(....till I end my song)

                                                    EPILOGUE

         The School of Philosophy used to tell us that it is only when her mother dies that a woman comes fully into her own.

         My mother had gone and I was free at last.  I had done my duty and looked after her until she died.

         There is a passage in one of the Hindu Scriptures  * which talks about “a hundred years of doing one’s duty.”   I had done my duty    -     it had sometimes felt like a hundred years.

         There is no doubt that I had a deep, deep love for my mother.   After all, I was the fruit of her womb and the flesh of her flesh.  It was a love that transcended our superficial differences and personality problems.        I know that now.

         I was forty six years old and I was free.  Free to live my own life and, above all, free to follow the spiritual path which had opened up before me.

         All this will be revealed in the sequel to this book. 

*     Synchronicity led me to this quote from the Isa Upanishad.  It begins:

“Whatever lives is full of the Lord.  Claim nothing;   enjoy, do not covet His property.  Then hope for a hundred years of doing your duty.”