(His first wife, after the birth of three sons, had
died during a pilgrimage.) The boy's mother passed away during
his childhood; little about her is known except the revealing fact
that she was an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva, {FN32-7} scripturally
designated as the "King of Yogis."
The boy Lahiri, whose given name was Shyama Charan, spent his early
years in the ancestral home at Nadia. At the age of three or four
he was often observed sitting under the sands in the posture of a
yogi, his body completely hidden except for the head.
The Lahiri estate was destroyed in the winter of 1833, when
the nearby Jalangi River changed its course and disappeared into
the depths of the Ganges. One of the Shiva temples founded by the
Lahiris went into the river along with the family home. A devotee
rescued the stone image of Lord Shiva from the swirling waters and
placed it in a new temple, now well-known as the Ghurni Shiva Site.
Gaur Mohan Lahiri and his family left Nadia and became residents
of Benares, where the father immediately erected a Shiva temple. He
conducted his household along the lines of Vedic discipline, with
regular observance of ceremonial worship, acts of charity, and
scriptural study. Just and open-minded, however, he did not ignore
the beneficial current of modern ideas.
The boy Lahiri took lessons in Hindi and Urdu in Benares study-groups.
He attended a school conducted by Joy Narayan Ghosal, receiving
instruction in Sanskrit, Bengali, French, and English.
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