12
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
splashing them with water instead of attending school, the Lord suddenly appeared before His father as though just coming from school with all His school clothes and books. At the bathing  ghat  He also used to play jokes on the neighboring girls who engaged in worshiping Śiva in hopes of getting good husbands. This is a common practice amongst unmarried girls in Hindu families. While they were engaged in such worship, the Lord naughtily appeared before them and said, "My dear sisters, please give Me all the offerings you have just brought for Lord Śiva. Lord Śiva is My devotee, and Pārvatī is My maidservant. If you worship Me, then Lord Śiva and all the other demigods will be more satisfied." Some of them refused to obey the naughty Lord, and He would curse them that due to their refusal they would be married to old men who had seven children by their previous wives. Out of fear and sometimes out of love the girls would also offer Him various goods, and then the Lord would bless them and assure them that they would have very good young husbands and that they would be mothers of dozens of children. The blessings would enliven the girls, but they used often to complain of these incidences to their mothers.
In this way the Lord passed His early childhood. When He was just sixteen years old He started His own  catuṣpāṭhī  (village school conducted by a learned  brāhmaṇa ). In this school He would simply explain Kṛṣṇa, even in readings of grammar. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, in order to please the Lord, later composed a grammar in Sanskrit, in which all the rules of grammar were explained with examples that used the holy names of the Lord. This grammar is still current. It is known as  Hari-nāmāmṛta-vyākaraṇa  and is prescribed in the syllabus of schools in Bengal.
During this time a great Kashmir scholar named Keśava Kāśmīrī came to Navadvīpa to hold discussions on the  śāstras . The Kashmir  paṇḍit  was a champion scholar, and he had travelled to all places of learning in India. Finally he came to Navadvīpa to contest the learned  paṇḍits  there. The  paṇḍits  of Navadvīpa decided to match Nimāi Paṇḍit (Lord Caitanya) with the Kashmir Paṇḍit, thinking that if Nimāi Paṇḍit were defeated, they would have another chance to debate with the scholar, for Nimāi Paṇḍit was only a boy. And if the Kashmir Paṇḍit were defeated, then they would even be more glorified because people would proclaim that a mere boy of Navadvīpa defeated a champion scholar who was famous throughout India. It so happened that Nimāi Paṇḍit met Keśava Kāśmīrī while strolling on the banks of the Ganges. The Lord requested him to compose a Sanskrit verse in praise of the Ganges, and the  paṇḍit  within a short time composed a hundred  ślokas , reciting the verses like a storm and showing the strength of his vast learning. Nimāi Paṇḍit at once memorized