Shri Swami Samarth was a great spiritual teacher and saint. Swamiji was a person who was a bit deranged in his behaviour. It was more a genius behaviour than anything else. He often behaved like a possessed person. A sanyasi or seer has daily routine like getting up in the morning and do spiritual activities like dhyan, japa etc. But Swamiji was not a person who did all this regularly. Swamiji day to day activities like bath, meals etc were handled by his assistants. With the assistants also, he used do the daily activities only when he wished. So no attendant could force him to do things.
The Mood
Swamiji used to take bath twice a day but at times he did not bother to take bath for a week. There was no particular place he used to visit. It all depended on his mood. When he wanted to visit a palace he would visit one and whe he wanted to visit a graveyard he would visit the graveyard. People who were serving him had a tough time because his mood kept changing. This was a real test for the perseverance of the people who were serving him. Swamiji used to be in angry or joyful mood for days together.
Swamiji was dead against untouchability and never observed the rules of touchability or purity which was common those days in India. Swamiji made it a point that his devotees never observed such rules and took classes only these subject to make them understand. There are many stories in this regard. Balappa who was his staunch devotee was made to drink water from a house under moruning period and two other devotees were asked to offer food to a Muslim fakir and the dog and were made to eat the remains. Swamiji never liked hypocrisy and anyone raising any similar issues was shouted at angrily.
Against Conventional Preaching
Swamiji was dead against the conventional preaching and Swamiji used to quote from the Vedas and also compositions in Hindi and Marathi. Swamiji once became angry at a Puranic who in his discourse mentioned that having a son is a requirement because the son gives admission to heaven. Swamiji was angry hearing this and asked the Puranic whether the great sages like Narada, Vyasa, Vamadev and other had sons. According to Swamiji, if a son can give moksha to his father then even dogs and pigs would achieve moksha. The Puranic gave up the debate and was convinced by the points Swamiji made and later had a son too.
