Krishna Kanta's Will (Chatterjee, Knight)/Part 1/Chapter 26
CHAPTER XXVI.
Infatuated with beauty! Who is not so with something or other? I am infatuated with the beauty of this variegated butterfly; you are so with the loveliness of that flowery creeper. What fault is there in that? Beauty is made to enchant.
These were Gobind Lâl's first thoughts. Even a righteous man thinks thus when his feet are on the first step of the ladder of sin. But as with gravitations in the external world, so with the attraction of sin in the inner world; at each step the tendency to fall is accelerated. Gobind Lâl’s fall was very rapid because his heart had for so many days been parched with the thirst for beauty. We can only weep, we cannot describe his fall.
Gradually the names of Rohini and Gobind Lâl came to be associated in the hearing of Krishna Kanta, to whom it gave great distress. It deeply him that there should be the slightest stain on Gobind Lâl’s character. He wished to reprove his nephew, but of late the old man had been ailing, and could not leave his bedroom. Thither Gobind Lâl came daily to see him, but, being always surrounded by attendants, he could not in their presence speak of the matter. His illness increased gravely, and suddenly it came into the mind of Krishna Kanta that perhaps Death's messenger had come to settle accounts with him, that the river of life had now, perhaps, reached the vast ocean (of futurity). If he delayed longer he would not be able to speak. Krishna resolved to speak that day. When Gobind Lâl came in the old man desired the others to leave him. Gobind Lâl, somewhat confused, asked, "How are you feeling to-day?"
"Not very well. Why are you so late to-night?"
Making no reply to that, Gobind Lâl took his uncle's hand and felt the pulse. Suddenly Gobind Lâl's face fell. Krishna Kanta's life stream was slowly, slowly flowing away. Gobind Lâl said only, "I am coming back," and went straight to the house of his physician. The doctor was astonished. Gobind Lâl said, "Please to bring remedies quickly, Mahâshoi, my uncle's state is not at all satisfactory." In great haste the doctor took up a lot of pills and accompanied Gobind Lâl. Krishna Kanta was somewhat alarmed at the sight of the two in his room. The Kabirâj felt his pulse. The old man asked—
"Is there any danger?"
The doctor answered, "When is the human frame free from danger?"
Krishna Kanta understood. He said, "What time have I?"
"When I have given you physic I shall be able to say."
The doctor pounded the physic in a mortar and approached the patient to administer it. Krishna Kanta took the vessel containing the medicine in his hand, touched his head with it once, and then threw the contents into the spittoon.
The doctor looked distressed, and Krishna Kanta said, "Don't be troubled. It is not at my age that physic will cure me. In place of physic, call on Hari if you would help me. Do you invoke the name of Hari, I will listen."
No one called on Hari, save the dying man. All were stunned, frightened, overwhelmed. Krishna Kanta alone was fearless. He said to Gobind Lâl, "The key of the drawer is at my head; take it out."
Gobind Lâl took the key from beneath the pillow. His uncle said, "Open the drawer and take out the will." Gobind Lâl obeyed. The old man then said, "Send for the Âmla, the Mohurir, and ten respectable householders."
Then the Nâibs, Mohurirs, Gomashtâs, Kârkoons, Chatterjis,[1] Mukherjis, Banerjis, Bhattachârjyas, Ghoshes, Bâsus, Mitras, and Dattas filled the room.
Krishna Kanta desired a Mohurir to read his will, and when the reading was finished, said, "This will will be destroyed. Write a new one."
"What shall I write?"
"Just what stands there—only―"
"Only—what?"
"Strike out the name of Gobind Lâl, and in its place write that of my nephew's wife, Bhramar. Write that after Bhramar's death the half-share will come to Gobind Lâl."
All remained stupefied. No one spoke. The Mohurir looked at Gobind Lâl, who made a sign to him to write. The Mohurir obeyed. When he had finished writing, Krishna Kanta signed, the witnesses signed. Gobind Lâl, now become a beggar, also signed as a witness.
In the will not a farthing was left to Gobind Lâl. To Bhramar the half-share.
That night, beneath the tulsi-tree, calling upon Hari, Krishna Kanta passed away.
- ↑ This and the following names are designations of different castes of Brahmans.