MY FATHER KRISHNA SINHA

MY FATHER KRISHNA SINHA

By Kishalay Sinha

I am very glad that the birth centenary of my late father is being celebrated this year - 2018 - exactly one hundred years after his birth in 1918, although my father did not have a horoscope prepared by a Hindu astrologer after his birth, recording the exact time and date and year of his birth. 

I was first boy in my class at English-medium Don Bosco High School, Guwahati (the school was not co-ed when I was a student), and I vividly remember that when my HSLC result was published - on June 7 - I had done well in the exam, standing third and scoring the highest marks in mathematics - my overjoyed father told me that June 7 was also his birthday! I did not know before that my father’s birthday fell on June 7. What a pleasant coincidence!

My father was a great scholar but he was extremely self-effacing and never showed off his learning. He was morally very pure and virtuous and always kept a copy of the Gita in his room. When I was very young, he taught me and my younger sister Kumkum and younger brother Kirity (who was killed in a road accident in 2006) two famous devotional songs which we used to sing every evening. The first song was:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna,

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,

Hare Rama Hare Rama,

Rama Rama Hare Hare.

I think the above devotional song is a CODED song which on decoding implies:

HARI = KRISHNA = RAM    ... (1)

The second famous CODED devotional song which we memorized and sang every evening was:

Raghupati Raghava Raja RAM,

Patita pawana Sita RAM,

ISHWAR ALLAH tere/tero naam,

Sabko sanmati de BHAGAWAN.

I think the above coded song implies when decoded:

RAM = ISHWAR = ALLAH = BHAGAWAN ... (2)

I conclude from equations (1) and (2) that:

KRISHNA = RAM = HARI = ISHWAR = ALLAH = BHAGAWAN

I learned from “Bigyan o Debodebi” by Nigoorhananda that Bhagawan means “one who is the owner of many bhag**”. For a detailed explanation, I refer the interested reader to that scholarly book.

When I stood first in the Pre-University Science exam from Cotton College under Gauhati University, my father took me with him to a tall bald bespectacled friend of his, Professor Ram Kumar Das (a lifelong bachelor), who was then the head of the economics department of Cotton College, to seek his advice about my further studies. When we met him, my dad told him about my brilliant performance in my exam. Strangely, the professor did not give me effusive congratulations but instead pointed out to me how utterly small and insignificant we are compared to Biswa Brahmanda, the vast universe! I think any other exam topper who met with such a deflating “feedback” would have felt hurt but I remember that I did not feel hurt at all. I think the reason for my not feeling hurt at all was that I felt subconsciously that the professor was RIGHT: everyone is ZERO to God.

The learned and kind professor recommended that I pursue my further studies at excellent St. Stephen’s College in Delhi (it was not a co-ed college then) under Delhi University, and I got myself admitted to St. Stephen’s College. Looking back to that memorable encounter with the professor, I feel sure that my wise father must have met him in advance and requested him to give me A PROPER DEFLATING LECTURE to PUNCTURE MY INFLATED EGO if I had become inflated with my examination success. (I firmly believe, however, that I CANNOT BE INFLATED ANY FURTHER because I am infinitely inflated and no more inflation is possible!) Incidentally, I suspect that the choice of St. Stephen’s College was ACTUALLY my father’s decision!

My father was a wise teacher and guide who gave me excellent guidance during my young days, and knew how to give elementary sex education to a young boy in an indirect manner. When I was a young school student, one day when nobody was at home I took out a rather dull book on sex from our wooden almirah which served as our library and I saw that the book contained a few line drawings of the female anatomy. I flipped through its pages in some excitement and quickly put it back. Next day, when I opened the almirah again when nobody was at home I was very surprised to see that the book was missing! My dad must have noticed that the book was not in its original place where he had kept it carefully among the other books and so he must have known that I had glanced through it! That was my dad’s subtle method of giving an elementary sex education to a sensitive boy! During that same period, when I woke up one morning I changed my underwear and dropped the used underwear for washing. My observant father picked it up and pointing to a wet spot on it (involuntary nocturnal emission, I think) he gave me wise advice: “Son, bad boys will say bad things about such things but don’t listen to bad boys.” Luckily for me, I never had “bad boys” among my friends in any Indian school and college and university where I studied nor in excellent American universities UIUC (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA) and UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA) which awarded me university scholarships to pursue Ph. D. in biophysics and M.S. in applied mathematics, respectively.

** bhag = v. 

SAME GUY?

Brahma = Vishnu = Shiv = Kr./Sat. (late)?

K. S. = God 

Kishalay Sinha [G]