Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/538

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502 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap, lived like an ordinary man doing the duties of © domestic life—pursuing his studies with zeal, apparently contented in spirit. But it was to him a course of preparation for final renunciation—for joining that great family of saintly men, who leaving the narrow environment of the domestic life had elected the good of the world to be their principal aim in life. When barely twenty, his mind was finally fixed, and he began toshowa restless desire to leave home which again caused great anxiety to his parents. Raghunath at this stage of his life slept in the outer courtyard, and could by no means be persuaded to visit his wife. Nityananda, the most revered of the Vaisnava devotees next to Chaitanya, paid a visit to Panihati at this time and thither Raghunath went to see him. After this meeting his restlessness and yearning increas- ed tenfold. His mother proposed to secure him, by binding him hand and foot with rope so that he might not move from the palace. Gobardhan Das, his father, replied—“ Great riches, a peerless wife and all the glories of the earth could not bind him, and do you think a rope can do so ?—Such a suggestion is very foolish.”'"* Yet the guards and sentinels kept watch over him. It was the story of Buddha over again. He made his escape one night and walked all the distance to Puri to meet Chaitanya. It took him 12 days to reach that place. The

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এ সব বাধিতে নাবিল যার মন ॥ দড়ির বাধনে তারে রাখিবা কিমতে 1"