with Sri Ganesh

Temple. Till today mostly each Saturday 3 or 4 hours he is working at G. Temple = taking great care of the premises without him I cannot think about the present beauty of the G. Temple, he who gave the shape. Mother provides him for G. Temple + our Ganeshaji welcomes him with great joy. Ganeshji looks so happy with him. I am so much relaxed now. Divakar is faithful, honest, sincere, dedicated his time, work to the Ganesh Temple. So after me Divakar only Divakar will be the incharge of the Auroville G. Temple. I hope you fulfil my wish. Love to all, Yours, Kusum” (Note:: it seems to me that we had met in 1991 0r 1992, the first time, for the repair of the temple bell; but Kusum writes it was in 1993.) While still in Pondicherry, Vipul and Madhu had emptied all of Kusum’s Bank Accounts, leaving only the two small Fixed Deposits which they could not touch, since I was the co-signatory. They made no movement towards the temple’ needs, but took everything with them. But soon enough, it became apparent that they did not intend to trust me at all and they began to accuse me of misuse and even to blame me for the illness that had caused her death. In subsequent visits, they campaigned against me in the Ashram and in Auroville, filed police complaints, went up to Delhi to make representations aiming at having me evicted from the country, and succeeded in blocking my visa for a period of time, having obtained from the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation that the recommendation for it be withheld. It was thus not quite easy for me to take up the service to the temple on a permanent basis. Since the day Kusum had been taken ill, I had had to attend to Sri Ganesh every day; I had the time, since I did not have my work at Matrimandir any longer. But in the course of the following months, much opposition was raised to my doing this: I was considered almost as a usurper, and there were those who argued that, not being born an Indian, it was wrong for me to tend to the deity.

A number of times Kusum had talked freely to me about her sons and their respective choices and situations; while she always poured her

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