MOTHER PARVATI INTERFERES

Coffee is a must in South India. Everybody used to bring coffee to the ashram and try to make Bhagavan drink it. If he refused to drink, others would feel too guilty to take it themselves. For their sake, Bhagavan would sometimes taste their coffee.
Very few people found out that he didn't like coffee at all. Using one pretext or another, Bhagavan would manage to avoid coffee for weeks until, once again, he was compelled to take it by some misguided devotee. One day Appu Sastri's wife came with a big pot of excellent coffee, but Bhagavan refused to have any.
'Don't you know that I don't like coffee?' he asked.
She fought back by asking, 'What am I to do? I had a dream last night in which I saw a very stately lady at the gate of the temple. I knew at once that she was Parvati herself. She told me, "My son is not taking coffee. Please prepare some good coffee and make him drink." There you are, Swami. It's your mother's orders!'
Bhagavan got indignant. 'She [Parvati] is always like this, interfering with my ways of living and frustrating my tapas. She did the same when I was living on the hill.'

— Subbalakshmi Ammal