Lahirī Mahāśaya had a residence in Śāntipura. His two sons. were both highly educated. The elder, Candranātha, who was thirty-five years old, was a zamindar, and managed all the household affairs. He was also a scholar in medical science. Candranātha never underwent any hardship for the sake of spiritual progress, but he commanded tremendous respect in the brāhmaṇa community. He employed servants, maids, doorkeepers, and other workers, and he managed all the household affairs with comfort and prestige.
From childhood, the younger son, Devīdāsa, had studied the śāstras dealing with logic (nyāya-śāstra) and that presents the codes of religious ritual (smṛti-śāstra). Across the road from the family residence, he had opened a pāṭha-śālā, a school dedicated to the study of the four Vedas and four subjects: Sanskrit grammar, rhetoric, logic, and philosophy. There he taught a group of ten to fifteen students and had the title Vidyāratna (jewel of learning).
One day a rumor circulated in Śāntipura that Kālīdāsa Lāhirī Mahāśaya had put on the dress of an ascetic and had become a Vaiṣṇava. The news spread everywhere – at the bathing ghāṭas, in the market-place, and on the streets.
Someone said, “The old man has become senile. He was a man of ideal character for so long, but now he has gone mad.”