Two weeks ago I received an e-mail of a person describing himself as partly living as a hermit and partly helping in a parish in Fribourg, Switzerland. He had found my paintings of the “Way of the Cross” series on the web. He wanted to use them to illustrate a brochure for a Way of the Cross walk on Good Friday of the parish St. Johann in Fribourg. A hermit with a website.

I was pleased – it was the first time someone showed interest in these paintings I had done  beginning of 1983, 33 years ago, at the conclusion of a profound crisis which had shifted my life into an entirely new direction. And so I told him that of course he can use the images but that I had “dissolved” nearly all my early paintings in 1997. The images on the web are reconstructed from photos. So I don’t have high resolution images.

Nevertheless, he wanted to use the paintings and he digitally worked them over to fit for print. He sent me some images of his hermitage – it reminded me of places in Siberia but not in Switzerland…

2 days ago he also sent me the brochure he distributed yesterday, on Good Friday, in the Parish, at the walk of the Way of the Cross. Thoughts of my youth came up – for some years I was an altar boy and grew up in a very catholic family environment  – a long way till now, over many stages of inner unfolding.

The topic of overcoming death and transformation is a profound theme on the path. It has often made me ponder upon – also when composing texts (also here) on the basis of the wisdom teachings of my spiritual teachers. And the symbolism of Good Friday and Pass-Over to the higher spheres is of most sublime significance.

“Resurrection”, 26 January 1983

For the 7th time, a group inspired by the yoga of Synthesis of Master CVV gathered for a weekend: “Experiment, Experience, Expression” is the motto of these group livings of meditation and sharing. (I blogged also about the last 3 meetings.) This time we met around spring equinox in a seminar centre on the countryside between Hamburg, Hannover and Berlin. The seminar house Drawehn in Kassau is a beautiful old farm with a round hall on a meadow called “Mandala” – an ideal setting for the CVV Sharing 2016. 18 persons came from Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, and even from Delphi, Greece.

The 7 members of the preparatory committee had proposed to focus again this year on meditation with a rhythm of alignments/prayers all 3 hours and exchange – no discourses, only short inputs/thematical introductions. The prayer times were longer to enable deeper experience. Additionally, there were pranayama sessions. The days concluded with the prayer of Mystic Mantrams “Dip deep…”.

As an introduction, all members were asked to bring something to create our own “mandala” in the space, be it an object, a text, a symbol… There were group sessions, based on practical and own experiences, on “What is my heart burning/yearning for?” or “What is meditation to me?” or a playful exchange about the 40 Criteria for Yoga given by Sri Kumar August 2014. In other sessions we discussed “What moves us/ what is happening and moving us inside?” or exchanged in “Open Space” meetings about topics based on practical spiritualism raised by the participants.

Saturday evening there was a sharing of inspirational inputs – a video clip on “The Aquarian Zodiac”, an inspiring text by Master EK, a little guitar concert… We also read and spoke about the words of Master KPK on the quality of the new annual cycle. Sunday morning we met at 5:15 am to celebrate the entry into Aries with some thoughts about the energy of the present time and a meditation. After the morning prayer there was a fire ritual in the courtyard of the farmhouse.
Towards the end of the seminar, we had an intense exchange about the future development of the CVV Sharing meetings. All participants felt deeply inspired and uplifted by the group living. And when we left, the fire of inspiration was shining in all eyes and hearts.

The three fiery signs of the zodiac – Aries, Leo and Sagittarius – are described as three fires. The cosmic or electric fire is the spirit, the pure energy. It expresses through the solar fire, the energy of the soul, and then through the terrestrial fire by friction or the visible expression of the energy. Before the energy consolidates into the star dust to form stars and solar systems the Eastern scriptures call it the great serpent Ananta, the cosmic Kundalini. It is identified with the constellation of the Dragon and described as moving on the great ocean of milk, the immense ocean of solar globes in various stages of formation.

I visualised the three great fires as three suns using the photo of a sunrise over the Mediterranean. The fiery globes are connected by a downpour of light, where the lower receives from the higher and distributes the light in its turn.

I constructed the serpentine movement of the cosmic Kundalini spiralling through the various planes of creation with the help of elements from a photo of a ring galaxy. The head of the serpent is above and the tail in the lower sphere. It moves around the three fiery centres and creates the matrix for the further consolidation to the visible universe.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.

January 17, 2016, I was on a little pilgrimage with some friends in the surroundings of Bhubaneswar, India. Looking through the e-mails in the morning, I saw a mail of a lady from the French part of Switzerland. Rita writes that she had been together with Master EK (Dr. Ekkirala Krishnamacharya) in the early 70s, lost sight of him in 79 – and just found him back via the website of the World Teacher Trust. It was the beginning of an intense correspondence.

She told me the fascinating story of her meeting Master EK, then loosing sight of him and finding him back after 44 years. She also gave me the French version of the statutes of the World Teacher Trust of 1972 she received at that time – 30 years later, I had been involved in reformulating the statutes of the WTT-Global.

I asked her if she could write an article about her story, and she sent me the following text in French;  here is my translation to English:

Rita and Master EK, 1972, photo from the video Music of the Soul

“Don’t search for your way anymore”

This injunction at the bottom of the home page of Google suddenly got for me all its significance on January 12, 2016.

“Namaskarams Master Ekkirala Krishnamacharya! This is an incredible set of circumstances that took me back to you and allowed me to get in touch with your eternal SOUL, which IS now in another dimension.”

In December 2015, health problems lead me to consult the Doctor S, a psychiatrist that a friend recommended to me. At the first therapy session, the contact is immediately established and I realize that the doctor is open to the spiritual dimension what is very rare. When I told her I want to take a Mindfulness Meditation Course in the region, in addition to the therapy with her, she replies that she will give a course in January. Of course, I register at this course. All’s well that starts well …

During a private meeting, on 12 January 2016, we approach the subject of these faculties, let’s say “intuitive”, that make me perceive things, events, even remotely, that others do not perceive. She tells me about the book “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahamsa Yogananda; I reply that I met an Indian Sage in 1972, but I do not remember his name.

January 12, 2016 in the evening, that the name comes to my mind: Dr. E. Krishnamacharya. Driven by curiosity, I look for his name on the internet and there is an avalanche … an avalanche that does not bury me, but on which I glide with joy still today. This January 12, I discover the immense work he left behind: The WTT, the WORLD TEACHER TRUST, on a site with his books, his teachings, books and teachings of his successor, Dr. Parvathi Kumar, himself a Master of Wisdom too. The same evening I also found “by chance” on YouTube his videos “Music of the Soul“. I look first, also by chance … video 4. After two minutes, I SEE ME in the company of Master EK, during a course he gave in June 1972, at the private school where I was teaching at the time. I cannot believe my eyes! I also discover the circumstances of the death of Master E. K. at the age of 58, which I did not know.

The following days, I easily re-found and re-read the correspondence with Dr. E. Krishnamacharya between June 1972, when we first met (in this dimension) in Switzerland, and our second and final meeting in Lyon in June 1974. The last letter I addressed to him but which I did not sent, dates of 1979. I also reread my meditation notes: my orange notebook was near me, in my office (despite 2 moves) all these years but I forgot … Indeed, the circumstances of my life had temporarily removed me from my spiritual path.

On 17 January 2016, I decide to write to the WTT because I want to thank Master K.P.K. for beautiful videos accompanied by his narration that bring back the Master E.K: these films contain countless pictures and videos collected during more than 44 years, arranged from beginning to end and commented with love and care. This incredible work allows going through the path of the earthly life of Master E. K. and the construction of his work. What a gift!

The next day, not expecting to get an answer from the WTT, I find an email from Ludger Philips who is on pilgrimage in India and just followed a seminar with Master K.P.K. Thus begins a correspondence with Ludger, who helps me, by his advice and encouragement, and also by sending books published by the WTT that interest me.

Since 12 January 2016, my life changed: I took up the meditation that I had abandoned in the early 80s due to difficulties in the private sphere. I must add that August 31, 1987, I met the love and happiness in the person of a wonderful man who became my husband. He practices meditation for 40 years: it is the source of his balance, calm and wisdom.

Since I found the Master E. K., I feel a deep joy that is always present in me. He wrote me one day ‘More often you will find me meditating in you.” This is the source of my joy and I feel immense gratitude for such a gift. Day after day, I am guided in my research and reading about what others would call chance. This is not chance, but the Master E. K. who traces the way to follow, I am certain. I also know that, for now, my work on this earth is to achieve happiness in the company and with the help of my husband. When thoughts come to my regret because of lost time (between 1980 and 2016), I am comforted internally by the idea that to me in this life, knowledge is not the most important. What matters is the JOY through the practice of happiness. The knowledge to acquire will take me some more lives … “YOU HAVE PLENTY OF TIME. BE HAPPY ”

“Dear sister,
It is indeed a great return!
Returning home is ever joyful.
The Master is all encompassing and loving.
May rejoice relating to. ”

Master Parvathi Kumar’s response to my letter of thanks.

Rita, Master EK and Sri PSS Varna, who accompanied the Master, 1972, photo from the video Music of the Soul

Rita and her husband, Christmas 2015

Pisces is seen as the end of the zodiacal year which leads to the next annual cycle beginning with the vernal equinox. For a disciple on the spiritual path Pisces is the beginning of the cycle, since he moves in the retrograde direction towards the origin. In mundane astrology, Pisces corresponds to the feet, whereas for the disciple it is located above the head. In the body of the yogi, it is related to the pineal gland and the pituitary body which aid to produce light of the Higher Bridge to cosmic realms of consciousness. This light is the expression of the eternal NOW, the fusion of the beginning and the ending of creation.

The picture I received in meditating on Pisces consisted of two globes touching each other with a light in between and a head below. I understood the spheres of the globes as the contact of the past with the future in the light of the presence. The two touching spheres give the glyph of the sign of Pisces. I created it by fusing several photos of the Earth, the star Fomalhaut of the Pisces constellation and a lotus.

For the head I fused a wood-carved and a porcelain head of the Bodhisattva Quan Yin, the female correspondence of Buddha worshipped especially in the Far East. She is the Goddess of Mercy and thus a form of the World Mother related to Pisces. On the crown, symbolising the head centre, she wears a figure of Buddha, the light of the jewel in the Lotus. On her front I integrated the bridge of light between the pineal and the pituitary linking to the cosmic light.

The deep blue light of the background fuses the stars of the firmament with the night lights on earth and the aura of Quan Yin into one whole.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.

One of the moments which deeply impressed me during my last stay in India developed its impact only slowly. It was during the farewell ceremony at the end of the seminar. Sri Kumar mentioned that those coming to future seminars should acquaint themselves beforehand about what has been taught in previous Indian seminars. This way they would not get lost and have a better understanding of the teachings. And he explained that he won’t come anymore to the West for giving seminars. He would continue teachings via YouTube, according to American and European time zones. He remarked that he has given so many teachings and that it has become a habit to ask for more without applying what has already been given.

Before my mind’s eye I saw the great sublime structure woven by these teachings given over many years in a grand sequence, bringing to the denser planes of our minds most profound concepts about cosmic dimensions of manifestation, development and re-merging of creation, about their correspondences in us, about the laws of divine unfoldment. And that this knowledge is helping to unfold our inner dimension and speeds up the evolution.

At the same time I noticed how very undeveloped are the inner sense organs of us listeners and of those people over the globe trying to assimilate these teachings. With most there seemed to be a rudimentary inner perceptive system. Many feel attracted by Sri Kumar’s magnetism and by the ambiance of the seminars but not by the teachings. I heard from a number of members that they are not really interested in the teachings or maybe just some small aspects. Some said they feel more drawn to Buddhism and its practices because they are not so complicated. The attitude of mindfulness is very appealing and they don’t want to bother about the cosmological dimensions, which Buddhism leaves out of sight. I answered to a friend that for me the teachings are some kind of a training for our “mental and Buddhic muscles” and that like with other sport training you might feel pain when the muscles are tensed…

The last two days, I heard this from different sides. I thought of the tremendous work done by Sri Kumar and the difficulty of transmitting the sublime teachings. I was reminded of people using a smartphone. It is quite simple to operate, just some clicks – but is it easy under the surface? Who really understands in depth how it is functioning? And how comparatively few know how to build, how to write the software – and how many cooperate, adding specific sub-aspects to the whole, the “simple device”.

A friend said to me, she told Sri Kumar that she cannot understand much of his teachings but that she loves to be in his presence, and he smiled full of love. She added: “A gardener knows, when the seeds sprout and the plants develop.”

A Bonsai Tree Nursery in India – trees grow slowly

Tuesday was the last day of our journey to India. Still tired from the previous day, I woke up, had a short look at the alarm clock, went into the bathroom for the morning wash. When I came out and switched the light on to tell Franz that the bathroom is now free I noticed that it was just 03:10 am – in my confusion I did not notice that the alarm clock was lying topside down and I had mistaken the time… So I went to bed again.

In the morning meditation I felt still a bit drowsy. Before and after breakfast I answered e-mails and tried to pin down the blogpost of two days ago so that the memories don’t fade away too quickly. Selecting photos, formatting, colour adjustments – and then I tried to upload. The internet connection was again very slow. I safeguarded the text in word and decided to publish it when I’m back in Switzerland.

Around 10 am we left the hotel with an auto-rickshaw: “To Sri Ramakrishna Mission”. The rickshaw driver repeated, Ramakrishna.I sat besides the driver on his bench, holding myself tight not to fall out, the other four were in the backside. Indian traffic around. When the driver turned into the first road I told the others, But that is not the right direction…. they replied, he probably knows a side-road. I was sceptical. We ended up in front of the Rajarani temple, where the driver stopped. Miquel explained to him that this is not the right place and explained to him again. He spoke with some other person and then started. A few minutes later we arrived at the Ramakrishna Mission – of course with disputes over the fare. But Miquel remained firm: It is not our fault…

We spend some time in the serene ambiance of the Mission before we called another rickshaw: “To the Mukteswar Temple”. The driver said yes, and started. Again I remarked, That is not the right direction… He stopped in front of the Lingaraj temple to let us out. Miquel explained that foreigners are not allowed there, that we had already been there and repeated “Mukteswar Temple” – a very well known place in Bhubaneswar. We started again. Beggars along the road… I saw a blind man sitting at the street-side steering into the sun and asking for alms, one of many (next to the Mukteswar temple there was a beggar holding his one hand and talking to his mobile with the other). We stopped in front of the temple – and again Miquel cut short the discussions about the fare.

We entered into the Kedara-Gouri temple precincts near the Mukteswar temple where we had been there before.Franz and I placed our glass bead necklaces we had received in the Yogini temple the day before at the statue of a goddess.

Rosa wanted to talk to the owner of a handicraft shop there where she and Franz had bought some artwork a few days ago. The man, a Sai Baba devotee, was very kind, in a non-commercial way. He brought us betelnut leaves for a good digestion and then showed us the way to a nearby vegetarian restaurant. It was a very simple restaurant serving just “Thali” – plates with a selection of sauces, vegetables and rice. I had never been in such a restaurant and it was quite full. But the food was tasty. When we came out of the restaurant, our looks fell on a plate of the “Allen Homoeo Hall. German Quality Made in India.” We smiled.

Another rickshaw brought us back to the hotel – this time without any extra excursion. But the backside of the bench I sat on had a sharp, rusty iron piece strong enough to cut my spine in case of a sudden stop. I thought of what I sometimes felt as over-regulation with traffic security in Europe…

The flight back, originally scheduled for 9 pm was re-scheduled to 9.30, then 10 and 10.30. It was a quarter to 11 when the plane took up from Bhubaneswar airport. I don’t know whether it was from the food served in the plane or from the samosas and paneer sandwich eaten near the departure gate. But when we stood in the long queues of Qatar airways for check-in, I felt an increasing acid reflux. During the flight to Doha I felt the first pangs of vomiting. At Doha airport it became worse. The inner guidance had changed in Delhi during check-in my place and given me a seat at the very last row of the plane. First I felt unhappy with it until I realised that this was my blessings – I ended up sitting alone with a free chair on both sides and the toilet was just around the corner. And the vomiting diarrhoea got very strong. In a matter of seconds the liquids were expelled up and down, together with the medicine they had given me. The stewardesses took great care of me and there was even a doctor sitting right in front of me inspecting my state: “Food poisoning”. An Indian good-bye souvenir.

I spend the flight sleeping and looking a very touching film “Pay it forward” (German: Das Glücksprinzip) about a little boy launching a goodwill movement – very inspiring. Shortly before landing I saw through the windows some fantastic snow panoramas of the Alps. The train journey to Berne then went quite well. A warm welcome of my wife, some words and then I fell into my bed to wake up half a day later.

Now, three days later, I am feeling quite well again, coming slowly back into the world I’m used to. On my arrival I found a letter from an old school friend with whom I had done bicycle tours through Germany end of the 60s/early 70s. He is now the director of Munich airport – and since 2 years I receive his Christmas letter sent to a circle of friends about what has been going on in his life. I like him, though we have not seen for a decade. He is a lot jetting around the world and living in quite different worlds. His words made me think of my path, of what I did experience the last weeks and what was the essence of it. I feel that under the multitude of impressions there is the fire of inner striving, which had been nourished by the journey. And that the gems in the fire will show up a bit clearer in the times to come.

Sunrise over the Gulf of Bengal at Visakhapatnam, seen from the roof of the house of Sri Kumar

Monday morning after breakfast we saw a few temples in Bhubaneswar – “the city of 1000 temples”; I did not count but do not doubt 🙂 – and in one temple joined a small puja ritual. We also saw the famous Lingaraj Temple from the outside – again “for Hindus only”. (The name means “The King of Lingams“, the symbolic form of Lord Shiva). Here you see how they change the flags on top of the temple tower – see in the second image how the man climbs down along a rope…

We afterwards drove through narrow streets, a long congestion at a railway crossing and various villages to the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves, the abodes of Jain ascetics. There are about 35 caves in two hills, and on the top of one hill there is a Jain temple. They are partly natural and partly carved out from the rock.

One cave looked like a tiger mouth, other structures resembled huge serpents. When we met in the biggest cave for a short meditation, a lady with her daughter asked us if we were meditating and presented herself to be a yoga teacher from the Bihar School of Yoga. Rosa asked her if she would like to lead the meditation. The lady several times asked if we really wanted her to do it, and we said, yes. Then she guided us through a process of visualisation and mantra exercises – a nice experience. After a coconut drink we set out to climb the second hill. On the way up there was a Hindu temple in one of the caves, where the swami performed a ritual and explained about the high age of the encarvings down there, much older than in the other caves or in the Jain sanctuary at the top.

Washing the feet for one rupee before entering the compound of the temple – a boy was spraying water on our feet, and one of our group said, that’s a good business model – very cheap but if all the many visitors have to pay – and can pay – it sums up….

The Jains are completely vegetarian and they also exclude onions, potatoes, eggplants and garlic. So Miquel said at the entrance of the temple, that we also don’t eat onions and garlic – to be allowed to enter – but no photos allowed in and around the temple. There were statues of Mahavira and other Tirthankaras – omniscient teachers.

After returning into the valley we went to the Chausathi Yogini Temple located in a small village on the countryside near a pond. It is an open circular temple with 27.4 m circumference and a wall of 2.4 m – with 64 statuettes of yoginis and Shaivaite goddesses, like Ganeshini, a female form of Ganesha:

Of course, the Brahmin priests which arrived when we came performed a puja, and of course they wanted again rupees. Miquel, the “guardian” of the group cash, remained hard when their demands exceeded what was considered to be “normal”.

After a lunch in a vegetarian restaurant the group wanted to visit more temples in Bhubaneswar. I, however, felt an “overkill” of temple impressions and stayed out during the visit of the Mukteswar temple and other sanctuaries in the surroundings. I said I preferred to be in a meditative place and not go from one place to the other. However, I very much enjoyed when we visited the Shirdi Baba temple in Bhubaneswar – I feel deeply linked to this energy and the short meditation there recharged my system.

The Mukteswar temple, where we had seen a beautiful dance presentation three days before.

Afterwards we went to the site of the Rajarani Temple. It was just the time for the start of the free 3 days “Rajarani Music Festival” with great performances of Indian classical music, again organised by Odisha Tourism.

There were two concerts, one of an Odissi vocal singer, Smt Mohapatra Minati Bhanja, and one of two Hindustani vocal singers, the Wadali Brothers in Sufi tradition. The site was again marvellously decorated, though there was not the magic of the light and movements of the dance performances at the Mukteswar temple.

The first concert was more elegiac, the musical voice of Minati accompanied by a violin, tablas, and string instruments. The second concert rose from yearning vocal patterns to ecstatic rhythms which got the entire audience clapping their hands to the sounds of the two elderly brothers and their group of singers. The sounds rose up into the night-blue sky, from where the moon in his tenth ascending phase shed down his mild light. And the fading of the battery of my camera saved me from taking more pictures of the event…

Sunday, 17 January, we went to the zoological park of Nandankanan about 18 km outside Bhuvaneswar. Our guide took us first to the bear and tiger sections – and it was impressive to see leopards, tigers – even some white ones – and bears in zoo environment quite near to their natural living conditions. At the elephants’ section our guide called one of the zookeepers to come with an elephant. He mounted one of the animals and came directly to our place – a very impressive view. Later we went on a short safari-tour to 4 sections outside the zoo where we could see some tigers, lions, bears and deers outside the zoo walls – a crash-tour without good impressions.

After the tour to the zoo we went to the Rajarani temple in Bhuvaneswar from the 11^th century, where preparations for 3 days of Music Festival were going on (we visited it on the 18^th). On the walls of the temple there are so-called “erotic” carvings of women and couples – today’s advertisements are much more sexualised than these statues. Though there are no images of Gods inside the temple it is associated with Shiva due to its form.

The archaeological sites look nice but there is no active spiritual activity going on and they seemed to me like the outer shells, where the spirit has gone away.

The same was the case with the Sun Temple in Konark, where we went in the afternoon. It is a Unesco World Heritage site – and surrounded by a huge amounts of souvenir shops waiting for some tourists to stop. After lunch in the village we had a coconut drink on the way to the temple. Before we could enter a self-styled guide had cramped to our group and followed us insistently. Rosa finally took him as her guide, and while he explained the intricacies of the architecture and the place, I kept away to align with the place and to take some photos. (I had read a bit about the temple before…) We were the only “white skins” I could remark. It was interesting to observe the Indians flocking everywhere to take selfies or group pictures with the temple – particularly on lawns with the sign “Do not enter”.

There were some huge old banyan and neem trees near the temple. For a while I touched a banyan tree to connect to its energy – a feeling of something very stable and grounded, silently spreading into the surroundings. Again, you could feel that there are no active spiritual activities going on at the temple – a beautiful messenger of times gone by. The temple and the scaffolding around the tower shone in a golden evening light, a true sun temple.

Next to the temple there was a Navagraha-Temple, devoted to the 9 planets, where some “ritual quickies” were going on. When none of the priests looked, I quickly deposited my flower from the Dhauli Shanti Stupa at one of the planetary spirit statues…

Afterwards we went to the sea where the glowing Sun God was shedding his red gold over the water and slowly faded into the mist, while people were enjoying the view of the ocean.

On the way home we stopped at a small ashram on the wayside. We went in for our evening meditation – and yes, in this simple building with the images of their line of gurus you could feel the vibrant purity of continuous spiritual aspiration.

Friday, 15 January early morning after a short morning meditation with Sri Kumar, a bus brought a group of us to the airport. While most of them set out to their journey home, we were a group of 5 persons who flew to Bhubaneswar, the capital of the Indian state of Odisha (Orissa), starting a small pilgrimage for 4 days.

A driver from the hotel came to pick us up but his car was too small for our luggage. So he organised some colleague and soon we were driving through the city to our hotel, our stay for the next 4 days. The breakfast was also our lunch and pre-dinner. Around four o’clock, when the temperature came down, we started our tour walking along a busy road and entered a nearby temple. They were just opening again and we got the blessing of the deities there, being decorated by the priests with red and orange colours on our forehead – it was quite difficult in the evening to wash the colours away, not only the towel became a witness of it.

After a chai at a street coffee shop – boiled with glowing coals – we took an auto rickshaw to bring us to the Sri Ramakrishna Mission. The buildings were surrounded by a beautiful old garden, where the dusk slowly took away the colours. It was quite a contrast to come into this silent, serene ambiance from the noise of the city with the continuous noise of motors and horns. We had a beautiful meditation in the prayer hall and then continued to a nearby temple area.

We came into a road fantastically decorated with beautiful cotton lanterns. And there we saw in front of the Mukteswar temple that the second day of the 3 days Music and Dance Festival was to start in a quarter of an hour at the temple compound, free entry, organised by Odisha Tourism. We were thrilled when we entered the huge compound of the Shiva-temple: Around the temple a big stage was set up. A huge lighting system stood there, cameras to air the show to All India TV – and fantastic light decorations in the trees and bushes. The air was filled with incense to chase away the mosquitoes. We got places in the VIP section not far away from the stage. And soon a huge choir (Dheeraj Mohapatra & Group) in beautiful costumes started with an invocation to Shiva, the Lord of Dance. If was followed by Odissi solo, duet and group dances – outstanding performances with sublime artists of dance and music – we were very deeply touched to be at this presentation in such an incredibly beautiful surrounding of the over thousand years old temple. The dance celebrations were at Makara Sankranti, the traditional lunar winter solstice celebrated from 14 to 16 January.

Afterwards we went to see some other smaller temples in the surroundings. And also there the trees were filled with lampions. Then we were invited to receive a beautiful free Thali dinner sitting on carpets under the trees of a temple – a family had sponsored it on the occasion of a celebration for their young son, which is being done when the child is 4 months and 4 days old.

Then we came into a craft shop where exquisite handicraft was being sold. We saw palm leaf writings, very well done statues and very subtle artwork on a kind of cloth on tamarind backing. Two friends of mine hand a long talk with the owner, a Sai Baba devotee, and finally bought two images.

When we returned to the hotel, we felt overwhelmingly blessed by the sequence of unexpected blessings we experienced during the day.