Technology has become an unquestioned part of the ceremonies here: Cameramen build up their tripods plus big cameras directly in front of the dais, while the jumble of cables is running along the floors. Of course, since years big loudspeakers belong to the necessary equipment to transport the voice through space. Here you partly see very old-fashioned loud-speakers. But now also the latest beamer technology with screens is helping to transport the view to the rear lines, and on a side-table there are laptops for registration and online-transmission of the functions and the lectures from this remote village to groups in other parts of the country. They asked me if we should give also access to the Western groups, since the main language used here is Telugu, I said it wouldn’t be of much use.

Here, though we don’t understand what is being said, it is very fascinating to participate: The ambiance is very uplifting, and hearing the melodious flow of the voices and being in this serene atmosphere lets the mind “chill out” and get into subtler planes. A deep inner rest settles, and even occasionally falling asleep helps increasing the experience.

Trying to capture the thrill of the spiritually charged ambiance

Cameramen in front of the dais during a talk of Sri Kumar

Small and big photographing the fire ritual…

… while others are registering the sound, sitting in front of a canvas with a waterfall

Four days ago we went to the Simhachalam temple beautifully located on the hill above the village where the Guru Pooja festival took place. Through rows of shops and beggars we entered the temple, went through the outer and inner parts into the innermost, where in a dark room there is a huge lingam – an oval shaped stone representing the power of divine will – covered with yellow and orange cloths. The group stood around the silver shrine, in which a priest conducted a little ceremony for us: He waved some camphor light around the lingam and offered the light to us, as a sign of inner purification through fire. He gave some flowers and water to each one of us.

We then went around the temple, the walls of which are covered with sculptures with numerous lion-figures (Simhachalam means Lion temple, the temple of the Lion of the Heart, where the sign of Leo is located) and scenes from the 10 avataras of Lord Vishnu. When leaving the temple, some sweets were distributed as “prasad” – gift after a ceremony.

Afterwards we went down the stairs into the valley. The way runs along huge banyan trees with their air-roots hanging all around, little shrines and statues, and the air was filled with some rhythmic Indian music – a beautiful scenery.

Beggars on the way to the temple, waiting for pilgrims

In front of Simhachalam temple

The seat of the Lion in the inner court of the temple

The Narasimha-Avatar of Lord Vishnu – the Man-Lion, symbol of opening the heart centre

The way down to the valley

At the moment I’m sitting in a little village about 35 km outside Visakhapatnam, in Simhachalam, an old temple village, where for 3 days the Guru Pooja celebrations of the World Teacher Trust are being helt, in honour of the great Masters of Wisdom. Ever since 1962 these celebrations have been done here, and people from different states of India as well as our group of about 35 Westerners are attending. There are approx.3-4.000 people around, participating in the rituals or listening to the talks of our spiritual teacher, Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar.

Today’s topic was “Spiritual Fusion of East and West”. All Western members were invited this morning for the group meditation to come to the stage, in front of the large open air hall (there is a huge space between two rows of houses, which is covered by a long palaquin). Afterwards there was a lecture – in Telugu, like most of the lectures here. Though I don’t understand anything, I enjoy being in this atmosphere charged with spiritual energies. It is very relaxing for the mind – and sometimes I also fell comfortably asleep on the chair 🙂

After breakfast there was a water ritual in honour of the divine aspect of Will, expressed here in form of a lingam- an oval shaped stone. Water was poured over the lingam and afterwards it was decorated with flowers, accompanied by the rhythmic chanting of mantric songs. A very uplifting energy charged the atmosphere, while the ceremony went on for about 1.5 hours.

Afterwards there was the presentation of new publications. I was asked to come unto the stage, together with Dr. Kumar and Navaneetam. Navaneetam was presenting the different books – again mostly in Telugu. Then the people who had worked with the publication of the different books came to the stage and unveiled the parcel with the fresh publications. In all there were 16 different publications, mainly in Telugu, but some in English, and one even in German, my mother tongue.

Then I was asked to speak a bit about the work I’m doing with electronic communication. I explained how several impulses I got from Sri Kumar had developed over the years in an astonishing way, such as the newsletter “The Lunar Messenger” or the activity of the last months with the lectures and powerpoint presentations on “Meditation – Experiment and Experience” (I have written about it in several previous blogposts…).

Now the afternoon pause is coming to a close, and you can already hear the sounds of a musical presentation. So I’ll come to a close for today.

Of course inner and outer purity don’t always agree. You can have a clean carpet with a lot of ugly things hidden below, and also reat inner purity can hide under a cover of seeming filth. It’s not always easy to distinguish both.

This afternoon I had a little walk down to the seaside at Visakhapatnam. Along the roads the open waste water channels were filled with garbage, and where they flew into the ocean, litter also decorated the greyish-black way of the waste waters, with the particular smell of rotten materials… Though in the early morning people are sweeping the nearby streets, all kinds of papers and plastics are decorating free spaces. Some dogs were searching their food in a garbage container, which was surrounded by rubbish. Of course at home in Switzerland, which is famous for cleanliness, the littering is getting more and more a problem of the cities, too.

On the other hand here in India you see little idols decorated with flowers at many corners. And on the rickshaws you find prayers or pictures of saints and gods, being an expression of spirituality present in everyday life. But where do outer and inner beauty and purity meet?

A garbage container with stray dogs opposite a little street altar

Our arrival at the WTT retreat centre in Visakhapatnam, India, happened to be on the day of Capricorn new moon – or, as it is counted in India, Sagittarius new moon. We were invited to join a water ritual at the World Teacher Temple: In the course of the ceremony water was poured over some lingams -egg-shaped stones symbolising the manifestation of divine will out of the space waters or cosmic ether -accompanied by rhythmic singing of mantrams. Later the lingams were decorated with flowers and with some cream of chalk. It was a very elevating and soul-stirring ambiance to experience the vibrations of the ritual on the veranda under a tree top, the night sky above. Sometimes a few persons from the paediatric hospital next door looked through the windows – a peaceful and totally normal scene hard to imagine in a European setting.

Decorated lingam at the end of the water ritual

After the ceremony was over, some delicious rice was distributed as a “Prasad”. Then we left with some Indian friends to the compound of Mithila East, where we participated in a New Moon meditation. At Mithila East there is a free school of the WTT for fishermen’s children plus a free homoeopathic dispensary and a vocational training centre.

The brother of our spiritual teacher explained to us the meditation structure: Visualising Mount Kailash, the spiritual centre located in Tibet, which is said to be the dwelling of Lord Shiva, the embodiment of divine will, with Lake Manasasarovar in the back, representing the quiet mind, keeping on looking at Mount Kailash and receiving the energy of the assembled Great Ones and distributing it to the surrounding, especially to people in need. The profound silence of the meditation elevated all to the sublimes spheres of the no-moon time. After the meditation three beautiful panorama photo posters of Mount Kailash were given to group members, and I received one for our group.

Tired, but filled with serene peace we returned back to the centre.

View of Mount Kailash, photo of a friend, summer 2005

Yesterday an express parcel arrived from Venezuela. I was surprised, but then remembered: Friends of mine, a couple from Caracas had announced a week ago they would like to send me something. I had met them 2.5 years ago at the marriage of the son of our spiritual teacher in India, and it was a hearty meeting. Though they don’t speak English and I no Spanish, we had some contact from time to time and they like reading our monthly newsletter, El Mensajero Lunar.

The content of the parcel was a beautiful little work of ceramic art inspired by Latin-Indian tradition: A serpent-bird, made out of an involving and evolving line. I was deeply touched by this gift, for it is a profound occult symbolism for the descent of spirit into matter and of the ascent back to the spirit. The Indian symbol of the Feathered Serpent is depicting the same truth and is regarded as a symbol of an initiate. You might like to read here more about the “Mystery of the Serpent” from our Lunar Messengers. The serpent descending the tree in paradise and tempting man with the sensual experience (apple) is half part of the story. As long as we live in matter, we are regarded as creeping snakes. But when we start upon the path of return, we move up again and the serpent becomes a winged serpent, just as you see in the symbol of the Caduceus, the rod of Asclepius which is still used by our modern doctors as a symbol of healing (though the wings are unfortunately missing – a sign of the state of modern medical art?). “The tongues of the serpent become the wings of the eagle” it says in Spiritual Psychology meditations of Dr. E. Krishnamacharya, thus being the symbol of the unfolding Kundalini energy.

I put the picture of the serpent-bird on the wall at the entrance of our apartment, so that it might be a constant inspiration.

The serpent-bird of involving and evolving currents of energy

Asclepius, the great healer-initiate. Photo: Epidaurus, May 2005

A few days ago I got a Christmas-letter with an end-of-the-year review of an old class-mate. He has done an extraordinary career, being since some years the head of Munich airport (Germany’s best airport manager 2007). In our youth we had done some bicycle tours through Germany – to Frankfort, Hamburg and Munich – and in later years he had been in responsible positions at the respective airports. A strange preview of destiny. In spite of his management career he remained somehow very normal, authentic and humorous.

I haven’t seen him the last 11 years, I have rarely been at the annual class meetings, since youth I have felt strangely not at home in this world we had shared in your youth. While a number of my class-mates had done quite a professional career and are well established in different niches of mainstream society (doctors, university professors, lawyers, consultants…), my focus had always more been on exploring the inner realms – though not neglecting having a sound footing in a bread-giving profession which I like. I had felt somehow speechless in mainstream social contexts and their ways of associating – concerts, holiday tours, parties, arts, and the like.

Over the last years I increasingly broke the silence about the inner journey – which also reflected in outer journeys, like regular tours to India for seminars with my spiritual teacher. I noticed that by now an inner ground had grown on which I can express myself much more freely and explain about inner processes and give an understanding. To this had greatly contributed the work with the monthly newsletters about the wisdom teachings, which found an expression in the public talks on Meditation – Experiment and Experience given during the last months.

And so when I replied to the mail of my old friend, I wrote to him much more about what had been going on on my spiritual path than I would have done some years ago. In his letter he had mentioned a famous German sculptor, whom he had visited and who will make a sculpture for Munich airport. The sculptor told him about 2500 kinds of steel, having different qualities. I told my friend that very similarly you develop a sensorium for subtle dimensions, when you work with it over the years, a sensibility which is not possible to convey to someone else who hasn’t developed the related inner instruments.

It is fascinating to observe how these inner tools – called anahkaranas in the East – develop over the years. It is nothing spectacular, just a way of dealing in a clear way with situations, a deeper way of perceiving. It is just the same way a scientist or an artist develops his skills over the years – only that the field of investigation are the inner realms. For those who don’t know them, they remain an unknown continent.

Blue landscape with Bernese Alps. Some paths lead into far away worlds. It says that Eskimos have 20 different expressions for snow – a subtle differentiation coming from a more refined perception.

I yesterday had the chance of seeing the draft of a website of another country’s group of the spiritual movement with which we are closely connected. It made me think of how different people express their spiritual stances. Whereas I feel more sober and, unlike in earlier years, prefer clear, unemotional and down-to-earth presentations, others have a more flowery or romantic attitude and also prefer for web-design a more baroque depiction (“web-baroque”). I remember times in my life where I myself was attracted to more devotional expressions, but these have faded away and given rise to what I experience as a stronger stringency or consistency.

One of the new year’s greetings I received yesterday was from India, showing 3 photos of white statues covered with flowers from a ritual. I try to keep the stance of an observer to what, in the critical part of my mind, goes into the category of kitsch or overladen imaginations. But I know that judging closes the doors of perception. I have participated in rituals which on the outside seemed to be thus pure devotional emotions, but where for the inner eye there was a strong spiritual energy present magnetizing the whole atmosphere.

How to give an expression to beauty? How to express most sublime energies? Much certainly depends on your own cultural background and / or your projections. If you see just the surface, you easily get lost in your own superficiality.

Angel silently meditating in a shop window

Everywhere in the city little forests are sprouting – fir trees, often carrying little electric candles – christmas trees (and this in spite of the Bali-decisions to fight deforestations 🙂 ) The powerful impulse of seeking the light of the soul, the birth of the Christ within, is like being diluted and scattered into many reflections all over: Not only all the shop displays are in the Christmas ambiance. People are busy with preparing gifts or decorate their houses with lamps – an outer  reverberation of the inner light. The main streets of the city with their garlands of lights are in a festive outlook.
There is more impetus behind this gigantic activity than just a traditional commemoration date.

I wrote for the text of the Circle of Good Will Christmas Card: “The light of the higher mind is described as a flame of Manas (the mind principle) which comes down into us and which is called the birth of the saviour in us. The five-pointed star symbolises this light. It can transform us into an enlightened being, if we prepare ourselves appropriately.”

Last Sunday at the afternoon walk at the beginning of the Emmental, we saw some nicely decorated farm houses. The Christmas-wake has got them all. Here are a few impressions:

The five-pointed stars “landed” near the entrance door.

A painted stone with some Christmas scenery in front of a house

Another painted stone with Christmas motives

And on the windowsill some snowmen

Wooden candles burning

A collection of 6-pointed stars, wooden squirrel and a Santa-Claus lamp

An arrangement of 6 pointed and 5-pointed stars

And finally a Christmas tree with 5-pointed stars next to the entrance door

I wonder whether they know about the deeper meaning of this symbol of the stars…

Last Friday we had the last evening of the series of evening topics on Meditation – Experiment and Experience. 11 Persons had come, and again there was another quality of atmosphere: Somehow a kind of group spirit had formed, there was a familiarity which had not been there before. I spoke about The Importance of a Teacher on the Path:

Without guideposts or a map you can easily get lost on the way. (See the blogpost on Guru Phobia or the Need for Guideposts.) The wisdom teachings give us an itinerary of the journey. And a teacher helps, gives information and support.

A teacher who knows the way and can explain it to others is called „Guru“ in the East. Today the term is totally distorted. For us, a guru is a wrong teacher and a deluder. That is why many don’t accept any teacher and prefer making their own experiments; out of ignorance they make many detours. Some therefore pretend that teachers or masters of wisdom don’t exist.

A teacher or a master becomes visible for those who are seriously seeking to realise the self. Many are searching in vain, since they are not willing to take the first small steps to right living. We spoke about true and wrong teachers and how to distinguish between them, about guidance from within and about experiencing the presence of the Great Ones. This can give us help from sources which we cannot touch by ourselves.

It is important to get an outline of the journey and understand the goal, but then work with the next step lying ahead of us:

“Man can overcome all hindrances if the goal of his journey is clear to him. When he sees the Light in the distance, he will pay no attention to the hardships of the journey. He will not count the steps to this Light, for it shines also in his heart.”
(Supermundane III, 634)

Dawn on Mount Rigi, Switzerland, Summer Solstice 1999