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Journey to Group Livings of WTT in India, Part 8: The Essence

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024

It is now a week ago that I started the journey back home from India and nearly five weeks since the start. Through the fog of inner and outer impressions, the contours of what I experienced slowly become clearer. In this mist, there is a light shining through which becomes stronger when I contemplate on it, and I might call it the essence. It is inside but it is shining into the outer as well. It has been impregnating me and keeps doing so.

The journey itself is like a multi-dimensional cinema experience – I go in and I go out again. And the intensity fades when the cinema show ends. With a cinema show, there is mostly no lasting impact. And it is the same with many things I encounter in India – they are not of relevance for my life in the West and face away again. But each journey is like a “reset” of my life which is not possible when I stay comfortably at home. It is a transformation experience. Such a pilgrimage journey helps me to better align to the purpose of my life. And gain fresh vigour and determination.

Abu Dhabi airport

There were many exchanges, I saw saw many forms of community/communities and coherence/being together. With the group members and other people I encountered, I perceived an intense striving for divinity, expressing spirituality in daily life. It was much stronger perceivable than in the surroundings of my Western life. And this was very inspiring. Although I cannot and do not want to live and work and express myself in a way I saw in India – and I also saw forms which kept me at a distance and were disgusting – it gave me fresh resolve to express divinity and spirituality in my life and through the ways and forms which are possible in my surroundings. It is a matter of inner attitude. This fresh impulse is most essential for me.

The Triangular Book of Count Saint Germain

At the beginning of the journey, on the very first day, Sri Joshi showed Mark and me photos from a manuscript which he and Shreya had taken at the Getty Research Institute in LA, the Triangular Book of Count Saint Germain (Master CSG). I was very thrilled to see the beautiful drawings and writings in perfect handwriting mostly in cipher language. It was a touch of the great Master who had built a bridge of the wisdom of Hierarchy from the East to the West – although it still remains a mystery. I didn’t know about this book but we are reading in a German study group the “Most Holy Trinosophia” of Master CSG, which Master EK had mentioned, and Sri Joshi wanted to send the photos. I didn’t receive it but the information came in other ways, by sharing with group members and some further search: the entire book is scanned and online; it is translated into English here. There are two manuscripts of the Triangular Book, one dated 1775, the other 1750. There is a very interesting website about it, “The Triangular Book“, by an anonymous author, giving an aura of mystery. He hinted at a book and he might be the author himself, since he writes about “my publication of Triangular Book of St. Germain (Ouroboros Press, 2014). So, it is probably Nick Koss, who produced an exquisite limited edition reproduction published in Seattle, from where my friend Mark Ray came and where he passed over at return of our journey, completing his cycle on earth.

I do not know which is the relevance of all these impressions and all information about the “Triangular Book” of Master CSG for me. But I mention here this story because it shows well how mysteries reveal themselves when the time is ripe, even if it takes centuries. I learn not to rush but let things develop themselves.

And this is, where the end of my blog-posts about the “Journey to Group Livings of WTT in India” touches the beginning. The mystery of the extremely intense experiences of this journey.

Drawing of Master CSG, from the Manly Palmer Hall heritage collection, manuscript 209, at Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (c)

Journey to Group Livings of WTT in India, Part 5: The Passing of Mark Ray

Tuesday, January 16th, 2024

Over the last months, Mark Ray and I had developed the plans for our journey to India. Mark was a third generation theosophist from Seattle, USA, in link with the Wisdom teachings since his youth. He studied psychology but preferred to work with his hands, so he specialised on renovating houses. For years, he was very active in the Theosophical Society Seattle, be it as president, be it in development of Indralaya, a theosophical center on Orcas Island committed to community and spiritual development.

Ever since he came into contact with the WTT he increasingly committed himself to build a bridge between theosophy and the World Teacher Trust teachings of Master KPK and Master EK. He met Master KPK at a group living in San Jose, California, in 2018 and again at the May Call 2019 at Mount Shasta, California. There, we shared a room together and very quickly became friends. For me, it was like meeting a brother in a deeper sense of the word.

We had been in regular monthly contact via Zoom. These were intense exchanges about many spiritual topics. And nearly at every exchange, Mark gave me profound astrological insights, be it from the perspective of Western or of Vedic astrology – in both, he was very well versed.

On 22 December early morning, we met at Bengaluru airport, he coming from Seattle via Frankfurt, me from Zurich via Abu Dhabi, arriving by chance at the same moment at the immigration counters.

Together with Mark and Sri Joshi, the head of Sadguru Tapovana, Bengaluru,before departure to the Nilagiris

Next day, we went to the Master Mountain Retreat Center in the Niligiris, the Blue Mountains of South India, the place of the ashram of the great Rishi Agastya, where we spent 4 days. Then we returned to Sadguru Tapovana, the WTT center in Bengaluru, where we participated at the December Call celebrations.

Mark, on arrival at Master Mountain Resort in the Nilagiris

Afterwards we flew to Visakhapatnam and participated in the group living there.

We shared the room together over the entire journey and had intense exchanges. These were very harmonious days and Mark was continuously active speaking with members about their astrological charts. He had a GoPro camera with him and we did a number of video interviews about WTT activities at different places – we planned to do a report. And he recorded a gorgeous sunrise in the Nilagiris and we planned to do a video with an Indian bamboo flute player, Kaliprasad, whom we met in Bengaluru and in Vizag.

On Tuesday, 9 January, he started his return journey. From Vizag airport, he wrote to me at noon time:
“I didn’t get to say goodbye but we will see each other again soon on Zoom. I am at the airport and went through check in a security without problems. Then I found my hat upstairs and something western to eat. No more rice for a while. 🙂
There is now a blizzard warning over the mountains to my home so I may have to stay overnight at my sisters again. India has been very kind to me on this trip. I never felt afraid to walk on the streets and had no problems except for the bronchitis. It is hard to leave so many kind and spiritual people.(…) Now I have to formulate my thoughts on the trip and how to make the World Teacher Trust more universal. Meanwhile I will rest and reconnect with family. Thank you again for this great opportunity!”

About 3 hours later, he wrote: “I am in Bangalore now and at Terminal 2. The plane was about 30 minutes late but that is not a problem for me. My Lufthansa flight leaves at 3:30 am so I have a long wait.”
Then he wrote from Frankfurt: “I caught my last flight and am about to take off. Seattle in nine hours.”

This was the last e-mail. On arrival in Seattle, on the way through the customs, Mark (26 April 1954 – 10 Jan 2024) left the body and took the flight to the subtle planes of Light. It was the time of the new moon of Capricorn -Capricorn being the time of the beginning of the solar ascent symbolizing the ascent of the Soul out of the conditioning of matter. And the time of new moon symbolizes the beginning of a new cycle of further development – a very auspicious time for passing over to continue the path on the subtle planes.

Mark had been absorbing the impressions in India like a dry sponge, also with his video cam – I asked him, “will you find time for viewing all this?” But it was a profound soul experience he had – which also made him a bit careless about his health – not only me had warned him to protect his body better and that the warmth here is rough, carrying the energies of winter and affecting the bodies, esp. those from the West.
He got a bronchitis the last days and a doctor at the seminar and healing practitioners gave him medicine. His body was somehow weakened before the return flight but he seemed to be OK. There must be a deeper reason for his sudden passing. There were signs that his soul knew about the passing already: He told several friends from the group about dreams he had during the last nights where he saw faces, esp. of his mother, staring at him, and he asked a friend of mine, “What do they want to say to me, I do not understand.” She told him, “Ask them to tell you.”

These premonitions show that the veil between the spheres was becoming thinner already and that, though a great surprise on the outer, there was a knowledge in the inner of the coming departure.

Before his departure, he gave me all his video recordings, and we had planned to do some report about the journey He had recorded a most splendorous sunrise in the Nilagiris and I had contacted a very well-known bamboo flute player here who wants to play a morning raga for the sunrise video – in a way, this is for me an expression of the gift of Mark’s inner radiance as an inspiration to others, and as his life had been for many.

Mark on arrival at the Master Mountain resort on 23 December 2023 afternoon

Mark, farewell and have a good continuation of your journey!

Capricornian sunrise at Christmas morning 2023 in the Nilagiris

Early this morning Indian time, I came to know that another dear friend from Germany had passed over exactly the same day as Mark, Renate Vincent from Germany. She was one of the early German translators of the books of Master EK. About 2 years, Master Kumar asked me to keep actively contact with her, so we had a few talks and she joined my English online study group for a short while, but then other tasks made her resign. Renate, also to you a much blessed journey to the subtle spheres of Light!


Journey to Group Livings of WTT in India, Part 4: Visakhapatnam: Group Living/Seminar and Visits

Tuesday, January 16th, 2024

This year’s January group living of the Western brotherhood of WTT in Visakhapatnam, India, was very special, and for me already before going there. It was my 21st journey to a January group living and the 23rd journey to WTT in India, the 27th journey to spiritual group livings in India since 1982. How would things be, a bit after Master KPK had passed over 1 November 2022? Sri Kumar had often explained that the MASTER is an eternal principle and that a teacher is just an expression of of the Master Consciousness.

Sunrise over the ocean. Master Kumar told that at this place,in the subtle, there is a temple linking the city of Vaisakha to the Vaisakha Valley, where Hierarchy meets each year during Vaisakha Full Moon in Taurus.

Master KPK has left behind a great treasure of books, audio and video recordings having come from his tremendous work of teaching. We had planned to do a seminar in the rhythm of earlier group lives with the January 2016 recordings about “Female Hierarchy”. Master’s teachings had been most sublime and the video recordings had been well edited but aren’t published yet.

Guru Prasad during fire ritual

Guru Prasad, the son of the Master, or Bharath, a group member and family member, were always present to ensure that the projectors were working well. We were just a small group of 8 members from Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the US. But we felt we were gathered there by the will of the Master.

Pictures of Master KPK and Mother Krishna Kumari, his wife, decorated with flowers during fire ritual

It was a harmonious gathering. And it was a surprising coincidence that at the beginning of the first lecture, Master KPK mentioned that the group lives in India started in January 1988 with a small group of 8 members from the West and then slowly grew with the years, with an average of 30-60 members.

Masters of Hierarchy, a statue of Krishna and an image of Hanuman in the room dedicated to Master KPK, where he used to give consultations

From 2 to 9 January, we saw the 10 lectures of the 2016 seminar. We were all intensely absorbed into the presence of the Master – there was no feeling of seeing a YouTube video or that the presence of the Master was not physical – it was the Presence in the presence. The temple room is strongly vibrating through the ritualistic work having gone on since 1977 at this place, although the building changed. The rooms dedicated to Master EK and Master KPK are very magnetic with the presence of the energies of the Masters and it was an ongoing profound experience, like a focal point of a radiance of Light in a vibrating silence.

Pictures of Lord Venkateshvara, of Gopis dancing with multiple manifestations of Lord Krishna and of an Ashram

We were invited to the homes of Guru Prasad, Bharath – living now with his family in the 5th floor of Radha Madhavam – and other members. We made small excursions with their cars – to the Annadanan Project (explanations later), where there is now the storage of the Dhanishta Publications, to the Bala Bhanu School of WTT seeing the radiant faces of the children, and to the social service project of Master EK Samskruthi Sadan doing professional training programs, especially for empowering women, to the temple and service project of WTT “Hamsavanam” in Ramadri, to the new impressive temple compound of the Tirupati Devastanam on a hill dedicated to Lord Venkateshvara, to the office of Chartered Accountaints “Rao and Kumar” which the Master had developed over many years and where Guru Prasad, together with 10 other associates, and many interns, are doing an impressive professional activity. It was touching sitting at the places where the Master had been working.

Annadanam project, by members of the team of Master KPKs office – daily free food production with an automatised cooking machine and distribution at various places to people in need
Guru Prasad explaining the automatised cooking machine
Food coming from the machine, before dispatch
Part of the store rooms of the books of Dhanishta at the Annadanam project
The group at the new temple of Lord Venkateshvara near Bheemili
Gorgeous sunset at the temple
At Balabhanu Vidyalayam school of WTT – combining regular education with living spiritual values
The group at Bala Bhanu school
At Master EK Samskruthi Sadan – women professional empowerment training
At Ramadri – Temple project of WTT combined with professional training of women and cow culturing center
In the office of Rao & Kumar – the room where Master KPK used to work
Guru Prasad explaining the office
Valedictory function – celebration of end of seminar in the home of Guru Prasad and Gayatri

We further followed water and fire rituals at Radha Madhavam and participated in beautiful music concerts – of Smt Padmavathi Pappu playing Vina, accompanied by her son Jayadev, and of Kaliprasad Indraganti, an excellent bamboo flute player together with a team of other musicians.

On the 9th of January, there was the end of the seminar and the valedictory function, expressing our gratitude to Guru Prasad and his wife Gayatri and the team of helpers from the Indian brotherhood.

On 10th of January, we visited the temple of Simhachalam dedicated to Lord Narasimha. It was very nice to be there again, like in many previous years. And in the evening, the Guru Puja celebration started, about I will report later. But something else also happened which impacted the entire group and especially me, about which I will the in the next blog post – the passing of my dear friend Mark Ray, who had started his home journey on the 9th.

The group at Simhachalam temple

Why do I go to India?

Wednesday, December 13th, 2023

In about a week, I will fly again to India. Why do I do this? Why do I do nearly the same tour like in previous years? Why do I do so, although my spiritual teacher, Master KPK (Sri Parvathi Kumar), has departed from the physical plane and thus, there are no more occasions for listening to his live teachings and being in his physical presence? – The photos here are from a group living in Visakhapatnam 20 years ago, January 2003, the first year of travelling with a digicam.

I heard from a number of friends, why they don’t go this year, why they don’t go anymore and why they don’t like to go anymore to India, to the group livings there.

I listened to them and asked myself deeper, “Why do I go to India, to the group livings of the World Teacher Trust over there, also this year? Is it by habit? By something extraordinary which I would find there?” Seen from an outer side, I had decided to go and accompany Mark, a good friend of mine from Seattle. And to do the journey in the traces of the previous year. And I cancelled my other ideas.

When thinking of the deeper reason for the present journey, my thoughts go back to my first journey to the WTT in India in Dec.-Jan 2000/01. There were some decisive statements of Master KPK which impregnated me. He said, “There are many reasons not to come to these group livings (he enumerated some such reasons) but they are all not valid for the soul.”

He explained the spiritual importance of coming to India in the month of Capricorn where the Sun starts his northern journey, from out of dense matter towards the light, the spirit. These statements deeply impressed me and made me say inwardly, ‘I will try to come to India every year to be there for the wisdom teachings of the Master’. And, with the exception of Corona time, it was always possible, in spite of many difficulties by profession, health and money.

These Aquarian wisdom teachings did not finish with the passing of the Master. They go on, also with the help of videos and with the members coming together for aligning to the wisdom in the group living at the place, where the Master was teaching. We are carrying on the work.

The place has been highly magnetised by Master KPK’s presence and the presence of Master EK, who lived there as well. It is very important to keep the rhythm alive, and the place is well suited to continue with the teachings. Although this year, the group coming from the West will be smaller than in other years, the ones who are coming are profound friends and fiery seekers. Therefore, I am very much looking forward to go again to the next group living.

I give you here a translation / extracts from the notes of the seminar January 2001 on ‘White Magic’, explaining why our coming to wisdom teaching group lives in India is so important:

“The land of India has been energized because the Great Beings have often passed over it with their light. That is why Master Djwhal Khul says: ‘India stands out as an outstanding spiritual energy…’
When we come to a place like this (in Radhamadhavam, the place where Sri Kumar lived), we don’t need to make much effort to calm the mind because the preparation here has taken some years, but we can all feel the difference here. This kind of atmosphere needs to be prepared so that you can get in touch with the spiritual energy through the mind.

This is one reason why India is a proper school of aspiration and endeavour. There, the knowledge of occultism goes back thousands of years and time has left its mark on the psyche of the people and has provided them with bodies that do not have the resistance that western bodies often have.

The environment has been permeated for a long time by the strong vibrations of the Great Ones who dwell within the borders of this land and who continually magnetize the surrounding ether as they travel and through their proximity. The ether is filled with the energy of the Great Ones because they frequently move within the boundaries of the land and the land has the advantage of having been prepared for occult practices for 10,000 of years. That is why about a dozen Sons of God are born in India every century.

Without our knowing it, people from all over the world visit India today to search for the spirit. The places where they look for it, they don’t find the spiritual because they are mostly looking for material things. That is why I often say to many of my brothers and sisters: Coming to India will help you in spiritual practice. Not because I am an Indian, but because the ether in India is so well prepared. Not because of the huge population of Indians. They only try to destroy and confuse this ether, but because the great beings enjoy moving in the ether within the boundaries of this country.

So we have the duty to prepare such places in the West as well and this is a work that takes 1000s of years and we already have this advantage in this country. Please pay attention, he (Master DK) does not mention any other nation in the Asian region. Basically, the prejudice of the West does not recognize this fact. But recognition would be helpful. If someone carries more light than others, then we should have the ability to recognize that. We should have the inclination to accept that. The refusal to accept it comes from pride. If we accept another person’s enlightenment, then we are included in the enlightenment. The beauty of India is that people who understand less of the truth are also accepted. Therein lies the occult power.

The result of your visit to India will enable you to establish a better rhythm within you and will open up a large field for ceremonial and ritual practice. Mantric and ceremonial undertaking. It will firstly provide a rhythm for man to gain, and secondly it will soothe him that his mind will become a tribune to receive the activity of mantras and rituals. Such preparation takes place in a subtle way.

These conditions are not found in the West. There, we find constant change in every branch of life, and the rapid and frequent change of life there causes such disturbances as they are opposed to any magical work. Further obstacles can be found in the strong development of the concrete mind. Now we are too weak to meet the concrete mind.

Slowly we will understand the obstacles mentioned here and also in Patanjali (The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali). And we will see what we can do then, as poor souls, to meet our strong personalities. It looks like the rat (the mind) wants to fight with the lion (the strong personality), but slowly when the rat meets the Ganesha (the wisdom) and belongs to the Ganesha, then the lion is no more. So we have to be connected to the divine.”

An Aquarian Rehearsal for the Aquarian Salon I-4

Sunday, December 10th, 2023

Yesterday, we met with the team of supporters for preparing the fourth Aquarian Salon, Saturday, 20 January 2024. We were 7 persons and it was 7 weeks in advance, because I will be in India until 3 days before the Salon I-4. And it was an extraordinary meeting:

Risa opened our meeting saying that we have been collaborating now since some time and most of us know each other just virtually, seeing heads on screen but not knowing much about the background of the individuals. And she invited us – living in different parts of the USA and of Europe – to share with the others how we came to the spiritual path leading us together now. We are forming a very Aquarian way of collaboration for the Aquarian Salon, inspiring and innovative, but it would deepen our relation if we know more about our personal background.

It was a tremendous experience to hear how all had been striving in different socio-cultural and geographical contexts to get into contact with the wisdom teachings of Spiritual Hierarchy and of Master KPK. I knew a few of the group since long but many new dimensions revealed. And it was astonishing to see how similar certain experiences were. This is not the place to go into detail but it was a very sacred opening of hearts giving insight to the spiritual fire burning in all. It was bringing us much closer to each other, feeling the presence.

Risa spoke about how, in their group in the US, they work with astrology and the wisdom teachings, on the basis of each the horoscopes of each member. And she invited us to share ours so that we see the energetic background of all of us and get a deeper understanding.

We then also spoke about our forming a new group now and how this is giving a good foundation for the collaboration in the future meetings of the Aquarian Salon.

If you are interested, please save the date: “Aquarian Salon I-4. Theme: Intuition and the Rain Cloud of Knowable Things”, Saturday, 20 January 2024. The meeting will start 7pm CET (UTC +1) / / 12pm CST (UTC -6), 10 am, PST (UTC -8).
Opening 6:45pm with guitar music, Zoom Meeting-ID: 839 0016 8325, Password: gam.
:: More information / Dates (PDF)

The Invitation
The Program

Franz Hartmann – A Stronghold of the Wisdom Teachings

Friday, November 3rd, 2023

A new book of Blavatsky or a wrong claim? I was several times asked about this. Here are some explanations why Franz Hartmann should be considered the real author, not H.P.B. You also find fascinating information about Hartmann and the letters he received from Master Morya and Master Koot Hoomi.

A year ago, a friend informed me about a newly published book said to be of H.P. Blavatsky: “The Land of the Gods. The Long-Hidden Story of Visiting the Masters of Wisdom in Shambala” (Radiant Books 2022). Then, other friends also told me enthusiastically about the book.

I thought it would be a good travel reading for my journey to India in December 22 / January 23 and mentioned the book in the blog-post “On the Verge to India“. So, I bought it plus three additional copies as gifts for friends in India. However, too many other things kept me busy during the journey and afterwards that I didn’t read more of the book than the first 39 pages, the glossary at the end and scrolled through the book.

I saw that it is about journeys into inner dimensions with encounters of masters / adepts but I didn’t find any mention about Shambala inside the original text, only in the Publisher’s Note, the glossary at the end and the presentation of the editors. Although the story seemed to be interesting, I didn’t feel “drawn into the book” . Looking back, something didn’t make sense, and it didn’t really feel that this should be from Blavatsky.

For a group, I had translated to German (unpublished manuscript) two thirds of HPB’s book “From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan” containing stories which were of a different energy than the text of this Shambala book. Moreover, the two original versions of this latter book also weren’t published in HPB’s name but by Franz Hartmann:

In the ‘Publisher’s Note’ of the Shambala book it says: “This book was originally published anonymously by a mysterious ‘Student of Occultism’ in 1887 under the title An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians, yet with copyright in the name of Franz Hartmann. Helena Blavatsky reviewed it, describing it as: ‘A strange and original little story, charmingly fantastic, but full of poetic feeling and, what is more, of deep philosophical and occult truths, for those who can perceive the groundwork it is built upon.’
Those notes were originally written by H. P. Blavatsky because only she could gain access to the Holy of Holies on the Earth — the secret Abode of the Masters of Wisdom, known as Shambhala. In 1939, Helena Roerich, who continued Blavatsky’s mission in the 20th century, also confirmed her authorship: ‘This reporting about the inner life of the Brotherhood was recorded by Franz Hartmann, undoubtedly from the words of H. P. Blavatsky, conveyed with some changes in literary form.’
The Chief Stronghold of Shambhala is located in the heart of the Himalayas. However, the network of its Abodes is also spread within other mountainous and remote locations around the world, in the most inaccessible places. The notes that Madame Blavatsky prepared were, in fact, different stories that occurred both in the Himalayas and the Alps at various times, yet were later tied into one single story narrating the secret order of the Rosicrucians.”

Why should HPB not give her name for these stories or publish them with a pen name, like she had also done before? She never hesitated to give out occult stories. However, it definitely sells better when the new book is published in her name and as a rare new discovery.

What makes me more suspicious is the claim of the sub-title: “The Long-Hidden Story of Visiting the Masters of Wisdom in Shambala”. In esoteric folklore, there are quite a number of stories about a secret valley in the Eastern or Western mountains, be it Himalaya, Alps, or somewhere else, like Shangri-La or Lost Horizon, where adventurers have mystic experiences and meet sages like the figure of the Imperator in the said Shambala book, a mysterious world.

However, these stories have nothing to do with Shambala as described in the wisdom teachings. They are in a way distorted reflections of the reality of Sravasti, also called Shigatse or Tashi Lhunpo. The Roerichs, who had indeed come into contact with Shambala, through tremendous service, sacrifice, and self-offering, kept, as far as possible, silent about their visit.

Nicholas Roerich, however, did a number of paintings, like the last paintings of his life on “Order of Rigden Jyepo” a name of Sanat Kumara, the ruler of Shambala, or his painting ‘King of Shambhala‘ in the Zanabazar Art Museum in Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia. Shambala is a very different reality than what has been given now in ‘The Land of the Gods’. See here.

I put the book aside. During a talk in August 23, a friend from Berlin mentioned the book and said that he had read the text of Hartmann (see here the PDF of “An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians” by Franz Hartmann, 1887) and that he is sure that this text is from Hartmann and not from Blavatsky. The editors of the ‘Land of the Gods’ had done various omissions and adaptations one of the omissions he found of particular interest in the original text:

On page 175f of ‘An Adventure…’, the author speaks about the sexual encounter with the Queen of the Nymphs: “A voluptuous sensation pervades my whole being…” and then he falls out of the subtle dimension and finds himself back on the physical plane, asking himself if all he experienced had merely been an illusion of his brain. Did the publishers omit this scene because they found it objectionable for giving the story in the name of HPB and as book about visiting the Masters of Wisdom in Shambala?

Last September, a friend from Miami asked me if I think that this book is from Blavatsky. I answered, I don’t know but I am sceptical. However, I didn’t know much about Franz Hartmann and wanted to know more about him. I searched the web and found information which fascinated me very much.

There is an article “Franz Hartmann: A Pioneer of the Theosophical Movement” by Susanne Hoepfl-Wellenhofer published in the Quest magazine in winter 2022 (you can download it here as a PDF). You get very interesting information about the life of Hartmann, who grew up in Bavaria. He spend the last years of his life in contact with an esoteric group of Rosicrucians in the pre-Alps, where you meet scenes as described in the said Shambala book.

Another article from a blog touched me even more: Franz Hartmann, ‘Correspondence with the Masters’ (see PDF here), a compilation of information about letters Hartmann received from Master Morya and Master Koot Hoomi. They give very interesting insights in why the Masters chose to work with Hartmann and what difficulties he faced. I don’t want to go more into this here but the texts are worth reading.

To close this article, I would like to give you here an extract from the biography “HPB. The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement” (PDF) mentioning Hartmann at various places. Although HPB was sceptical towards Hartmann at the beginning, until Master Morya told her to trust him, they quickly became very good friends. And Hartmann stayed true and loyal towards her and the wisdom teachings of the Masters she had given out. He stood as a stronghold of defence against all attacks brought forward by the ignorants.

Read the last passage and think of how the book ‘An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians’, published by Franz Hartmann and now re-edited in a re-worked form as ‘The Land of the Gods’ under the name of H.P. Blavatsky might have come into existence.

A Glacier Canyon and Alpine Intensity of Nature

Thursday, October 5th, 2023

Before humans coming, nature is there. Before and independent of our experiencing, the creative power of nature expresses itself and shapes the forms. Last Sunday, my wife and I were at a valley near the Eiger North Face. There is a small road going uphill from Meiringen through the Reichenbach (Rychenbach) valley in the Bernese Alps towards Grindelwald.

The valley was illumined by soft, golden autumn light shining through the trees. We had a look at some places and then stopped at the parking near the Rosenlaui glacier canyon.

Over eons of time, water from the Rosenlaui Glacier had dug a deep gorge into the stones, pressing through the rocks with great intensity. Humans had cut an uphill pathway into the sidewall of the canyon and through tunnels at medium height between the riverbed and the upper end of the gorge.

We experienced awe-inspiring moments when we approached the canyon and then stood inside, surrounded by rock faces. When we went through the gorge, the Sun just lit up the chasm and illuminated the drops of water falling from above. Rapids, roaring waterfalls, darkness, then spashing sunlight – intense impressions.

As the path became tight, I had to keep my hand at the handrail when looking downward or upward. It is an experience like going through a time of crisis, where you have to look for each next step only and go forward slowly. Along a path others have prepared before but which you have to walk yourself.

On this pathway through the rocks, you can only climb uphill, the path being too small for two directions. It comes again out of the abyss at the upper end. In a crisis, you will also come out again at the upper end when you have walked through into a new phase of life.

Outside, there was a small rock garden with many little towers of pebbles, “stone people”. Seen from the here, the chasm looks quite small.

A little brook soon joining the bigger river

The Engelhörner (horns of angels)

We went down again and then through the valley to the Schwarzwaldalp (“Black Forest Alp”) on the pass road from the Haslital over the Grosse Scheidegg pass to Grindelwald; the small hamlet now consists just of a hotel, a simple tourist hostel with a restaurant, and an old sawmill.

The millwheel

The sawmill in its present size dates from 1896. It was constructed for building a spa house which burned down in 1943. An old man together with his grandson was operating the saw slowly cutting the trunk to wooden planks.

Selfie in the river water

During lunch on the terrace of the hostel, we were surrounded by hikers, bikers and tourists which the post buses had brought uphill. Later, we we went a bit further along the road towards Grindelwald, which is blocked for non-public motor vehicles, and down to the Reichenbach river. When driving back from the mountains, we were still under the spell of the intense beauty and wildness of the Alpine mountain nature.

An Archive Project, a Re-Branding and a New Video

Thursday, September 21st, 2023

It was 1st of January 2020 in Visakhapatnam, India. In a talk with Master KPK, I spoke to him about the need of creating a digital archive to collect all video and audio material, publications and transcriptions and relevant photo material related to the World Teacher Trust, meaning mainly the work of Master EK and Master KPK. At that time, the material was dispersed on various personal computers and hard-disks. He agreed and found it an important idea.

9 months later, the archive project was started with a team of 7 members – highly qualified, living in different corners of the globe. In the meanwhile, it was Corona time. The need for digital collaboration had highly increased – and there was time for these members to come together – their jobs were on “home office”. For about 2 years, we followed an intense rhythm of meetings, of concept-discussions and of building up a cloud-based archive structure. And then we collected many terabytes of material, mainly saving video recordings from seminars and teachings in various languages.

I asked Master KPK to give a name to this archive. He said “Kombo Cave”. I didn’t understand what it means; and I didn’t find anything on the web. So, I asked again. He answered: “Kombo Cave is the name of the cave where the scrolls of wisdom of Pythagoras were stored – but don’t ask me more.” I understood. We named the cloud archives Kombo Cave. And: “Inspired by the lives and teachings of the great Teachers of Eternal Wisdom”.

It is non-public, just for those who work with the material. Later, an area is planned to be made accessible to interested seekers – but we are not yet there. The cloud space, however, gives possibilities for certain group collaborations.

When Corona started to recede, the personal job work load of the team members increased again. It became more difficult to continue with the pace of the free goodwill work for the archives. We did some re-structuring. Video editing – in a team work – takes a lot of time; qualified members capable of doing such work are very rare (video consumers are plenty….).

We searched for other ways. We wanted high quality, not quick “social media friendly video spots” but videos with wisdom teachings for seekers. It is a different level.

It took quite some time to create the intro and outro templates for the videos, with the motive “sunrise and sunset at the Master Mountain in the Nilagiris“, for the titles, with the right music. We finally found a very experienced Indian bamboo flute player to give some sequences from the “Maitreya song”.

For bringing out these videos, we just prepared a YouTube video channel for the WTT-Global and have taken over another channel, where several videos about Master KPK’s teachings etc. had been published already previously. We did a re-branding to give it a new outlook. The address of the new channel is https://www.youtube.com/@WTT-Global.

Now, in time for Libra Equinox, the video “Autumn Equinox Discourse” by Master KPK, September 21 2020, (59 min.) has just been published on YouTube. It is the first video publication with the new design. Other videos are soon ready to be published.

May Call Celebration 2023 in Neckarelz, Germany

Sunday, June 4th, 2023

The program of this May Call celebration was born over Christmas 2022, while Manfred, Sabine and me were together with a few other members at the Master Mountain Retreat Centre in the Nilagiris of South India. A storm was raging outside for several days hiding the outside world behind clouds and rain. It was just about 6 weeks after the passing of Master Kumar and we pondered on what should be the essence of the 5-days May Call celebration in Neckarelz 6 months later. We wanted to focus on synthesis – the energy of the Aquarian Master – friendliness and friendship, the qualities of Lord Maitreya, the World Teacher.

At the end of this year’s celebration, we mentioned this origin to the group and why we had tried to integrate various proposals and contents – and the May Call was a time of profound inner and outer integration processes.

A very aged elderly lady from Belgium, who could no more come to the May Call celebration herself, gave the inspiration for the Tibetan prayer flags. Over many long e-mails and phone calls, Sabine had had intensive discussions with this lady about the meaning of the flags, about the technique of labelling them and about the need to create coherent sounds. In earlier years, she had travelled for over 30 years with a Tibetan Lama over the world until he sent her away with the words, she should now go to Maitreya. Not knowing what to do, she searched the web. She found the World Teacher Trust and came into contact with me and since then she linked her life to these wisdom teachings. Sabine then ordered the prayer flags online and during the May Call celebration, we wrote messages of the CVV Sharing prayer or little symbols on the flags.

Hung in the wind, the prayer thoughts were spread into the ether and distributed at the end of the seminar to be placed a different locations.

The May Call location was next to a Temple house, a former castle of the Knights of St. John from the 12th/13th century, of the time of the Crusades. At May Call, Chuck, a retired psychology professor from California, spoke about the story of knight orders of the Templars, leading later to the masons who, as free masons, went through Europe to the building lodges of the gothic cathedrals. And he showed how these impulses carried ancient wisdom found new expressions in later centuries and in the teachings of the WTT.

There was a great range of other activities during the May Call celebration – prayers / meditations, water and fire rituals, and guided visualisations.

We saw a video extract from a speech Master Kumar gave about “The importance of the May Call” at the 2022 May Call celebration in Bengaluru. We participated in an intercontinental meditation and listened to Guru Prasad’s inspiring words about working together in the new era.

We exchanged in small groups about how we met Master Kumar and which incidents or exchange with him particularly touched us – a very touching exchange. Nearly the entire group life was bi-lingual, English and German.

Saturday at the beginning, there was the General Assembly of WTT-Germany, and later presentations of current projects, also a presentation about the work of Sintergética – Synthesis in the area of healing, impulses from Latin America. And there was a talk on astrological qualities of the present time.

In the morning of May Call Day, 29 May, there was a fire ritual in the beautiful amphitheatre.

And later, there was the cake ritual and distribution of May Call gifts.

And in the evening of the May Call Day celebration there was a beautiful candle ritual in the garden – a traditional “Pilgrims’ Dance” – two steps forward and one step sidewards, accompanied by live guitar music.


The day after May Call, there were further exchanges and part of the group visited the Raptor Research Centre at Guttenberg Castle. It was very impressive to see the big birds of prey – eagles, vultures and eagle owls from very near and observe them flying. You could understand well why the eagle is such a profound wisdom symbol.

The whole celebration was like a big colourful garden with many different plants and flowers, growing in synthesis – the sprouting seeds of the Aquarian energy will continue to spread in surprising ways.

Iris flowers in the church garden

Video Interview on “The Mystery of Dattatreya”

Thursday, May 25th, 2023

The Anima Channel has just published an interview with me about “The Mystery of Dattatreya” on YouTube.

I gave this talk in the form of a personal story, not to spread my personal story (I don’t just speak about my private life in public and only share details publicly in a very specific way).

I chose this story form to convey the complex content, in order to make the experiences and underlying wisdom teachings more vivid in this way than speaking in a more impersonal lecture style. And the course of events was partly also dramatic.

Since I came into contact with the theme of Lord Dattatreya beginning of the 1980s, I experienced a deep, mysterious fascination that I could not understand exactly. Several times I spoke to Sri Kumar about this and also once asked him why he had not written anything about the avatars of Lord Dattatreya in his book on Dattatreya. He replied, “Dattatreya is the sum and essence of the cosmic principle of the Teacher. It is too mystical for the West, and therefore we tread the path of Maitreya.” And this made me curious.

I have often experienced that seekers became confused when they encountered the subject of Dattatreya and his avatars, and even got into crises – like me. Through my experiences, together with the teachings and the help of Master Kumar, I have come to a deeper realization.

And sharing such understanding might be helpful to others. For a deeper understanding gives joy and a great expansion of consciousness.

In the interview with the Anima channel, I spoke about how I came in contact with the theme of Dattatreya when meeting Sathya Sai Baba in India in the early 80s. A few facets were told in this blog on the occasion of the passing of Sathya Sai.

I mentioned details about Dattatreya in my blogposts since 2008, how I came into contact with the biography of Sripada Srivallabha and translated the book into German. Later, the adventures went on when publishing an edited version of the book in English (published by Master Kumar at Mount Shasta in 2919) and creating a website about Lord Dattatreya and Sripada.

Master Kumar had supported me very much in these efforts and revealed that since his early childhood he had been initiated into the path of Dattatreya. He even agreed to publish the biography on Sripada in Dhanishta Editions, which are bringing out his teachings.

All this has become the deepest impact in my life, except and on par with the encounter with Master CVV and the path of the World Teacher Trust. In a way, you cannot separate these two, Dattatreya being the cosmic teacher principle and the World Teacher, Lord Maitreya, the embodiment of the teacher principle for our planet – in essence it is but One.

On YouTube, there is a German talk I gave for friends from the German speaking community of the WTT about “The Avatars of Lord Dattatreya – A Small Approach to a Mystery“.