In the retreat centre the morning starts early. Trying to get in time a place under the shower, quickly doing some asanas so that the body doesn’t start to rust, then after a sip of tea down into the seminar hall, which by now is cramped with chairs. The about 115 group members from the West (about 85 of them Spanish speaking and a bit of Southern vitality )are quite disciplined, but besides the chit-chat there is the “waterfall music” of the ventilators and the dogs and birds from the outside, not to forget the horn and other noises of the cars.

An early morning musician

The altar in the lecture hall with the pictures of the great masters

Lakshmi, the goddess of fullness, giving us her blessings

At the backside of the lecture hall there is a huge new poster of a fire ritual

Sri Kumar welcoming the groups yesterday afternoon

I try to use my imagination visualising that we are not in a mega-city – though not in the centre – but in some forest ashram at the times of the old rishis This visualisation strongly gets vivified when at 6am the sound of all the voices unite for intoning the OM 7  times and then the invocation of the Masters. It is lifting up, high above the lower spheres, reminding me of the description of Master DK in Occult meditations that through intonating the OM a cone is formed in the ethers opening up to above and that through this funnel energy can pour in – and this in a concentrated group meditation here is very inspiring.

Afterwards quickly washing some laundry in the bucket and putting it on the strings on the balcony. Mine is filled with some garbage of the retreat centre which obviously didn’t find any other place. But there remains a little space for the clothes.

Morning laundry sunrise over the neighbour balcony

And then coming into the dining hall, it is difficult to get a place at a table, but I succeeded – sitting among a group of Argentineans. Soon the plate is filled with idlis, sambar and toast. And since there was no milk, I improvised my “survival muesli” with chai – inter-cultural fusion of east and west.

Another “survival item” for my Indian tours is a vegetable paste from Switzerland, Tartex, which was tasted by the neighbouring Argentineans with keen interest.

You never see an Argentinean without the obligatory cup of Mate, which is being refilled with water and passed around.

The Indian cook in action – preparing idlis in a little stove and cooking with gas fire sometimes flaming up.

View of the kitchen- here the food for all of us is being prepared – with very simple means and ways of cooking…

Murthi, the good spirit and caretaker of the house – meditating in action?

In an hour we will start for Simhachalam, where the Guru Pooja will begin this evening. Today at noon we will visit the old temple at Simhachalam uphill – something for the next blog-post.

This afternoon Sri Kumar wanted to see the groups from the different countries, especially to give a welcome to those who came here for the first time. Having two passports , I joined the German group (the Swiss is virtually too small to really be a “group” here…

Four members of the German group had just come from a visit to Benares / Varanasi and told about their experiences. As Sri Kumar had suggested them, they had been at the place where Trailinga Swami lived. He mentioned that the Swami was a master of the Ashram of Agastya, in the Nilagiris – and I remembered having a picture of him, in a collection of the pictures of the Guru Pooja altar. I showed Sri Kumar the photo of this extraordinary yogi and he confirmed that it is he whom he was talking about.

Trailinga Swami was known all over India for his extraordinary yogic powers. He had brought a huge lingam out of the waters of Ganges, which the four members had seen in Benares. At other occasions Sri Kumar had told the sotry of how the swami had been locked in prison because of running around nude – only for the prison personnel to seem him a short while later sitting on the top of the prison – naked. Again into prison, and again he was sitting there on the top as natural as nature made him. He was a very voluminous person who reportedly lived several hundred years, and he left his body in 1887. You can read in Wikipedia other extraordinary things about this Swami about whom well-known persons like Ramakrishna, Lahiri Mahasaya / Yogananda wrote; here is an extract:

“On many occasions, he was seen to drink deadly poisons with no ill effect. In one instance, a skeptic wanted to expose him as a fraud. The monk was accustomed to breaking his long fasts with buckets of clabbered milk, so the skeptic brought him a bucket of calcium-lime mixture used for whitewashing walls instead. The monk drank the entire bucket with no ill effect—instead, the skeptic fell to the ground writhing. The monk broke his usual silence to explain the law of karma, or cause and effect.

According to another story, he often walked around without any clothes, much like the naga (or “sky-clad”) sadhus. The Varanasi police were scandalized by his behaviour, and had him locked in a jail cell. He was soon seen on the prison roof, in all his ‘sky-clad’ glory. The police put him back into his locked cell, only to see him appear again on the jail roof. They soon gave up, and let him again walk the streets of Varanasi.

Thousands of people reportedly saw him levitating in a sitting position on the surface of the river Ganges for days at a time. He would also apparently disappear under the waves for long periods, and reappear unharmed. Swami Sivananda attributed some of his miracles to the siddhi or yogic power Bhutajaya— or conquest over the five elements, “Fire will not burn such a Yogi. Water will not drown him.^“

The fourth floor of the retreat centre, where I’m living at the moment has been transformed into a huge library: A number of huge book shelves containing all the books of Master EK have been shifted here – and in the first floor there is now also the office of Kulapati Editions – the other place has been closed.

Spiritual books from Master KE’s library and linen

The energy of Capricorn was very present during the evening prayer. Sri Kumar proposed that we go to the beach and enjoy there the presence of the full moon. Together with an Argentinean friend I joined a group of Spanish members who wanted to do a full moon meditation on the balcony of their apartment at the beach road. The magic spell of moon light enchanted the atmosphere – and the sounds of the night traffic along the sea seemed to fade away in the silent merging with the Capricornian ethers.

This morning we had a full moon fire ritual after the meditation. The room was crowded with the big group which had been still extended to a number of Indian brothers and sisters sitting close by close.

The ground for the fire ritual was well prepared with a mandala on white sand, and Kumari-Garu, the wife of Sri Kumar, added further decoration.

After the silence of meditation they started intonating singing Vedic hymns – Purusha Suktam, Sri Suktam and more, before the fire was lit.

While the air was filled with the mantric sounds, the flames rose higher and higher and cast beautiful devic forms into the ether:

This form reminds me of an eagle, the eagle of the spirit, ready to land on the fire place.

In the background you see the altar with the pictures of the great Masters beautifully decorated with fresh flowers.

Fascinated by the magic of he fire – the grand-daughter of Sir Kumar and Kumari with her mother

It was a very extensive ritual. Atfer about two hours the flames slowly died down and the air filled with beautiful smell when some hands of frankincense were thrown into the glowing ashes.

Kumari taking out some ashes for distribution

Afterwards some spicy rice was distributed to all as “prasad”, and people paid their homage to Sri Kumar. He smiled at me saying: “I have read all of your letter, very good.” At the arrival I had given to him a long letter with a number of observations. I felt a great relief.

Getting up this morning at about 4.30, taking a shower, doing asanas and then the morning prayer / meditation at 6 o’clock with Sri Kumar guiding – a soul-stirring morning – the noises from the outside and the cuckoo-clock violently ringing – nothing could disturb the soul-thrilling ambiance. Afterwards preparing breakfast. Many new-comers were standing around and didn’t know what to do and that it is a “self-service” – meaning you have to prepare everything yourself. So I started cleaning and then getting a translator to give instructions to the newbees – where to place the marmalades, how to install and operate the toasters, where to put the coffee etc. In the kitchen an group was busily preparing fruits, and Murthi with the cook doing idlis and sambar. The smell was spreading all over, and quickly the room filled with a sprightly morning chit-chat.

These days before Guru Pooja there isn’t yet any program, just “relaxing. Many wanted to do some shopping -not me. So after breakfast I was about to organise a taxi to go to the planetary healing centre, but I dropped into another deep conversation… I thought, oh, I won’t be time to go to the healing centre this morning. But when I came out of the room, a Spanish friend told me they would like to go shopping and then to the healing centre, if I would like to accompany them. I said, beautiful. And then other friends came and invited me to a direct ride to the centre, without shopping, and so we sat some minutes later and started on our little tour.

Visakhapatnam has incredibly grown the last years. I heard at noon that during the last 5 years they grew from 4 to 5 millions – al the main area. And you could see it on the way all along the coast – a big Novotel at the beach road, many more houses, all the palces where a few years ago there had just been bushes there were now apartments nearly till the place of the healing centres about 15 km away.

But the site of the centre is still so thrilling as it was, and even more, the place was very well kept this year, people were cleaning the ground, the centre building with the dome was freshly painted and even the place with the Maitreya statue was again under the shadows of a huge branch of a tree, where another tree had died 2 years ago. I gave a quick visit to Lord Maitreya and Lord Buddha, enjoying their presence.

Lord Maitreya blessing

Lord Buddha blessing

Then we sat in silence in Planetary Healing Centre, vibrating soul-stirring energy. After a while I started intonating 21 times OM, and the others fell in line – expansion, merging with the sound

In the silence afterward I suddenly started to hear a beautiful music coming from somewhere outside. We all sat there in this blessed ambiance.

The central pillar with the onyx globe from South America

Photographing the centre of the centre

Afterwards we went around the centre and to the littpe private ground where the owner and caretaker of this site is living in a beautiful roundhouse with some outer round houses.

A very organic architecture in this little paradise garden

The entire ground was very well kept, with beautiful flowers growing

Of course some photos of our little group had to be taken – and also of me…

Afterwards we sat for a while in front of the Maitreya statue and intonated the Maitreya song and the Narayana mantram, while some crows and a couple of birds of prey – probably kites -  flew around – messengers of the Spirit.

Probably a kite – as a friend wrote me

I first wanted to take a bath, but the others didn’t want to come – the sun was too glaring. People also had told me that in the bushes near the beach there are living several poisonous snakes, so I resigned from my favorite swim in the ocean.

We woke up the taxi driver who had slept all the time in his car and so he brought us back to the city. In the meantime a part of the Argentinean group had arrived and lunch was already waiting for us.

In half an hour my son will bring me to the station – the journey to India begins. This afternoon I’ll fly from Zurich via Dubai/Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam to attend the seminar and Guru Pooja celebration of the World Teacher Trust (WTT). It’s my 13th journey to Visakh and the 17th to India, but each time it is a little adventure.

Yesterday a Swiss friend skyped me from Visakh and told me that because of the scarceness of rooms in the Retreat Centre I will be “camping” in a hall. OK, I thought, better to be there than to stay outside. There are more people coming this year than the other years, mainly from Argentina – I saw the lists of participants and look forward to meet a number of old friends. I’ll try to blog a bit about the journey.

I’m really looking forward to this journey – very turbulent and challenging weeks at my office kept me on high speed the last months, with a climx in December. 2 days ago I talked with our director and he understands the difficulties – we will deal with them in February. Directly after my return. I will have a talk with him and my superior to see how we can find a solution. So for the moment the job has a little pause and I’ll take off…

The last weeks I enjoyed digitally restoring my old paintings from the 80ies - fruits of an intense inner experience in 1981. Every day, also this morning, I had been publishing a picture with some lines of comment. There will be a bit over 100 paintings, 70 have been published on Flickr and about 35 are still waiting. I wonder whether I will find time to continue my project in India.

Here is one I did in August 1987 – “Spiritual Hierarchy VI – The Ascent”. You can read my comment on Flickr, if you like – and also post a comment, or on my Facebook profile. Enjoy

A video with the sublime sounds of Tibetan Singing Bowls (48 min.). Sit down and relax.

An Indian friend sent me the following nice story:

A man was sitting by a lake. He was throwing small pebbles into it from time to time. A young boy happened to cross by. He was intrigued to see that after every few minutes or so, the man would toss a pebble into the lake.

The boy went up to the man and said, “Good pastime, this stone throwing, he?” “Hmmm,” said the man. He seemed to be deep in thought and obviously did not wish to be disturbed.

Sometime later, the man said softly, “Look at the water, it is absolutely still.”

The boy said, “Yeah, it is.”

The man tossed a pebble into the water and continued, “Only till I toss a pebble into it now do you see the ripples?”

“Yeah,” said the boy, “they spread further and further.”

“And soon, the water is still again,” offered the man.

The boy said, “Sure, it becomes quiet, after a while.”

The man continued, “What if we want to stop the ripples? The root cause of the ripples is the stone. Let’s take the stone out. Go ahead and look for it.” The boy put his hand into the water and tried to take the stone out.

But he only succeeded in making more ripples. He was able to take the stone out, but the number of ripples that were made in the process were a lot more than before.

The wise man said, “It is not possible to stop the movement of the water once a pebble has been thrown into it. But if we can stop ourselves from throwing the pebble in the first place, the ripples can be avoided altogether! So too, it is with our minds. If a thought enters into it, it creates ripples. The only way to save the mind from getting disturbed is to block and ban the entry of every superfluous thought that could be a potential cause for disturbance. If a disturbance has entered into the mind, it will take its own time to die down. Too many conflicting thoughts just cause more and more disturbances. Once the disturbance has been caused it takes time to ebb out. Even trying to forcibly remove the thought may further increase the turmoil in the mind. Time surely is a great healer, but prevention is always better than cure.”

Before you allow a thought or a piece of information to enter your mind, put it through the triple filter test of authenticity, goodness and value.

At a little nearby river, spring 2008

An Indian friend forwarded me an e-mail from his doctor-friend who introduced a beautiful video with a hymn by Adi Shankara:

“Both the videos are similar. Please insert the name of the God that you worship in place of “Shiva” at the end of each stanza. Adi Shankara believed in no caste or religion. His God was himself (Shiva), who is none other than the God you and I worship. Call Him by any name that you want to. For those who do not understand Sanskrit, the meaning is given in English.
I find it very enchanting and beautiful. Thanks, Anand.

The introduction to the video says:
“The great Adi Shankara of the eighth century summarized the entirety of Advaita Vedanta (non-dualistic philosophy) in six stanzas. When a young boy of eight, while wandering in the Himalayas, seeking to find his guru, he encountered a sage who asked him, “Who are you?” the boy answered with these stanzas, which are known as “Nirvana Shatakam” or “Atma Shatakam.” “Nirvana” is complete equanimity, peace, tranquility, freedom and joy. “Atma” is the True Self. The sage the boy was talking to was Swami Govindapada Acharya, who was, indeed, the teacher he was looking for.”
These few verses can be of tremendous value to progress in contemplation practices that lead to Self-Realization.”

Every year we publish from WTT-Global an Astrological Diary running from Aries to Pisces. I just published the information about ordering the diary 2012/13. It is helpful if you want to work with the subtle rhythms of time and use the constellations for meditation – a fascinating inner work.

It is quite an intense work to prepare the diary with all the daily ephemeris and indications. I did it once some years ago – it needs a lot of concentration… The Astro-Diary is published at cost price just in a small number for those who order it. You find more information here. Orders are possible till Dec. 14th.

For interested persons who cannot afford the print version we will also make it available in PDF form. The monthly important dates – not the daily ephemeris – can also be found here.

A page of the calendar:

A friend teaching in Oregon, at Bastyr University, wrote me today:

It is my lot to be teaching World Religion starting in January. In preparations for this class I came across a rare group of interfaith friends and colleagues. They call themselves the “Interfaith Amigos.” This might interest our group members as well (they have a YouTube site).”

Their website presents the Interfaith Amigos with the following words:
“Known for their unique blend of spiritual wisdom and humor, Imam Jamal Rahman, Pastor Don Mackenzie and Rabbi Ted Falcon openly address the usual taboos of interfaith dialogue — the “awkward” parts of each tradition — in order to create a more authentic conversation.”

And they ask: “With so much divisiveness splintering our world, how do we Get to the Heart of Interfaith?” And one of the interfaith amigos, Imam Jamal Rahman, answers: “As the Prophet Muhammed said, we need to move from ‘knowledge of the tongue’ to ‘knowledge of the heart.’” – Perfectly true.

Here is a video from TEDxDU