with Sri Ganesh

Of the Great Mother, Piercing like a crimson sun Is the One’s Love Through your breast, Ganeshaye, And Agni is below And Agni is above… Aum Namo Bhagavate

In the afternoon I cycle back here to do more preparations, only to find, when I reach the gate, that I have forgotten the keys…! A good start to the usual wreckage of the yearly Chaturthy episode…!

- 16-09-15:

There is a constant hot wind that tosses all the branches every way like a whirling force… Madhu has arrived from Ahmadabad, alone, weakened and quiet, and he has brought two little cotton fibers hand brooms for tending Sri Ganesh; he sits in silence a long time… Rs. 20/- have been offered. I spent Rs. 3,000/- for the laddus which W. and R. bring at noon from town. I spend another Rs. 4,000/- through Perumal to order and bring all the flowers… Namaste Sri Ganesh… This may have been for me, to date, the toughest Chaturthy day: there was the whole day this nasty hot whirling wind and the garden was miserable and the flowers one tried to lay here and there were swept away… Yet somehow I think that all those who came, perhaps some 200 people, may have been pleased and moved by what they found – and there was no incident. It went on till 7 in the evening. I dressed Sri Ganesh in shimmering smoky green, set his silver crown with Your symbol on it, hung his scarf on his left shoulder and two small garlands on his right and surrounded him with a perimeter of large green cucumbers and lady-fingers, a triangle of sacred grass and coconuts and lots and lots of orange and yellow “Plasticity” flower petals… Perumal was a good and steady help throughout… - 17-09-15: Chaturthy Day

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