Tuesday morning started with a fire ritual for Pushyama full moon (Pushyami is the constellation of the moon at that time according to Indian calender).

Sri Kumar explained that this full moon is to be regarded as Capricorn full moon:

“Though the solar god is already in Aquarius, this full moon is regarded still as Capricorn. When the full moon happens when the sun just changes sign, it is the full-moon of the completing month. So it is not the full moon of Aquarius. The impact of the full moon is more with the previous month, therefore the full moon has to be taken as the full moon of Pushyami, the full moon of Capricorn, where the energies of the solar and lunar gods are around the heart centre.”

In the evening the group went to the site with the statue of Master EK at the beach road of Visakhapatnam for evening meditation in the full moon energies.

On the way along the beach road – in midst of all the lower lights it is easy to ignore the greater light.

Later in the evening we assembled at 9 o’clock pm on the roof of the World Teacher Temple, Radhamadhavam  for full moon meditation, guided by the Sri Kumar. It was an enchanted ambiance with the light of the moon and the sound of the mantrams reverberating through the night sky.The atmosphere there is particularly charged with strong spiritual vibrations.

Monday afternoon the group went to Hamsavanam – Ramadri, where the World Teacher Trust has developed over the years a temple compound with a big statue of Hanuman and a number of little statues and temples.

All over the place there are installed little stones carrying pictures of Rama, Sita and Hanuman. Under them there are stone coffers containing thousands of booklets, in which disciples have written many million times the mantram Sri Ram. R is know as the seed sound of Cosmic Fire. The sound “rha” is known to the American Indians as their Sun God as well as “Rha-aam” is also the Fire God of the Egyptians. This sound uttered and written repeatedly burns up the impurities of the physical, emotional and mental planes, making thus the personality transparent and receptive to the higher energies. Thus at Ramadri the vibration of that mantram of cosmic fire has been “earthed”, emanating protection and healing power into the surrounding.

Three couples of our group, my wife an me among them, were invited to join the ceremony of installing 16 new coffers with mantram booklets. There were about 150 persons joining the ceremony. With the sound of the mantram RAM, flowers were spread over the booklets, followed by kum-kum and turmeric. Then the coffers were closed with a plate and a small stone monument with the pictures and a flower was put atop. A coconut was broken and the content poured around and camphor-light and incense waved over the coffer – symbols of the personality opening to the soul, and the soul merging with the super-soul.

After this ceremony the group assembled around a tree, under which a new statue of Lord Shiva was to be ceremoniously installed. In the beginning the black statue was carrying a red scarf, a sign that its “eyes” weren’t yet opened. When they are opened in a ritual it is an important moment: The eyes spread light, and through the eyes you can see the soul of a person.

During the ritual a mason built a pedestal onto which several men lifted the statue. Sri Kumar and his wife Kumari, assisted by other persons, started washing the statue with different materials – coconut water, milk, curd, ghee, honey, a turmeric paste, sugar and other materials were poured over all parts of the statue and then washed away again. This Rudra or Shiva Abhishekam (or water-) ritual is a means of charging the statue and the environment with the vibrations of the ritual.

After the washing over, the statue was decorated with flowers and camphor light was waved over it. It was a magnificent ambiance – the lights, the flowers, the smells at this beautiful place overlooking the Gulf of Bengal, with the sounds dispersing into space and the radiance of the full moon lighting the place.

The ritual took about 2 hours. Afterwards “Prasad” (food gift from a ritual) in the form of spiced and sweet rice and bananas was distributed to all those who attended the ceremony.

On the way back from the Borra Caves and Anathagiri Hill, we stopped in a little forest, where there was a railway station a bit deeper down the valley. We left the bus and went to the railways. A train was standing there near a tunnel. We heard from our Indian friends that some terrorists had just taken away part of the rails, so that the tourists coming by train had to stop here and take a bus to go to the Borra Caves. On the uphill ride I saw everywhere along the road signs of the communist party with hammer, sickle and pentagram and slogans in Telugu language.

Our friends guided the group into the tunnel until it was totally dark, and then we went out again: It seems that there are only few tunnels there, and that it is some kind of an attraction. We had to laugh – back home in Switzerland, you find tunnels everywhere.

Entering an Indian railway tunnel – a modern kind of a cave.

Yesterday the group went to the Borra Caves and the Anathagiri Hill Resort. Before the journey our spiritual teacher, Dr. Kumar, gave us an introduction to the tour of the day (notes from memory):

“In many parts of the world there are caves, and especially in India many caves were used by initiates for meditation. Caves are ruled by Scorpio and these caves represent the caves of the heart. Through the outer cave you can reach the inner cave more easily during meditation. In the innermost part of many caves there is a lingam, an oval stone symbolising a double-pyramid, as a symbol of the cosmic egg, the first spring-up of creation. So inside the Borra caves there is a little hill on which there is a little cave with a lingam. You can be there for a while with an incense stick. singing Om Nama Sivaya. Many of the caves are subtly connected to the holy centres in the Himalayas. Later in meditation you can envision sitting in the cave meditating there, this will facilitate the meditation experience of entering into the cave of the heart. The innermost is being opened from the other side.

The lingam at the innermost of the Borra Caves, the symbol of the cave of the heart.

When going to a holy place, you should go like pilgrims and not like tourist. Most go like tourists and only experience the outer. Try to see the inner and keep contact with the experience. I never go on picnic tours, there is always a purpose behind. I will accompany you in thoughts, meaning I will not come with you on the journey.”

At the outskirts of Visakhapatnam the bus made a short stop near a yellow house, in which Master EK had been living for a while. After 3.5 hours bus-ride – the old bus climbed up the serpentine roads in the 1^st and 2^nd gears only – we reached the Borra Cave area, where there were many Indian tourists around.

The bus climbing uphill

On the way down to the caves monkeys were jumping around and observing us. On a table there was written that the caves were about 150 million years of age. And the scientists had found traces of settlement dating back some 50.000 years ago. Deep down the valley a river was running, also nourished by the waters going through the cave the river was called Gosthani, meaning cow-udder. The mouth of the cave opened wide and from the top of the first huge hall light was falling in from holes covered with trees.

The huge entrance of the Borra Caves with the stairs

The stairs run down and lead to other huge caves with stalactite and stalagmite formations. We climbed up a number of stairways to reach the rock with a little temple-cave within the cave, the innermost of the heart. A priest was sitting there besides some pictures of Shiva and a lamp and gave a blessing to the pilgrims. In the cave there was place for 2-3 persons. Standing on the stairs, the group intonated OM Nama Sivaya, the sound reverberated through the hall, through the atmosphere charged with strong, but soft spiritual vibrations, which my wife called “condensed heart energy”. Later in another part of the cave the group assembled singing the holy word OM for a while, before coming back to the surface – an impressive experience. On some of the photos I later discovered again that energy balls could be seen, which I have already described some months ago.

Energy balls appearing on the photos of the meditation inside the Borra Caves – signs of the energy of subtle beings.

A hole at the top of the first part of the cave

Afterwards the bus went along the slopes of another hill to bring us to the Anathagiri Hill Resort, a tourist resort, where a beautiful lunch was already waiting for us. After a pause we returned back to Visakhapatnam through the beautiful sunset colours and the nightfall.

Last Saturday afternoon a yoga teacher, Mr. Narayana, came to the Retreat Centre with a number of his disciples to give us a demonstration of hatha yoga exercises. His yoga school is a voluntary organisation for the development of physical and psychic heath.

He first explained how he came to practice yoga, having been practicing for years medical hypnotism and how he experienced the invigorating influence of yoga practices. Then his disciples showed us a series of exercises in a silent, but very disciplined way, demonstrating their skill in mastering the body.

Afterwards Mr. Narayana himself demonstrated a number of advanced asanas with an extreme control over his body. He could bend it to most extraordinary positions, make his stomach withdraw to the spine, letting it rotate, showing different kinds of breathing. He then went into a lotus posture and a disciple gave him injection needles. He pierced them into his left arm and through his ear, explaining that he has control over pain in the different parts of his body. While his face was radiating with enthusiasm, some of the more sensitive group members had to look away…

I wonder if anybody feels inspired by such extreme exercises to practice them himself. I prefer to stay with my simple set of exercises, helping me to keep the body smooth and vital.

During lunch at the Planetary Healing Centre two men were picking coconuts from nearby palm trees: One climbed up the tree only with ropes as a help, the other picked the coconuts up from the ground – an adventurous view. It reminded me of the adventure of climbing up the spine in ourselves to reach the sahasrara, the head centre or thousand-petalled lotus, which is also a very long adventure in developing our consciousness:

In the morning after prayer there was a fire ritual in the retreat centre, conducted by Sri Kumar and Srimati Kumari. The mantric chanting accompanying the ritual charged the air, while the flames of the fire were growing high, invoking the presence of the Devas, Agni. After the ritual some flavoured rice with sweets was distributed to the participants.

At 10 o’clock the bus came to bring us to the Planetary Healing Centre Harmony, beautifully located near the road running along the seaside. Last year it was still a small road, now 4 ways were giving a much faster ride.

The Planetary Healing Centre

Sri Kumar explained: “This Healing Centre is energised by a seer who lived here long ago and whose energy is present here and vibrates much healing energy. It is therefore an important place for healing purposes and healing meditations. The centre is perceived, conceived and constructed according to the solar principle which is the basis for all life, the Solar Lord functions with number 1 and 7. He bestows health, he bestows the light of wisdom, he is seen as the basis for the life and light to pay homage to this seer we gather once a year amidst so many programs, once in a year we gather.”

In the shade of the old cashed trees there is an old Maitreya statue, around which the group gathered for the lecture of Sri Kumar.

After the lecture (I’m typing my notes to make them available after the seminar) we moved into the healing centre. There are circles around an onyx globe where we gathered for singing 21 times the holy word OM and meditation.

After lunch we went to a nearby beach to enjoy the beauty of the Gulf of Bengal. I had a short swim in the ocean – a beautiful refreshing feeling.

Yesterday was a day of rest and getting things ready for the coming days of the seminar. At noon time Sri Kumar came to the Retreat Centre and invited us to come to his house in the afternoon for a ceremony of blessing the children, evening prayer and dinner.We assembled in the garden of his house at Radhamadhavam, which had been covered by a canopy. A festive mood was in the air, while the talks went on. After evening prayer chairs were arranged and the smaller children seated on them. Kumari Garu, the wife of Sri Kumar, and some other ladies started blessing the children by pouring flowers and a little brown fruit over their heads. Then the ladies of the group were invited to bless the children (this ceremony was only for the ladies…). This blessing was followed by waving a camphor light before the children, singing some song.

Afterwards Sri Kumar explained the meaning of the ceremony: “According to the lunar calendar the sunrise tomorrow is the beginning of the winter solstice. Therefore this evening is already marked as the conclusion of the darkness of the night and the beginning of the light of the day. The darkness is now receding… The equinoxes are the days when the sun crosses the equator, and you have equal day and night on the equator, two times a year, once around 20^th of March and then around 22^nd of September. Day and night are equal. When they are equal, the soul is in its best state, equidistant to matter and to spirit. At summer solstice the day is big and the night small, this is not a state of yoga. At winter solstice the night is far bigger than the day. This is also not a state of yoga. From summer solstice, when the day is very long, the day slowly decreases until it is equal to the night, on 22^nd of September… When they are equal, they agree in each other, matter-spirit equal. Then there is what is called in the scriptures synthesis, neither spirit nor matter dominates, neither female nor male dominates. The lady in us is the material energy. The lady is not the woman in the scriptures. Man means human, not male. More spirit or matter is not good. When day is too strong, night comes, when night is too strong, day comes. That is what is happening tomorrow according to the lunar calendar. According to the solar calendar it is December 21^st. In India we use both calendars.

The soul now starts rising and then dominates the personality: a soul-infused personality. The personality is made small and the soul big. The ritual done to the children is to see that the soul grows, not the personality.” There is a Vedic story about it, which is told on this day, which you find enclosed as a comment. For the children the blessing is done so that the soul grows in the right way.

Afterwards a delicious dinner was served. Then a firework lighted the scene: The group members rejoiced waving sparklers, and Bengal lights flickered all over the garden veranda.

Seeing the many wisdom books at the stands at the Guru Pooja celebrations here – all the books of the World Teacher Trust and many theosophical titles – I was tempted again to buy books, but stopped myself: In the past I had read more than I could digest. There is still a thrill when seeing books on profound occult wisdom themes, but I try to have a quick look inside to listen, or better feel, whether this or that book is important for me to read, and mostly there isn’t any green light saying “go ahead”. So I put the book back to the others.

With certain books there is a magnetism deeply attracting me, and I even have translated a number of such books into German and I like giving such books for free to interested seekers. But when there isn’t this resonance, the book will certainly remain in the bookshelf at home, only taking away some space and collecting dust. So sometimes I’m happy when there is an occasion to pass such a book on to someone who is eager to read it.

Every year I saw an incident repeating: An old village lady with crutches forces her way through the many participants to the dais and tries to get to Sri Kumar, who is guiding and directing the festivities. This time she came again and reclaimed access to him in a loud voice. Some helpless helpers talked to her, but she continued, until another helper took her, lifted her up and placed her some meters aside. Sri Kumar then came from the dais to her, listened a while, spoke some sentences and gave her his blessing. She gave him some fruit and then silently sat calmly at the ladies’ side. Later she took her crutches and went back again.

She must have some kind of a deep  devotion, even if her way of expressing it might be irritating to on-lookers.