12 Srimad-Bhagavatam

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 Siva 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 Siva. Lord Siva is My
devotee, and Parvati is My maidservant. If you worship Me, then Lord
Siva 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 as-
sure 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 catuspathi (village school conducted
by a learned brahmana). In this school He would simply explain Krsna,
even in readings of grammar. Srila Jiva Gosvami, 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-namamrta-vyakarana
and is prescribed in the syllabus of schools in Bengal.

During this time a great Kashmir scholar named Kegava Kasmiri
came to Navadvipa to hold discussions on the sastras. The Kashmir pan-
dit was a champion scholar, and he had travelled to all places of learning in
India. Finally he came to Navadvipa to contest the learned pandits there.
The pandits of Navadvipa decided to match Nimai Pandit (Lord Caitanya)
with the Kashmir Pandit, thinking that if Nimai Pandit were defeated,
they would have another chance to debate with the scholar, for Nimai
Pandit was only a boy. And if the Kashmir Pandit were defeated, then
they would even be more glorified because people would proclaim that a
mere boy of Navadvipa defeated a champion scholar who was famous
throughout India. It so happened that Nimai Pandit met KeSava Kasmiri
while strolling on the banks of the Ganges. The Lord requested him to
compose a Sanskrit verse in praise of the Ganges, and the pandit within a
short time composed a hundred Slokas, reciting the verses like a storm and
showing the strength of his vast learning. Nimai Pandit at once memorized
