Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 7

I INTEND to write of another great Bengali who can be looked upon as a model of the Bengali race. He has shown the genius of the Bengalis in quite an unusual field. His name is Shyamakanta, later on known as So'ham Swami.

I speak of the extraordinary capacity of Shyamakanta and not of So'ham Swami. In fact, for the achievement he attained in the domain of physical strength, he deserves nothing short of the term genius. In this field, too, a Bengali was able to show his unique superiority. His strength was not merely physical strength. It was not the result of any physical culture. For there was a peculiar magic, almost a mantric power in his physical strength and capabilities. He could curb and control wild lions and tigers in the twinkling of an eye, not solely by physical strength but by something else as well. I do not refer to his moral force, though there were in him the qualities of calmness, courage and self-confidence beyond measure, which further enhanced his physical strength. I speak of a unique trait of his physical strength itself. For, it was as though his strength was derived more from his marrow than from his bones, more from his blood than from his muscles, more from his nerves than from his tendons. The well-nourished marrow, the vigour of blood and the firmness of nerves kept up a healthy, harmonious, powerful and unhampered current of vitality, and this current was the perennial fount of Shyamakanta's physical strength. His strength was not like the power of a machine. There was in it a natural and innate

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liveliness and an irresistible movement of nature itself, so to speak. Wild and ferocious animals used to crouch at his feet, awed by the current of his dynamic vitality. They felt that he was their Lord, their King.

Shyamakanta was able to invoke and retain in his body the physical strength of the Universal Nature by establishing a union: the identity between his own strength and that of the Universal Nature. Perhaps the realisation of this physical identity – 'I am That' – in the end raised him into the realisation of the Transcendental Identity.

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