Damodar Mauzo, Goa-based literary writer and Sahitya Academy winner who, according to the Karnataka SIT is also one of the persons on the hit-list of militant Hindutva organizations, recalls the early days in Goa soon after the Sanstha was founded and the Ashram was set up. “In a sense, Goa was a very soft ground for these people since people here respect each other’s privacy and don’t normally enquire into what is happening in the neighbourhood. We initially thought them to be a benign organization. But then, some people who I knew for long started complaining that people who go inside the Ashram are brainwashed and indoctrinated, and that they never return home. Some parents came to me also and reported that their children had been the victims. That’s when I realised there was some problem and soon after the Margaon blast happened," Mauzo recalls.