Śrīla Gurudeva’s School Days

No one dared to compete with Śrīla Gurudeva in any athletic event be it walking, running, boating, cycling, or anything else. As an adolescent, teenager and youth, he was extremely fit and excelled at high jump, long jump, running, cycling and football. He was also an adept oarsman and would speedily ply a row-boat through the Gaṅgā waters.

After taking his morning prasāda he would run the five miles (eight kilometers) from his village to school barefoot without stopping, and after school, he would again run the distance home. He could out-run the many other boys at school and if any schoolmate tried to overtake him, he would increase his speed so that his competitor would soon become tired.

Śrīla Gurudeva’s formal education began at primary school in Tiwaripur’s neighbouring village called Dalsāgara. He was then admitted into the fifth grade at Curamanpur. However, he lost a full year because the school at Curamanpur had not been successful in obtaining government registration. As a result, he decided to attend a school in Buxar, five miles (eight kilometers) from his village. There he was admitted into Bihar Bhumihar Brahmana High School, where he completed grades five through seven. He then went on to complete grades eight through ten at Buxar High School. Because of his extraordinary intelligence, he was always first in his class. He also had a special attraction for athletics. He was a state champion and received many prizes while in high school.

In Śrīla Gurudeva's youth, the movement to rid India of British rule was gaining momentum and he said that it was his desire to ‘somehow remove the corrupt British rulers from our country’.

“How the British cheat and torment us,” Śrīla Gurudeva considered, “they torment even our mothers and sisters.”

The British had committed many atrocities in India. One of the best-known was the huge massacre of defenceless citizens shot dead at Amritsar in 1919, two years before Śrīla Gurudeva was born. The British were guilty of abusing many women, with incidences of rape and murder numbering in the thousands. even their original way of gaining control of India was crooked. They took charge of India after the battle of Plassey on 23rd June, 1757. Prior to this battle, the British realised that their forces were inferior to those of the opposing Navāba of Bengal, so they bribed Mir Jafar and other commanders of the Navāba’s army. Mir Jafar assembled his troops near the battlefield, but made no move to actually join the battle and as a result the Navāba of Bengal’s army was defeated. The Navāba fled but was eventually captured and executed. Thus the British won through trickery, imprisoned large numbers of Indians, and thus took control of Bengal and later, the whole of India. More than 200 years later, Mahātma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) started a revolution that eventually led to India’s independence. The mood of Gandhi's movement was prevalent among the youth of India during the 1920s,’30s, and’40s, and Śrīla Gurudeva, as part of his naravat-līlā^[1], sympathized with the movement.

Śrīla Gurudeva wanted India to somehow become free from the clutches of the British rulers, who were abusive, atheistic and opposed to the Vedic culture. For this reason, even though Śrīla Gurudeva eventually learned english very well, he did not want to speak english in his youth. However, he was obliged to learn it in school. The head teacher of the school, who was very strict, personally taught english, his class starting at mid-day. Śrīla Gurudeva lacked interest and although he sat in the front row of the classroom, he would become drowsy and sleepy. Nevertheless he did learn english there as he related to us: “Sitting on the first bench, how could I sleep?”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Śrīla Gurudeva is an eternal associate of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and the Divine Couple. The Lord appears in this world along with His associates, and they play their roles as ordinary human beings. This is called naravat-līlā. Whatever activities Śrī Bhagavān and the mahābhāgavata perform are deeply significant, although we may not readily understand this due to our incompetence and inexperience. For example, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s pastimes–such as going to Gayā for His father’s piṇḍa ceremony (a ritual to honour one’s father and forefathers), His school life, His going to the Ganges river and telling the young girls that he was the husband of Gangādevī in order to get their offerings–appear to be ordinary human-like pastimes, but they are in fact the naravat-līlā of the Lord. Naravat-līlā is the apparently ordinary, human-like pastimes of the eternal associates of the Lord. rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmī’s serving as ministers of the Muslim king looked ordinary, but it was naravat-līlā. What Śrīla Gurudeva did before coming to his gurudeva, Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja–for example, working as a police officer–appears just like the activities of an ordinary human being. The difference is that he always remembers and is engaged in Śrī Bhagavān’s service.