The Career and Teachings of the Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya

by Sri Narayan Das Bhakti Sadhukar

CHAPTER VI.

GROWING BOY

The Lord occupied Himself with these Juvenile Pastimes after the manner of Gopäla (Cow-Boy Krishna). Meanwhile the proper time for the performance of the ceremony of making the Boy begin His studies, having arrived, Jagannäth Misra chose an auspicious day and moment for ‘putting the writing-chalk into the Hands of his Boy’ to initiate Him into the art of reading, writing and arithmetic. This is one of the ten purificatory ceremonies enjoined by the Scriptures as necessary to be observed by the Brähmanas.

Some time after the ceremony, all friends of the family gathered together to perform the next purificatory rites, viz., perforation of the ears and tonsure. The perforation of the ears is to make possible hearing of the Word of Godhead or the attainment of the fitness of listening to words regarding the highest good, as distinct from ordinary non-spiritual utterances. The making of the tuft known as ‘the tongue of fire’ in the Vedas or subsequently as ‘teaching of Sree Chaitanya’ (Sree Chaitanya sikshä), is another of the ten lustrations. Mayävädins (illusionist-Monists), who believe in non-activity, admit the value of the tuft only in the sphere of work which is illusory and, accordingly, in the long run, shave off the tuft on renouncing all activity. But the Vedic theistic renunciation of the triple staff (tridanda) does not dispense with the tuft which, in this case, is emblematic of progress in the sphere of the service of Godhead, even in the stage of sannyäsa.

Sree Chaitanya read all the letters of the Alphabet at the first sight, to the amazement of everybody. He finished all the compound-letters in two or three days and began to write constantly the series of the Names of Krishna. He wrote and read aloud, night and day, with the greatest ardour, the Holy Names of Rama, Krishna, Muräri, Mukunda, Vanamäli, etc. The fortunate people of Nadia actually saw the Lord of Vaikuntha reading in the company of their children. The sweetness with which the Lord articulates the letters has power to steal the hearts of all jiuas, if they have only a chance of listening to Him.

Sree Gaursundar engaged in diverse kinds of strange frolics, and His demands were always most difficult to satisfy. He would ask to have the bird which flew across the sky and the moon and stars of the firmament, and would cry violently, rolling in the dust and dashing His hands and legs against the ground, if His wishes were not fulfilled. All present would take Him up into their arms to console Him, but Viswambhar always proved intractable and went on crying, ‘I must have it’. There was only one sovereign remedy to stop Him. He was hushed the moment He heard the Name of Hari. All of them recited aloud the Name of Hari by clap of hand. This at once quieted the Child Who forgot all His turbulence. They chanted the Name of Hari to please the Boy and the home of Jagannäth was turned into the realm of Vaikuntha.

It is necessary to guard against a possible error. That which is not the Abode of Godhead should not be supposed to be convertible into the same by chanting the Name of Hari. Such speculation, theologically dubbed as ‘transubstantiation’ applies only to mental and physical phenomena. The non-spiritual is never turned into the spiritual. Godhead dwells eternally in the pure spiritual essence which is the manifestation of His Spiritual Power, eternally distinct from the play of His Deluding Energy. The home of Jagannäth Misra, in which the Lord appears, is never within the jurisdiction of the Deluding Power of Godhead.

One day Nimäi began to cry violently. The Child was not quieted even by the chant of the Name of Hari, but kept on crying. After even, method of consoling the Boy had failed, they implored Him to tell them the cause of His grief, promising to procure whatever He desired. The Lord replied that He was very ill and lacked the strength to move or be quiet. If they really wanted to save His life, they must hasten; to the house of two Brähmanas, Jagadish Pandit and Hiranya Pandit. Those two had prepared a great variety of offerings for Vishnu on that day, which was the ekädasi tithi or the Lord’s Day. If they could get from them all those offerings and give them to Him, He would be cured of His ailment by feeding on those things.

The mother was shocked to hear, thinking it was opposed to custom and the Scriptures for any one to desire to eat offerings intended for Vishnu and that also on the ekädasi day. But the others only burst into merry laughter at these words of the Child and assured Him that they would send for the offerings immediately, so He need have no anxiety on that account any more.

Jagannäth Misra himself went down to the house of those two Brähmanas who happened to be his most intimate friends. He told them what the Boy so imperatively wanted. Those two Brähmanas were struck with a sudden wonder on hearing the strange proposal. They thought within themselves, ‘This is most wonderful for a little Boy. How could He know at all that this is the Day of Sree Hari? How could He know that we have prepared to-day a great variety of offerings? This makes it perfectly clear to us that Gopäla (Cow-boy Krishna) Himself dwells in the Figure of this beautiful Boy. Näräyana Himself sports in the Frame of this Child. May be it is He Who makes Him say these words from His seat in the heart of the Child. Thinking in this way those two Brähmanas were filled with supreme joy, and at once with the greatest pleasure they- brought out all their offerings intended for Vishnu and themselves conveyed them to the Home of Jagannäth Misra. They offered them with the greatest delight to Nimäi and pressed Him to eat everything, giving out that all their preparations were at last really offered to Krishna Himself. The Lord was very much pleased on receiving the offerings and tasted a little of everything. His distemper was completely healed. He became as naughty and restless as ever, scattering the eatables in all directions and throwing bits of them at those who stood in a circle round Him and chanted the Name of Hari as He danced in the midst of the samkirtan of Himself

It is the custom of the Vaishnavas not to eat anything on the day of ekädasi.. This does not apply to the Lord Himself to Whom accordingly the usual offerings of food are made on the ekädasi day also. Those Brähmanas must have offered the food to Nimäi in the firm belief that the Boy was no other than Krishna for Whom the offerings had been prepared. Such instinctive good sense, observes Thäkur Brindäbandas in this connection, is only possible to one who obtains the special mercy of Krishna. Devotion to the Lord does not make her appearance in the heart as long as the worldly egotistic attitude persists. One, who gives up all reliance upon his own powers and humbly seeks enlightenment from Krishna Himself, or, in other words, becomes His willing servant, obtains the mercy of Krishna in the shape of devotion to the Feet of the Lord. To the worldly egotist all this is utterly incomprehensible. The sudden resolve of the Brähmanas to offer the eatables to Nimäi, instinctively believing Him to be Vishnu Himself for Whom they had been prepared, is a circumstance which cannot be properly grasped by any one except the servants of Krishna.

The reader may be reminded of the fact already noted that when the Lord appears in this world, He comes down with His eternal Associates, Servitors and Paraphernalia. This Descent of the Lord serves His merciful purpose of bringing the Divine realm within the vision of fallen souls thereby affording them the opportunity of serving Himself. The narrative of such Activities preserved in the language of this world continues to provide the same opportunity for all succeeding generations. But the Abode, Associates, Servitors, Paraphernalia, Narratives, although They appear to us like the things of this earth, are really spiritual entities, being of the Divine Essence. The Lord ever sports with His Own. He is ever manifest in the pure spiritual essence and all His Activities take place on the plane of the pure soul. His Activities manifesting Themselves in this world also possess the same spiritual nature. The Lord in His Real, positive or Spiritual Nature is knowable and servable by pure souls alone.

This material world is the shadow of the spiritual world. If the soul seeks the Lord in this world, he is perpetually deluded and is forced to arrive at the conclusion sooner or later, if he is really sincere in his quest of the Truth, that He is not to be found in this world. Less sincere people think that they can find Him in this world. But when the Lord actually appears in this world, these insincere people either ignore Him, thinking that He is an ordinary mortal, or, even if they are told of His Divinity, miss the real view of Him believing Him to be Godhead in the guise of mortal and subject to the imperfections of the flesh, as by such process of ‘incarnation’ alone He is wrongly imagined to be able to make Himself visible to the fettered souls.

The first is the frankly sceptical attitude that ignores altogether all possibility of spiritual existence. The second is no less fatal. It supposes that Godhead may be subject to the bondage of Mäyä, that Godhead may appear in this world as an actually sinful person and may engage in all worldly activities in the same way as we do. That such sinful activities of Godhead are not sinful, that it is the duty of fallen souls to submit to these sinful pastimes of the Lord in his human form; and that by such submission alone they can attain to the highest object of life. This is philanthropism, or the doctrine of präkrita sahajiä sects, which is responsible, in some form or other, for all the corruptions of all current spurious creeds that profess to be theistic.

The true view is that the Lord, even when He chooses to be visible to the mortal eye, is nothing less than the Lord in His Fullness, because He is always All-powerful, always All-pure, always All-knowledge. Those alone can join in His Activities who share His Nature Who is Spiritual and incapable-of corruption. That is to say, no sinful person can really see, understand or participate in His Activities. The soul that is averse to Godhead, if by dint of the awakened sincerity of his nature he is convinced that no connection with the Lord can be established so long as the sinful condition itself persists, is enabled to obtain deliverance from the bondage of this world by witnessing with faith, by studying with faith and by listening with faith to the Narratives of these Activities from the lips of the servants of the Lord, by serving with faith those from whom he receives the tidings. the Lord,. His Associates and servitors, His Abode, the Narrative of His Activities, although they choose to be visible in this world from time to time, have nothing in common with anything of this world and are incapable of receiving the least stain of worldliness by their descent into this world.

Those who think otherwise are utterly misguided and are profane atheists, as they imagine that the Lord is only a created being like their false selves and possessing a similar liability to mundane defects and merits. But the Scriptures say that there is no greater slander of the All-pervasive (Vishnu) than to affect to believe that the Body of Vishnu is material. If this point is properly understood, there would be no chance of impostors, full of all the worst vices of humanity, setting up as ‘Incarnations’ ( ?) of Godhead and by their sinful activities and spurious performances bringing about the terrible ruin of themselves and their unfortunate Victims.

Lord Vishwambhar continued to be exceedingly restless and wayward. He became the leader of all the turbulent Brähmana boys of the neighbourhood. He and His company were constantly after some mischief or other and engaged in a campaign of regular raids on different places. No one could check His turbulence. He would cut jokes at other children, whenever He chanced to meet them. They would also retort, till the affair developed into a regular fray. The boys of the Lord’s party were always victorious in these quarrels by reason of the superior strength of the Lord, and their opponents found themselves compelled to retire discomfited. At this period Sree Gaursundar had the most charming Appearance. He was always gray with dust and His Body was beautifully adorned with points of writing ink.

After study was over at midday, Sree Gaursundar, in the company of all the children, went daily for His bath in the Ganges. As soon as He got into the water, He engaged in merry sports in the water with the children who splashed water at one another. Nabadwip was a most opulent city, and the number of bathers at each bathing-place baffled all calculation. They included very staid persons, respectable and grave fathers of families, and revered sannyäsins, as well as a very large number of urchins. The Lord, sporting in the company of the children, soon attracted the attention of everybody by the extraordinary Beauty of His Person and by His turbulence. As the Lord played with the children, the shower of water from His Feet drenched all bathers. He paid no attention to the expostulations of the aggrieved parties and moved about so quickly from place to place that no one could catch hold of Him. In this manner the Lord made everybody bathe over and over again. He would touch some of the bathers and even spouted the water by His Mouth at them!

The Brähmanas, who were also treated in this unorthodox fashion, unable to catch hold of the turbulent Boy, at last went to Jagannäth Misra and laid before him their grievances. ‘It was impossible for any one to bathe in the proper manner in the Ganges. Sree Gaursundar disturbed one’s meditations by the summary method of deliberately dashing the water at him or by spouting water at a person in the act of meditation for the avowed reason that it was unnecessary to meditate any more, as one could actually see Him on Whom he meditated, by simply opening his eyes, standing before Him; He Himself being Näräyana manifest in the Kali Age.’

The Boy, it was alleged, stole one’s phallic symbol of Siva and decamped with the upper cloth of another. He occupied the seat prepared for Vishnu, ate all the offerings and put on His own person the flowers, etc., while the owner of them was engaged in his bath preparatory to worship, and ran away before He could be prevented, and would retort, into the bargain, ‘that one need not feel sorry at all as He Himself, for Whom the offering is meant, has eaten the same.’ Thereafter, coming forward unobserved by diving under the water, He would drag away a bather by the legs, as he was engaged in performing his sandhyä standing up in the water. The flower-basket and loin-cloth of another were always missing. The Geetä of one bather was stolen. He had made the baby-boy of another cry by putting water into the ears of the child. He had climbed one’s back to his shoulder and from there jumped back into the water, crying ‘I am Mahesha’. He Himself worshipped Vishnu by occupying the seat arranged for worship by another; after having first eaten the intended offering. He threw sand at one’s body, after one had finished his bath, and had for the purpose all the naughty boys at His heels. He put the cloths of all male persons in the place of those of females and vice versa, to the utter shame of all who put on the wrong cloths. This was done every day. He did not get out of the water for half the day. Was it not likely that He might fall ill?

These Brähmanas were not the only complainants. The girls had serious grievances which they duly laid before Sachi Devi. He stole their cloths, abused them and got up a quarrel if they protested. He forcibly took away all the flowers and fruits brought by them for performing their vowed worships (brata) and scattered them in all directions.

As, after bathing in the Ganges, the girls began to worship the gods, Nimäi would appear on the spot with the other children and took His seat in the midst of the girls. He asked the maidens to worship Him and told them that He would give them the boon they desired, that Ganga and Durgä are His maid-servants and Mahesha is also only His servant. With His own hands He put the sandal-paste on His Own Person, wore the garlands of flowers, snatched the intended offerings from the girls and ate them. The girls were very indignant and said that ‘He was their brother by the relationship of the village. It was not proper for them to say all this against Him. But He should also not take away their articles for the worship of the gods and should not be boisterous in His behaviour.’ To this He would only say, ‘I give the boon to all of you. The husbands of you all will be most beautiful, learned, adept, youthful and possessing an abundance of grain and other riches. Every one of you will have seven sons a-piece, all of whom will live for ever and be of an excellent understanding.’ The girls were much pleased at heart on hearing about the boon, although externally they took up the scolding attitude by the display of false anger. Some of the girls ran away with their offerings. Nimäi, however, called out to them and angrily told them that if they proved miserly, and did not give Him their offerings, they would have old husbands with four co-wives. They were extremely frightened on hearing this, lest He might possess some supernatural art or be possessed by any deity. They accordingly brought their offerings back to Him. The Lord ate those offerings and then gave them the boon which they desired. He threw sand at their bodies, after they had finished their bath, and this was done by Him at the head of all the naughty children. Coming up unobserved He shouted into one’s ear with a loud voice. He spouted water With His Mouth at one’s face. He stuck the prickly seeds of okhrä into the hair of a third. He wanted to marry some. He did this every day, as if He was the Son of the King. Nimäi, they alleged, acted exactly as the Son of Nanda in old times. If he was not checked, they would be compelled some day to tell their parents, and then there would be serious trouble.

On hearing all this the mother of the Lord smiled and, taking all of them on her lap, spoke kindly to them: ‘Let Nimäi come Home to-day. I will tie up His Hands and Feet and punish Him, so that He may not again cause any trouble to you.’ Then the girls, after taking the dust of Sachi’s feet on their heads, made their way once more to the Ganges for their bath.

But, as a matter of fact, all concerned were exceedingly pleased in their minds, however wayward might be the conduct of the Lord towards them, by the force of the actual benefit dispensed. They came to Misra to acquaint him with those occurrences, only for the fun of it. Misra, however, took their complaints seriously and spoke threateningly and with anger: ‘He constantly behaves in this way to all persons and has made it impossible for any one to bathe in the Ganges in a satisfactory manner. I must immediately go there myself and give Him a good thrashing that He may never do this again. If all of you try, you will not prevent me from punishing Him.

Gauranga, the Lord of all beings, was aware of all this. He knew it all, as soon as Misra was on his way to the Ganges with an angry mind. He was then playing with other children, easily recognizable among them all by His extraordinary, Beauty. The girls were the first to inform Him. The said, ‘Be careful, Vishwambhar, Misra will be coming just now, fly at once.’ As the Lord, taking all the children with Him, ran to catch hold of them, those Brähmana maidens scattered in a fright.

The Lord now instructed all His companions to tell Misra that his Son had not come to bathe at all. He had gone home from school by the other road. They were waiting for His coming for His bath. After coaching the boys in this manner, the Lord returned home by another path. The good Misra now appeared at the bathing-place of the Ganges. On reaching the spot Misra eagerly looked about in all directions but could not find his Son in the mist of the children, Misra asked them about the whereabouts of Vishwambhar. The children readily replied, ‘He has not come to bathe to-day. He went home by the other road after school. We are all waiting here for Him.’ Misra, with stick in hand, peered in all directions and stormed and threatened, being unable to find his Boy. Those Brähmanas, who had complained to him for fun, now came forward and informed him that Vishwambhar had fled home for fear; and they entreated Misra to return home but not say any unkind words to the Boy, telling him that they themselves would catch and take the Boy to him, if He again did any mischief. ‘What we had told you, was said in fun. There is no one in the three worlds who is more fortunate than yourself. What can hunger, thirst or sorrow do to him in whose home there happens to be such a Child? You alone have truly served the Feet of the Lord. Most fortunate, indeed, is he who has such a Son. If Vishwambhar commits crores of mischief, hold Him fast to your bosom.’ Misra said, ‘That Child is the Son of you all. Swear by me that you will never be offended with Him.’ And then Misra embraced them all and came back home.

Lord Vishwambhar had gone home by another path, with the beautiful books in His Hands, looking like a second Moon. Points of writing-ink adorned all parts of His Body, as if the champaka flower was besieged on all sides by the black bees. The Lord began to call loudly on His mother asking for oil to rub His Body for going to the Ganges for His bath. The voice of her Son gladdened the heart of Sachi. She could not discover any sign of bath on His Person. She gave Him oil and began to muse. ‘I do not understand what those girls and the Brähmanas said just now. His Body is still spotted with the marks of ink and He has the same books and the same cloth!’ Presently, Misra also returned home. Vishwambhar ran into the arms of Misra as soon as He caught sight of him. By that embrace Misra lost all faculty of his external activity, having been filled with happiness at the very sight of his Boy. Misra also noticed that His Son’s whole body was full of dust and was astonished on finding no sign of bath. Misra said, ‘Viswambhar, is this Your good sense? Why don’t You allow the people to bathe? Why do You steal the offerings for the worship of Vishnu? Are You not afraid even of Vishnu?, The Lord said, ‘I have not gone for my bath to-day. My companions have gone there before Me. They misbehave to all the people. People blame Me even when I am not really there. If they thus slander Me when I am absent, I say truly that I will really treat them ill.’ With these words the Lord ran away laughing to the side of the Ganges to bathe and rejoined those children. As soon as they saw Vishwambhar in their midst, all the children embraced Him and burst into uproarious laughter on hearing of His ruse. They all praised His cleverness and congratulated Him on His narrow escape and resumed their pastimes in the water.

Here at home Sachi and Jagannäth cogitated over the affair. ‘What all those people said cannot be false. Why then was there no sign of bath on His Person? The same dusty Body, the same Dress, Books, Cloth and Hair !’ ‘Is it possible Vishwambhar is no mortal? Has Krishna Himself been born as our Son by His own Power, or some transcendental person?’ While they were thinking in this manner, the Crest-jewel of all the twice-born made His Appearance. Their deliberations were ended by joy at the sight of their Son. Both were filled with instinctive gladness and all suspicions, were laid at rest, Half the day, while the Lord was away for His study, seemed to those two as a couple of Ages. In this manner played the Lord of Vaikuntha and by His Own Contrivance not a single person was able to recognize Him.

Those, who put up with the almost intolerable turbulences of this strikingly beautiful Urchin, certainly possessed a more than ordinary share of patience and of the truly aesthetic and tender sentiment. A naughty boy is most liked, if his naughtiness is purely juvenile and the outcome of an abundance of the pure childish energy. It is in this sense that the extraordinary events of the-Childhood of Sree Gaursundar have been affected to be regarded by His empiric admirers.

But the point of view of the associates and narrators of the Transcendental Deeds of the Lord is altogether different and it is their point of view which will give us the attitude of those who were taught the true relation between the religion and His own illustrative Conduct by Sree Chaitanya Himself; and they had also the opportunity of realizing the Absolute Truth of those statements by their actual experience. The sum and substance of their attitude is that these pranks of the Childhood of Sree Gaursundar, Who was by far the most turbulent of all the naughty children who then abounded at Nabadwip, were not only tolerated but they made all those, who were the victims of His turbulence, have an extraordinary affection for the Child Whom a few fortunate persons also regarded as Transcendental. It is on this historical fact that a momentous generalization in regard to these Activities has been made to rest, viz., that when Godhead Himself appears in this world, He comes here with His Divine Associates and Abode and These alone are the directly incorporated helpers of His Leelä in this world.

All those persons, who had anything to do with the Activities of Sree Gaursundar, are the, eternal associates and servants of the Lord who came into this world for the purpose of participating in His Activities. But they themselves did not know this fully, as such knowledge would take away the possibility of those Activities. So their knowledge was to that extent modified by the Spiritual Power of Godhead. This apparent obscuration of knowledge, that is thus found in His devotees serves to augment the joy of His Pastimes and is totally different from the effect of the operation of the Deluding Power that shuts out the view of the Divinity from fallen souls of this world by the screen of the material world.

The philanthropists do not understand this vital difference between the apparently similar functions of the two distinct powers and confound the spiritual with the worldly. The result of such ignorance is also most deplorable. A large number of rascals have in all Ages set up as ‘Incarnations’ (the term is theirs) of the Divinity and have imitated the activities, the real Avatärs narrated in the Scriptures. The unbelievable boldness and shamelessness of these ‘Incarnations’ have captured the credulity of even sensuously disposed cultured people who have fallen easy victims to their own immoral designs. These events in their turn have re-acted on the beliefs of the more moral sections and have unfortunately enough served to shake their belief in spiritual claims of any kind.

This is the psychology of the sceptics and impersonalists whose condition is not otherwise different from their deluded immoral brethren who are actually misled to accept the worst forms of vice as the means of attaining the promised spiritual condition. Both these deluded groups remain necessarily confined to worldly activities which are, by their very nature, offensive to Godhead, the one through undue credulity and the other through undue incredulity, regarding one’s imperative spiritual duty.

True belief in Godhead is spontaneous and, in its natural form, is very rare in this world. Those who really believe in God are thereby freed from all worldliness. The conduct of perfectly pure souls cannot be understood, so long as we remain in the condition that is dominated by the sensuous outlook. The only way of getting out of the sad plight is to gradually acquire faith in spiritual existence by listening to the accounts of the Transcendental Activities of the Lord in His different Avatäras from the lips of true sädhus who alone can prevent us from falling into the errors of the misguided philanthropists (prakrita sahajiyas) on the one hand and sceptics and atheists on the other, the plight that would befall us if we try to understand those accounts in the light (which is really obscuring) of our sensuous understanding.

The Boy continued to be a source of trouble to all the neighbours. They complained to Sachi that the Boy stole their things and beat their little children. On hearing this Sachi scolded Nimäi and ordered Him to remain always at home and never to go to anyone’s house. This so much angered the Lord that He forthwith ran into the house and smashed all the earthen pots that He found there. Then Sachi took Him into her arms and He was pleased and felt ashamed for His naughtiness. One day He struck Sachi gently with His Hands and wept when she fainted away being so struck. The women who nursed Sachi said that if He could get green coconuts, His mother would recover. The Lord immediately went out of the house and returned with two green coconuts. This feat astonished everybody, as the green coconut was a rare fruit at Sree Mäyapur and almost impossible to procure at that time of the year.

One day as Sachi lay in her couch with her Son, she beheld that the house was filled with celestial beings. Sachi asked Nimäi to call His father. As He was leaving the room to fetch His father, the tinkling sound of anklet (nupura) distinctly proceeded from His Feet. Misra told Sachi that he actually heard the sound of nupura coming from the bare Feet of the Child. Sachi said that she had a most strange experience. She had beheld that the courtyard of the house was thronged by a great crowd of celestial beings. She did not understand the noise that they made, but could infer that they must have been chanting hymns of praise to some One. Misra said that there was no cause for anxiety, whatever happened. He only desired the welfare of Vishwambhar.

Another day, on noticing the wayward nature of the Boy, Misra scolded Him very severely and tried to instill in Him the principles of orderliness enjoined by Religion. that night Misra had a dream in which he beheld that a Brähmana came to him and told him with an angry voice that he did not know at all the real truth regarding his Son, and it was owing to his ignorance that he scolded and punished Him under the impression that He was, indeed, his son and protégé. Whereupon Misra said that whatever the Child might be in Himself, even if he were a god, a self realized soul (siddha), a contemplative sage (muni), or howsoever great a personage, He was still only his own Boy to him. It was the specific duty of a father to teach and maintain his son. If he did not tell Him about it, how would the Boy know the meaning of Religion ? The Brähmana said that if the Child was perfect in all knowledge by the grace of Godhead Himself and possessed spontaneous Omniscience, then his teaching must be perfectly useless. Whereupon Misra said that it was still the duty of the father to teach his Son, even if He happened to be Nara- yana Himself. They discoursed in this way, Misra ignoring all other considerations in trying to uphold the point of view of the parent. That Brähmana was at last satisfied and took his leave of Misra with great pleasure. Misra told all his friends about his dream and all of them were very much surprised to hear of it.

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