar with a lighted candle in his hand, leads the way downstairs, on through the compound to the gate. Near it is the carriage waiting to receive the Master and his companions from the Thakurbadi.
An unexpected sight greets the eyes of the party as they come up before the gate. It is a man who may be a little under forty, standing before the gate with folded hands. He is dressed in white and has a white Sikh turban on the head. He has a smiling face, has a fair complexion and expressive eyes. No sooner does he see the Master, than he falls at his feet with the head mounted with the big turban touching the ground.
The Master says:—
Is it you, Balaram? How is it that I find you here? Balaram replies smiling:
Oh, Sir, I have been waiting for some time here at the gate to see you.
Master: Well, why did you not come in?
Balaram: (smiling): I came rather late; so I wouldn't interrupt you; and thought it better to stay here.
* * * *
The Master then steps into the carriage with his companions.
Vidyâsâgar (to M.): Shall I see the gharry hire paid? M.: No sir, you need not trouble yourself. It has already been paid by a friend.
The pandit then folds his hands, and bends his head and body to make his pranama (salutations) to the Master.
All assembled about the carriage do the same. The coachman lets go the horses. Away rattles the carriage in a northernly direction.
The little crowd at the gate with the venerable Vidyâsâgar at their head still holding the lighted candle in his hand, stands for a while looking on in the same direction, wondering who this God-intoxicated Man may be, so Wise, yet so Childlike, so full of Joy, so Sweet, so Godly!
Verily a Lightning sent down to set ablaze into Life the dead bones of a dry work-a-day world Embodied Love like the dew of Heaven falling on the thirsty heart of Man! A voice crying unto sunken, self-weary man, Thou must be born again and love! A Healer, from another Clime, of this 'strange disease of modern life'! A man among men eager to solve for them the Enigma of the Universe!