The NASA has just published a timelapse video to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The video shows impressive highlights from the last five years of sun watching, or 1826 days in space. The observatory provides incredibly detailed images of the Sun 24 hours a day. You can see giant clouds of solar material hurled out into space, the dance of giant loops hovering in the corona, and huge sunspots growing and shrinking on the Sun’s surface.

By watching the sun in different wavelengths – and therefore different temperatures – scientists watch how material courses through the corona. They want to understand the clues to what causes eruptions on the sun, what heats the Sun’s atmosphere up to 1,000 times hotter than its surface, and why the Sun’s magnetic fields are constantly on the move.

Looking at the pulsating heart of our solar system, we also have to realise that this is only the outer aspect of the Sun which, according to the Eastern wisdom consists of three different dimensions. The physical Sun is like a lense giving expression to the heart or soul of the Sun, and to the spiritual sun. The new book of Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar about “SUN – THAT I AM” (PDF) gives a profound insight into these subtle dimensions:

“When we think of Sun we need to think of the very consciousness, which is the basis of our solar system. Each one of us is but a unit of consciousness. Each one of us is a micro Sun. The other name for this consciousness is ‘I AM’. When we speak of Sun we speak of I Am consciousness. In other words we are speaking of ourselves. The self in you and in me is no different from the self of the Solar Angel. It is but the same consciousness manifested in different dimensions and magnitudes. The essence of the Sun and us is but one and the same. We are no different from our Sun. Let us learn to see the Sun as no different from I Am. The Veda says, “The Sun I see and I Am are but one.”

Photo from the video (c) NASA

An Indian friend from the States, Vijay, sent me the link to an article of BBC News about new insights of science into the heart of our heart, its inner core. Vijay wrote:

“This is very similar to what we studied from Master EK’s Spiritual Psychology book few weeks ago. Master EK described that the earth used to have its north pole in the sun first and then it had a 90 degree shift and now has its north pole in the pole star. I thought it is interesting that this new research seems to align well with Master’s words.”

The article shows that researchers from the USA and China suggest that the innermost core of our planet has another, distinct region at its centre: The structure of the iron crystals seems to be different from those found in the outer part of the inner core. Since you cannot drill into the centre, which lies 5000 km beneath our feet, the scientists analysed echoes generated by earthquakes to see how they change as they travel through the different layers of our planet. “The seismic wave data suggests that crystals in the “inner inner core” are aligned in an east-to-west direction – flipped on their side, if you are looking down at our planet from high above the North Pole…. The core, which lies more than 5,000km down, started to solidify about a billion years ago – and it continues to grow about 0.5mm each year. ”

We read the book “Spiritual Psychology” in our English online study group. In the chapter “Poles on Earth” it says:

“When the Earth was in its child state, it had its upper pole in our Sun and the lower pole in the region of the then existing North pole. During that period, this Earth was only a half-globe with its one pole, i.e. the North pole. That pole was towards the Sun and the half-globe was going round the Sun with its circular base away from the Sun. At that time a group of intelligences descended upon our Earth from Venus and another group from Mars. Both of them worked out through love nature and those from Mars worked out the interactions of the material of the half-globe. By the time this process was complete, there was the birth of the second pole or South pole. By that time the Earth had undergone a tilt and the North pole deviated from our Sun to our Pole Star. From that time onwards the Earth began rotating with its equator facing the Sun. The tilt was about 90°. This change occurred also in every atom of this Earth globe. Every atom received the two poles.”

The layers of our earth. Source: Wikipedia

Illustration from the book “The Teachings of Kapila“, by Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar, giving the orientation of the earth in its etheric state to the Sun. Kapila is the ancient-most teacher on earth.

We have just uploaded a documentary about the life and teachings of four Masters who received and transmitted the Aquarian energies to the planet and to the planetary beings: Master CVV (1868-1922), Master MN (1883-1940), Master EK (1926-1984) and Master KPK (born 1945). They gave out the most ancient wisdom of yoga to the modern age in a most suitable manner, embedding therein the energies that descended from higher circles. The documentary focuses mainly on Master CVV and Master EK. You can view the documentary in six parts – you find a presentation of all the videos on the WTT website and the WTT videos on YouTube.

 Part 1: Master CVV, the Avatar of Synthesis: Master CVV, also regarded as the Avatar of Synthesis, is an advanced disciple of the Sage Agastya, who is also known in the Theosophical circles as Master Jupiter, residing in the Nilagiris or the Blue Mountains of South India.  In 1910, he received from higher circles the Energy of Synthesis that visited him through Halley‘s Comet, enabling him to transmit the Aquarian energies.

Part 2: Master EK. Origin, Childhood and Youth: Master E.K. grew in the Vedic wisdom under the personal guidance of his father. He was a natural poet and writer. As he lost his mother in his early age, he was receiving a kind of motherly nourishment by worshipping the World Mother Gayatri. This led him proximate to the Mother’s energy.

Part 3: Master EK. The Years of Preparation. Master MN. The Fiery Flame: In Master EKs 24^th year Master CVV appeared to him while meditating. This opened the Path in his life. He identified himself with the work of world goodwill and the Planetary Hierarchy in 1953. He was linked up with the Hierarchy of the Masters of Wisdom in 1958.  Master EK was minutely guided by Master MN on the subtle plane. Master MN is a true representative of the yoga of Master CVV and conducts the yoga of the Master on a global scale in a fiery form.

Part 4: Master EK. The Work of Teaching and Healing: Master E.K. has been chosen to work in tune with the Plan of the community of the Enlightened Ones addressed as ‘The Hierarchy’. Besides manifesting the Aquarian Energies, Master E.K. was also entrusted with the age-old teaching and healing work. He wrote more than 50 books ranging from commentaries on Scriptures to homeo-science and health.  The work of group building commenced in a very significant way from 1977. Wherever he went, taught, and healed, groups emerged to follow the Path.

Part 5: Master EK. Cooperation with Master KPK: To conduct an organized activity relating to the work that emerged from Master EK, the World Teacher Trust was given birth to in 1971, in memory of the great World Teacher Lord Maitreya. Slowly, as the work grew, the organization also grew. For more than 18 years he worked together with Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar (Master KPK), who accompanied him on his journeys to Europe.

Part 6: Departure of Master EK. Master KPK: Global Unfoldment: In 1981, Master EK invited Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar (Master KPK) to carry out with him the task concerning the spiritual fusion of East and West. In March 1984, Master EK unexpectedly left his physical sheath and left a great number of unfinished projects behind.  Master KPK took over the tasks. He works actively in the economic, social and cultural fields with spirituality as the basis. He is a source of inspiration for self-transformation and for social service to more than 100 groups in 24 countries spread over India, Europe, North, Central and South America.

On a very subtle plane, colour and sound converge and become one. This plane is related to Aquarius and to a supra-cosmic musical intelligence whom the Vedas call Vena the Gandharva. The Vedas say, he merrily sings the “song of light”. The Greek Apollo is no other than Vena; through his influence the sound- and light principles of the higher planes are expressed in identical scales.

Meditating on these correspondences, an image arose in me of Apollo with a musical instrument super-imposed on his face and light pouring down from above.

For the painting I chose a black and white photo of a head of Apollo and converted it into light yellow. I found the picture of a beautiful classical instrument, the “Viola d’Amore” (Viola of Love). It is used like a violin and has a sweet, warm sound. There are 6 or 7 playing strings on the top and the same number of “sympathetic strings” below – a beautiful symbol of the 6 pairs of signs of the zodiac or of the 7 planes of creation in the manifest and in the subtle spheres. I placed the instrument on the face of Apollo so that the upper part with the pegs and the head is like a stair towards the spheres of light. There is a second viola merging with the face of Apollo and a part of a nearly invisible third one surrounding the head like an aureole.

For the background, I first took a photo of Uranus and merged it with another one of a star cluster from the constellation Aquarius. Though you don’t recognize these elements anymore, they are there in the “background” of this painting. And the light coming from above looks like pouring down from out of the nearly invisible Aquarian pot.

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.

Aquarius – Apollo and the Song of Light

We yesterday celebrated the winter solstice at the Paracelsus Centre near Einsiedeln, Switzerland.

We were a small group but the celebration gave us great joy. With mantrams, rituals, exchanges, study and visualisation exercises we tried to fathom the qualities of this special time of the solstice energy shift and new moon. The Sun shed golden light while we were walking along the Sihl river. The whole day there was some magic in the air.

Please find here some impressions of the celebration.

A very positive news: Yesterday, 11 December 2014, the General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously adopted the ‘International Day of Yoga’. Starting next year, it will be celebrated on 21 June. The resolution was proposed by the Indian Prime Minister Modi in September.

“A record number of over 170 countries joined as co-sponsors, the highest number ever for any general assembly resolution – including the vast majority of member states of all the regional and sub-regional groups of the general assembly, as well as all the five permanent members of the UN security council,” said India’s ambassador to UN Asoke Mukerji. And Indian Prime Minister Modi said, “Yoga has therapeutic powers that could change people’s lifestyle and help tackle global problems.”

In his congratulatory message, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon pointed out: “In proclaiming 21 June as the International Day of Yoga, the General Assembly has brought attention to the holistic benefits of this ancient practice on health and well being in our modern world.”

And Modi said in his Facebook post, ” I have been a practicer of Yoga for years & you can’t believe the positive difference it has made in my life. Yoga is the anchor of my life. I urge all of you, especially the youth to take up Yoga & practice it diligently & regularly. It will truly transform your lives as well. This speech of mine at the launch of a Yoga university in Gujarat may surely interest you.”

I’m practicing Yoga myself since about 4 decades – and it does me good and keeps the body supple. However, don’t stop with seeing it as a kind of gymnastics as most people in the West do. There is an eightfold path of Yoga, of spiritual discipline with the goal of leading to synthesis.

During my stay at the WTT group living in India, 2008, a local Yoga teacher gave us a performance together with a group of his students – that’s not just what I’m practicing….

Yoga performance at the WTT Retreat Centre, January 2008

The month of Sagittarius is related to spiritual aspiration and the teacher, represented by Jupiter, and thus also to the cosmic principle of the Teacher.  In India, this principle is also understood as Lord Dattatreya. Sri Kumar has written a profound book about the topic. Since long, I’m fascinated by Dattatreya and I just have published the Lunar Messenger for Sagittarius on Dattatreya (PDF); you also find the text here.

In this regard, I would like to tell you some events of the last weeks which touched me very much. It became quite a long blog-post but you won’t regret reading it till the end…

Sri Dattatreya is depicted as a youth with three heads leaning against a white cow and surrounded by 4 dogs.

On 20 October, I got an e-mail from Lakshmi, a young IT specialist from Chennai with whom I have e-mail exchanges from time to time. She wrote: “By the way, I wanted to ask you if you have any book in German related to Sripada Srivallabha, the first avatar of Lord Dattatreya on Earth.” I didn’t remember having heard the name before. So I looked it up in Wikipedia and found an article.

Sripada Srivallabha, picture from Wikipedia

In the next e-mail Lakshmi asked me if I would be able to translate a book about him into German, Sreepada Sreevallabha Charitaamrutam, if she provides me the English version. I answered her, “I think I would be able but I don’t know if I want to do it, there is other work around.” While I was writing these words, I felt a strange inner touch and that I should not decline the request. I told me wife, “I have the impression that a book translation is coming to me…”

When reading in the Wikipedia article that Sripada Srivallabha, who lived in the 14th century, is regarded as the first incarnation of Lord Dattatreya in Kali Yuga and that he was born in Pithapuram, I noticed that it is a place between Visakhapatnam and Rajahmundry and that I had passed nearby last January. Suddenly a memory flashed through my mind, and I opened my notes from the last group living in India. Sri Kumar, who could not accompany the group to Rajahmundry, told us before the journey:

“You will all start at 3 pm in the afternoon. On the way we will stop at a place Lord Dattatreya was born in this cycle of time. Lord Dattatreya comes from the system of Sirius. He lived, was incarnated to a place nearby and lived there for 16 years. Then moved from there to a place in Maharashtra for another 16 years. According to prophecy he was reborn and he said he would again be reborn and again in Maharashtra. And he would also come to many forms of Islamic community; it was Shirdi Sai Baba. … Their ashram is also in…, the place where you go. Many things he prophesied as per other religions; he continues to guide us to one religion or the other. The centre is the ancient-most place related to the system of teachers. The Lord came down via that place from the Sirius system. In this Kali age he took birth. There are books available in English, Telugu and Hindi. I strongly recommend that you pick up the English book and try to read it. It is full of knowledge and things he did on earth. When you enter from the entrance there is a bookshop, in the ashram itself there is a book available. After this you go to Rajahmundry.”
The bus came too late and so the group did not go to the place Lord Dattatreya was born for want of time. I was sad but then forgot about it.

I now felt electrified that Sri Kumar had hinted already at this book which now knocked at my doors. I also remembered a passage in the biography on Master KPK: “In his 24th year, another initiate in the line of Dattatreya visited the family and initiated Sri Parvathi Kumar, his mother and his only sister Parvathi into the path of Yoga.” It also came to my mind that several times I had seen Sri Kumar doing a ritual to Lord Dattatreya. I started an intense web-search and got more and more drawn into the matter:

Statue at the house of Sri Kumar in Visakhapatnam

Sripada Srivallabha had lived from 1320 to 1350 AD, it was a powerful life full of splendour and miraculous events. As prophesied,  he re-incarnated as Narasimha Saraswati (1378 to 1459) and worked in a similar style. At the end of this life he entered into a cave and went into Samadhi for about 300 years only to come out around September–October 1856 as Shri Swami Samarth of Akkalkot (who then died in 1878 – I remembered having seen his picture on the altar of the Guru Pujas). I found articles mentioning that during this time Lord Dattatreya had taken to other simultaneous incarnations, such as Vasudevanand Saraswati and Shirdi Sai Baba – a feat other high souls also have done. I had read a lot about Shirdi Baba before. I now was profoundly touched discovering so many mysterious details which I hadn’t known before. I also thought of Swami Ganapati of Mysore, whose ashram I had visited  last year and about whom I had blogged several times –  he is also regarded as an avatar of Dattatreya.

Click on pictures to see them enlarged:

I wrote Sri Kumar about the idea of translating the book on Sripada Srivallabha, and he answered, “Get the book and read. Then you can decide.” I mentioned the whole story to Robert, a Spanish friend. He said, “Don’t you think a Spanish translation of the book would also be great? I’d love to do it.” I told him the answer of Sri Kumar, and so we said, we’ll read the book and form a triangle for the project, with Lakshmi to provide us with explanations and background information.

Cover picture of the book Sreepada Sreevallabha Charitaamrutam

Lakshmi now bought the English books and they will reach us end of December in Bangalore, at the December Call. She also procured for us the translation and publishing rights for the book. In the meanwhile I discovered a source where I could get the English translation as a PDF (the print version will be of about 400 pages…).

I asked Doris, a German friend, if she would like to do a proof-reading of the future translation and she was interested to do it. She even transcribed a longer FAQ-session with Sri Kumar from January 1994, where he talked about Lord Dattatreya and his avatars. She also sent me 2 pictures from 1994 with Sri Kumar and two persons considered as avatars of Lord Dattatreya:

Sri Kumar with Sri Visva Yogi Viswam Ji, an avatar of Lord Dattatreya, Guru Puja 1994

Sri Kumar with Bhaktaraj Maharaj (1920-1995), 1994

In the fascinating FAQ transcript, Sri Kumar speaks about various incarnations of Lord Dattatreya, and he also mentions Sripada Srivallabha, Narasimha Saraswati, Akkalkot Maharaj (Swami Samarth), Shirdi Sai Baba and Satya Sai Baba. I wondered why Sri Kumar didn’t give these names in his book on Lord Dattatreya, and so I asked him. He answered:

“Dattatreya is the sum and essence of The Cosmic Principle of Teacher. It is too mystical to the west and hence we tread the path of Maitreya. There are many freaks of Dattatreya, meaning electric manifestations of him thru persons who are not consistent and safe to follow. I therefore did not prefer to present names. Akkalkot Maharaj is the last consistent one.”

In me the question arose, why the incarnations of Dattatreya, the cosmic principle of Teacher, are so mysterious and too mystical for the West, and so I asked again Sri Kumar. He answered,

“Teachers are essentially meant to transmit Presence. Teaching is but a feed to minds of students. Presence elevates. Teaching inspires the mind and may lead to Buddhic state which may not stay longer. The west is more with teaching and the related mental understanding. The Presence lifts unto Itself. Dattatreya and the like are beyond mental comprehension.”

I was grateful for this clarification, and while studying other transcriptions from seminars of Sri Kumar for the Lunar Messenger the image became still clearer, though questions remain, like, what is the relation between Agastya/Master CVV and Dattatreya/Sripada who both have come from the Sirius system? Robert visualised this by fusing the two with the picture of Lord Maitreya to one image which he sent me yesterday:

At the moment, I’m reading the PDF book on Sripada Srivallabha with profound fascination. There are a lot of thrilling stories and inspiring events. However, it is not an easy read for a Westerner, there are lots of Sanskrit terms and concepts quite unfamiliar to my Western mind – although I’m in touch with Indian philosophy since several decades. But a leisurely reading is very uplifting.

I asked myself why I feel so attracted to the topic of Dattatreya, having come out of “devotional” emotions in the course of the years. I thought, I have encountered quite a lot of teachers and teachings and don’t want to go on “collecting more” – I feel well with the path I’m going. I know that the different teachings are expressions of the One principle of teaching and the teachers are expressions of the One. And just as there is a personification of the teaching principle in the World Teacher of our planet, Lord Maitreya, there is also a personification of the teaching principle on a cosmic scale, Lord Dattatreya. But this understanding remained a bit abstract.

Now, the encounter with Sripada deeply touched me, I was thrilled to discover and experience that Dattatreya is not just an abstract principle or a mythological personification but is incarnating time and again through his avatars and thus is giving his blessing to earnest seekers. While reading the “Sreepada Sreevallabha Charitaamrutam” I realised that with the book, there are quite some veils to be lifted, in the form of lots of unfamiliar concepts of Indian thought and terminology – these veils will keep off a casual reader.

The book itself has a very mysterious background: it had been hidden for 32 generations and only resurfaced in 2001, in a form copied from the original Sanskrit text. The original old copy which was brittle was destroyed by immersing it in the Krishna River, as instructed in the book. The English version is a translation of the Telugu version, and it is not an old language. However, I clearly feel that it is not a modern fake. When you read the book in an unbiased way you will realise its authenticity, inspiration and greatness.

If you feel you also really want to read the book “Sreepada Sreevallabha Charitaamrutam”, with a pure heart, you can contact me for a softcopy, only for personal use.
You might also like to read my other blogpost about the visit to the birthplace of Sripada Srivallabha.

YouTube-Video on the Sripada Shrivallabha Temple in Pithapuram – the video could not be framed into the blog:

Video about Kuravpur, a place on an island where Sripada Srivallabha meditated for a longer time.

“The Tree of Wisdom and the Waters of Life”  – a painting about Lord Dattatreya (3 Sept. 2011)

A few days ago, I came across a nice video about the international headquarters of the Theosophical Society (TS) in Adyar, Chennai (Madras), India. I visited the place in 2011, see some pictures at the end of the blogpost.

In December 1878, H.P. Blavatsky (H.P.B.) and H.S. Olcott went to India. In 1882, they founded these headquarters in Adyar, in the southern suburbs of Madras.

This documentary gives a good impression of the beautiful site and contains film footage, archival photos and interviews with a number of persons, like Radha Burnier, the late president of the TS. If you don’t have much time, just scroll through the video, it is 57 minutes.

Statue of H.P.B. and H.S. Olcott in Adyar (own photo)

A tea-cup psychically produced by H.P.B.

The room where H.P.B. worked

A precious old Buddha relief donated by Annie Besant, over 1000 years old

An inscription by H.P.B.: With no kind regards….

The famous Banyan Tree, the 2nd biggest in India
(All photos except the first (c) from the video)

Today, the month of Sagittarius starts.

Sagittarius is the fiery sign of the archer, symbol of single-minded attention. It teaches us to direct all our forces to one purpose, the goal of our life. On the spiritual path, the bow and arrow stand for the meditative discipline of lifting up the energies to the higher centres and to align one’s own will to the divine Will.

For the visualisation of the divine Will I chose a representation of the Lord of the Divine Will: I took the face of a statue of Shiva on the banks of the River Ganges in Rishikesh, India. I cleared it from other symbolisms and placed a bow and an arrow over the bust. With the help of photos of the sun and of a lotus I created the Sahasrara, the thousand-petalled lotus over the head, the target of the alignment, the connection to the higher worlds.

For the string and the lower part of the bust I created shapes of bluish flames, expressing the electric tension of the fiery alignment. I emphasized it by intensifying the colours.

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.

08 August 2014, pencils and photo work

7 November is the birthday of Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar. He was born in Vijayavada (India) in 1945. So in India, they celebrate his 70th birthday, while in the Western way of counting, it is his 69th birthday.

This day has been named the Day of Good Will in his honour, for he has offered his life totally to the service to his fellow beings. If you like to read something about his life, you find some stories in the book “Master K.P.K. – An Expression of Synthesis“.

Below, I would like to share with you an occasion which has left a profound mark in my life.

January 2002, I went for the second time to one of the international group livings organised by Master Kumar in Visakhapatnam. For me, it was during a time of deep transformations: I just was in the process of liquidating the psychosocial counseling centre for refugees which I had managed during more than 7 years. I had to dismiss the entire team and didn’t know if I also would soon be dismissed. For the time being I was working as a scientific collaborator and, with a small percentage, coordinating web publications. It was the time of Pluto transiting my sun….

The title of the seminar was “Meditation – A Way of Life”. One morning, Sri Kumar invited me to come with him to his office. I was very much thrilled. He drove the car himself. It was strange for me seeing him so “down to earth” – I knew him more as the brilliant lecturer at seminars.

At his office Soudamani, where he worked as a chartered accountant, he presented me to his team and went with me to all the office rooms. He explained what the individual staff members were doing and also showed me a little shrine in front of the building where they daily did a small puja before starting to work. And there was a beautiful Ficus Religiosa which was regularly decorated and worshipped.

Then we went into his office room and he invited me to ask. I asked him some questions about the beginning of his WTT presidency and of another difficult situation of the WTT he had gone through, and he very openly explained to me the backgrounds which I didn’t know before.

He spoke about the principles which guided him in his office work – that he never charged anything for the accountancy work he did – some persons, for whom he had done a lot of work just said “thank you” and gave nothing, others, whom he had just given some small counsel, had given a lot. Without expecting anything, he accepted what came in. He also told me how his father had chosen this job for him – he had other ideas but accepted his father’s advice and thus became a chartered accountant. And he told me how the three offices he was directing had developed – one in Visakhapatnam, one in Hyderabad and one in Chennai – with over 60 collaborators at that time – and how he was also committed in the formation of young accountants. And he described how he integrates his professional activities with his wife and family and the increasing demands from the work of the WTT.

I was profoundly impressed. With a meticulous, loving attention he cared for the many different dimensions of his life, without neglegting anything. I felt, this is really a role-model for me – integrating all the different planes. I think, over 2 hours had passed, when he drove me back to the Retreat Centre.

Four months later, I got a new job at the headquarters of Swiss Red Cross, where I became the head of the newly created Web Office and where I served for over 11 years. And in the same month, at the May Call Day seminar in Wengen, Switzerland, he called Sabine and me into the Executive Board of WTT-Global. I got plenty of occasions to learn integrating the different planes of life and points of view, and I felt a continuous support from his side.

The Office of Soudamani (pictures taken in 2003)

The Ficus Religiosa in front of the Office

Sri Kumar in his office