Gotami came to know Sangharakshita in the very early days of the new movement and it was to her that he turned when thinking about an alternative to monastic robes for the first Order members whose ordinations were to be ‘neither monastic nor lay’; and for himself as the new Order’s founder, whose life represented a bridge between the traditional Buddhism into which he had been ordained eighteen years earlier and a new kind of ordination. Gotami writes:

'In the bottom of my sewing box I have a little pile of pieces of yellow Chinese silk that are the remnants from the first kesa I made for Bhante. We were designing the kesa and trying out different materials and patterns – he chose the white moire for the first ordinees - and he brought me this garment – I think it was a little sleeveless jacket - that had been worn by one of his revered teachers. I can't remember which, now, but it obviously meant a lot to him. He asked if I could make him a kesa out of the material and I did. When I showed him he said "But you've washed it!" And I said it was the normal thing to do before making something. He said "In Tibet they would just have rubbed it with breadcrumbs!" And I said "Well, how was I supposed to know that? If you didn't want it washed you should have said; I'm not a mind reader. Anyway it's done now and I can't undo it." And no more was said. But a long time afterwards I wondered how it was that he knew I had washed it, because it never occurred to me to tell him. Maybe there was some lingering fragrance or spiritual emanation that I had washed away, unknowingly, for ever!’