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A-B Examinations Preparation

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Brief overview

A student who neglected his studies for his guru passes his A.B. examinations anyway.

  1. A paper judged without a name scored highStripped of everything but his roll call number, his unquoted answers drew a high rating from the professor who had promised to fail him.
  2. The guru insisted on the exams for the family's sakeSri Yukteswar's reason was not scholarship: no cause should be given for the father and relatives to criticize ashram life.
  3. Romesh's guesses became the examination sheetChilde Harold's route, ancient Bengali literature and Vidyasagar's charities all appeared as the tutor had predicted.
Executive Summary AI
  • Professor D.C. Ghoshal of Sirampur College warns the narrator that without scholarly work he will fail philosophy, which would make him ineligible for the Calcutta University A-B finals and force him to retake every subject the following year.
  • To defeat that threat he submits his philosophy paper marked only with his roll call number, and when the professor cannot find it in the pile the narrator produces it and shows it was given a high rating.
  • Spending nearly every day with Sri Yukteswar instead of in the college halls, he is told five days before the finals that he must appear anyway, so that his father and relatives have no cause to criticize his preference for ashram life.
  • His guru sends him to his boarding-house classmate Romesh, whose coaching questions turn up in almost the same form on the examination sheets day by day, including two stories of the philanthropist Vidyasagar that fill the Bengali paper.
  • After a careless error left him three marks short, the passing mark is lowered from thirty-six to thirty-three, he graduates from Calcutta University to his father's surprise, and Sri Yukteswar tells him the Lord found it easier to make him a graduate than to rearrange the sun and moon.
Key Quote
“Mukundo is a bit overdrunk with religion.”
— Instructors at Sarampur College
Key Quote
“You are not among those who have passed”
— Professor Ghoshal
Key Quote
“Sir, I was there. May I look through the stack myself?”
— Mukundo

Transcript

0:00 chapter twenty three of autobiography of a yogi i receive my university degree Ignore your textbook assignments in philosophy. No doubt you are depending on an unlaborious intuition to get you through the examinations.
0:28 But unless you apply yourself in a more scholarly manner,
0:33 I shall see to it that you don't pass this course.
0:36 Professor D.C. Ghoshal of Sirampur College was addressing me sternly.
0:40 If I failed to pass his final written classroom test,
0:44 I would be ineligible to take the conclusive examinations.
0:48 These are formulated by the Faculty of Calcutta University, which numbers Serampore College among its affiliated branches.
0:55 A student in Indian universities who was unsuccessful in one subject in the A-B finals must be examined anew in all his subjects the following year. My instructors
1:06 at Sarampur College usually treated me with kindness, not untinged by amused tolerance.
1:12 Mukundo is a bit overdrunk with religion. Thus summing me up, they tactfully spared me the
1:18 embarrassment of answering classroom questions. They trusted the final written tests to eliminate
1:23 me from the list of A-B candidates.
1:26 The judgment passed by my fellow students was expressed in their nickname for me, Mad Monk.
1:32 I took an ingenious step to nullify Professor Ghoshal's threat to me of failure in philosophy.
1:38 When the results of the final tests were about to be publicly announced,
1:42 I asked a classmate to accompany me to the professor's study come along i want a witness i told my companion i shall be very much disappointed if i have not succeeded in outwitting the instructor given my paper. You are not among those who have passed, he said in triumph. He hunted through a
2:06 large pile on his desk. Your paper isn't here at all. You have failed, in any case, through non-
2:12 appearance of the examination. I chuckled. Sir, I was there. May I look through the stack myself?
2:20 The professor nonplussed gave his permission. I quickly found my paper, where I had carefully omitted any identification mark,
2:28 except my roll call number.
2:30 Unwarned by the red flag of my name, the instructor had given a high rating to my answers,
2:35 even though they were unembellished by textbook quotations.
2:38 Seeing through my trick, he now thundered.
2:41 Sheer brazen luck, he added hopefully.
2:45 You're sure to fail in the AB finals.
2:47 For the tests and my other subjects, I received some coaching, particularly from my dear friend
2:53 and cousin, Prabhas Chandra Ghosh, son of my uncle Sharada. I staggered painfully but successfully
2:59 with the lowest possible passing marks through all my final tests. Now, after four years of college,
3:06 I was eligible to sit for the A-B examinations. Nevertheless, I hardly expected to avail myself
3:12 of the privilege. The Sarampur College finals were child's play compared to the stiff ones
3:17 which would be set by Calcutta University for the A-B degree. My almost daily visits to Sri
3:23 Yukteswar had left me little time to enter the college halls there it was my presence rather than my absence that brought forth ejaculations of amazement from my classmates I would carry an offering for my guru, a few flowers from the garden of my ponthi boarding house. Greeting me affably, Master would invite me to lunch. I invariably accepted with alacrity,
3:52 glad to banish the thought of college for the day. After hours with Sri Yukteswar listening
3:57 to his incomparable flow of wisdom or helping with ashram duties, I would reluctantly depart
4:02 around midnight for the ponthi. Occasionally I stayed all night
4:06 with my guru, so happily engrossed in his conversation that I scarcely noticed when
4:11 darkness changed into dawn. One night, about eleven o'clock, as I was putting on my shoes
4:17 in preparation for the ride to the boarding-house, Master questioned me gravely.
4:21 When do your A-B examinations start? Five days hence, sir. I hope you are in readiness
4:28 for them. Transfixed with alarm, I held one shoe in the air. Sir, I protested, you know how my days

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