CHAPTER XXVI
ERNAKULAM - ALLEPPEY
(i) What do you make of it?
A humorous and instructive story in the life of a high
official of Ernakulam may be cited here. The incident was
related by the official himself who was a sincere and pious
soul. He narrates:
"I am earning a sufficiently large salary for the upkeep
of my family, but cupidity is one of the greatest failings
to which human nature is subjected. Craving for wealth is
an insatiable fire. The more you feed the fire the more
furious it grows. My wife is a devout soul. She would
always be praying to the Almighty to bestow on me a
higher post than I now hold so that I might draw a larger
salary. But her appeals remained unheeded. So one day
she proposed to perform a special propitiation of the god-
dess of wealth in order to induce Her to yield her favour.
She got a clay image of the Devi made and installed it in
the room in which the family deity was worshipped. When
I asked her for the reason, she said that she intended to
worship the new image with a view to my being granted
promotion. She added that she had warned the goddess
that if she did not fulfil her wish in a month's time she
would abandon her worship. A month's time and notice
for the poor goddess!
"Worship went on from day to day with great
assiduity and offerings of choice prasadam. I was not parti-
cular about the number of days she performed the worship.
One day I found the place empty. The image was not
there. I called my wife and questioned her about the
disappearance of the goddess.
"*I have done with her,1 she replied with a look of
disgust. 'I did all I could to please her but she has not