I decided to stay there and build up an Ashram with an Orphanage. When I approached the government of Tamil Nadu with my idea they offered me an acre of land. I replied that it would not be sufficient. The government told me that if I wanted more land I should buy it myself. I did just that – I bought five acres of land initially close to Viralimalai in the Pudukkottai District. Slowly I also bought the surrounding lands and began to construct my Ashram and Orphanage there.

The children whom I had left behind in Sri Lanka wished to come to India and stay with me. Just as they asked, I brought them and they lived in the partly constructed Ashram. However, I still continued to stay with Mr. Seeni Thevar in Trichy. Most of my relatives, including my mother (my father died some years earlier), and a fairly large group of close devotees came to settle with me in India. They felt it best to stay close to me. We stayed in various houses in the area. Wherever we went, our little community did daily abishekams and poojas and we held weekly bhajans and speeches. Soon a growing group of Indian devotees started to gather around me.