[Ramakrishna leaves Vidyasagara.] The Pandit then folded his hands and bent his held and body to make his Pranama (Salutation) to the Bhagavan. All assembled about the carriage did the same. The little group at the gate, with the venerable Vidyasagara at their head still holding the lighted candle in his hand, stood for a while looking in the direction of the carriage, wondering who this God-intoxicated Man might be, so wise yet so child-like, so full of joy, so sweet, so godly! Verily a Light come down to set ablaze the dry bones of a workaday world! Embodied Love, like the dew of heaven falling on the dry thirsty heart of man! A Voice crying unto sunken, self-weary man, "Thou must be born again and love!" A Healer from another clime of this strange disease of modern life! A Man among men, eager to solve for them the enigma of the universe!

Footnotes

^99:* Pandit Iswara Chandra Vidyasagara was the greatest Hindu scholar of his time in Calcutta. He was a true philanthropist, a patriot, an educationalist, and the founder of the Metropolitan Institution in Calcutta. The word Vidyasagara is a Sanskrit title which he acquired on account of his vast erudition. It means "ocean of knowledge."

^99:+ Raja Rammohun Roy was a great Hindu reformer who lived between 1774 and 7833 A.D. He was the first earnest-minded investigator of the science of comparative religion that the world has produced. He studied the Vedas in Sanskrit and the Buddhist Scriptures in the original Pali, the Koran in Arabic, the Old Testament in Hebrew, and the New Testament in Greek. He denounced the practice of Suttee which was abolished in 1829. He established the Hindu Unitarian Theistic movement known as the "Brahmo Samaj." He was the first Hindu Brahmin of rank and influence who visited Paris and England. After nearly two years' stay in England Raja Rammohun Roy died at Bristol in 1833.

^101:* Burdwan, an old city in Bengal, famous for delicious sweetmeats.

^102:* Falgu is the name of a sacred river near the holy city of Gaya in India. It was on the hank of this river that Buddha attained to the highest enlightenment. Its bed is covered with sand like a desert, but a strong current of pure water flows underneath.

^108:* Sukadeva was the son of Vyasa, the author of the Vedanta Sutras and many of the Puranas. He was born with the Brahma Jnana, or the knowledge of the Absolute. He, in his childhood, renounced the world with all its pleasures and attractions. He is regarded by the Hindus as the Ideal Jnani, or Knower of Brahman.

^116:* Chaitanya Deva, see note page <page 7>.

^117:* Nirvikalpa Samadhi is described in the Raja Yoga as the highest state of Samadhi in which the soul rises above the sense of "I" and the plane of all thoughts, ideas and emotions, and reaches the realm of the Absolute.