Mad Man of Naranath

 

Once upon a time there lived in a small village in Kerala a person called the Mad man of Narnath. He lived alone and led a happy life. One day, he decided to celebrate his birthday  in a grand scale. One day he decided to celebrate his birthday in grand scale and  invited all his neighbors for the feast.

 He went to the nearby market and purchased all the materials - rice, vegetables, jaggery, oil and other condiments. He also hired the services of two cooks. He found that  he was short of vessels for cooking. He then approached his neighbors and requested them to lend him some vessels for a couple of days.

 All his guests arrived on his birthday and enjoyed a sumptuous and tasty food. They thanked Naranath for his hospitality. Since the borrowed vessels were not returned even after few days,  neighbors came to his house and enquired about their vessels. He told them he would be returning the vessels with in the next two or three days.  As promised,  the vey next day Naranath went to his neighbors houses and returned the borrowed vessels. In addition, he also gave each of them another small vessel of the same type. When enquire about the additional vessel, he told them he had kept their vessels in an underground cellar in his house. When he opened the cellar to take back the vessels, he found the small vessels also there.  According to him, these were babies of the original vessels. The neighbors were extremely happy to receive an additional vessel and profusely thanked Naranath for his benevolence.

 After few months, Naranath decided to celebrate the death anniversary of his father. As before, he invited all his neighbors for the anniversary. This time also he borrowed few vessels from his neighbors. They were extremely pleased to give him the required vessels on loan since he had given them additional baby vessels in the earlier occasion.

After the feast was over, Naranath collected all the borrowed vessels, went to the nearby market and sold all of them. He could earn a good amount from the sale. Since the neighbors did not get back their vessels given on loan even after a week, they approached Naranth and requested him to return their vessels.  He told them that he was extremely sorry as he was not in a position to return their vessels. He told them he had kept their vessels in the cellar in his house. When he opened the cellar to give them back their vessels, to his utter dismay he found that all the vessels were dead. He expressed his deep sorrow on the death of their vessels. The neighbors were extremely angry and asked him as how their vessels could die? 

They all went in unison to the village court and lodged  a complaint. The court asked Naranath to explain his conduct and ordered to return the vessels. Naranath humbly and politely explained his case. He told the court that in the earlier occasion, he had returned the original vessels of his neighbors along with additional baby vessels. This time also he had kept the vessels in his cellar and when he opened it to return the vessels, to his utter dismay and sorrow, all the vessels had died.  He prayed to the court that he was in no way responsible for the incident. He told that  as birth was natural, so was death. The court dismissed the appeal of his neighbors.

It is told that Naranath lived happily for many more years.

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