“Back Home” to India
Last Tuesday four o’clock in the morning my wife and I set off for our journey to Visakhapatnam, India, to participate in the seminar of the World Teacher Trust, with our teacher Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar. The taxi drove us through the sleepy city, just a fox and a few cars crossed our ways to the station, where we took the first morning train to Zurich Airport. It was quite cold, 6 degrees Centigrade minus. But when we landed at our first stop, in Frankfort, the temperature dropped still further, 15 degrees minus. Doesn’t matter, I thought, the next stop will bring more warmth.
A radiant sunrise over icy Frankfort
And so it was. In Chennai (Madras) it was 22 degrees, when we landed at midnight, and rain was poring down over a sultry city. It smelled very Indian, when we drove with the taxi to the hotel through side-roads full of mud. Quite a contrast.
The contrast was even stronger when we finally landed in Visakhapatnam, at the Gulf of Bengal, the temperature was over 30 degrees. Murthi, the good caretaker of the World Teacher Trust Retreat Centre was giving us a worm welcome and told us we would wait for another group coming from Hyderabad with the next plane. So we waited for an hour in a hot taxi, where an old video about some Krishna devotee, giving us a taste of spiritual India. New impressions started to fill our minds.
At the retreat centre more and more people started coming. A group had been on a pilgrimage tour to Bangalore, Kumbhakonam – the city where Master CVV had lived, the Blue Mountains, the holy pilgrimage centre of Sri Sailam, where I had been 2 years ago. A big family reunion, with hearty welcome hugs. The retreat centre is very full, with about 60 people from Spain and Germany, from Belgium and Switzerland.
This morning Master Kumar gave us a very warm welcome:
“Welcome to India, welcome to the group life. We have more or less a very relaxed group life, meaning there are not too many teachings. I have reduced the hours of teachings, so that we have more hours for living. So that we don’t get stuck too much in the concepts, live the concepts. Presence is more in living. The concept of presence is more when not leaving the bus. Maybe too many years of teachings have spoiled some of the members. And then listening to the teachings also becomes a vice, and we forget to live and live more in the world of illusion and not in the life that is all around – no flower, no lover, no child, no good food. Many times there is a danger that we walk away from life, when there is too much teachings. So less teachings more living. All teaching is about living, but the people live more in teachings than living. Then sometimes break it…
Thank you for coming in spite of difficulties. Economic difficulties – the economics is shrinking globally, but we don’t have to shrink along with it, because we did not grow when the global economics grew. So why should we shrink, when it shrinks? It is an aspect of discipleship that we are not affected by the impact of the world, to be in the world, but not to be of the world. You don’t have to get affected. Many more events will happen in the next three years, because some accounts will have to be settled. Some old accounts will have to be squared up. There will be many more happenings. When there is no release, there can be no change. Change is already on the way. There has to be a great change, but a new balance. These are years of change, and it continues to change in 2020. Some of us may still live in this time. Let us live in that part of life which does not change. We only think of the unchangeable, but let us live in it. …”
Master Kumar: A warm welcome to the group
A view from our room over the street: Indian-style construction in going on, with a lot of noise. The white house in the background is the backyard of Sri Kumar’s house, which soon will be hidden from view.
The WTT Retreat Centre. Our room is in the fourth floor, with the plate in front of the balcony.
I first wanted to upload some more pictures, but the Wlan connection is quite slow…
January 10th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Thank you very much Ludger for sharing with us the Master presence. I felt very happy to see the retreat photos and remember very nice times.
January 15th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Dear Ludger,
I am very happy to see the photos and news of Guru poojas at Visakhapatnam. I too was presnt there to witness the great event. thanking u. Dr j.n.murthy.