Self-Governing, a Group Experiment and a Cheerful End of the Seminar
A beautiful group life in India is just coming to the end. This afternoon the journey back to Switzerland will start. Thursday morning we had a last fire ritual in the garden of Sri Kumar.
Statue of Lord Dattatreya, the three-headed cosmic teacher principle
Kumari Garu distributing prasad (food) after the ritual
We had a question-answer session about the theme of the seminar, the 14 Manvantaras (ages/phases of incarnations of the earth), which I enjoyed very much.
In the afternoon we saw a nice Indian movie, Barfi! (see complete version online) about two deaf and dumb persons, very well played. Sri Kumar gave us a short introduction for a better understanding of the story. (“Set in the 1970s in a pretty corner of India, Barfi! is the story of three young people who learn that love can neither be defined nor contained by society’s norms of normal and abnormal.” From an online description)
Friday morning there was the closing ceremony of the seminar.Members from the 5 different countries present expressed their experiences with the time of being in India and the seminar, which was different from previous seminars. I mentioned in my words that it was a highly self-governed group which organised well without much obvious central organising.
Sri Kumar the explained: “The 27th Group Life in India is a very good experience. … I experimented to be nearer to the group by being far. It is an experiment. All that you speak confirms that it works. Sometimes by a distance things can be done better. I am always around, like a mother being always around the child. The child would like to play free and yet have the mother. This technique of being nearer to the group by being far – all of you have grown enough and you don’t need to be organised. We are all self-governing. Out of love some anxiety comes but it organises itself. But it would not work if all think it is going by itself. We have to take things up and not be anxious to take up the organisation. The World Teacher Trust believes in free will. We don’t believe in organising too much. You are all very self-governing persons..
My theme in the whole work is that all who come are devoted to the teachings. The teacher works through teaching. I don’t believe in reproducing what has already been done. I prefer giving it sitting here. I have spoken certain keys by which you can directly experience the manvantaras within you and relate to them, not speak about the whole chronology but make it as real to you as possible, so that we live the wisdom instead of gathering it. Many people gather the wisdom. To gather is heavy. My understanding is, wisdom is coming, whatever wants to manifest. The teaching given is to experience it in your own being.”
Presents were shared, each member received a small token by Sri Kumar and Kumari-Garu.
Unpacking the presents of the group – two wooden elephants
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Saying good-bye. Sri Kumar was about to leave for Hyderabad in the afternoon.
The remaining members then went to see the Bala Bhanu school, a regular school with 10 classes run by the WTT. It is imparting the normal curriculum together with spiritual values and moral education. It is always fascinating to see the attention and inner attitude of the students.
Navaneetam and Parvathi welcoming the group at the Bala Bhanu school.
We went around the different classes. In the upper floor the children of the 10th standard (last class) had prepared presentations of their projects about different self-chosen topics, ranging from environmental problems, cell biology, urban planification to topics from history and social system – and they were giving us visitors short introductions to their topics at the respective stands (no photo).
In the evening we saw another Indian movie, “The Three Idiots” – a comedy with a good story / message. Here is the total movie online (googling you also find a German version online and the video from different sources, also YouTube). And a pizza with ice-cream was the evening acclimatisation for soon returning to the west…
