Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/226

 unpardonable folly, combined with ingratitude of the blackest dye to the merciful Disposer of events. Actu- ated by this belief he would visit scenes of death and administer comfort to the bereaved.

I may mention an incident that occurred when I visited him one day in his lodgings in Calcutta, after the death of Navakumar and Indumati. I found him rather excited, and on my asking him the cause he said, " A few days ago a child in the adjacent house died, and since the occurrence my neighbours, male and female, have been lamenting their loss. I have been in there, and, calling the men to me, I have tried to console them. I have shown them that, as their dear one has been taken away from them by God for His good purposes, it is not right for them thus to lament their loss as those without hope. They reply by speaking of the transmigration of souls, and of the teachings of the Sastras ; and so I have had to come away acknowledging my ignorance of these. Now, Shibnath, you know the Sastras, can you go and show the men from the teachings of their own sacred books that inordinate grief is a sin ? " But I felt that it was useless to argue with them at such a time.

On the other hand, Mrs Lahiri was overwhelmed with grief at the loss of her dear children, and it became very painful for her to live any longer at the house in Krish- nagar, where everything reminded her of them. So Mr Lahiri, giving up his guardianship of the young Raja, came to Calcutta in 1879, and took up his abode in a house at Champatola.