Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/123

 struggle alone in the world and departed to the next in 1872. To Mr. Balwant Rau who was yet in his sixteenth year the bereavement must have been really unbearable. Yet Providence works in mysterious ways. Young Baiwant Rau pursued his course of studies and by the time he was twenty he had graduated with honors from the Deccan College. Though there was in Mr. Tilak's nature, hidden far away from the gaze of the moment, the necessary trait to bring him to the profession—to that Godly profession—of teaching he yet followed the usual course all Indians of University Education were and are following and entered the Law College to take the degree of LL.B. He passed out of that College in 1879. The Higher Power that guides the destinies of mankind is so shrewd that in spite of all the wonderfully mistaken ways of man it sets the circumstances of the world to its own tune and through the very mistakes of mankind fulfils its own purpose—the purpose of shaping the progress of humanity. Just about the time young Balwant Rau was passing through the Law College he came into contact with one of those few young spirits who made modern Maharashtra.