I always thought ‘swami amma’ was immortal - 01

There wasn’t even a speck of divinity in her. She was the first saint I have seen who was completely devoid of all divinity.

During my LL.B years in Trivandrum I once went to meet late abc swami. I was accompanying Tapsyananda swami. We were called into his room and sat on comfortable chairs. The room had mahagani furniture, book shelves and swami sat on a corporate chair. I glanced through the book shelves. From what I remember today, I remember seeing only oxford dictionaries in those shelves. They weren’t the single volume editions but the most comprehensive dictionaries I have ever seen and never seen after. Letter A itself ran into various volumes. Paying no attention to the discussion in the room I was trying to figure out which letter had the most volumes. Drinks came in which interrupted my research. It was served in big glasses the ones you will find in a typical juice shop in Kerala. The drink resembled juice too.

I took a sip and loved the taste. The taste was similar to ayurvedic medicine genre arishtam. I doubted alcohol content in it. It tasted very good. I looked at Tapasyananda swami. He was sipping it as if it was hot coffee. There should be alcohol in it, I thought.

abc swami talked on the origin of the drink. I can’t remember what exactly prompted Devi to come to his dreams but gave him the recipe for this magical drink. The drink has medicinal powers. There are too many details which I can’t remember today and I doubt it had alcohol content.

I finished off my drink, offered help to Tapasyananda swami and went back to my research. My wondering eyes would have annoyed abc swami. I felt as if somebody is staring at me and to my astonishment I realized that swami was actually looking at me. He had just finished on the origin of the drink. I asked, “So there is a speck of divinity in it, isn’t it?” I asked him in English. With all those volumes of oxford dictionaries around me, Malayalam suddenly became too inferior to use. I can’t remember whether he smiled to it but he answered in English, “Not a speck of it ; whole of it”. I loved it. It would have made a perfect advertisement line. I just imagined me on a bill board with my girlfriend leaning on me and the caption said, “Not a speck of it; whole of it”. An energy drink adv or should that be a? I was confused because I was drunk.

abc swami asked my name. I answered. He gestured me to come closer. I stood from my chair and went near him. With the thumb of his foot he pressed the thumb of my foot. It didn’t pain but I felt uncomfortable. He placed the thumbs of his hand on two sides of my forehead and pressed. I looked at him and smiled. He pressed it further. It was neither painful nor uncomfortable. I felt as if my mind went blank. Perfect blackout; just gone from the material world. He took his fingers and asked me to open my mouth. He put some bhasmam (vibhoothi) into my mouth and asked me to swallow which I did. I became perfect. This wouldn’t mean that I was imperfect a while ago. I became normal. I wasn’t drunk any more but my mind got filled with temptations to drink that drink more. With just one glass I became addicted.

Later, I recreated the whole episode. Drunk on various types of alcohols I asked my friends to do exactly what swami did on me, it just pained.

I never went back to see him and oxford dictionaries never reminded me of him.

[The first paragraph refers to swami amma and not to abc swami. That leaves me with no option but to continue]