The symbol in the middle is Sanskrit for OM, the primordial sound. The picture is inspired by lines of Sri Kumar from The Teacher, N°. 46:

“In the previous attribute the spiritual permanent atom was spoken of. It is the centre of the electric blue beyond which there is the seeming nothingness which expresses as the subtlest point. This subtlest deep blue point expresses like an electrical blue. Beyond this is the Absolute Existence and this blue point is the primary emergence. A Self-realized one anchors in this point and remains blue. Sound and light remain its attributes. This is the threshold between seeming nothingness and apparent something. It is the point of emergence of Existence as awareness. It is the trill, the first spur that emerges from which all apparent existence comes through. In scriptural terminology this is called the cosmic centre. It is from this centre, from out of the deep blue, other manifestations happen. After this blue there is the manifestation of red and yellow. As explained earlier when man enters into subtle fields he first encounters the golden-yellow light followed by orange and later aquamarine and then blue.
All this can be experienced in the heart lotus which is four-layered. The heart lotus is but four triangles placed one above the other in different directions. It appears like a twelve-petalled lotus. The four triangles appear with their angles as a twelve-petalled lotus. The outermost triangle carries the light of golden hue. The one interior to it carries the light of aquamarine. The next interior triangle shines forth with the colour of blue. The finer, the most interior triangle carries the colour of deep blue.
All these four triangles are connected through the centre like a rosary. Through the centre of the final triangle it leads to seeming nothingness which is everything. Through the central channel the energy beyond flows and takes to different sound notes and colour notes.
When one enters into this central channel he listens a naturally vibrating sound which is like OM. It is OM unuttered (Anahata). Uttering OM is only to orient to the unuttered OM. The culmination of all utterances is into deep silence, and in that deep silence the eternal sound is to be heard.”

Tibetan relief of Buddha – photo of a friend.

“Reading through the books I have had to put them down for now, I simply cannot follow the eastern way of life, as a parent and with my duties, whilst not impossible, I could not follow to the letter, nor would it be practical to carry round an orange book all day (as suggested by Master EK in Spiritual Psychology)! I think I have to accept for now, it’s not practical to even consider following the suggestions. If I got up at 4.30 am for a start it would cause problems for the rest of the house. …
So I have to really rule these things out. The book on ‘Healing‘ is much in the same vein of ‘you should be doing this and that’ – again: Simply not possible.
It’s a shame there is no teaching school in England I could attend, It would be great to learn and practice many of the mantras and live that way of life. Even if briefly. I would like to meet the master in person, but this is out of my hands.”

I replied: “I had to smile when reading your lines, about ‘I cannot follow the eastern way of life’, and all the regulations … Neither can I nor do I know anyone who can follow all this bunch of regulations – it would simply be an overkill.

When going to a supermarket, you don’t eat all the stuff you see there. So it is also with the ‘you should do’s’ in the books and the teachings – these are suggestions, proposals. There is very little being the very core of the teaching: The morning and evening invocations, observing the silence afterwards (or better: just staying inside, when there is no inner silence  ) and doing good will activities, trying to see the One in all.

The rest are ‘tools’, guidelines, aids on the way. So don’t overeat, it will cause indigestion: ‘Keep it simple and stupid.’

As per the orange book, I keep it at my meditation place, and when some thoughts come, I try to put them down. Sri Kumar has it in his briefcase. He once showed it to me at Zurich airport and read out a dialog he had written into it in the morning:
“Master, why is it always raining when I come to Switzerland? – It is because there are so many emotions to be cleared”….

Wherever you connect with the Master and the teachings, you are in the teaching school, wherever it is. Sri Kumar calls it “mobile ashrams”. It is not a physical structure. These are old-way concepts thinking of schools to go there, learn a lot and practice there…. Your house is your teaching and learning school.

Of course, it is very great and uplifting, when you get the occasion to meet the master physically, but when it’s not possible, what’s worthwhile grieving, it doesn’t help. Better be practical and make an inner ‘phone call’ to THE MASTER, asking him. When the answer does not come from the channel you expect it look out if the answer comes via other channels from the cosmic inner-net or other outside sources. What is inside and what is outside? What is not the Master’s channel?”

“Enlightenment”

“A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. “What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered – he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”
The pig sympathized, but said, “I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but  there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.”

The mouse turned to the cow and said “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”
The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose.”

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house — like the  sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.
The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient.

But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn’t concern you, remember — when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one  another.

One of the best things to hold onto in this world is a friend.”

Rats at at feet of a Ganesha statue. The Rat, symbol of the clever mind, is the vehicle for Ganesha, symbol of wisdom, using the mind for its expression.

In an unpublished seminar transcription Sri Kumar speaks about Sri Aurobindo’s chief work, the beautiful story of Savitri, summarising the content of the book:

“Sri Aurobindo is deeply linked to the concept of Savitri. His doctrine on Savitri is considered as a fresh presentation in English of the Rigvedic text. It is even appreciated in the Ashrams of the Hierarchy. The story of Savitri is very well presented by Sri Aurobindo in chaste poetry and is recommended to be read at least one page daily. Such is the instruction of the 2nd ray Ashram. That the intricacies of the light of the dusk and dawn need to be understood is the idea behind such recommendation for the study of Savitri. The book Savitri will receive more and more attention, when man reaches the brim of intellect and enters into intuition. It provides many ideas to consciously walk into the intuitional state which is called the supra-mental state by Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo is also considered as the modern seer of ancient quality.

The story of Savitri speaks of the importance of the light in darkness. There is a lady called Savitri. She is married to a person called Satyavan. Satyavan means ‘truth bearer’. It is a prophecy that within one year from the date of her marriage with Satyavan, he would die. It is in the horoscope of Satyavan that he would die within one year from the date of marriage. Savitri says, “I will marry him. I will ensure that he survives even after one year.” Her confidence in the Mother was unshakable. She lives with the husband and the in-laws and serves them with utmost veneration and gains their deep affection.

On the annual day, on the date of marriage, when Satyavan was to get into the forest to fetch wood for fire ritual, Savitri accompanied him, because she knew that her husband would die, and she wanted to be with him to ensure that he is brought back to life. So, she accompanied him into the forest. When the hours stroke, Satyavan felt an unimaginable headache. The head reeled and he fell on the ground. Savitri visualised that the soul of Satyavan was going to depart. She kept his head on her lap and sat there.

Then the Lord of the Death approached to excavate the soul from the body. A lot of discussions and arguments between Savitri and the Lord of Death took place. The Lord of Death tried to convince Savitri that every soul that takes to birth shall have to depart from the body. It is the law. Death is inevitable to the one who is born. Savitri argued, “Even while it is inevitable and even while it is the law, the one who formed the law is the Mother, and I seek the protection of the Mother to protect my husband.” The Lord of Death got interested in the wisdom of Savitri. He asked her many questions, many intricate questions about anthropogenesis and cosmogenesis, and she answered them all very well. He felt deeply generous and considerate towards Savitri and said “I would like to grant you a boon. You may ask any boon for your life, other than the life of your husband.” Savitri said, “Bless me with children.” The Lord of Death replied, “So it shall be.” Then Savitri said, “That means, that you have granted life to my husband.”

For a moment, the Lord of Death understood the subtlety, because to such a chaste woman a second husband would not be acceptable. And also for a man. Even after the death of the spouse the surviving spouse continues to experience the presence of the departed spouse in the heart. That is the original super-fine quality of a human being. Generally marriages are not recommended for a second time, because the marriage is for the soul. … The Lord of Death was perplexed having granted the boon of blessing children for Savitri. Savitiri smiled. The Lord of Death understood and also smiled and said, “It is the will of the Lord that I shall not take away the life of your husband.” So, he brought Satyavan back to life.”

When Satyavan was leaving to the forest, the parents knew that the day was fatal. Also Savitri knew it. She told the parents-in-law, “Don’t you worry, I shall accompany your son wherever he goes. Even if he is taken to the planes of death, with the power of the Mother, I will accompany him. I shall please the Devas of the planes of death, because I carry the grace of the Mother, and I am very sure that the Mother’s grace will help me and in turn will also help you.” She gave assurance to the parents-in-law that she shall come back with their son.

This is a story poetically conceived by the Veda to speak of the summer solstice and the return of the Sun in the winter solstice. That is how Satyavan is said to have been brought back. This play happens every evening in the West, when the Sun sets. The light that remains after the sunset is related to Savitri, because the light is still there, though the Sun has already disappeared. The Sun is the truth bearer. The solar disc of the Sun is a blind to the light which is the basis of the whole creation. He is the vehicle of that truth, since the vehicle of that truth is called the truth bearer. That is why the name is given to Satyavan. Savitri means ‘the light that accompanies even during the times of darkness ‘or ‘the light that promises the return of the Sun’.

The story relates to the Sun travelling through the night to dawn again in the morning hours. In the morning hours also the light comes first, and then the sun-ball comes next. That light is called Gayatri, the other name for Savitri. During the day, the light is called ‘the splendour’, and the whole movement of light is called Saraswati.”

Sri Aurobindo in 1916

“Leo is the royal sign of the zodiac. All the people born under Leo are essentially noble, straight and loving. The sign represents the conquest of obstacles and ‘ruling’ a kingdom. There is the element of a fighting nature in Leo. Fighting for law is motivated by a nature to protect one’s followers as well as the weaker. This means love nature.

His is the word of love, which controls and helps the transformation of the fellow-beings.

Leo is said to govern the heart. The heart is the seat of love and this love-nature is only governed by Leo. The spirit of service and a constant outpour of love-nature upon his fellow-beings functions through the Anahata-chakra.

All people born under Leo have this love-nature. They have protection for their fellow-beings as their motto.

Healing is a form of service and an expression of protection in a higher sense. The art of healing belongs to Leo. Love and protection of his fellow-beings places a man in the role of a ruler. Leo is called the king of signs. The highest position of the ancient sage of the spiritual path was to be a king-initiate (one who protects, controls and raises one’s fellow-beings through one’s love). There was a period when the rulers of nations were high-priests. They conducted initiations. In this capacity, the ruler is called the father of the people. The relationship between the ruler and the ruled is that of a father to his sons. ”

Master EK

Madam Blavatsky

Two years ago Master Kumar gave us a beautiful OM sign with 3 bells, symbolising the 3 Logoi coming out of the Sound of Silence. Last week a reflection through a prism created a beautiful rainbow light shining on the symbol hanging at our altar. It is like the 7 rays coming out of the one light. This constellation of light was there just for a short moment.

“What is around man is also inside the man… All that is, is an expression of space and such pulsating space is in the heart of man. Therefore, from the centre of the heart all can be expressed. The space is God absolute. The man is the mini God in the cave of his heart. The centre of man is micro space while the space is macro.”

Next week the picture will be online at the Images of Synthesis in a high resolution version.

Unfoldment: The Heart of Man – The Heart of Space

The Master had given a talk for over 4 hours the story of Parikshit from the scripture Bhagavatam and the beginning of Kali Yuga, the dark age (on request I can send you my notes). We were all thrilled and totally out of time, the story was so captivating.

Afterwards Ramana, who was doing the video recording and transmission, told me he was astonished that the battery of the audio recorder hold out the whole time, it normally only keeps up for 2.5 hours.

Next day at breakfast Ramana and I were sitting next to the master. Ramana mentioned to him the point with the batteries. Sri Kumar smilingly remarked: “In other spiritual groups they would have made a miracle out of it, like with all the stories in Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi. I could tell 10 times more stories like these.”

In the evening the master proposed to us to see the DVD of the movie Angels and Demons, with Tom Hanks and playing in the Vatican. He said that in the film you find a lot of symbolism which H. P. Blavatsky also speaks about, and you can see parts of the Vatican where normally ordinary people don’t have access.

We sat in a leisurely round and from time to time Sri Kumar stopped the film to give some comments. He knows quite a lot of movies, and also at seminars in India we enjoyed seeing movies with him.

Sri Kumar, cheerful in front of a sweets shot in Brussels, last weekend, photo of a friend

Since we couldn’t finish the last of the 9 CDs during the journey, yesterday afternoon my wife and I went with our car to a beautiful place in a nearby forest. And while the sun was dancing on the foliage and the cobwebs, we dived into the novel. The story is playing in the Afghanistan of the 70 until 2001. It is about causing and bearing one’s guilt.

I don’t want to re-tell here the captivating story, but it stirred a number of situations in my own life related with it: In 1994, while I was teaching German in a refugee integration center I met a young man, an Iraqi  Jew who was “killed” and buried alive in the 80ies by soldiers of Saddam Hussein, who wiped out the whole village. It was just incredibly good luck that he escaped, flew via Iran and Pakistan until he was admitted as refugee to Switzerland. He was eager to learn violin. I organised for him an instrument which years later he brought back, when he had bought a very good one of his own. Then there was the Syrian  collaborator in my team, from the Iraqi border, while I was head of an inter-cultural counseling centre in the 90ies. He was a refugee himself and a great story teller, and together with him I wrote some of his stories in German. And then there was the Iranian colleague in the same team who had been an archaeologist and had done field work in Afghanistan in the 60ies and early 70ies. Together with him I published a series of writings about the cultural backgrounds of Muslim refugees from the Middle East. He also could tell stories of the great past of this part of the world for hours. And there are our neighbours from Afghanistan with whom we have good relations. The husband was a minister in the Afghan government supported by the Russians in the 80ies – and living since many years in Switzerland as a refugee without finding any employment. The past is quite lively with them…

But most of all the story stirred events from my own life, especially the final part of the novel, where Amir, the first person narrator, was struggling hard to re-gain the confidence of the young Sohrab, his seriously traumatized nephew. His struggle seems to be in vain, and even in the end it remains open whether he could build it up again or not. It reminded me of an encounter I had in the last months where I also tried to re-gain the confidence of a person, not successful up to now, and the final outcome remains open. My wife told me that the situation reminds her of The Horse Whisperer and of a frightened horse. So when I’m thinking of the person I’m calling her the timid foal.

The Kite Runner story contains very deep lessons on karma and it reminds me of the story of Angulimala which I told my children with a comic strip when they were small. Many don’t want to face the dark sides of their lives and try to bury them inside, avoiding any contact. It might take a long time before your are ready for entering into it. And the roots might even go back before the limits of the present incarnation. But when you go through the fire of rectification and have learned your lesson, you feel deeply relieved. This I experienced the last weeks, and also Amir felt greatly relieved in the end.

The cornfields are ready for harvest.