with Sri Ganesh

extended the pebbled areas in front of and around the shrine, built a fairly large, landscaped lotus and lily pond, erected a new water tank cum bathroom, built a small independent room facing the temple for Kusum to store the things needed and have a place to sit and rest, etc… For each of these works, Kusum would feel energized to go out and seek donations from her various acquaintances and friends among the Ashram devotees, while I would see to the building and keep the accounts. Just as Kusum would, over the months and years of our relationship, find herself increasingly involved in the affairs of Matrimandir, I would find myself increasingly engaged in the upkeep of the temple and its garden. When I first visited the temple, Lord Ganesh had been for me the familiar and friendly figure one finds in every home, including mine; intellectually I knew next to nothing about him; popular belief had him enthroned as a bringer of prosperity and good luck, an auspicious figure in all circumstances. I had probably heard some of the legends related to him, but I could not have articulated any of them. But what was certain was that this was a friendly presence. (And, as a matter of fact, I had been given over the years a number of little Ganesha, so that there was hardly a corner of the house in which he was not represented.) I found the atmosphere in and around that tiny temple to be clean and clear and directly open to the Mother: I felt very safe there, and at home, and this in itself told me a lot more than any words could have about the nature and quality of Kusum’s sadhana. I reproduce here, as it expresses quite clearly, I think, the quality of Kusum’s dedication, a poem I had written and offered to her on the occasion of her birthday, in 1997: “ 10-5-1997 – Bonne Fête à Kusum – For Kusum Protected by Her son, The brother whom you serve, In the silent cloister Of your worship Erect under the fall Of Her water white silver and gold Ever truthful to the Lord Cool and fresh with pure life,

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