During my visit to friends in Heiligenberg (Holy Mountain) near Lake Constance (see the previous blogpost) Sabine and I went to the town of Überlingen last Sunday morning to see the “Sweden procession“. It is a tradition which started at the end of the Thirty Years’ War: In 1634, the citizens could successfully repel a besiegement of the Swedes which attacked the town over two years. In gratitude for this success, the citizens made a vow to hold twice a year a “Sweden procession”, where after a church service the “Sweden Madonna”, a figure of Mary gilded in silver in 1659, is carried on shoulders by scouts through the town, together with a youth choir, altar boys and girls, and men and women dressed in the traditional costumes.

Memories came up: In my youth, feeling like aeons ago, I had participated in similar processions as an altar boy. I was now a tourist, an on-looker, touched by the ambiance of the spiritual orientation. The faces of the youngsters in the Sweden procession, dressed in white, were focused and full of devotion. I was astonished to see in the cortège people of all ages – also a lot of youngsters and middle-aged people. Sabine was greeting some she knew from her choir.

While we were walking along Lake Constance, she told me that in past times, there had been such processions at many places but modern life turned people away, so that nowadays there are only very few of such processions left.

The citizens of Überlingen, however, are very proud of their tradition and there is a strong social cohesion in the town. She knows of people who lived for longer time in other parts of Germany but felt lost there, and they came back to live and work in this area. You can feel this sense of togetherness in the town – and it could be seen in the “Sword Dance”, related to the Sweden procession, which was performed in the courtyard of Überlingen and in front of the archives an hour later.

It was short before noon – and for us time to prepare for the Health & Healing – Prayer we do on Thursday and Sunday noon time. We rushed through some streets of the old town to the “Garden of Silence” at the “SusoHaus“, which might have been the birth place of Henry Suso (Heinrich Seuse), a mediaeval Dominican friar and mystic (1295-1366). In 2007, an association “New Mysticism in Dialogue” was founded to fill the house with life by transferring Heinrich Seuse’s spiritual impulses into our time and make them fruitful for people today. The house was renovated and now, visitors have the opportunity to become creatively active in writing, making music, philosophising, meditating and, above all, in dialogue with others in the sense of their own lives. (translated from their website)

The “Garden of Silence” at the SusoHaus is freely accessible at all times, and sitting there, under flowers, was an excellent place for our Health & Healing meditation.

A week ago, I was in Heiligenberg (Holy Mountain), South Germany, near Lake Constance visiting Manfred and Sabine for 5 days. It was a precious time with these two friends filled with exchanges, meditations, little excursions and relaxing in their beautiful garden. Manfred has created a little paradise with many roses and other flowers, trees, and bushes with plenty of red and black currants, raspberries and blackberries at the moment – delicious…

In the first evening, Manfred took me up to the forest near the castle where there are two natural burial sites and we spoke about our “transition planning”. In Germany, there are only such places where you can bury the urns outside traditional cemeteries – in Switzerland, it is allowed to give the ash into lakes, rivers, or places in nature.

We then followed a path along the cliffs, which had been only recently re-opened after a longer renovation. It lead to the “friendship cave”, a natural cave, where some centuries ago castle servants were living.

Next morning, Sabine took me to Meersburg on Lake Constance. We walked through the old town and the new castle. There, we saw a statue of the German poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797-1848), who lived for eight years in Meersburg.

We then visited the Prince’s House, which Annette had purchased to live there, with a gorgeous view over the lake. Now, it is a museum dedicated to this first well-known German poetess.

It was very special for me: Already in school, we learnt some of Annette’s poems by heart and read texts. About 40 years ago, a dear friend of mine wrote his PhD about the chronology of her life for the historical-critical complete edition of her works. I was jobless at that time and he gave me his work for typing; thus, I knew many details about Annette. My friend then arranged that I became a museum guide at the Rüschhaus near Münster, North Germany, where Annette had previously lived. Now, in the Prince’s House, there were several pictures of this other house.

Afterwards, we visited the Meersburg cemetery where Annette is buried. We also wanted to see the grave of another famous person, Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), who studied “animal magnetism”. He was hypnotizing people and healing with his hands – of course, much disputed and considered “imagination” by the mainstream physicians and scientists.

We spent the afternoon in the garden, and in the evening, we went to a small theatre in an old basement vault in Überlingen. The “Noltes Theater” presented “Summer Night Rapture”, a poetic performance with songs, jazz and blues music – full of linguistic wit, furious piano playing, and enthusiasm for theatre.

It was an intense trip for seven days, back to India, after two and a half years of “forced pause”. Though there was only a small time window for me to travel, I felt a strong inner call to go to the 113th Master CVV May Call Group Living. So I flew on 25 May via Dubai to Bengaluru.

26th morning, a gorgeous sunrise with all colours, from dark blue to radiant golden orange and blue-white welcomed me while the plane was crossing Goa. When approaching the goal, desert lands on the ground changed to green fields, little ponds and rivers reflecting light – cut here and there by roads. Then the huge iron bird carrying in two storeys a big load of humans and luggage touched the runway ground.

In Dubai, I had already met a group member coming from Puerto Rico and it was very nice to meet again after some years. She had a much longer journey behind. Soon, we were walking through the corridors to the “guardians of the threshold” – Covid controllers, immigration and customs. Although the queues weren’t long, it took 1.5 hs to cross the controls. It was a little Saturnian patience ritual allowing us to finally enter India.

A taxi driver was waiting for us, and soon we were on the way through the city. Dense noon traffic made me fall asleep for a while, after nearly no sleep in the airplane. A bit refreshed after the nap, I “drank” all the images, smells and colourful impressions –many huge trees along the streets – big banyans plenty of mighty old Ashvatta trees (ficus religiosa), arrays of fiery eucalyptuses behind the walls of a botanic garden. And then, men and women with their helmets driving slalom with their motor-bikes through the quickly changing holes in the traffic stream, people carrying boxes walking in slow steps across a road seemingly unmindful of what was going on around, a small bus coming from the wrong direction on the highway – no problem…. And cows were seeking their way along the roads looking for some green at the sides.

After two hours’ drive we finally arrived at Sadguru Tapovana, the centre of WTT-Bengaluru. Along the main road into Tapovana preparation work for the group living was on the way –820 members came for the celebration, a logistic challenge solved with much calm and an excellent organisation by the Tapovana group.

Along the main street to the “Wisdom Temple”, there were panels with pictures of Nicholas Roerich and teachings about Shambala under the trees. 2 weeks before there had been heavy rain and storm; it had broken branches and even big old trees, but everything was well set up again. And during the May Call days the weather was mainly dry and sunny.

Mr. Joshi, the spiritual head of Tapovana, later told me that during the 2 years of Corona time the group had intensely grown. Twenty new houses had been constructed in the surroundings since I was there the last time, now totalling 69 houses, offering space for some hundred members often comprising 3 generations are living now there, many children – family clusters. Over the last maybe 20 years, the group had grown in this quarter, constructing houses, cultivating plants, organising a social infrastructure. Later, Master Kumar told the Western group that Tapovana group is very radiant and efficient, a strong magnet of light. We witnessed a joyful ambiance during the whole time.

There was a hearty welcome – many Indian friends came greeting and exchanging some words, and also the members which had come from the west – this time mainly from Spain. Most of them already arrived some days before and had spent some days at the WTT retreat centre “Master Mountain” in the Nilagiris, in the area where Master Jupiter is said to reside, a place of serene and silent beauty. I had been there with a group in December 2016.

After the evening prayer, Master Kumar invited Anna and me for an exchange. It was very joyful and he looked good and energetic, in spite of the serious diseases he had gone through the last 2 years. We spoke about the situation in the groups and dealing with emotional devotion. In a casual mood, he told how in the early years of coming to the West it was a challenge for him to see that people projected all kind of things into him which he did not see in himself. He said: “Can you imagine how it is when several people were seriously seeing in me their spiritual husband…”

When looking at the Annual Report 2021, which I had brought in a print form, he remarked that he still likes most having such things in paper though knowing that the future is electronic. And he pointed out that there are members and groups sharing about the service activities they are doing and thus inspire others. “There are people speaking much and doing little, and others who don’t speak and don’t share about what they are doing, but do great work – however, they depriving the other groups of the experience and inspiration: They have to learn to share.” And he then he proposed to collect the names of all members in the West doing service through translation: “People should know about their important silent work.” Other kinds of service and servers would be presented later.

He mentioned that he interacts with the members on a one-to-one basis as per their needs but focuses on the importance of group work while respecting the existing organisational structures – they should not be by-passed.

He further said that during Zoom group meeting, he always asks his son to show him the picture tiles of all the Zoom members – this way he contacts each one individually and something happens as a result. When people do not switch on their cameras or put symbolic pictures instead of their photos, he cannot make contact and they exclude themselves from this energetic interaction.

And he mentioned that he had developed an exercise for himself to make inner contact once a week with all the groups where he had been, starting with the southern-most group in Argentina, then going up through South and North America, then to Europe and India, connecting with all the groups.

The next morning around 10:30 am, all members from the West were invited for a meeting with the Master. The room was crowded with about 40 persons. At the beginning Sri Kumar mentioned that he cannot properly see the members in the last row and so he asked each one to stand up starting from the back line. He welcomed each one with a profound silent exchange.
He spoke about the global situation and the time of transition. There was an intense presence electrifying all.

The May Call celebrations started 27 May in the evening with an introductory discourse. Next morning after meditation, there was an extensive fire ritual dedicated to Lord Dattatreya, followed by the inauguration of a Dattatreya statue in the lecture hall, and again on May Call, 29 May.

During the seminar, the Master spoke a lot about the import of Dattatreya and of Master CVV, explaining profound wisdom aspects. There were also many book presentations, exchanges of gifts and cultural programs of music and dance prepared with the children. But in the centre, there were the prayers / meditations and wisdom teachings.

Here is an extract from Master Kumar’s talk on Sunday evening:

“So much good things happen in Sadguru Tapovana – done for the benefit for all, for the general good, for the group. It happens because of the quality of thought. As you receive it, it is a qualitative thought that is put into action by the will. You come and something new is put into action for the benefit of all, for the benefit of the group, for the enlightenment of the group. Don’t we see the inspiration in the group? It is presented to the group at large. Anything we do with the group as the objective, many things get manifested.

The thought you receive is for the groupal purpose, not for ourselves. In a group, when there are people who think of the group and develop greater facilities for the Master, the thought is gold and your personality is a golden temple. There are outer golden temples but they do not give the transformation given by the golden thoughts. A thought which is good for me is not good for many. A thought which is only good for you is not so for the others.

If the awareness is shifted you think, what can be done for the well-being of the group? That inspiration brings newer thoughts, thoughts that have more light in them, golden thoughts, diamond thoughts, the quality of your thoughts is transformed. When you bring in thoughts of goodwill, meaning thoughts that would benefit others, you receive thoughts and manifest them.

The presence of the Master in you, the awakening of the soul, is the next step. You are not into personal desires as before. You will expand your idea of ‘who is ours’ to the group and include the others. Therefore, the feeling of ‘ours’ extends. Here, there are families and families coming together.

A family means a unit. Today in society, the sense of separation prevails. Here, the unity prevails. When a man gets into yoga, his friends and brothers and sisters join the yoga, and the brothers’ and sisters’ children join the yoga. The presence of the Master is bringing the people together – permeation of the presence of the Master. All together, they try to find a place here, build a place here. To build a Brindavan is the same idea. One man has brought his whole clan here – it is not him but the Presence. It is a cluster of family.”

Time ran quickly by. Monday morning, the group living ended with an extensive question-answer session followed by the final lunch. I had filled my luggage already with many books, new ones and books missing in my store for distribution. All the Western members had been accommodated in the houses of group members.

When in the afternoon, a friend from Spain and me were about to leave the house where many of the Western group had stayed – we were the last ones – we wanted to say thank you to the lady of the house. But instead of leaving, an intense exchange started. Her husband later joined, and still later also their girls. They invited me to stay with them until around midnight, when the taxi would bring me to the airport. We had a lovely evening conversation. When the taxi came at 11 pm, there was heavy rain on this side of the city. The ride to the airport was much faster than on arrival. Soon, I was catapulted back via Dubai to Switzerland, filled with profound and enriching impressions and impulses for next steps ahead on the path.

P.S.: There is a blogpost about “The Essence of the Journey to India” written 10 days after the journey.

At places where nature is particularly beautiful and tranquillity prevails, we might sense a special sublime energy, when we have an orientation to the inside. Otherwise, we will just walk by without noticing anything special. We can find such places of energy at riversides, forests, mountain valleys, waterfalls or lakes. With a certain sensitivity and a keen eye, we may experience the sublime presence of high souls through subtle hints, without being emotional about it. Such places are subtle ashrams and they might also be in the proximity of our villages, towns and cities. But we have to develop the necessary faculty and approach them with an attitude of respect. Then, it is good to visit such points from time to time in a spirit of pilgrimage.

Sunday 17 October, there was a clear golden sunshine, and my wife and I decided on a short notice to make an excursion to the Lauterbrunnen valley near Interlaken for a walking tour. It is a beautiful valley about 60 km from our home, surrounded on one side by the towering mountains Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau and on the other side by the Schilthorn. The meaning of the word “Lauterbrunnen” is “pure fountain”.

We wanted to walk from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg at the end of the valley, then take the cable car to Mürren, a mountain village on a terrace above the valley at the foot of the Schilthorn. It cannot be reached by public road, only by cable cars. From there, we wanted to walk along the edge to Grütschalp and from there back by another cable car to Lauterbrunnen.

We did not want to take the huge parking house in the town but went to a little open-air parking outside Lauterbrunnen. And we had to smile about the “analogous” way of collecting the fee, not with a machine but in an envelope and noting hand-written the details of the stay…
The valley shone in glistening sunlight. I had to think of the visit to Yosemite valley two years ago.

On the opposite side there were already the famous Staubbachfalls pouring down the rocks for nearly 300 meters like pure energy of liquid dust – the meaning of the name of the falls – an overwhelming feeling of purity and majesty.

We crossed the valley and went along the Weisse Lütschine river to a nearby camping site where we wanted to have lunch. When we turned towards the falls, there was a children playground and behind it a graveyard.

My wife immediately felt the presence of a great number of earthbound souls hovering around. I also sensed them – many seem to get stuck on the way up due to today’s materialistic orientation and ignorance about the subtle worlds. We went into a little road next to the cemetery. My wife started doing her inner work ( I have blogged about it several times); I also did some visualisation guiding them towards the light. We did not want to attract the attention of the passing tourists and kept it short.

The noon light was shining on the downpour of waters and the air was filled with the shining “water dust” coming down along the rocks – a most sublime presence. You can easily imagine some dancing devas.

We then came along an old house covered with grass…

… and, on the way to the restaurant, of a chalet full of flowers before the windows.

After lunch in open air, we took the path along the river which was glittering like molten sunlight.

We quickly went on, passed by the Trümmelbach waterfalls inside a mountain – we had seen another time.

At one point you can see the Mount Jungfrau through a small valley. The perspective reminded me of a photo of Mount Kailash in Tibet. Pyramid-like or conical mountains are particularly good at bringing energies down to the earth. You might read more about it in the Lunar Messenger about Pyramid and Double Pyramid.

Towards the end of the valley, there is the rope-way station of Stechelberg going up to Mürren. A cabin just left on our arrival, so we had to wait for the next one. In the station, there were again a number of East Asian tourists and others. The lady at the cash desk was happy that tourism is coming back to normal.

Coming out of the station in Mürren, there is a breathtaking view of the towering mountains on the other side. At one place, there was a scaffold for a new construction near the edge of the cliff. Some tourists were standing around, and one of them suddenly climbed up for the group to take pics of him. We felt, OMG, he is crazy – deaths through selfies and tourist photos is globally rising high.

We walked through the village along hotels and lodges, partly already closed until winter, and then followed the railway leading to Grütschalp. Most tourists took the train or another cable-car. We continued walking – soon there were nearly no more hikers.

Walking along the rails and the electrical cables was not so nice, so we decided to try a way up. One road was blocked due to repair; the way we chose was a bit steep in the beginning and the sunlight was dazzling me. I had to close the eyes and felt dizzy. My wife helped me to continue up the rocky path through the forest. When after a while we arrived on a plateau, there was a mountain biker waiting for us to give way. He then jumped down over the rocks with great speed- we wondered how he could manage to do so – and avoid other hikers coming up.

Now the path became broader and slowly went down.

The whole time there were varying views of the “holy trinity”, Eiger, Mönch (monk) and Jungfrau mountains. For a while, we focused to perceive the subtle energies of the mountain range, and there was a feeling of sublime deva presence. We thought of Master Kumar mentioning that there is an ashram in the subtle spheres around Mount Jungfrau. (You can read more about subtle ashrams in the book of Sri Kumar on “Ashram – Regulations for Entry“.)

Jungfrau meaning virgin, Virgo. There was a profound pristine purity around. Switzerland is said to be ruled astrologically by Virgo – and this was like the manifestation of the quality.

On the other side of the valley, there was the village of Wengen. My thoughts went back to an important seminar of Master Kumar in Wengen about Sri Suktam, the hymn of the World Mother in 2002 – at the feet of the Virgin Mountain. (There exists an English transcription and a German translation of the seminar.)

It was still some distance until Grütschalp and in the shadow it was nippy. At some places we saw some pieces of frost. At others, there were turnpike-like metal structures. We wondered what they were good for – and discovered that they belong to the snow-making system of the ski slopes… We imagined the masses of skiers coming soon in winter.

But now, we were the only hikers on the way, surrounded by profound silence. Although a bit tired, we were like impregnated by the gorgeous panorama.

At Grütschalp, the tourists coming by mountain train from Mürren and other places arrived at the top station of the rope-way. From there, it goes down to the Lauterbrunnen train station and from there to Interlaken and other places. When gliding down into the valley, the high mountains looked as if they were sinking behind the promontories – a final view, and then they were hidden behind the steep rock walls of the valley.

A final walk through Lauterbrunnen, back to the parking and then driving home. A big traffic jam awaited us on the highway – we were not the only ones who took advantage of the nice weather.

We met in the time-space of the Libra equinox 2021 in the spirit of the ONE Master-Energy. 19 members from Denmark, Germany and Switzerland could overcome all obstacles and came to Hamburg for this 12th “CVV Sharing” group life from 24 – 26 September 2021.

The energy of synthesis brought us together once again. We met in the San Bao centre, a school for Tai Chi and Qigong in a quiet backyard. Through the windows we could see from time to time some other people of a silence retreat practicing conscious walking. Also inside, it was a simple but beautiful place.

The motto of the meeting was “CVV activates change. Be the change by tuning into the energy of synthesis.” The keynote from Master KPK given for this year’s CVV Sharing was: “Just relate to Me in and around in all that surrounds you, animate or inanimate. Thereby you reach Me. Abandon all other religious rules and regulations. They are a burden.”

The meeting started with the Friday evening meditation. In the afternoon we met with the organising team in a nearby AirBnB-flat and later prepared the assembly hall. Corona times demanded certain registrations, also in the restaurants. There were new stricter rules in Hamburg but they did not touch us. It was heart-warming to meet again. In the evening, Benjamin shared some reflections on the energy of equinox. Ute introduced some thoughts of how the group might relate in the night and during morning prayer, which we had in our respective accommodations. During the days, we had meditations/prayers every three hours. The evenings concluded with the Mystic Mantrams of Master CVV.

The group members were proposed to bring symbols or things as their expression of the energy of synthesis. Saturday morning, each member presented his or her item with some words, and decorated with them a shelf as a small altar during the group life – symbols, candles ….

Throughout the day we experienced different aspects of the MASTER energy through meditations, rituals, little inputs, group works, sharing in the forum. There were also breaks for personal contacts and exchange.

Saturday morning we did an experiment with a meditative ritual – first linking to the energies of the directions, then a guided visualisation, “Buddhi Sharing”, a group meeting on the inner platform, and afterwards an exchange in the group.

In the afternoon there was an input and an exchange about the qualities of the present time followed by a triangle group exchange in small varying sub-groups about our relation to groups.

Sunday morning, members presented inspirational thoughts / quotes / poems they wanted to share with the group. Afterwards there was an “open space” and an exchange about the future development of the CVV Sharing meetings. A next meeting is already planned for spring equinox at a seminar centre in North Germany.

At noon we joined as a group the World Health and Healing prayer. And after lunch, there was already the closing round, clean-up and departure. A magic time-space closed again only to open up again in future at some other moment.

For me, 1.5 days of travelling back followed, with a friend from South Germany and an overnight-stay at the home of other group members. It was a very intense and rich time, after a longer period of mainly virtual group meetings.

Last week I did the first trip over several days, after 19 months “pause”. Good friends from Heiligenberg (“Holy Mountain”) in the German Lake Constance area had invited me for a visit. Since the pandemia regulations have now become less strict, I could cross the frontier again without any controls…

The couple lives in a house at the foot of the Heiligenberg mountain with a gorgeous view towards the lake and the Heiligenberg Castle above. On arrival, I noticed that my camera had taken holidays from me and stayed at home – so I borrowed the mobile of Sabine to take at least some shots.

Even without meeting physically, we have a lot of contact with group activity exchanges. But physical meetings cannot be replaced by zooming… It was a very hearty stay.

Thursday afternoon Manfred and Sabine took me on a trip to a beautiful ridge along the lake overlooking vineyards near Meersburg. And Friday morning we went to the Beuron Archabbey, a monastery now of the Benedictine order and in earlier centuries of the Augustinians. It was founded in the 11th century AD and is located in the upper Danube valley.

When we entered the church, a mass was going on. The air was full of frankincense smoke and organ music was filling the space. We preferred to do a little walk along the Danube and to come back later. The monastery has beautiful artwork of the Beuron Art School. The church ambiance brought up reminiscences of long-gone childhood times – I first went to a kindergarten in a monastery near my parents’ home and later served there as an altar boy over years. Parents and relatives wanted to make me a priest. I escaped to other directions but impregnations remained… In the souvenir shop, my friends bought for me a candle with a beautiful blue angel…

Later we drove to the nearby Campus Galli, a kind of museum and construction site (see their German website), where craftsmen and volunteers are using 9th century resources to create a monastery based on the St. Gallen monastery plan. It is the only surviving major architectural drawing from the middle-ages and copies of it were displayed at the site. The workers not only help with the construction, but also act as costumed interpreters. It was very impressive to see blacksmiths, weavers, carpenters, crockers, or coopers doing their work and to talk to them. How many steps were needed to come to the present way of living…. On the marketplace, we had our lunch with “dinnele”, a medieval kind of warm flat bread from a stone oven with cheese.

Sabine is a language teacher and Manfred is a former engineer and manager of a huge German electronic enterprise. He later deeply went into the knowledge about herbs and the healing powers of plants. He built up a large network of people interested in cultivating existing herbal knowledge, applying it and making it available in an understandable way. And he developed a beautiful garden with many kinds of roses and other plants – I very much enjoyed relaxing there under an apple tree, smelling the roses in the air….

Saturday morning Sabine took me to the market in Überlingen. A regional horticultural show is going on over the summer. Plenty of people were strolling along the lake and through the lanes. Near the ship landing point a group of artists was playing the “Pandemia Fairy Tale”… Life seemed to be nearly “back to normal”, with a Mediterranean ambiance.

In the afternoon two friends came for a visit – meditation and intense exchanges, which weren’t possible since a long time.

Sunday morning Sabine and I had an intense working session on the navigation structure for a future website of the German speaking WTT community – a team project. The time was running by, the sunny days as well. Soon I was back to the highway. Rich memories remain.

26 December. Leaving home early morning before the time of winter dawn, having freed the car windowns from ice first. The railway to Zurich, then entering the plane – a space and time capsule to project me through abstract space to India for – my 20th journey to the WTT group living in the month of Capricorn – an auspicious moment.

Sitting in the plane, close to the dark blue expanse of sky, is the only time in the year where I watch some movies. An excellent new one caught my attention – “Tolkien”, about the early formative years of this great genius of fantasy novels. During my student times in the early 70s, his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy made me dive intot he books for three days and nights.

A short stop in Delhi – immigration, floods of travellers, colourful attires, pulsating crossroads of many parts of the world. At 6 am, again in early morning darkness, the plane took off, flying into the majestic colour symphony of sunrise. I was astonished – the flight captain of the flight from Switzerland and now to Bangalore was a lady pilot – for the first time in all the years of travelling.

A taxi driver picked me up at the airport and brought me safely through the heavy traffic to Sadguru Tapovana, the centre of WTT Bangalore where the celebration of the 110th December Call takes place. Friends greeted joyfully giving a warm welcome.

The preparations in the hall were still going on. In front of the stage, some ladies created beautiful decorations with colourful sands. The altar was framed by two dark blue ribbons with shining yellow Sanskrit letters, on one side: “Soham Asmi (That I am) and on the other “Parabrahman Asmi” (The highest existence, Parabrahman, I am).

The group life was opened by chanting the Purusha Sutkam, the hymn to the Cosmic Person. Master Kumar conducted a short ceremony to Lord Ganesha and then opened the December Call celebration. (to be followed)

A friend of mine from France told me that she is now going on a journey to Mongolia, also to meet shamans. When I asked her to bring back some nice photos, she replied that she had already been there in 2013 and, “Here some photos from the sacred place called Shamballa.”

Photos from Shamballa (also spelled Shambhala, the White Island) I thought? I had written blogposts about this mythical place, also about parallels in the African language Kikongo; I had done several paintings about the glory of Shamballa and composed some texts on the basis of the Wisdom teachings; however, Shamballa, the seat of Sanat Kumara, is a place in the etheric plane in the area of Mongolia, near the desert Gobi. It is invisible for the normal eyes, but visible for people who have gained the etheric vision.

These photos were not something etheric but of a physical place. So I googled for “Shamballa Mongolia” – and found many similar photos of a place called the ‘Khamariin Khiid Monastery‘, or as it is called in Wikipedia, the ‘Khamar Monastery‘ in Mongolia.

Tripfreakz.com has an article about the background of this monastery in the south of Mongolia (“The mystical Shambala of Mongolia“), where they explain that in the beginning of the 19th century there lived Danzanravjaa, a Mongolian monk of the Red Cap Sect, who was very gifted and regarded as a reincarnation. He gave many predictions and also instructions on where to find Shamballa. At the vicinity of this place he erected a monastery in 1812 (or 1820 according to other sources, Wikipedia) near the town of Sainshand in Dorno-Gobi-Aimag  in the eastern Gobi. It was destroyed by the Stalinists in 1937, who killed many of the lamas. Danzanravjaa also predicted the date of his death; he was poisoned by his wife in 1856. Legend tells that he knew he was going to be poisoned, but he took the drink to fulfill his destiny.  The current monastery was built after the 1990 Democratic Revolution in Mongolia.

You find the place on Google Maps, even with Street View of the surroundings, and there is a nearby round structure on a mountain called “Energy Centre“.

I told this my friend asking if I can use the photos for a blog-post, and she said yes:

“It is necessary to make this place known to people in search of spirituality. It is not a place for tourists !!!! although the visit can make them evolve. It is a magical place in the Gobi Desert. For me it is not the real Shamballa which remains mysterious and inaccessible to humans for the moment. Maybe I’m mistaken. However, everyone talks about it like Shamballa and in any case the vibrations are very strong and it doesn’t explain how I felt.”

Yes, this centre seems to be a physical reflection of the etheric Shamballa on the subtle planes. A physical Shamballa structure can be destroyed by attackers. The spiritual reality of Shamballa, however, is indestructible. It is the highest world as per the living beings on this earth, the plane of pure existence and of perfect knowledge existing in us as the diamond consciousness in the head centre.

So this Khamariin Khiid Monastery in Gobi desert can well be regarded as a body of the reality of Shamballa.

Here are some more impressions from my friend’s journey:

The last blogpost of July 2nd was about “Biography of Sripada Srivallabha now released in English“. I would like to tell you how the story has been going on.

June 15th, there was the Indian release of the book by Sri K. Parvathi Kumar during the Guru Purnima celebration (at Cancer full moon, the full moon of the Teacher) in Hyderabad.

And yesterday I received photos from Sri Gopal, the head of the WTT centre in Hyderabad. Together with other group members, they went to Kuruvapur, an island in the Krishna river of strong spiritual vibrations, where Sripada passed the second half of his life (see here about my visit in January 2017.)

Mr Gopal wrote, “We are blessed that you thought of us to deliver this Most Sacred Book in the Sripada Srivallabha Sansthan (the temple). There was absolute Master’s cooperation wherein we received wonderful reception and we could participate in the Water Ritual to the Sripada Srivallabha Sila (the seat on which Sripada Srivallabha sat and did penance), performed by Sri. Manjunath Bhat, himself, who is the incharge of that Sansthan” (temple).

He further added: “In India we carry Guru Padukas ( symbolic Chappals -sandals- of Master) on the head with reverence. That is how we carried Gurucharitra (the book) on the head. The whole group carried the most Revered Book on head one by one till we reached the Guru Sansthan. Just for your understanding of the pictures sent.”

Thus, this English version of the Sripada biography, published in Germany, reached its “home” with great reverence: Major parts of the book had been written at Kuruvapur around 1350. And it contains the prophecy that centuries later it would be translated into many languages. See more about the book here.

Saturday morning after breakfast, last exchanges and saying good-bye to one and all, we boarded the buses which transported us back to San Francisco or San Jose. And the team of organizers started closing the site of the group living and packing….

It was quite hot when we came down from the mountains to the central Californian area. Our bus driver drove with high speed, he seemed to be in a hurry to come home… The bus stopped at the Courtyard Hotel in San Jose North. While the others checked in, I waited in the lobby together with three friends to be picked up.

Some hours later Murali came with his neighbour Gurjinder and they drove us to Morgan Hill. For two nights, we stayed in the house of Gurjinder and his wife Kusum, a very amiable couple from Punjab in Northern India. They live in a beautiful huge villa, newly constructed and well decorated inside and outside with Indian art. He is an IT specialist, she a dentist. She helped in Anu’s and Murali’s house in the kitchen, where the Master and his travel group stayed and where many of the Indian brotherhood came for the prayers. A small footpath through the garden connected the two houses.

Gurjinder and Kusum gave us a warm welcome. It touched me very much that they gave their own bedroom to accommodate Rosy and Mathilda. And I slept in the room of their daughter, who was rehoused to her twin brother (both approx. mid-20s) – one would hardly find such hearty hospitality in Europe.

Sunday morning after meditation there was a Pada Puja, a traditional worship of the Teacher and his wife by members of the Indian brotherhood of California in the house of Anu and Murali.

Later, the Master and his companions made an excursion, while I sat down to write the minutes of the General Assembly. Afterwards, Mathilda and I walked through the gardens of the two houses and enjoyed the flowers and the smell of the eucalyptus trees. And we had interesting exchanges with the parents of Murali. Although in the 80s, they are very spirited.

Next morning when we wanted to prepare for departure, Gurjinder was showing the rooms of his house to the Master, just looking into the room where I had spread my belongings for packing… Shortly afterwards, a driver from Lyft came to give us a ride to San Francisco airport.

Mathilda’s flight was in the early afternoon, mine was in the evening, and finally delayed for 2.5 hours. I spend the day in the airport, reading, writing, watching some expositions of the SFO Museum in the airport. While I was out on a terrace at the Gates, I saw the Swiss airplane coming in with much delay from Zurich. It was nearly 10 pm when the plane took off again for the flight back.

In the plane, I sat in a row together with a mother and her daughter, about 8 years old. They were from LA but of Italian ancestry and on their way to Italy. The lively daughter gave me a welcome chewing gum and recommended me to watch the “Captain Marvel” movie about a superwoman, which she had already seen, and so I did.

Flying through the time zones, looking down once while passing from Greenland over fields of icebergs and then again just before the Hebrides, I tried to consciously realise what was just happening. Yes, the melting icebergs around Greenland have something to do with my flying above them; but the unfolding network of light and spiritual awakening and of an attitude of service witnessed during the group living is a strong promise for better relations between humans, nature and the globe.

When my wife picked me up at the train station and I finally was back home, I felt profoundly grateful for the safe ending of the journey and filled with an abundance of impressions.