By GURUKA SINGH

… and then he looked at me and extended the wrapped napkin to me saying, “You want these, right?”

I replied in the affirmative.

He smiled and said, “They will give you a lot of power and protect you.”

I took the folded napkin gratefully and thanked him.

Later, when I looked at the ten perfect crescents, each nail looked as though it had been trimmed with a laser beam. The cut edges were perfectly smooth and perfectly even, despite having been cut with a very dull toenail clipper. Amazing! I kept the nail clippings in the napkin and placed them in my Nitnem (Sikh prayer book).

Over 20 years later, my wife Guruka Kaur said that she wanted to wear the nail clippings. We bought a lovely antique gold locket with three diamonds on it, and Guruka Kaur started wearing it.

From: SOPHIE

There was definitely a strong male/female energy between YB and many of the women who were close to him. I don’t mean the ones he had sex with, but the others, most of them in prominent positions of some sort that gave them regular contact with him.

I watched this for years – how when he was being charming and playful the women would giggle and blush like school girls, then later chatter with each other about it like they were reliving exciting first dates. When he was being harsh, they would respond like scolded lovers, feeling ashamed and rejected, and then scurry off to do whatever they could to please him and regain his affection. When he was being a pain in the ass, they would laugh and roll their eyes with affection, like loving, patient, seasoned wives, then do what they could to soothe him.

One time when he was visiting a major ashram after Solstice, I watched the women who had won the seva lottery and were in charge of his personal care. Cooking, cleaning, ironing his turbans and long robes. Picking up soiled underwear. Making his bed and carefully saving any hairs they found. Later they would gather to swoon over the hairs, which they shared with each other, each woman saving hers to be put away later like a precious relic.