Some years after Vishvarupa left home to accept sannyasa under the name Shankararanya, a strange, brief episode took place in the house of Jagannatha Mishra in Nabadwip. Chaitanya-charitamrita tells it almost in passing. It comes between an account of the young Lord's schooling and the death of His father. It is one of the few moments in the whole of Chaitanya-charitamrita where Vishvarupa appears again. By this point he had been absent for years, and even now he appears only inside his brother's own mystical experience.
Betel Meant for the Deity #
One day, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ate some betel nuts that had been offered to the household Deity. Betel of that kind is not ordinarily eaten by a child, and it acted on Him as an intoxicant: He fell to the ground unconscious. His father and mother, alarmed, sprinkled water on His face and revived Him as quickly as they could. When Chaitanya came back to His senses, He said something that neither of them had ever heard from Him before.
Taken Away by Vishvarupa #
What Chaitanya described was an experience of being taken away by His brother. Vishvarupa, He said, had come and led Him off. Vishvarupa asked Him to accept the sannyasa order as well, and to follow the same path Vishvarupa himself had already taken years earlier. Chaitanya-charitamrita records His reply to Vishvarupa inside this vision almost word for word: "I have my helpless father and mother, and also I am but a child. What do I know about the sannyasa order of life? Later I shall become a householder and thus serve my parents, for this will please Lord Narayana and the goddess of fortune." Vishvarupa was satisfied, or at least accepted the answer. He is described as bringing Him back home. Before doing so, Vishvarupa asked one thing of Him: to offer thousands and thousands of obeisances, on his behalf, to their mother Sachi Devi.
A Message Carried Across a Vision #
Chaitanya-charitamrita does not spell out whether this should be understood as a literal dream, a mystic vision brought on by the sacred remnants Chaitanya had eaten, or something else again. But the episode's role in the larger story is clear. Vishvarupa has been gone from the story since Leaving Home Rather Than Marry. This is the one place where he speaks again, however briefly. Here his continuing concern for the mother he left behind is recorded in his own words, however they reached Chaitanya. It is also the only place in Chaitanya-charitamrita where Chaitanya is shown declining an invitation to sannyasa, years before He would accept it Himself after His father's passing.
Not long after this vision, Jagannatha Mishra himself passed away. Chaitanya, though grieving, carried out the funeral rites for His father according to Vedic custom. Then He settled for some years into married life as a grihastha, exactly as He had told Vishvarupa He intended to do. In all this time, no word of what had actually become of Vishvarupa himself had reached the family. How it finally did, years later and far from Bengal, is told in Word From Pandharpur.
