Gamarala Divyaloke Giya ( The farmer that went to heaven)

Long long ago in a quiet village lived a Gamarala, who grew paddy. He worked tirelessly tending to his crops.  One day as he was walking through a paddy field his heart sank. A large portion of the paddy had been chewed away, he cried out “oh my  precious paddy”. He was enraged and deeply saddened at what had happened to all his hard work. Someone or something had feasted on his precious paddy.

To teach the culprit  a lesson he went to his field at night and kept watch. He was trying his best to stay awake, something unbelievable happened. Down from the clouds descended a beautiful, elegant white elephant.

 Without even waiting a minute to look around, the elephant began to eat the paddy. Gamarala forgot why he had come to the field. He was more  surprised and even more curious to see what’s within the clouds and possibly in heaven. As the elephant was preparing to leave he ran and clung on to its tail.

Gamrala returned the next day with the elephant. He ran home delighted and excited to tell his family about what had happened and what he had seen. After he told his family about heaven and about how  he had gone there, his wife, and the rest of his family were also curious and even more desperate to see what Gamarala had seen.

On the following day, Gamarala along with his family went to the field at night and kept watch until the elephant arrived. After the elephant arrived and was ready to leave after feasting, they all tiptoed towards the elephant. Gamarala held on to its tail and the others held onto each other.

As they were rising through the clouds toward heaven Gamarala’s wife asked him “ How big are the paddy fields in heaven”. Excited to answer the question, Gamarala forgot that he was holding on to the elephant’s tail. Using his hands to show the magnitude of the fields, he let go of the elephant’s tail. Down came tumbling Gamrala and his family. Unfortunately, the elephant never returned again. With the flight of the elephant disappeared their dreams of ever seeing heaven.

-Rtr. Nethroo Balasooriya