Naranathu Branthan, The Philosopher in Disguise

The entire world had turned materialistic in the past few decades. The concept of life itself has changed a lot from enjoying a peaceful life with lesser requirements to lead a fast and busy life and accumulate as much wealth as one can in his lifespan. At this scenario, story of Naranathu Brandan, the great philosopher in the disguise of a mad man is certainly relevant.

Statue of Naranthu Branthan in Palakkad District

As he has called as “Naranathu Branthan” or the “mad man of Naranathu” his real name is not known. He too is from the famous ‘Parayi Petta Panthirukulam’ and believed to be brought up by an Ilayath family. According to the caste system in Hinduism, especially being practiced in Kerala, ‘Ilayath’ is a subdivision of Brahmins, but will not perform rituals related to temples. Their duty is to conduct rituals related to souls and these rituals being performed on death anniversaries by the wards of the dead.

However, Naranath Branthan was not interested in taking this profession instead of prefers to wander along the village streets aimlessly. His favorite hobby was to roll up big stones to the top of a hillock in the village and at the top, he will leave his hands letting the stones roll down. He will laugh loudly seeing the stones rolling down. When you go through many other stories of this mad man philosopher, we will understand that he was trying to convey the message that life is a silly thing and not to be taken seriously.

Every day he used to practice this exercise till noon and then he will go for begging. On those days, people used to give food articles such as rice, vegetables, etc to the beggars. He too used to collect such articles and wherever he reaches by sunset, he makes the place his shelter for that day. He used to cook there, eat there and sleep there.

One day he reached a crematorium by sunset and he decided to make it as his shelter for that day. People have just left after the cremation and hence there was fire too in the pyre. He took out some logs from the pyre and cooked his food and had it. By that time it was night and he started sleeping. In between, he woke up hearing some strange noises. He saw a few ladies standing a bit far from him.

It was a Friday and it is believed that Goddess Kali will visit graveyards on Fridays along with her friends. It was Kali and her friends who came there as a part of their visit. They saw a man there which they are not supposed to. Hence they came near Naranath Branthan and introduced themselves. Then they said to him that it is their practice to visit graveyards every Friday at midnight and to enjoy dancing. They are not supposed to do so in the vicinity of a human being. They also demanded him to leave the place quickly.

Hearing all their words, Branthan spoke calmly.

“Even I too have some regular practices. I used to stay at the place where I reached by sunset. I cannot and don’t want to change the practice. You can go to some other graveyards or can dance at some corner of this one. I am not at all interested in your dance and I will not sacrifice my sleep for seeing your dance”.

For Goddess Kali and her friends, it was a really shocking experience. Usually, people will get scared at first sight of them. Here a man is quite refusing to obey their orders. Then they started scaring him by disguising in various horrible shapes. Naranath Branthan watched the show with a smile and at the end of it, he asked politely.

“So, have you finished your show? Then please leave me alone. I want to sleep.” Hearing these words they all blushed as they were not able to scare a human being. Then Kali came forward and told him.

“You are not a common man. Mistaking you as an ordinary person, we behaved with you in this manner. We are apologizing for it. Now we do not want to disturb you and we will move to some other place. However, we have a practice to either curse or give a boon to a human being if we come across somebody. You being a holy person, we do not want to curse you. So, please ask for a boon.”

“He refused to accept their boon; still he had to accept their request as they pleaded with him. He asked her to tell when he will die. Kali told the exact time and date of his death. Then he asked her to give him the boon so that he can live one more day. Kali expressed her inability that she is not capable of changing the decision of the creator. Then he asked for a boon so that he will die one day earlier. For this request also she expressed her inability.

Then Naranath Branthan told her that he knew very well that she cannot do anything as far as life is concerned. Anyway, he will ask for a boon to shift the elephantiasis on his left leg to his right leg. She happily did it and left the place.

There are several stories of Naranth Brantha which underlines his philosophy about the life which he had considered a bloody silly thing.

The house where Branthan believed to have grown as a child

Once He was sitting on a roadside, counting ants that were going in line. One person approached him and asked how many ants have gone. He replied that already 500 have gone and 500 more are there. Everything will be clear if that 500 also goes. The man who asked the question was a rich person who had almost 1000 acres of land and he was suffering from a strange stomachache. He sold almost 500 acres of land for his treatment and other tantric rituals to recover from the ace but went in vain. Now he is left with 500 more acres and the man understood what Branthan meant. He sold the rest of 500 acres of land too and dispersed the amount between many poor people. Once that money is exhausted, he got relief from the pain.

Even this story indicates that according to this great philosopher, life means the joy in living and it should be turned to an effort to amaze physical wealth.