His gait was kingly and he looked tall and striking.

He held a palmleaf fan and four or five newspapers in his hand. He had draped himself with a green shawl. His locks lay in clusters around his face. His face was shining, and clean with a broad and brilliant forehead. Thus he stood blocking the temple tower and hill out of my view. A spurt of anger arose in me quite discernibly but meeting him eye to eye my anger was put out at once

 I sported a bear and matted hair. Being prosperous merchant, I wore a ring, a  chain around the neck and a bracelet, all of gold. Though it was a holiday for the market, it being Sunday, only I sat the shops in the bazaar. Perhaps swami wondered at this.

 
While he was watching me thus,I thought that I should him at least a cup of coffee. I turned the elder and said, “Sir! Please take some coffee”, in a loving tone and heard “Yes, alright” in reply in a deep tone. I felt the sound fill my mind and strike my body. I became alert once and brought me eyes and mind under control. The next moment I clapped my hands to call the boys playing on the terrace above the shop on the opposite side. The elder seated next to me asked me, “why do you clap your hands and call those boys”? I replied very humbly, “Sir! I called them to fetch the coffee”. The, swami was pleased to bid me for the first time. “Not them, You go yourself to get it”. This made me angry again. Perhaps! It was a mistake to have offered coffee to this man. Now he is giving me order?

 Perumal himself to be an important man, a respected merchant. In India a person of status doest not run errands for others or carry coffee across town, but has some one of a lower status do it for him. He had just met a strange beggar, about whom he knew nothing, and yet he was compelled by his presence and beauty to serve him without question, even though he felt some ambiguity and even anger about it. Who was this beggar to have such an effect on him, and so effortlessely? I twas most unusal, and on the other way back with the coffee, his anger was fueled all the more each time he had to decline two or three offers from other people to carry the coffee for him. At one point he replied to the offer to help, “I am taking this coffee for a venerable person. Therefore I must take it myself”.

Returning with the coffee he found that the swami was seated, facing west and smoking a cigarette. Even dressed in rags, there was a majesty about his presence. In fact he seemed more like a king than  a beggar. Perumal was surprised , but accepted that perhaps the swami had the habit of smoking.

 

“While you were on your way here, did not anyone offer to fetch the coffee”? the elder asked.  “ I did not give it to them. I brought itmyself”. Perumal answered.

Taking the coffee, the strange beggar poured in into four vessels and began cooling by pouring it from one vessel into another. His acts were entirely enigmatic to perumal, who watched while the beggar cooled the coffee, the  gave half the quantity to perumal while scrutinizing his beard and mattered hair. The he poured the other half of the coffee into the coconut shell that he carried, and holding it in one hand, continued to gaze at perumal.

 
“Who are you? Where do you live?” Yogi Ramsuratkumar asked suddenly. Perumal was rather taken aback, since there were sitting outside his shop,  and replied, “This metalware shop is mine”.   “At what t ime do you open the shop?” the swami asked.

 
“I open the shop at seven thirty in the morning. The closing time depends on the customers. I may even be ten at night when the shop is closed.”  “What is your name?” the beggar queried sweetly.

Sir! My parents and elders have named me Sivannanainda Perumal.” At this the beggar burst into a joyous peal of laughter for no apparent reason.  “Do you laugh because it is a very long name?”, Perumal asked trying not to be offended. At this he laughed more, and kept laughing until he finally looked at perumal and asked in soft voice, “ Why do you sport a beard and matted hair”?. Anger flared in perumal’s vital and he exclaimed, “That is on ething about which you should not ask!”  Yogi Ramsuratkumar only continued to gaze at him tenderly!”. Very shortly perumal left to conduct business and went about the rest of his day but he could not take his off the beggar, whom he referred to as an” elder”. He eventually went back to his shop that day in hope of seeing the elder again, but he was disappointed to find him gone. Perplexed by the whole interaction and the strange effect the elder was having upon him, a great restlessness began to plague him; he began to feel that he had lost something very precious.

The next morning, after his ablution and prayers to the sun, Perumal went back to open his shop. Later that morning he spotted  the swami coming  toward the shop from the east.  Without thinking, Perumal invited him to sit down in his shop. When the swami was settled Perumal sent for tea for everyone present, offering the tea whe it arrived, to the swami himself, which beggar lovingly accepted. From the decription given by perumal, it seems that the stature of the beggar, whom he now called “swami” – a title of respect – had begun to have its effect, and perumal wanted to offer him something more substantial. When breakfast arrived he offered the idlis (fermented rice pancakes) to the beggar.

 “Let us eat” he said, looking up at swami, Only then did he really see him for the first time.

 
His eyes  were like the two shining water white kernels of a freshly halved coconut, as though they were filled with tears, He said genly,

“What is sent is meant for one person only. For  you “.

 
I replied “ sir! You please accept it”.

Again  he said gently, “Let us both eat!”, I s aid yes at once and the opened the box. There were six idlis and a sufficient quantity of chutney and sambar to go with it. Swami ate  three idlis….then pointing to the boy who had fetched the meal, swami asked me “Who is  this? What is this name?.

 
I replied “His name is Raju. He is brahmachary. A true friend”.

 
Swami called the boy near and asked him, Do you know the name of this beggar? And then in nectarine voice swami revealed his name for the first time: “Yogi Ramsuratkumar”.

 
Looking at me he asked me, “what is your name?”.

 
To this I replied, “ My parents and elders have named me “Sivananainda Perumal.” Then Swami burst into a marvelous laughter which seemed to be suffused with joy. It became contagious and all of us laughed for at least five minutes. As he laughed, his face blossomed into redness.

 
Oh! There are many types of laughter! But I can never hear or see a laughter such as this. I have seen and heard many types of laughter. This was the laughter of perfect innocence that would enchant the mind of anyone. His laughter was such that my mind became empty of all thoughts and was totally transfixed in that laughter. It was a laughter which would gladden the hearsts of all, a laughter that I heard and saw so fully that I would never forget it.

 “I have a reason to elaborate upon this laughter. Have you seen your own mind feel a joy when you stand by the sea and watch the waves raise one after another  and race towards the shore? The laughter of our Lord Yogi Ramsuratkumar was like the sprouting of sheets and sheets of golden grain when the dark rain-bearing clouds shower down on parched earth. His laughter was gentle, too like the soft rain-petals that touch and nourish fresh grain. The mind that revels in the golden colors of the sky, the wonder of the rainbow and the eye that has enjoyed those sightscan understand what I am trying to say. Such was my state. It will be very difficult to understand his laughter that day, which was a dance of grace indeed. I cannot forget it.. Since the day I knew that laughter it has stayed to brighten my mind, even now.”