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INTRODUCTION
diseases and epidemics, too, added immensely to this mesmerism. N began to feel extremely uneasy when away from Smith and his surroundings. Smith also used to take him to the Collector and other Englishmen of Banaras, who in the course of their talks, while ealogising Christianity and its rites, also used to point out that the Christian Mission offered much more scope for N's brilliance and acquisitions than the Pandit society of Banaras which contained numerous rival candidates with equal or superior acquisitions. Whatever be the real cause, by c 1847 N completely surrendered his Hindu reason to Smith and began to utter publicly that Hinduism was all folly and ignorance aud Christianity alone was the true and divine faith, notwithstanding all that he himself had said and written previously! After some time he made no secret of it that he was soon going to get himself actually baptised. This sudden and radical change of mind was attributed by the Sastrin and the missionaries to a nystic divine revelation said to have occurred to him lately through a mental restlessness which ceased only when he decided upon his conversion !
N's aged father, uncle and all other relations and
acquaintances tried their utmost for a T'he Author's Conversion
year to dissuade N from this departure,
but failed. In the face of extreme opposition and hostile demonstrations both in family and in society, Nīlakantha Sīstrī Gore got himself baptized on 14. 3. 18 8 in the church at Jaunpur near Banaras and received the new name Rey. Nehemiah Goreh. The venue of the baptizm ceremony was fixed at Jaunpur
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
