I yesterday got some pictures from a friend with inspiring words coming from “pravsworld.com“, which “through its content strives to create a better human being, by cultivating ideas and values, spreading love & peace in this World to make it a better place to live; nurture peace and harmony, to have a human understand other, more importantly understand himself and realize his true potential.”

The header of the site “Pravs World”

They describe themselves as “The World’s most popular and the largest Web Group over the internet. Its probably the only that features a extensive collection of content that relates to inspiration in life and is dedicated to enrich and spread human values. It’s an inspiration to open your mind and touch your heart with words that makes positive impact. It’s an emotion felt by millions of individuals from over 120 Countries.”

You might be astonished about the name – it is the nickname of the initiator, who lives in Mumbai, India, but who doesn’t want to give his personality name because “I believe you should be known for the work you do, and your work should not be known for who you are. Let me be known for the work I do, and once you read this entire page I would seem more like a friend than some stranger.”

Have a look at the site, you find a great number of inspirational messages, and you can subscribe there to different mailing lists with daily inspiring thoughts.

Image Copyright – Pravs World & its photographers

Two days ago when I came from the office in the evening, there was a fantastic view of the Bernese Alps. When there is foehn, the air is sometimes extremely clear and the mountains, about 50-60 km away, seem to be close-by. There was no wind, but the whole day the weather had been below freezing point.

View from the Elfenau via Muri to the Alps, March 5th, 08

Seen from the same place with zoom: My Himalaya

Sometimes in meditation there also seems to be foehn: The mind is calm and transparent, and the subtle worlds very much present. But just like with the weather, mostly there is haze, or clouds of thoughts are blowing by, if not some rain-showers are obscuring the scene. You might like to see the powerpoint-presentation on “Recognising, Understanding and Overcoming Obstacles” for understanding more about the reasons for these “internal weather changes”.

P.S.: After reading the blog-post a friend sent me the following photo she took last year. The left mountain on the photo is the right mountain on the photo above. The right mountain on her photo in the Jungfrau (: “Virgin”, the “Top of Europe”), it shows a shadow like a giant cross, which can only be seen at a special time.

Two weeks ago our spiritual teacher, K. Parvathi Kumar, started a meditation network initiative in the groups called “Networking The Global Diamond Temple for Social Justice” (since yesterday the program and structure are online): The plan of a triangle network was conceived by Master DK, and it started after the Second World War as an inner work. Now this initiative is a continuation of the work, but with a new accent.

The idea is to see that social justice, as conceived by the Masters of Wisdom, is brought nearer to the minds of those who are in the governments through prayers and meditation. Justice from this standpoint is to find a common point where the seeming oppositions merge – neither extreme capitalism nor extreme communism or any “ism” of extremity. Through the meditational work we try to work to supply more light. The light knows where to go and what to do. So this way we are not taking sides and not directly getting into the politics of the governments, but stay away to bring nearer the social justice, to see how to include the welfare of all.

Three members residing in a nation form a triangle. The chosen triangle members will conduct the temple building meditation at 6 AM on Sundays, thus building a Diamond Temple. They are integrating nationally to constitute a national Diamond Temple, then such temple is visualised to integrate with the temple visualized for a continent and the continental temples are visualized to form a Global Diamond Temple. It is offered by the networking groups as a humble contribution to the Masters of Wisdom for their appropriate utilisation to inspire the global, continental and national governments with a view to manifest the plan of social justice.

People might be sceptical about such work and its effect. Of course everybody is free to join or not, and mental scepticism is a sure block-off.

It is my experience that there are few who join, for it requires an understanding beyond intellectual taking note, and also quite a commitment of inner determination. I like such meditational work together with friends, and I am sure that the power of combined focus of beneficial attention has a tremendous influence and is an effective work of good will.

The Creative Review Blog has posted 4 images showing “The Bible According To Google Earth”. The pictures have been realised by the Sydney-based creative collective ”The Glue Society“, visualising scenes from the Bible as if captured by Google Earth. Four key Biblical events are portrayed as if seen from above, in “God’s Eye View”: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, Moses parting the Red Sea, and The Crucifixion. The Glue Society has realized the pictures commissioned by Pulse Art for the Miami art fair.

James Dive from the Glue Society says: “We like to disorientate audiences a little with all our work. And with this piece we felt technology now allows events which may or may not have happened to be visualized and made to appear dramatically real. As a method of representation satellite photography is so trusted, it has been interesting to mess with that trust.”

Noah’s Ark, by ”The Glue Society“, from (c) Creative Review Blog (extract)

Is really seeing still believing? There is so much “virtual reality” and “reality shaping”. On the other hand, many so-called “new” imaginations and ideas exist since long in the storehouse of the global mind, even from previous ages. Many of the computer games tap on these imaginations for their visual illustrations.

The Eastern wisdom knows a state of very refined inner perception, where an initiate can “read” in the Akasha. Akasha is meaning space or ether, and the initiate who can see the Akashic recordings is said to be able to zoom back and forth in time and space, to whatever location in the present and past, thus also to “Noah’s Ark”. Even if the authenticity of Akashic reading cannot be proven by objective science, being a “subjective” research method, the many different reports about it hint at its existence.

See also the Google-Earth related blog-posts “Looking from Space into the Garden“, “High Resolution Zooming – with Google Maps or Visualisation“, “Google Online Mapping Initiative against Darfur Genocide” and “An Atlas of our Changing Environment“.

Today I got an e-mail from someone who sent me two negative photos of himself as well as a drawing depicting Lord Maitreya, which you can also find on the internet. His face had certain similarities with that drawing and he asked what I think about it.

I answered him that there are many people painting pictures of Maitreya, just like there are many pictures of Jesus Christ. They nearly exclusively spring from the devotional imagination of the artist. Also paintings said to have been received from higher worlds belong to that category, even if they come from a subtle “model”. I told him that when he is flattered that one of these drawings, depicting Lord Maitreya according to the artist, has similarities with his appearance, he may be happy about it. All that inspires us to walk more seriously the spiritual path is certainly of a constructive nature.

Outer or inner similarities? It is easy to mistake the one for the other.

If you are interested to read a bit what the Eastern wisdom teachings say about Lord Maitreya, you find some hints in the Lunar Messenger dedicated to that topic. There is also a beautiful booklet of the WTT about Lord Maitreya, see here the online version.

A photo of the statue of Lord Maitreya in the garden of the Planetary Healing Centre. You find the picture also here as an e-card.

Last Saturday I got a parcel with a copy of the book “Practicing Conscious Living and Dying“, by Annamaria Hemingway (see also her website practicingconsciouslivinganddying.com). I didn’t know her, but I got a letter from her last summer where she asked me if I were interested in receiving a copy once it had been published, and I said yes.

I’m very cautious of accepting new books, which involve the obligation of investing time to read them. I took the time for reading the last chapter, about Annamaria’s experience with the passing of her mother, and it is worth while reading (… I’ll certainly read the rest of the stories…).

Annamaria’s account is full of subtle observations, describing the role her mother played in her life – growing up in post-WW2 Italy, then moving to England, having a full life, the outbreak of skin cancer, the slow process of disease and dying. But besides the outer events, there is a whole world of inner contacts going beyond the physical existence, which Annamaria shows that they are more essential, going beyond the end of the physical frame. The outcome is not only the assurance of the continuity of existence beyond the physical, but a process of transformation deepening the lives of all those who had accompanied the process of transition.

The book contains 16 real-life “Stories of the Eternal Continuum of Consciousness”, showing death as an integral part of life. The description says: “They show how each of the individuals concerned has come to understand that death teaches us that the preciousness of life must be lived with a sense of purpose and meaning, as a celebration of our existence.”

You also might like to read the Lunar Messenger on “Death, Birth and Continuity“.

Two stories related to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi came to my mind when I heard about his passing:

In January 1979 – I just had finished the TM-“governor”-course with the Sidhi-program – we went to Seelisberg, Switzerland, the then capital of the TM-movement, for a meeting with the Maharishi. In a lecture I heard him say that within about four years the “sidhas” (people practising the sidhi-techniques) would be seen flying over the Lake Lucerne by yogic powers, thus demonstrating the control over the “field of all possibilities”, as he used to call the base-state of the mind.
There had been great expectations around about developing yogic powers within a short while. It was attracting and misleading the attention to side issues of the path. I had experienced myself quite strong inner energies with these sidhi-techniques, but I only later understood that this isn’t the purpose of a genuine spiritual growth.

In late autumn 1977 – I just had returned from the TM teacher formation course – the German TM-groups were informed that the TM co-ordinator for Germany had been flying with the Maharishi along the “Iron Curtain”, that separated East and West Germany. The Maharishi was reported to have said that the separation of Germany would end within the next months.
I mentioned this to my father, who said to me: “You are crazy. As long as I live, the Iron curtain won’t fall.” I made a bet with him: If within the next 9 month the curtain falls, he would give me 20.000 Deutsche Mark, if nothing happens within a year, I would pay him 1.000 Marks. We signed a paper with my eldest sister as a witness and put it into my father’s safe. Of course nothing happened, and I gave him the 1.000 Mark, which he later returned to me at another occasion. I never made a bet again in my life.
I later heard the Maharshi had said that the iron curtain would fall “within a short time” – whatever this time might be. When 12 years later the curtain and the Berlin Wall fell within an incredibly short time, I was reminded of my bet, and even my father said, he wouldn’t have thought that the political situation could change so quickly.

I became increasingly immune to all kinds of prophecies and soothsaying. When I hear anything, I put it into an “inner broom cupboard”, without letting it touch me.

A photo sent by a friend, of the “mahasamadhi” of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – his conscious passing over in meditation. Copyright: Maharishi-people in Vlodrop, Holland.

P.S.: I just got n e-mail with the text of Deepa Chopra published in The Times of India. It begins saying: “The Maharishi didn’t die like mere mortals do. He just went into what we call ‘maha samadhi’. On January 12 this year, his 91st birthday, he announced that his work in the world was over and he was going into silence. He didn’t speak to a single soul after that day. And today, he has passed so elegantly.”

You might be interested in reading the revelation by Deepak Chopra of an undisclosed illness of Maharishi and the parting of their ways.

Today I got an e-mail a friend forwarded to me announcing that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has just passed over yesterday, February 5.
Old memories came to my mind: For over 8 years, from 74 to 82, I had been in his Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement, with all my youthful enthusiasm. I went through the formation as a TM-teacher and later as a “governor of the age of enlightenment”, and even became head for a TM-“Academy for Vedic Science” during my student times. I met the Maharishi a number of times, and for a while I was dreaming to work in his surroundings.

At the beginning I was fascinated by the whole ambiance and the teachings, but then I increasingly found the orientation of the movement strange and too narrow. The grandiloquent vocabulary of the Maharishi, the commercial attitude of the movement and the missing focus on selfless service as an essential prerequisite for spiritual progress were some mayor factors. But at that time the decisive “kick” out of the movement for me was that on my spiritual path I came across several experiences, which didn’t fit into the quite simplifying spiritual “map” of TM. There was a “point of no return”, where I left the TM-movement and its world view from one day to the other. It took long years of search through a number of spiritual movements and teachings to get the “missing links” for the questions I had.

A friend wrote to me about this blogpost saying: “Your blogpost on MMY rang very true and paralleled my own experience after being a National Leader for 12 years. Lack of compassion exhibited by the TM movement is a serious failing in any ‘spiritual’ organization. It is possible that the over-centralization and trivialization of the teachers may improve and the original momentum be regained.”

The TM helped me to get out of the traditional religious background and to learn new vistas of thinking, even if they needed to be revised after a while. I have observed the movement from afar, through newspaper articles about their campaigns or when encountering articles of their Ayurveda business – déja-vu feelings kept coming. Looking back I’m grateful to the Maharishi for learning the steps of regular discipline and for gaining a basic understanding of Eastern (Vedic) wisdom. May he proceed on a lightful path.

The close of a fire ritual

The return journey from India last Sunday/Monday was like a kaleidoscope whirlwind, in which situations and impressions followed with an increasing spin. First it took us away from the WTT retreat centre in Visakhapatnam, where we had been for 3 weeks, with the plane to Hyderabad. A friend, from the Spiritual Book Centre, picked us up at the airport in a small car, with another friend as a driver. Gliding through the city, conversations, different encounters, heartfelt hospitality. When entering into the road where the book centre is located, I had to identify at a police control – there had been a terrorist bomb blast directly around the corner some weeks ago.

At the police control. At different places along a small road there were desks with a few policemen.

On the roads motorbikes with women in burqas on the rear seat gave dark spots into the otherwise colourful Hindu surrounding. Nevertheless, it seems that there is a generally peaceful intermingling of the different cultures.

When buying a little lingam holder for a friend in a silver shop, I was impressed by the multi-fold oriental handicraft objects, none of these you would find in a Western shop. In a corner a little Buddha sitting on a heap of coins was covered with red kum-kum-powder, besides a receipt book.

In the night at the airport, faces of Western tourists and businessmen mixed into the crowd of Eastern travellers. Video screen announcements, neon-light, immigration and security checks. Waiting and dozing. Then being packed together into the belly of the airplane for the next jump, to Dubai. Here high halls full of artificial palms, with glittering pomp. Posters promised that when you buy an apartment, you’ll get a BMW or a Bentley for free and have the chance of winning a private jet or a private island – what might be the price of the apartment? Arab ambiance, somewhere in a no-man’s land of transit passengers. Back to check-in, meeting again a friend who had travelled via Chennai, with fever. Also my cold got stronger, preparing for the little fever of the coming days.

Then in the plane, in a virtual dimension we were passing over Iran, the Black Sea, Crimea, back to Europe – without noticing it except on the screen map with the route indications. In the meanwhile the on-board movie system took me to The End of the World with the Pirates of the Caribbean, and to Death at a Funeral with dark British humour. Sitting beside me a young Swiss lady was polishing her finger nails for about an hour – what a deep concentration on a profound subject. Other faces in the plane were also now again very Western: Piercings at a brow instead of brow marks like in India, blond coloured hair with gel, brown holiday faces in sport dressings. Western individualism was coming back to the fore.

When we were riding from Zurich airport back to Berne through a beautiful “warm” winter weather of 6 degrees – about 22 degrees colder than the day before, I thought of the question of the driver in Hyderabad: How can people live in such a cold surrounding in Europe? Do the offices close during the cold times? He had no idea about the living conditions we are used to in the West. I felt that people over here, though many know through travelling to other parts of the globe, have no idea of the worlds the inner journey can lead you. And that it might take some time for me to digest the many diverse impressions.

Inside the Spiritual Book Centre, Hyderabad

Saturday morning we visited the Bala Bhanu School at the outskirts or Visakhapatnam. This school of the WTT imparts spiritual, moral and social values besides the normal education and renders education to children up to Xth standard. We were invited to participate in the celebration at the eve of India’s National Independence Day. The celebrations started with a little parade and the hoisting of the flag of India, followed by a number of talks by students on the founding fathers of India’s independence as well as on the role of the students for shaping the future of the country. Afterwards Sri Kumar gave a talk to the students (extracts):

“In school the children are prepared to be servers for society and not exploiters. If we don’t learn this from the very beginning in life, then later it is difficult to bring order and rhythm into life. Whatever they are at home, at school teachers are to be angels for the little angels to inspire them to aspire in a right way to form into a very constructive unit of consciousness. It is a work of alchemy, transforming children, not imposing on them any form of fanaticism. The man turns out to be an educated being, when culture and civility are imparted.
This school transforms children into the path of life and gives them the right direction, so that the children of today can give their contribution to the society from in 20 years on during a period of 30 to 40 years. So much is inherent in the sacred Bala Bhanu, meaning ‘The Infant Sun’. It is expected that they will be like a sun and shed light all around. There is a grand life beyond routine, and when you lose your life in routine, the whole purpose is lost, and routine overtakes the inspiration and aspiration.

At school prayer is inculcated as a habit, and a plan to work, varieties of work are inculcated. Today children are too much exposed to routine, so they are exposed here to energies which strengthen them. It is all thanks to the inspiration of Master EK and of the Spiritual Hierarchy. When the same orientation exists at home like in school, then the child transforms faster.
Idealism is one thing, practicality is important. The management handles the school well so that I am free for other things.“

After the talk a number of students gave presentations of dance, yoga asanas, gymnastics, or singing. It was an impressive insight into the work done at that school – and the presentation an inspiring mix of discipline, devotion, national pride and Bollywood-ambiance with the music and dancing. A beautiful end for our stay in India.

A dance presentation at Bala Bhanu School, Visakhapatnam

“I love my India” – a kind of national pride and enthusiasm for learning hard to be found in the West