Three days ago we had a a slide presentation by the young Indian artist Yatin Pandit from Nashik, Maharashtra, North India (near Bombay / Pune) who 2 years ago had done the statue of Master CVV which you saw in my blog-post from the Guru Poojas.

Though I only could see the last part of his presentation, for I had an emergency visit to a doctor  I was very impressed by his gentle way and the skill of his art. I was particularly fascinated how he uses modern techniques to produce these 3-D statues from out of 2-D photos. He is mainly realising statues of great spiritual teachers of the present and the past, and they are found in many ashrams in India.

Photo courtsey Yatin Pandit

After the presentation I was presented to him and he gave me his card. There is the picture of a statue of an old woman where he was especially working about the expression shining through her eyes in spite of all hardships expresses through the physical frame.

Yesterday I talked a bit more with him about his art saying it reminded me of the work of Madam Tussauds, and he said, in fact he has been much inspired by these wax works and had been at workshops of them, but wax isn’t ideal for India – obviously. He uses marble powder or, I think it is cast resin. With the eyes of the statue of Master CVV he worked by painting from inside. A fascinating encounter.

Yatin Pandit in the Retreat Centre

The Guru Puja being over we are now following the seminar in the retreat centre. Or at least trying to follow. It started yesterday in the morning and I had caught a little flue with fever. During the fire ritual in the morning I was surprised how fast it went by – I was sleeping most of the time – and rushed to bed afterwards, feeling weak and dizzy. But I didn’t want to miss the lecture. So I sat there and typed notes, a method of staying awake, and either this or the homoeo medicine did its work – at least the fever went away and the head became clearer.

Then again sleeping nearly all of the time till the afternoon lecture, which again kept me awake and well energised in the Presence by taking notes (I’m sending them after the lecture to the WTT mailing list, in case you are interested, please contact me). It is always thrilling for me to follow the lessons of Sri Kumar. He is speaking about the correspondences between Purusha, the cosmic person, and the different layers in us humans as microcosm, a topic interesting me since long.

In the evening we were invited to his house for a reception on the roof. He is so generous, every year we receive a sumptuous meal and afterwards gifts. Music playing, chearful talks under the night sky, an inspiring ambiance.

And today I’m already much better, the head is clear again, just a strong cold – it seems that my etheric body still can improve in warding off the effects of cold winds at a corner of the Guru Puja some days ago…

The room where Master EK used to live in the house of Sri Kumar – repainted. I love the vibrating atmosphere there and had a short meditation.

Ladies on the roof of the house – Shanti, daughter of Sri Kumar, Kumari and some Argentineans – the didn’t post for me, but I took the pic

Sri Kumar and Kumari enjoying the reception

After the Lalitha Pooja Navaneetam addressed the assembly introducing the publication of Lalitha Sahasranama:

The words of the Lalitha Pooja, the he 1000 names of the World Mother, were now published in 10 volumes. Sri Kumar and his wife have worked on it for a long time, besides all their other duties. Kumari-Garu received the dictations every morning after morning prayer for many years. So it was she to present the cassette with all the 10 volumes, – the 10th volume being just published. – all in Telugu But she didn’t say anything.

The cassette with the books in the hands of my neighbour, Mr. Murthi

The Sri Yantra on top of the cassette – symbol of the divine Mother

Sri Kumar then told us, “At home she speaks and here I speak. Some time ago she said, even if I sit on the dais I won’t say anything.” and so it was…

Here are some extracts from his talk – it touched me deeply.
“I have the feeling that a heavy weight fell from my heart, the description of all the 1000 names of the Mother is a great fulfillment in my life. My wife has shared all aspects in my life, it is like a shadow always being with me, so the Master has lead us together, not also at home doing all together, but also she participated in all responsibilities. …

The day we finished the 1000 names Kumari was in a limitless ecstasy, full of joy. We happened to be alone in the house. … Every work that has to be done at home Kumari always does with me, she is always available. Especially for this work she is always cooperative. All these book.s The yantra, the mandala of the Mother, can be seen in the 10th volume.

In the 10th volume there is something from the past and the present. I never forget my birth place, I was born in Vijayawada, and the name I received Parvathi Kumar. They first wanted to call me Parvathi Sastri… (or so..), but my uncle from the mother’s side said, don’t call him Sastri and all this. He proposed Parvathi Kumar. This lead to this name. I like Kanaka Durga, the goddess of Vijayawada. While I wrote the book, while I was doing the exams I had high fever. I went to the temple of the mother, I told the mother that it is very important to pass this exam, I am born at this place and got your name. I had no more a father, only a mother, like Hercules, so I said to the mother in the temple. I told the Mother, if you regard me as your son, you will let me pass through the exam. If yes, you let me pass through the exam. I started writing the exam, the fever went down and I passed the exam. Since then I knew that the family relation with the Mother is there….

In the 10th part of Lalitha Sahasranama I published a picture of Master EK. I normally didn’t speak about it. When in Europe he told me to speak, but I told him, no I sit in the back and you speak. I was like this in my childhood, but he said, no, you speak. In my childhood I didn’t want that my father showed my horoscope to people, but he continued to do so. Our past comes to us as our future, according to what we did in the past comes as our future, so why do we need a chart. Then the Master asked for my horoscope, and I smiled: I never give my chart to anyone, but then I nevertheless gave it to the Master, and it even had been published what the Master said.
Sometimes Kumari has also proposed corrections in my dictations and said, this sentence is not so good, and she said, please dictate it anew, and so it happened….”

The photo of Kumari in the 10th volume of the Lalitha Sahasranama

The time rushed by in an incredible speed. In the afternoon after our palm forest nap there was a little concert going on in the hall. And then already the final evening prayer and the talk of Sri Kumar on the second labour of Hercules, revealing very deep new aspects of symbolisms. And then the closing ceremony of the traditional worship of the feet of the teacher, with the heart-stirring sounds of the Guru Padukam and other hymns, while all members present came to the front. Very intense moments.
Although it was my 12th Guru Pooja, it was so different this time, clear and calm.

But it was not just a “paradise on earth” – the laptop of a Spanish lady had been stolen in the lecture hall and also the camera of a Spanish friend who traveled with us last year… The guards at the entrance cannot control everybody who tries to enter from the outside…

Then the “last supper” and back to the bus. But our driver was lying there in the bus, drunk. So we had to go to another bus. I took one going to the Spanish apartment, via a bumpy road. The moon was hanging low in its 7th descending phase. And when we came along the oceanside, there was such a romantic view with the silver lights on the surface… Very tired but happy I dropped into my bed.

The Guru Padukam worship at the end of the Guru Poojas

Friday morning again getting up very early and then through the night to the Guru Pooja. This morning we were invited to come for morning prayer to sit on the dais, directly in front of the pictures of Hierarchy, surrounding Sri Kumar. What an uplifting experience, being here in the centre of the energies – besides me the lingams of the water ritual and all these beautiful picture. The sounds of the Guru Paduka song and the OM spread out and penetrated through the atmosphere. The time quickly passed by in rapt silence.

The Argentinean members on the stage one day before

Afterwards Sri Kumar continued speaking on the second labour of Hercules and the symbolisms involved.

After breakfast the ladies arranged in long rows with little pictures of the World Mother before them, some kumkum powder and flowers, for the worship of the Lalitha Pooja, the 1000 names of the World Mother.A beautiful and colourful worship.

The ladies arranged in several long rows, with pictures of the divine mother and red kumkum powder before them.

SriKumar singing the hymns of the Lalitha Pooja

Before breakfast I had been lead to Mr. Rao from the Indian brotherhood who had composed the booklet with the stories about Agastya. I wanted to request him that it should be translated into English. I don’t know what he thought of the idea, but he started telling me about Agastya. First he sent me to have my breakfast and said he would wait for me.

So I returned and he started telling me about Agastya regulating the deva of Vindhya mountains to prevent him from creating havoc through his desire to be as big as the Himalayas. Agastya asked the mountain to give him way and create a pass-through for him until he would return north – but he never returned, staying in the South since these times immemorial. I had told the story years ago to my children from an Indian comic and the pictures rose to my mind’s eyes.

And then another story came, and I listened with keen interest, it was a magical moment sitting in the room with this old gentleman and getting a vivid lesson about how Rishi Agastya got his wife created by Lord Shiva, a fascinating story Master Kumar had already told yesterday evening:

“His parents were a bit worried that he didn’t marry. He did a fiery meditation and realised that he was a part of Shiva himself. Shiva appeared and asked him, what do you want? I need a wife like you have. Shiva said, ok, and at the same moment a child was born in Agastya’s hands. He gave the child to a king to care all about the child, which was a girl, also a manifestation of Shiva. Lopa Mudra she is called in our worships. When the girl grew up the King wanted to make her marry and thought to whom give it. The girl was so beautifully radiant that he thought to whom she marry her. He asked Agastya whom to marry her, and Agastya said, she is of no parallel, she was born for me and she shall be my wife.”

A statue of Master CVV besides the stage. He was an expression of Agastya.

Thursday morning I got up again very early, around 3.15, to have some time in the bathroom before the others. Some e-mails and a blog-post, then the bus brought us to the Guru Pooja. Anna told me the evening before that Sri Kumar asked me and 3 others to speak at the section on Fusion of East and West. Fine, I thought, but what to speak about? In the bus some thoughts flew in – and then after morning prayer – followed by lecture, breakfast and the thrilling water ritual – the ideas took a more concrete shape. Finally it was different from what I planned. But before there were the rhythmic intonations of Siva Sankar, the brother of Sri Kumar, during the water ritual vibrating through the air and stirring the souls.

The end of the water ritual – Sri Kumar garlanding the lingam, symbol of the divine Will,

At the end of the water ritual, in front of the huge picture of Lord Krishna

We 4 members of the Western brotherhood asked to come to the stage received a bouquet and then Sri Kumar started speaking about the history of the Guru Poojas. He presented each one of us, starting with me. I don’t repeat it here, but it gave me a profound joy to hear how he took up topics from the letter I had given to him using them as a message. He showed some of the 12 paintings (12 copies each) I had brought to the assembly for distribution, and also mentioned the Early Paintings. He went on to speak about the others, the new publications of WTT Spain and Germany, the good-will work done by them. Then it was my turn to speak. Words flew in, it was a touching experience, not to be reproduced here.

Günter, sitting next to him, spoke about the impact the work of Sri Kumar has in the west. Günter had been in the States in September and he presented to Sri Kumar an “Oscar” statue from Hollywood for being “the best teacher” Also the other 2 members, from Spain and Argentina spoke in a very authentic way.

Speaking to the translators, without whom we wouldn’t be able to follow the talks.

The afternoon I spent again in the beautiful palm forest – talking with friends.
In the evening after the prayer Sri Kumar continued the talk about the Labours of Hercules, but before he published a book about Agastya (see a picture here) and a calendar with pictures of Agastya. Below is an extract from his talk, and in the next blog-post more about Agastya).

After the lecture again dinner and then back to Visakhapatnam for a short night – all were very tired.

“The ashram of Agastya is in the Katraram(?) mountains, there is a Vishnu temple, and when Agastya went into the temple he wasn’t admitted to the temple, only Vaishnavas (followers of Vishnu) are accepted. He went away and took to the form of a Vaishnava. He went into the temple and worshipped the form of the Lord and transformed into a Shiva lingam. He said, please see, I’m a Vaishnava but there is a Shiva lingam inside. They were surprised, and he said, just go inside and see yourself. This way it happened in the past.” (Another story will follow…)

At the first day of the Guru Pooja a strange maya produced and led me into an early morning experience of a special kind:

10th January I received a comment on the blog-post Early Morning Life, mentioning an encounter with Sri Kumar in 1982/83 – and I answered. It made me think of the early years of WTT and the sad schism that had happened in these years with the family of Master EK. On my second visit to Visakhapatnam in 2002 I had a long talk with Sri Kumar about how he lived through these difficult times, how he didn’t want to take over the presidency of WTT because he didn’t want to interfere with the claims of the family, though Master EK had installed him in this role. He fell very sick for a longer time and only recovered when he had realised that he had to take over this task designed for him. He said, “As a souvenir of this refusal of mine to comply with the will of the Plan I carry with me my diabetes, so that I can’t eat sweets anymore the way I did before. This keeps reminding me of not to refuse the Will.” He tried a lot to integrate the sons of Master EK in the WTT but without success…..

11th January early in the morning I spent some time trying to get a blogpost ready, It took some time and I was getting late. I rushed down just in time the bus was supposed to arrive, When arriving at the Guru Pooja compound and getting out of the bus I saw the first site which wasn’t available for WTT last year due to another activity going on there. Now I saw something written there in Telugu with 51 on it, but no sign of WTT. The quick thought came, this is not WTT here, but some other organisation.

I proceeded to the Guru Pooja hall and sat down for morning prayer. Thoughts presented themselves: I knew from their website that the movement of the family of Master EK runs Guru Poojas at the same dates than WTT, though at another place. It must be them now daring to celebrate their Guru Poojas here,- parallel guru poojas, in the same way I saw a few years ago that they were doing May Call celebrations in Switzerland at another place, a real shadow of the WTT ceremonies.

I felt an intese sadness about it and thought of the picture hanging in the Guru Pooja hall with a saying of Master EK: “Excluding others is religion and including others is spiritualism.” This strange mood kept beyond the morning prayer…

After breakfast with the Western group I then saw groups of the Indian brotherhood coming from that space which in my maya was the place of the parallel guru pooja – it now prooved to be the dining hall for the Indian brotherhood – they have spicier food than the one prepared for us from the West at the other place – and only then the spell of this vivid maya fell off. I wondered what had caused this strange spell. And I thought of the blog-comment of the previous day….

The 12th after lunch I went into the Indian “dining hall” again. An Indian came to me, and I asked him about his name. He told it to me and then said, “I live just 2.5 km from here. I am a purohit (priest) doing fire rituals and water rituals for people requesting it. I work together with the family of Master EK, Dr. Anantha and … (I don’t remember the names) doing service activities.”

I then thought, this must have been some odd messager for me…. I reflected a while about it, pondered on the implications, and then this blog-post came about.

The picture with the saying of Master EK in the hall

The fire ritual was so very thrilling, I loved to sit there and let myself being carried with the flames and the mantrams into the subtle spheres invoked. With all the pictures of the Great Ones their presence is much more easily to be absorbed.

After the fire ritual there was the presentation of a new publication, a book of Master EK: The World Teacher – Advent of Lord Krishna. It is the third book of a series of 7 books Master EK envisioned to write, but he died after having written this book in Telugu and having translated 13 of 31 chapters. Since it was in a very elaborate Telugu language it ahd not been translated before. Several times in previous years I had asked people of the Indian brotherhood why they don’t translate this book, I would love to read it, but they said, it is too difficult for them. Sri Kumar now had taken up this talk. He said that even for him it was very delicate and he often had to look up corresponding English words in Wikipedia. The books is about the preparation of the then-World Teacher, Parasara, together with a group of Masters, to prepare the incarnation of Sri Krishna. Mr. Joshi from Bangalore spoke a bit about the book, saying it was like a cinema film for him to go through the book, they were so much taken into the story like never before. I bought several books to take them with me and of course started reading it during a Telugu lecture…

The afternoon was filled with talks with friends and then again lecture, evening prayer, dinner and a late way back to the centre. Not much to blog about.

I wrote these lines during  Telugu lectures…. And the events of Thursday didn’t yet find a time window…

A picture of Rishi Agastya, who was present through Master CVV, and the picture of Saila Putri, the Daughter of the Mountain, the guiding light of Hierarchy (See the book “Man Sacrifice) – I’m very happy that I found these….

Continuing the blog-post from Jan. 10th.: When returning to the Guru Pooja compound from the afternoon-nap in the palm forest the dais with the altar was ready, the chairs were all standing in rows and the chasing LED-lights at the roofs gave the impression of hosts of devas rushing to finish teh preparations on the subtle planes. We also rushed to the front to put up the equipment for translations. (I had the laptop ready, but the voice of our Indian brother translating was so low that, though I was sitting directly in front of him, I couldn’t hear, just the voice of Dorle giving the German translation, but when trying to write, I was too far away to follow. So I only got a few notes…)

At 5 PM Sri Kumar and Kumari-Garu arrived in the back to conduct a little ritual of lighting the butterlamps at the Ganesha statue in the back of the hall – the elephant-headed God, my special friend, is always being worshipped first – to clear off all obstacles and allowing expansion of consciousness.

And when the hymns and the OMs of the evening prayer started, I thought, yes, there it is again, the typical marvellous Guru Pooja feeling, so uplifting and inspiring, which makes me come here all the way to be in this presence. Experiencing the energy of the Masters is something thrilling which words cannot convey.

In the evening a quick dinner, then back into the busses to go back to Visakh for a short night.

I din’t sleep well. Was it the Indian tea, was it the energy of the Guru Poojas? No matter, there will be plenty of time during the day to relax and bathe in the energies, I thought.

I got up at three, took a shower and did my asanas – while the bathroom was busily used one after the other… My netbook was still sleepy when I tried to answer mails, format pictures and post an article for the blog… I finally arrived with the blogpost, some minutes before leaving. But when sitting in the bus I realised that the transformator still was in the room and that the netbook had been running on battery, which was down. OK, I thought, today I will have to use my “note-book” in the old-fashioned pencil-style. And type the notes later…

Meditation, lecture breakfast. And then there was the initiation of children into first writing and intonating the mantram OM Namah Sivaya, for a better control of the senses when regularly sung.

Afterwards the fire ritual started. I will continue with the post tomorrow… We are leaving soon fromt he retreat centre.

Returning very late from the Guru Pooja celebrations and getting up very early / departing to the Guru Poojas I cannot answer individual mails, having no internet access there – and my netbook was down today, I just made hand-notes, so there won’t be a posting about today’s happenings now.

Many requested about details, please see here.

I just saw the post of Srikanth on WTT Facebook, he wrote:

“For invitations and information relating to Master’s discourses (Live and recorded), please email wtt-live@masters-call.net or admin@masters-call.net respectively.”

I will try to answer again the mails in 3 days, in urgent cases before. Thank you for all the many feedbacks. I’m tired and need the short night…

Two old busses took all of the group and we drove along the beachside of Visakhapatnam before continuing via a new bypass around Visakh to Simhachalam. Then the busses climbed uphill to the temple compound lying in a little valley near the top. The went further up a stair to a place where we had to leave our shoes and bags – no cellphones and cameras allowed inside the temple – but I took my camera inside the pocket.

Leaving the busses

The stairway up

The outer premises of the templs

A calf before the entrance

There are three entrance lane, one for free, where normally are many people – the “slow way to heaven”, one for 20 rupees, which the group took – where you can go near the innermost of the temple, and one for 100 rupees where you can enter the innermost – the direct way to heaven, as I jokingly said.

You enter through a side-tower into the outer part of the temple, there is a little temple with pillars hold by lion and elephant figures. The central temple is at the site of a very old and sacred place, but seems to be not so very old. Inside taking photos is strictly forbidden and I knew from previous visits that they really don’t like and I didn’t like to be discovered taking a shot…

Raviskankar, an Indian member accompanying the group discussed with the guards and finally the whole group was allowed to enter the holiest of the holy of the temple.

The name Simha means lion, and the temple is dedicated to the avatara of God as the man-lion. I was asked by the group to explain the symbolism, the story expressing the opening of the heart centre by killing the “demon” who had taken over the rulership of the “earth”, or the human body – a story of the soul triumphing over the personality.

The Avatar Narasimha, the man-lion, opens the heart of the demon king Hiranyakashipu – our own heart

Afterwards part of the group took a bus back to the valley, while I joined the ones who descended via a long stairway of about 1000 steps. I love this way along little statues, symbols, holy trees and a small waterfall.

Descending via the beautiful stairway

My favorite Ganesha, overgrown by a tree

In the village at the bottom end of the stairway,on the site where the Guru Pooja celebrations are to begin tomorrow, the preparations were at full swing – incredible how they want to finish all the work till this evening. After having a delicious meal served by the Indian members to us, we went to a nearby lake with a little temple surrounded by lotus flowers. Then we continued to a palm grove where I write these lines.

The lake with the lotus flowers

Under the palms

I’m posting this some minutes before leaving early morning to Simhachalams