Meanwhile, since his studies had stopped, Nimai became uncontrollable in his restless mischief. Jagananth mishra told his wife Sachi, “let Nimai do what he wants as long as he stays home and doesn’t study.”
Amongst many pranks, Nimai’s favourite was to go out in the morning with his friends and scout the neighbourhood. They would look at what they could break and steal at night. They saw a huge garden of banana trees. At night three of them put on a big, white sheet over them and dressed up as a huge white bull. And in the bull costume they’d knock down all banana trees. The owner of the plantations would scream, “hai hai, what has happened to my trees? Who has done this?” Nimai and the boys would watch the fun from a distance and celebrate their mischievous deeds.
Another common mischief Nimai and his friends did was at night when everybody was fast asleep, they would tightly lock the doors from outside. When people residing in the house had to desperately respond to nature’s call, they couldn’t get out. During those days, the toilets would be outside the house. When it was time to pass stool and urine, they would pound on the door and scream, “Open the door, who has done this? I need to get out.” And the boys lead by Nimai would rejoice at the trouble they caused these brahmanas.
One day somebody gave Nimai betel nuts. He ate them and fell unconscious. When he came back to consciousness he told his parents that his brother viswarupa had appeared to him in a vision during his unconscious state. Dressed in the saffron robes of a sannyasi, he told Nimai, “come, my dear brother Nimai, please come with me.” Nimai told Jagannath Mishra and Sachi mata that in the wonderful dream he had, he told Vishwarupa that his parents had no one except him. He wouldn’t want to ever leave them. Nimai then said, “I told Vishwarupa that I will always be with my parents and he was very happy with my decision. He also offered obeisances to Sachi mata and sought your blessings.” He thus gave confidence to his parents that he would be at home with them.
To be continued…
