পাতা:Vanga Sahitya Parichaya Part 1.djvu/৫২

44 INTRODUCTION. attempts of his father to keep him at home and deserted it for ever in order to be a disciple of Chaitanya. Ishāna Nagara, a Brähmin follower, was doing some menial work for Chaitanya who remonstrated. But the devoted follower said, “If my status in society as a Brahmin debars me from doing some duties that I consider sacred, here do I disown my birth-privilege.” And so saying he tore away the sacred thread in order to do this work. Haridãs, the Mahomedan convert to Vaisnavism, was carried into 22 different market-places by the order of the Mahomedan Käzi and subjected to inhuman cruelties being whipped in each of these, till he was wellnigh dead. And all this he gladly suffered out of his devotion to Chaitanya. He triumphed over these persecutions and adhered to the great Master. The touching account of his death in the presence of Chaitanya is given on pp. 1224-27. The interview of Sãkar Mallik with Chaitanya, full of equal pathos, is described in the Chaitanya-Charitämrita and quoted on pp. 1210-23. The harlot Vāramukhi and the unfortunate Murāris, the ruffians Jagãi and Mādhāi, the robbers Bhilpointha and Nāroji of Southern India felt the irresistible charm of his influence and changed their lives. He was a poor Brähmin scholar, but is held dearer in Bengal than all her other sons. It is a very simple song which rural Bengal is accustomed to hear from the Vaisnava singers every morning: “Ye people, adore Chaitanya and love him. He that utters Chaitanya's name is dearer to me than life.” In the villages of Bengal and Orissa his image is worshipped by thousands, and children in Hindu homes are given those names by which he used to be called, riz., Nimãi, Gauranga, Gaurhari, Nader Chānd and so forth. This admiration for him is due to the fact that in him the spiritual life of India had reached its mature beauty—its very flowering point. He was at once a romance and a reality—an ideal realised and the religious mission of India fulfilled. Europe with her inborn political genius justly glories in a Nelson, in a Bismarck and in a Napoleon Bonaparte. But when we make too much of our village chiefs like Pratāpāditya, Sitārām and Udayāditya and hold their anniversaries, we only want to prove that Bengalis and Europeans are exactly similar in all respects. This is pseudo-patriotism, as in the fury of imitation we undervalue our own position of strength exaggerating the virtues in which we have but little share. Let not Bosora be ashamed of her roses regretting that she does not produce the Himalayan pine. In India religions do not grow by the spasmodic efforts of men. The whole atmosphere is charged with the ideas which develop in their proper time. When a religion is in full bloom in this country, it represents the beauty of the life of the people. Elsewhere the secular and the spiritual may be