Monday morning after breakfast – I had some difficulties with all the chilli-food, but there wasn’t anything else – our driver set out to show us a number of placed which Gokul had instructed him to show us. We first went to a little sanctum on top of the hill. We had to queue up a stair and there was a little shrine with the sanctum of the feet of the Lord which we touched.

Walking up to the little shrine

“Holy bangles” bound to the lamppost – a nice decoration way up to the shrine

Touching the “feet of the Lord”

Then we drove to a stone arch and a view down to a little “canyon” in the rocks.

Selling colourful necklaces

Afterwards we came to the place of “Akasha Ganga”, the cosmic stream of energy descending down to earth – water from a reservoir flew down through some gargoyles and people were washing their sins away in the downpour. A lovely place.

Akasha Ganga and the downpour of “cosmic waters of space”…

… washing away all the sins of the pilgrims – I decided that since I had other holy baths there were no more sins left to be washed away 🙂

We then came to another place of “Akasha Ganga” – a waterfall in the forest where people were standing in the waters and doing worship. It was a most idyllic place, and I enjoyed very much standing in the knee-deep water and near the waterfall.

The idyllic river

Standing in the water and rejoycing the scene like a little child

The sites were always surrounded by souvenir shops with all kinds of devotional objects. At the last place there was an old man with a monkey whom you could let jump on your head – an image of your “monkey-mind”.

The “monkey mind”

The water reserve for Tirumala

After some pause in our room we went by foot to the outside of the temple compound to take some photos which the day before we couldn’t do in the queue. It was a huge compound and many people with colourful dresses were flowing in and out. Many had cut their hair as a sign to leave back their old lives and start a new beginning.

Entering the temple compound of Tirumala

The entrance gate of the main temple. In the queues surrounding it we had waited 2 hours the day before.

View of the sanctum. The cupola and the interiour are made of pure gold

A little stage besides the main temple, with a replica of the statue of Lord Venkateshvara and on his left side the great poet-initiate Annamacharya, who had been here 500 years ago.

A huge tree with long air-roots near one of the bus-stands.

We afterwards took one of the orange-golden free buses which are continuously going around the city. We had to press in to get a place, but after a while when we came to the outer areas the bus became emptier. It was very impressive to see this city which just housing pilgrims and temples – the main temple being the most important one in India. In all of the crowds we didn’t see any other non-Indian coloured face.

Inside the bus

Tuesday morning we set out to our trip to Chennai. It took about an hour until all formaliTies of check-out wore settled – bureaucracy at its best. The hairpin-bends down the hill, then through villages and vast countrysides – it too nearly 6 hours for the 160 km ride to the airport.

We enjoyed the evening flight to Visakhapatnam, where a group member was already waiting with a taxi to pick us up. We went a zig-zag drive through backside-roads which I had never seen; for a while we had to wait in front of a level crossing without gates until the train started again.

Finally we arrived at the retreat centre and received a warm welcome by the group members who had arrived already earlier. Tired but very happy I unpacked my luggage and had the first spice-free dinner since the last week 🙂

Sunday morning after meditation and breakfast we set out on our journey to Tirupati-Tirumala, to visit the temple of Venkateshvara, the Lord of the Seven Hills. The evening before I had received a short e-mail from a friend in the States: “I just looked up your temple visit. The most visited religious place in the world with 50-100,000 people per day. Gulp….. I can feel my claustrophobia coming up! Enjoy.”…

Gokul, a group member from Bangalore, willed to accompany us. Nataraj gave some instructions as per the tour and the driver, we said good-bye to Tapovan and started.

The entrance of Tapovan – now our exit place

Nataraj giving us last instructions – he had very well prepared the details with the driver

Gokul and Meinrad at the taxis, “ready for take-off”

On the highway – reaching the outskirts of Bangalore. Again and again we saw scenes, where the Swiss police would be totally shocked – and which are totally normal here:

Bangalore is a huge city and it took a long time till I had the feeling that we are leaving the outskirts.

First it was a good 4-lane highway, it later grew smaller and became more winding. Interesting rock formations were seen alongside, like heaps of huge pebbles. Some were standing on the crest like ready to fall down.

It was already well past noontime that we arrived at Tirupati, the downhill station. We approached a huge security control hall, where all cars were inspected inside and outside. In the past there had been some attempts of attacks on politicians who were visiting the temple and to prevent any terror activities these checkpoints had been set up. All luggage had to go through a x-ray scanner. They first didn’t want to allow me to take the small electric kettle with me, for an excessive use of pilgrims with their electric devices might cause problems with the current situation in the uphill station.

The security control hall

Then our taxi started to climb up the 18 km road through a park-like hillside. Behind the tree we could see the peaks of the hills.

Finally we entered the temple city of Tirumala. We decided to immediately go to queue in for the Darshan of Lord Venkateshvara, the Lord of the Seven Hills, Balaji, the energetic centre of Tirumala. A friend from Visakhapatnam informed us on the way that there is a special entrance for foreigners with an “express queue”. We had to leave cameras, luggage and footwear in the car. Gokul came with us to show us the way and speak with the temple officials. We had to register with our passports and to fill out a form declaring that we as non-Hindus, have faith in Lord Venkateshvara and reverence to him and his worship and that we therefore ask to be permitted to enter the temple and have darshan of the Lord. Gokul had to take another queue and wanted to meet us again at the end – which turned out as a weak point in the plan…

We then entered the queue, which slowly proceeded to fuse with another queue where pilgrims had been waiting already for a longer time. When someone tried to make a shortcut at the queue, there was wild uproar of protesters… The more we proceeded the more the queue became pressing. After two hours in the “express queue” we finally entered the holiest of the holy. The crowd was ecstatically singing / shouting “Hey Govinda” and lifting up their hands. For about 15-20 seconds we could see into a dark corridor at the end of which we saw the statue of Lord Ventakeshvara. Though already before there was a powerful energy in the air, I had the impression like receiving a dazzling flash of Light. It touched me to the core. I visualised sending it out over the world and to my near and dear ones…

We had to rush on and were directed to the Prasad counter, where we received two big and very sweet Laddus. We sat on a bench and waited for our Indian friend to come. After one hour we thought we wouldn’t find him again in this crowd. We didn’t know where we would spend the night or where our taxi was. Outside it had become dark. Luckily we had the paper-slip with the phone number of the driver which Nataraj had given us. Meinrad asked a pilgrim with a phone to ring up the number and found out where the driver was waiting. But since we couldn’t orient well, we had to ring him up again from an information stand and finally we found him. But he neither knew about Gokul. So we had to wait. After 75 minutes Gokul rung up and arrived. He was astonished to see us, he didn’t know that we had the phone number of the driver and couldn’t find us at the temple. He had taken 3hs15min in his “fast line” – normal lines take 8-10 hs way into the temple – the speed depending on the fee one pays… Gokul luckily had found in the queue a friend who was driving back to Bangalore in the night and would bring him back – he wanted to be at office next morning. So they planned to share driving through the night…

We were quite tired when we finally found a place in a rest-house. It was a huge building and our room had two metal beds with plastic mattresses – the covers and blankets were damp. Fortunately we had some linen ourselves. After a short wash with the cold water we quickly fell asleep.

The “Holy busses” with brass decoration in the form of elephant heads – free circular transportations departing every 5 minutes for a round-trip.

Four months ago a book in my library caught my attention after having been there silently for about 24 years, “A Short History of The Theosophical Society. Compiled by Josephine Ransom”, published in India in 1938 for 4 rupees. It had come to me with a bunch of other valuable books – with many works of Master EK – from an old German theosophist who let me chose from his library whatever I wanted; it was his legacy, and he died in November 1990, directly after a last visit to our home in Switzerland.

I haven’t read most of the books, but I hold them in good honour. The “History”, however, now had its turn for reading.

With great interest I went through the pages, seeing how Helena P. Blavatsky (H.P.B., or the “Madam” and Colonel Henry St. Olcott struggled to set up the Theosophical Society, how the Masters have frequently appeared to them and many others or how instructions had manifested in most mysterious ways. I also enjoyed reading how there had been a lot of quarrels and discussions – it wasn’t a “meeting of saints” – from the 17 founding members all except the Colonel and Madam dropped away. The two struggled tremendously to spread the teachings, but also to develop an understanding themselves. Quote p 243: “He often disagreed with her, and she with him. Those who knew them both intimately have left on record their admiration for his patient and uncomplaining endurance of her worst and most volcanic outbursts.” In his “Old Diary Leaves” he gave his best to “prevent any tendency to set her up as infallible, yet he cherished for her a great friendship”.

In a letter from Master KH to the Colonel that dropped into his cabin on a boat on 29 August 1888 the Master wrote to him, “H.P.B. has next to no concerns with administrative details, and should be kept clear of them… But this you must tell to all: – with occult matters she has everything to do… she is our direct agent…”

I took the book with me on the journey to India and was thrilled to read about their tours up and down the country. I came to know that Olcott had given lectures to large groups in Kumbhakonam at the time where Master CVV had been mayor there. He had been at other placed I also knew and he had given talks in Ooty in the Nilagiris and later been there for recovery after a very strenuous trip. I felt like travelling with them, feeling with them when worst calumnies were spread by traitors, how leading Indian members left out of protest because they didn’t want that “sacred secrets” were to be unveiled to the ignorant masses… And though I had read several times before how the Madam had struggled with great atrocities of members and foreigners as well as most severe health problems, it again touched me deeply to read about it – being in the Indian ambiance.

The day started with a great symphony of light over the mountains. We left the hotel around 9 o’clock; school boys and girls in green and red uniforms were rushing along the street. I was in a meditative mood looking over the tea plantations interspersed with mimosa or eucalyptus trees. After Ooty there came the steep descent into the valley, with 36 hairpin bends. We then entered again into the tiger reserve. After a while our driver stopped and said, “An elephant!” There was a huge black figure looking to us through the bushes. I waved to him, and as in reply he started waving with his trunk. For a moment there was a feeling of friendship and relatedness in the air.

Some moments later we saw other elephants, but as prisoners in chains, with a rider on the neck. I was reminded of an old book we saw at our visit in Mysore about “elephant training” in the beginning of the last century, how these huge animals were forced into traps, then “trained” with brutal violence to obey and later sent to the palace of the Maharaja for display of power… It seemed that there was sadness in the eye of the elephant.

The road continued through towns and cities – we crossed the living spaces of many people just for a short moment, like on-lookers from another planet. Small lorries packed with vegetable and some people sitting on the top, seemingly ready to fall off… Bullock carts with huge heaps of hay blocking lanes on a highway… I never found out on which side cars should double or drive – it seemed “anything goes”. And then tuck-tucks packed with 12 people or more, colourful trucks blowing clouds of black exhaust gas into the air, the whole mingling into a never ending flow. After 7 hours ride we arrived again at Tapovan in Bangalore, where a hot coffee helped us to revive our spirits.

Yesterday morning we went to the Kodanadu viewpoint, the goal of our journey to the Blue Mountains, the Nilagiris. Since I came to know of it in the early 90ies, I was fascinated by that spot, and I used a picture of it at the entrance of the good-will-site.

In the ethers around that place there is the ashram of Agastya, who in theosophical literature is called Master Jupiter and considered to be the Eldest of the Masters. He is well-known in the Eastern teachings and here in South India you find several places dedicated to him. Sri Kumar once called him jokingly the “James Bond” of the Masters, who steps in in times of crises of global dimension and otherwise remains withdrawn. Master CVV is considered to be one of his disciples. In one of his books Master EK gives a beautiful description of the visit of Master DK to this ashram about 5000 years ago to learn the secrets of the time key, astrology, there.

The place is about 18 km away from Kotagiri and 50 km from Ooty. We drove through beautiful tea plantations and were astonished to see many policemen everywhere: The chief minister of Tamil Nadu, a lady, is having a huge plantation there and was going to launch a campaign (not just for her own teas…).

Sitting in the presence of the mountain we did a meditation, tuning up to the energies present. You are not allowed to enter the area beyond the viewpoint, it is a protected natural reserve. Below the mountain there is a waterfall dispersing its load into the depth.

Suddenly a group of about 30 police-people came to the place. They were surprised to see us and said we are the only” white skins” around. The head of the group was a lady and there were several other ladies in uniform as well. We had a talk together, they wanted to have my e-mail address and then there was a photo shooting session…

This morning we went to Coonoor, about 50 km away, where we visited a botanical garden with huge old trees from the 19th and early 20th century – it breathed the charm of colonial times passed by.

Cleaning-up the world…

Then we went to a nearby viewpoint, from which we could see the “Dophin’s Nose” and another waterfall, the Catherine Falls. Our driver explained that in these areas there are still some adivasi-tribes (original inhabitants) living, far off of civilisation. We could see the place were we were staying at the hotel, but since there was a steep valley in between, the distance by road was about 50 km.

In the afternoon we had an ayurvedic massage in our hotel / spa. Since my cold and coughing was still strong I took a head massage, and while the therapist used my skull as a drum or produced on it the sound of a strong rain-shower, I relaxed well and after the shower felt like reborn.

1st of January in the morning we went to the Ashram of Sri Ganapathi Satchitananda, in Mysore, who is also quite known in the west, particularly for his concerts. He was to give a talk, and a son of the family we visited yesterday evening together with a friend volunteered to show us the ashram.

It was a very huge site, beautifully done. In a spacious music hall a big audience was waiting for the Master, who is considered to be an avatar (incarnation) of Lord Dattatreya, the cosmic teaching principle. Around 10 o’clock he arrived from a nearby hall where he just completed a fire ritual. There were some ceremonies and then he started talking in the local language.

We left after a while, and our young guided showed us the beautiful park full of bonsai trees, a special hobby of Sri Ganapathi. I never saw such a big collection of miniature trees from all corners of the planet, baobab from Africa, different ficus trees, little forest of geometrical trees…

A bonsai-tree of the planet-related trees, this one related to Sukra – Venus

An overgrown Ganesha-statue at teh entrance of the bonsai garden

A little statue of Lord Dattatreya in the bonsai garden

Then we visited another park with medicinal plants and statues of the zodiacal signs and their symbolism – a tremendous art work with hundreds of statues of finest sculpturing filled the place. And there was a very huge statue of Hanuman, the tallest of the world, which had been inaugurated some days before…

A statue done by over 100 artits, full of little heads, symbolising the suffering humanity which needs healing.

The beautiful statues of the zodiacal signs

After a coconut drink we left Mysore around noon time heading towards the Blue Mountains, the Nilagiris. Our driver had a very dashing style, doubling at places where I wouldn’t have dared… On the way up the mountain we saw beautiful eucalyptus forests, tea plantations and colourful little villages. We came through a tiger reserve – we didn’t see any tiger, but some wild elephants, wild pigs, fallow deer and of course monkeys…

The more we came up into the mountains the more the temperature went down. We passed through Ooty and finally we arrived at Kotagiri. In the meantime my cold had developed to a heavy caughing and sneezing. The countryside was enveloped in clouds and I asked myself whether we would be able to see the Durga mountain the next days, for which we had come – a special energy spot, an ashram in the etheric realms.

On the 31st a friend of mine, Meinrad, and I started our tour. The first stop was Mysore, were a friend of mine, Dinu, had invited us. His wife and he picked us up in the hotel. On the way to his home I asked him where the famous sandalwood trees of Mysore were growing, and he said that everywhere thieves are cutting them in the night, they had stolen a tree from his garden. We went to the house of a friend of him, and engineer, – and there they had a sandalwood tree in the beautiful garden – it was surrounded by a metal coating to prevent a nightly cutting. In their home they showed us very precious old sandalwood carvings, which today there are no more artists to do such artwork. Even after more than 200 years the wood was smelling. He gave a piece of sandalwood to Meinrad and me.

At Dinu’s home we had a nice exchange, where his daughter joined us. She is a good photographer, like the father. Later we went to the site of Ananda Vana, where the Mysore group of the WTT has constructed an open hall and a spacious house. There regular classes in spiritual education are given to the children of the neighbouring villages as well as free homoeopathic treatments. They also Guru Pooja celebrations. We had our evening meditation – a vibrant atmosphere permeated the atmosphere.

Afterwards we drove to the home of another group member. The family had gathered and we enjoyed a flute, mandolin and guitar concert. They showed us a photo of a Master who had been working in the surroundings in utter silence and unknown to the masses. He passed about 25 years ago. The photo showed his mahasamadhi (leaving the body), sitting there in a lotus position like being still alive.

Every year on December 29th there is a celebration introduced by Master CVV for group initiation about 100 years ago. The December Call celebration was short, but intense. Getting up early in the morning, leaving the hotel around 4.30 am for a 30 minutes drive through the awakening city to Sadguru Tapovana, the centre of WTT Bangalore, where the group has constructed  over a dozen houses and a spacious hall for celebration. The whole premises had been developed a lot since I was there the last time 3 years ago.

Around 5.30 the gathering started with a morning ritual followed by meditation and a lecture by Sri Kumar. He gave comments of the book “A Treatise on White Magic”, Rule 12 – Interludes and Cycles. The basic topic it the fundamental importance of pulsation with its phases of expansion and contraction in different fields of life, especially the importance of the interludes between one phase and the other.:

“In all planes existence and awareness happen When awareness joins existence there is no consciousness. It is pulsation. Form out of THAT the first awareness is emerging. As it emerges it has the inspiration to come back. It leaves and comes back. That is how the pulsating principle enables to stay connected to THAT. Without pulsation we don’t have connection. Pulsation enables all the planes of existence. There is pulsation at the grosser, subtler, causal planes, everywhere. When there is no pulsation the two become one, the awareness is absorbed into THAT.

It contracts and expands, when it is out it wants to come back. Happening within the cosmic nature and the cosmic substance permanently pulsate…”

On the 29^th there was a fire ritual in the morning followed by a presentation of gifts on the occasion of the December Call. And in the evenings there were impressive cultural presentations by groups of children – recitations, Indian dance, little theatre performances.

On the 30^th in the afternoon we were invited to the inauguration of the new premises of an ayurvedic treatment centre by a group member, where Sri Kumar gave a short talk:

A welcome in the ayurvedic centre

“J M Murthi is an ayurvedic master. He has been doing many cures. We are trying to organise his knowledge in the name of Master Holistic Centre, teaching ayurveda, homoeopathy and other knowledge to which humanity is looking, medicine without side-effects like allopathy. Ayurveda has been much more recognized on the planet the last time, how the 5 elements are functioning in the body. The father of Master EK touched great heights of Ayurveda. In his name and memory this foundation is started. It is called the Bharadwaja Ayurveda Chikitsa Kendra, see also here. Cleansing of almost all parts of the body is done here. So we started the Master Holistic Health Foundation…“

Sri Kumar with the picture of the father of Master EK.

The meeting was very well organised by the Bangalore group. There was a group of about 20 people from the West, from Argentina, Venezuela, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland – and some Indians from the States. I enjoyed the exchanges with friends and time passed by very quickly.

It was a big jump to India, last Thursday, like zooming through space and time. I woke up early morning, after a bit turbulent night – some computer problems had to be fixed, and my son did a long night work… Last packing, then to the railway, heading to the airport. When I was sitting in the automatic train to the departure docks it was like going to some spaceport, to the “space capsule” called airplane.

Up in the air and flying through a mixture of virtual and “real” reality” made me lose the mind-set and well-known structures of everyday reality: My body was sitting in teh plane, but my mind was in a motion picture, not to speak of the subtle bodies trying to find their way to the East.

I was looking a movie, “Men in Black”, full of encounters with aliens and of time travels. AAnd when I landed in the “limbo-state” of Dubai there were “women in black” and encounters with “alien cultures” in a cross-over of tired-out passengers, packed shopping malls and advertisements everywhere – “connecting with the “cloud”, as one said.

“Men in White” and artificial palms…

… and a real palm tree seen from my hotel window in the “Crystal Castle” hotel, which wasn’t a crystal castle – oh, reality!

Next morning in Bangalore there was a warm welcome by an Indian brother from the Bangalore group of the WTT picking me up. I enjoyed the smells an colours of India. But in my sleep-deprived state I was even more feeling in some movie-like state when we drove a 1.5 hs zig-zag path to the other side of Bangalore, directly to the site of the group living, Satguru Tapovan. I dropped into a full hall during noon meditation, sat down right in the front, closed my eyes and dropped away – A powerful energy swept in, the whirling thoughts and images in my head met with a great silence behind the mass of impressions. And when I opened my eyes Sri Kumar gave me a warm welcome smile from the stage.

When I later went to a toilet, I realised that I was in India: no water was in the toilet tank, no water came out of the water tap at the wash basin, just from another one at a bucket. But in front of the house there was a beautiful mandala drawn with fresh chalk. In Switzerland the water installations would be functioning, but no one would be able to draw such a beautiful mandala.

A friend sent me the link to a video of Master Puppetji, the puppet Guru in his mission to “squash illusion with Wizdumb, humour and meaningless insights. Puppetji cuts through the spiritual mumbo-jumbo and gets right to The Truth: According to Puppetji.”

Enjoy. And find more wisdumb on his website. Or go to his shop: “Buying the gifts for friends and family is good karma and it helps to stimulate the economy” 🙂 How true! And he has also a cup for “devoteas”, see below.

In this latest video he speaks on the “Karmaggedon” of 21 December 2012 – we survived, but what will we do? On YouTube you find more stuff about the truth – according to Puppetji.

This is Master Puppetji speaking

The mug for enlightenment – by Guru Puppetji