A beautiful legend describing innocent devotion of a 12 year old child is still remembered in relation to Lord Alarnath.
His father was the priest of Alarnath temple at Brahmagiri on the outskirts of Puri. But this 12 year old boy had never considered Lord Alarnath as the deity to be revered. He had adhered to what his mother had told him. “Lord Alarnath is your friend. Whenever you’ll need him, he will come out to befriend you and play with you”, he had always heard this from his mother’s mouth. The innocent child had never doubted his mother.
Whenever he had entered the temple, he had searched for his friend. And Lord Alarnath had always played with him like a friend. Both had laughed, danced and frolicked together. He had never told this to anyone.
Feed the Lord:
His priest father had to go out on pilgrimage. Before leaving home, the father advised his son to take care of food offerings to Lord Alarnath every day. ‘Never eat anything before providing food to the lord”, he told his son. The son nodded his head.
From next day onwards, the young boy took kheer cooked by his mother to the temple. He left the kheer pot in the inner sanctum and asked the deity to eat the food brought by him as his father was out on pilgrimage. Closing down the door he went out to return back after sometime. Every day he found the pot to be empty. He returned home with the empty plate. When asked by his mother, he used to reply that the Lord had eaten it up. His mother used to laugh thinking that the child had savoured the kheer after offering it to the deity.
Unbelievable devotion:
His father returned back after some days. He heard about his son returning home with empty kheer pot every day. He did not believe what his son said. He even beat up the child to extract the truth. But the child stuck to his statement that Lord Alarnath was eating up the kheer. To find out the truth, the priest followed his son to the temple next day.
The innocent child placed the kheer pot inside the inner sanctum and repeated his childish request to the deity to eat it up. Closing down the door, the child went away. The priest opened the door silently to check what was happening inside. He was awe stuck by what he saw. A mysterious divine entity was cherishing the kheer. The priest tried to catch hold of the hand of the divine being. The hot kheer spilled and burnt the lips and face of the divine being. The divine entity vanished in a hurry.
Kheer Prasad:
The priest realised that Lord Alarnath himself was savouring the kheer offered by his son. Innocent devotion of his son had pleased the divine. News of this child’s devotion got spread all around. In memory of this child devotee kheer is offered as Prasad to Lord Alarnath during the Anasara fortnight. Burn marks on the face and lips of Lord Alarnath’s idol make devotees bow down in reverence before the innocent devotion displayed by the priest’s 12 year old son.