Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/587

540 fulfilled to the letter. It is generally found that honest, virtuous, and religious persons foresee the dissolation of their life in distant future and sometimes predict the exact day and hour of their death. We do not see how they are enabled to do so, but nevertheless it is a fact and quite inexplicable. How inscrutable are the ways of Providence!

Vidyasagar's mother left her husband to live in Benares, she herself returning to Birsingha. In February following (1871), information reached Vidyasagar that his father was seriously ill at the sanctum. He at once proceeded to Benares, and was soon joined by his mother and his second and third brothers. In a few days, Thakurdas recovered from his illness. Vidyasagar returned to Calcutta, leaving his mother and brothers to look after his father. Bhagavati Devi lived with her husband for two months, and on the last day of the Bengali year (which is a sacred day with the Hindus), she was seized with Cholera, and expired in a few hours at the feet of her husband, as she had predicted. Before her death, she had begged for the blessings of her husband, whereupon Thakurdas said:—’How shall I bless you? You are a most pious woman; it is your own piety that takes you away before me: yours is the victory.' It is needless to say, that he was deeply grieved at the loss of such a virtuous wife.