My Experiences With A Great Saint

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He was spoken of, of belonging to the saints of the highest order by spiritually acclaimed people and other saints who came to seek His darshan. As a playful child spirituality was unknown to me but in my little mind was instilled by the fact that He was a Godly figure by my parents and elders of the family. Little did I realize the greatness of this spiritual giant Kodi Swamy who spent the last thirty years of His life at our residence, Puravipalayam, a small village near Pollachi in Coimbatore district of Tamilnadu.

Swamy had lived in Naikarapatti Zamin house in Coimbatore before He came to our house. Our elders were frequent visitors of the Swamy. Once when my mother was asked by my grandparents to accompany them to meet Swamy, she expressed her desire to have coffee before they left. But however she had to leave without coffee. This was her first visit to Swami and as soon as He saw her He called out to the cook of the house to fetch her some coffee. My mother was of course dumb founded.

On one of those visits to Swami by my elders, He got into the car of our family members and settled Himself comfortably in the upper portion of our palatial old house where He remained until His Mahasamadhi. The story about Him coming to our house was told and retold by our elders with immense pleasure and we children of a joint family listened with great fascination.

As a child I accompanied my mother who was blessed with the privilege of serving Him coffee every morning, which she did faithfully after the above-mentioned coffee episode. He was an old, bearded, fair man who wore more than four long coats one on top of the other at the same time. This was His attire during hot summers and cold winters. The only worthy thing that I followed in serving this great saint was to massage His feet occasionally imitating my elders. As a restless child always wanting to run out to play, I always tried to draw my head off from His lap in the course of His blessing (He did so by touching the heads of the devotees).

The Saint's Disposition
Swami's disposition was not always the same. At times He was jubilant and hearty like a child but sometimes He was pensive and did not entertain the company of visitors. At some other times He even resorted to shouting at visitors. He at times resorted to throwing things from upstairs. During one of my visits with my mom to Swami, we found Him conversing with someone invisible to our eyes. Neither could we hear Him talk nor could we see to whom He was talking. All that we could see were His lip movements and gestures. Suddenly He asked us to sit aside stating that the place was crowded. We were surprised at this, because there was no one else except us, the two silent spectators apart from Swami!