Apply yourself diligently to your books for the next week:
you shall get through your ordeal without failure."
I returned to Calcutta, firmly suppressing all reasonable doubts
that occasionally arose with unnerving ridicule. Surveying the
mountain of books on my table, I felt like a traveler lost in a
wilderness. A long period of meditation brought me a labor-saving
inspiration. Opening each book at random, I studied only those
pages which lay thus exposed. Pursuing this course during eighteen
hours a day for a week, I considered myself entitled to advise all
succeeding generations on the art of cramming.
The following days in the examination halls were a justification
of my seemingly haphazard procedure. I passed all the tests, though
by a hairbreadth. The congratulations of my friends and family were
ludicrously mixed with ejaculations betraying their astonishment.
On his return from Puri, Sri Yukteswar gave me a pleasant surprise.
"Your Calcutta studies are now over. I will see that you pursue
your last two years of university work right here in Serampore."
I was puzzled. "Sir, there is no Bachelor of Arts course in this
town." Serampore College, the sole institution of higher learning,
offered only a two-year course in Intermediate Arts.
Master smiled mischievously. "I am too old to go about collecting
donations to establish an A.B. college for you. I guess I shall
have to arrange the matter through someone else.
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