Last monday evening we went to the World Teacher Temple at Radhamadhavam for evening prayer followed by a water ritual in the new rooms of the house.  Ravishankar conducted the ritual, accompanied by the Master K. Parvathi Kumar and Kumari-Garu singing the melodious mantrams.

Together with the Indian group members present we were invited to pour water over the lingam, which then was washed and beautifully decorated. Fire was lighted and waved over the lingam and to the group, radiating the energy all over. After the ceremony Prasad (food) was distributed to all members present.

Saturday afternoon, the group went with the bus to Rajahmundry, to the newly built WTT-Centre. The 6-storeyed house is near the banks of the holy river Godhavari. The group members of Rajahmundry gave us a warm welcome and offered us a dinner, before we went to sleep.

The new pilgrimage centre of the World Teacher Trust in Rajahmundry, which we already had visited a year before.

The next morning we left the house already at a quarter to 5 to get to the banks of the river to embark on a little boat for a boat ride. We were nearly the whole day on the boat.

While we were singing mantrams and suktams and doing our morning prayer, the dawn rised over the river with an incredible display of colours, from dark indigo to all kinds of violet, to the warm golden hue of the morning sun. It was a soul-stirring energy over the river, while we were gliding along fishermen, sand-banks, boats and temples.

Sunrise over the Godhavari River

Other boats crossing our way

Lunch is being prepared inside the boat

On the river. The group is enjoying the serene scenery sitting on the roof of the boat

At about 1 o’clock we arrived at the place of a little ashram, the Ramakrishna Hermitage. It is a beautiful, very simple ashram located in the wilderness. There was a number of pilgrims arriving with boats, who also wanted to be in the presence of the divine vibrations of this holy place. Besides the ashram there runs a little river, where we washed our feet before entering the compound.

Ascending from the river to the Ramakrishna Hermitage, there was a huge Tamarind tree in the roots of which children were playing.

The Ramakrishna Hermitage – an ashram of soul-stirring beauty and simplicity

In the very simple temple hall there was a Siva lingam over which a copper pot filled with water was hung up with three chains. From below the pot there was a continuous flow of water drops – a permanent water ritual. The lingam is a symbol of the first manifestation of creation, the Divine will. Together with the other pilgrims we expressed our homage to the Divine which is depicted in a material form. On the compound there were huge old trees and a few buildings overlooking the river.

We went back to the boat to start the return journey. After an hour we stopped at a beach, were we got out of the boat to take a bath in the river Godhavari.

Taking a bath in the holy waters of the Godhavari Rivers – the ladies in panjabies, the men in shorts.

The day before Master Kumar had explained  to us the importance of this river:
Jupiter entered into Aquarius from the time of Guru Puja on. The transit of Jupiter in Aquarius very much relates to us to experience the Aquarian energy. This is also the year the energy flows through the river Ganges, which is called Kumbha Mela. But according to the tradition Kumbha Mela is when Jupiter enters into Aquarius as per the lunar calendar. Normally it happens the year later, but in solar calendar it is this year. In India this year is recognized the energies of Ganges as the energies of Aquarius, and the energies of Godhavari are the energies of Leo. Therefore Ganges-Godhavari are seen as the most sacred rivers in India. It is also a good coincidence that the group is moving today towards Godhavari River. So in that river find a good place to take bath – where the waters are enough profound, and also move on the river, chanting Hamsa Siva Soham, because when we are on the river, the energy of the river is so embracing, encompassing like a mother, the Most High came.

After a dinner in the WTT-centre we started our return journey around 9 pm and arrived back home around 2  in the morning.

Tuesday morning the ladies assembled in front of the dais for the Lalitha Puja: Pictures of the Divine Mother were distributed along the rows, together with flowers and red kum-kum powder. While the melodious hymns to Lalitha were intonated, the women poured flowers and kum-kum over the pictures, in worship of the Mother of the World. The soft vibration of the female energy permeated the air filled with devotion.

The next day (14th January) Sri Kumar answered a question concerning the meaning of the Lalitha Puja as follows (my notes, might contain mistakes):

“The ritual of the Lalitha Puja relates to the ritual of universal consciousness. The Mother is seen as universal consciousness, the Father is seen as the background behind. The father is pure existence, and the mother is the emergence of that existence and awareness. This awareness manifests the whole creations. How she conducts it, 1008 functions of the Mother have 1008 names. We chant those names and worship the Mother. Every name is a profound aspect of the mother, meaning universal awareness. It is male-female god. We also exist and have awareness. Only in awareness we work in the day and in the night we are with existence. The Mother emerges as the light from the Father, how she conducts, meaning the various aspects of cosmic, solar, planetary planes. We sing the names and try to see the light. We do similar thing when we sing the 1008 names of Vishnu, the primary aspect is the Mother, the secondary aspect is Vishnu, the Lord of Love and Wisdom. The first logos is Will, the third logos is Intelligent Action. We have 1008 names as a tradition to the Mother and the second logos. … When you chant you relate to the pure light and people do this kurkuma, which is symbolic of the Mother. The also put kumkum, a yellow powder mixed with saffron, which is red. The yellow is the wisdom aspect, the red is the will aspect. After the ritual they put the point here (on the front), There is will and love put here. Likewise in the heart there is will apart from love. It is related to love and will. Normally they regularly chant and remember all the names. They close the eyes and chant the names, remember them and see the light.”

The ladies during the Lalitha Puja. This year the assembly hall was at the site where in previous years there was the dining hall, as the old assembly place wasn’t available this time.

Last Saturday morning after meditation and breakfast we went by bus to Simhachalam, the little village about 30 km from the retreat centre in Visakhapatnam, where the preparations for the Guru Puja celebrations were going on, a huge festival in honour of Spiritual Hierarchy. The next three days some thousands of group members will assemble here for the group living with rituals, lectures and presentations, to be in the presence of the vibrant spiritual energies.

At the foot of the mountain we changed the bus to go up to the temple compound on top of the hill. A lot of pilgrims were streaming up the stairs to the temple, through rows of beggars and colourful shops filled with devotional articles. Flowers, coconuts and peacock feathers were offered for sale to the passers-by, with cries repeated like mantrams. We rushed through the fenced stairways into the inner of the temple, being pressed by Indian pilgrims.

The Man-Lion opening the heart-centre. The inner court of the old Simhachalam temple

We only had a very short stop near the innermost of the temple with the huge lingam: We had not paid the entrance fee allowing us full access… But we had a better chance: Master Kumar and Kumari Garu had joined us in the temple and now told us to assemble in the adjacent hall with old lion-shaped stone pillars. There we gathered around him and he gave us a lecture about the symbolism and importance of the Simhachalam temple. Simha means lion, and Simhachalam is related to the opening of the heart centre, depicted in the story of the avatara (divine incarnation) of the Man-Lion, Narasimha. In front of the temple there is a pillar of brass representing the vertebral column, through which the kundalini energy is being lifted up, liberating the soul captured in matter…

Sitting inside the hall with the lion-pillars, listening to Sri Kumar’s explanations

One of the brass columns symbolizing the vertebral column

The temple gate of Simhachalam

With Master Kumar in front of the temple entrance

After the short lecture part of the group took the bus back to Simhachalam downhill, the other part went down the stairways leading into the valley. It was such a beautiful way, through a little forest, with beggars and pilgrims along the way.

A statue of Ganesha under a tree, alongside the stairways to the valley

After lunch on the assembly compound we passed a silent, relaxing afternoon in the nearby palm forest, where the songs of the passing crows only were interrupted by the mooing of some cows accompanied by the music coming over the fields from the Guru Puja hall.

At 6 o’clock pm we assembled in the hall for evening prayer. After a simple, but tasty dinner we assembled again at 9 p.m. in the hall for full moon meditation, while the mild light of Capricorn full moon spread over the country. We were filled with joy and very tired, when the bus drove us back to the retreat centre for a short sleep.

Last Tuesday four o’clock in the morning my wife and I set off for our journey to Visakhapatnam, India, to participate in the seminar of the World Teacher Trust, with our teacher Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar. The taxi drove us through the sleepy city, just a fox and a few cars crossed our ways to the station, where we took the first morning train to Zurich Airport. It was quite cold, 6 degrees Centigrade minus. But when we landed at our first stop, in Frankfort, the temperature dropped still further, 15 degrees minus. Doesn’t matter, I thought, the next stop will bring more warmth.

A radiant sunrise over icy Frankfort

And so it was. In Chennai (Madras) it was 22 degrees, when we landed at midnight, and rain was poring down over a sultry city. It smelled very Indian, when we drove with the taxi to the hotel through side-roads full of mud. Quite a contrast.

The contrast was even stronger when we finally landed in Visakhapatnam, at the Gulf of Bengal, the temperature was over 30 degrees. Murthi, the good caretaker of the World Teacher Trust Retreat Centre was giving us a worm welcome and told us we would wait for another group coming from Hyderabad with the next plane. So we waited for an hour in a hot taxi, where an old video about some Krishna devotee, giving us a taste of spiritual India. New impressions started to fill our minds.

At the retreat centre more and more people started coming. A group had been on a pilgrimage tour to Bangalore, Kumbhakonam  – the city where Master CVV had lived, the Blue Mountains, the holy pilgrimage centre of Sri Sailam, where I had been 2 years ago. A big family reunion, with hearty welcome hugs. The retreat centre is very full, with about 60 people from Spain and Germany, from Belgium and Switzerland.

This morning Master Kumar gave us a very warm welcome:

“Welcome to India, welcome to the group life. We have more or less a very relaxed group life, meaning there are not too many teachings. I have reduced the hours of teachings, so that we have more hours for living. So that we don’t get stuck too much in the concepts, live the concepts. Presence is more in living. The concept of presence is more when not leaving the bus. Maybe too many years of teachings have spoiled some of  the members. And then listening to the teachings also becomes a vice, and we forget to live and live more in the world of illusion and not in the life that is all around – no flower, no lover, no child, no good food. Many times there is a danger that we walk away from life, when there is too much teachings. So less teachings more living. All teaching is about living, but the people live more in teachings than living. Then sometimes break it…

Thank you for coming in spite of difficulties. Economic difficulties –  the economics is shrinking globally, but we don’t have to shrink along with it, because we did not grow when the global economics grew. So why should we shrink, when it shrinks? It is an aspect of discipleship that we are not affected by the impact of the world, to be in the world, but not to be of the world. You don’t have to get affected. Many more events will happen in the next three years, because some accounts will have to be settled. Some old accounts will have to be squared up. There will be many more happenings. When there is no release, there can be no change. Change is already on the way. There has to be a great change, but a new balance. These are years of change, and it continues to change in 2020. Some of us may still live in this time. Let us live in that part of life which does not change. We only think of the unchangeable, but let us live in it. …”

Master Kumar: A warm welcome to the group

A view from our room over the street: Indian-style construction in going on, with a lot of noise. The white house in the background is the backyard of Sri Kumar’s house, which soon will be hidden from view.

The WTT Retreat Centre. Our room is in the fourth floor, with the plate in front of the balcony.

I first wanted to upload some more pictures, but the Wlan connection is quite slow…

From another friend in California I got the link to a website called Architects of a New Dawn. It is a new social networking site by the musician Carlos Santana that is devoted to positive and transformative music and media.

On the site it says:

“Architects of A New Dawn is a project, born from the dream and vision of Carlos Santana, to create a new global network, driven by extraordinary music and powerful media content. It is designed to engage people of all walks of life to work together to create positive change in the global community where love can replace fear and where peace can replace conflict.”

Carlos Santana writes: “One of the things that has become very clear to me in recent months is that after carrying an idea in my mind and soul for decades that the time had come to bring my vision of Architects Of A New Dawn into reality. The world today is as deeply challenged as it is inspired. Never has there been a more profound time to harness the possibilities for positive change, especially in this era of mass communication. This is my invitation to you to join us in this transformational work.”

On the site you find a number of beautiful videos, and music videos, like “Sacred” (with scenes of Buddhist monks in the old Ankor Wat temple, Cambodia)

The site “is an invitation to join and connect with other Architects literally from every part of the globe to find ways to effect change and transform our world together.”

The last days I had been near Brussels in Belgium visiting members of the local WTT group. They had met over 25 years ago and formed as a group when Master EK came to Belgium giving lectures in the early 80ies. With his inspiration they had build some houses in a little forest about 30 km outside Brussels, to be able to live in nature and lead a life oriented along the spiritual lines outlined by the Master.

Each family has a house of its own, but they frequently meet for meditation and exchange. It was impressive to feel the deep roots formed through the common practice of living spirituality in daily life. Everyone has his own house / sphere, but significantly without fences in between, and this also spreading to the neighbours. In one of the houses there is a meditation room with a 12-pointed star on the floor, surrounding a 6-pointed star, in the middle of which there is a candle and little statue of the Buddha and pictures of the masters, as symbol of contemplation.

The ceiling is a white cupola with structures of energy lines meeting:

There is a beautiful white crystal singing bowl resounding in the space. And when you intonate the OM, it echoes from the wall and the whole space starts resounding.

On the beautiful old stove in the room there is the sculpture of a squirrel, reminding me of the story in the old Indian epic Ramayana, where a squirrel is blessed by Rama, because it is running to and fro on the beach throwing grains of sand into the ocean to help him building a bridge to Lanka to destroy the demon who has stolen his wife: A symbol of selfless service regardless of the eventual outcome.

The house with the meditation room at the first floor

Last week I read an interview with the Swiss professor of art history, Johannes Stückelberger, about the relation between art and religion. He is teaching at two universities in Switzerland and will start teaching at the National Taiwan University in Taipeh (see link). In the interview he remarked that in the last years famous artists have started decorating churches with glass windows or art expositions are being held in churches in a way which was impossible some decades ago: Artists would have ruined their reputation: Religion was considered to be something private, and the churches were turned more to the inside. Now they go out again into visibility and understand their buildings as public places.

This thought is very fascinating: In other cultures religion or spirituality are much more part of public life. When traveling through India you see signs of the religious attitude of the people everywhere along the roads or in cars, at home or elsewhere in public. I have seen offices with pictures of gods and gurus in a way you would never show here in the west. Though at my office several collegues have little pictures of either a spiritual teacher or a representation of the Divine –  a little statue, a flower – it is quite uncommon at other places. The Christmas displays are more of a decoration value then of a declaration of one’s beliefs. The head-scarf, however, has here quite clearly a religious connotation, coming from a cultural background which didn’t go through the process of secularization.

I myself feel it is more natural today to speak about spiritual activities than it  it was some years or a decade ago. There seems to be a change towards a greater openness, and artists seem to experience this opening towards subtler spheres of perception, in their search for new ways of interpreting the reality. A sign for the growth of the Aquarian age?

An angel in front of a café / bar in Engelberg.

This morning while doing some shoppings in the city of Berne I discovered some nice shop window scenes. I love these “kitsch as kitsch can”-sceneries. The Indian Gods on tour in Swiss shop window decorations – what a colourful meeting.

Reflections of reflections – passers-by and display dummies

Non-attachment in the shop display: The Buddha meditating

The child Krishna playing, accompanied with some Sarasvathis, and Durga listening in the back, on a tiger

Hanuman between some vases – ready to serve

Shiva and Parvathi with Ganesha between the storage racks

Shiva sitting on a lotus, with his drum and kamandulu (bowl), surrounded by serpents (symbols of time), blessing the photographer.

Krishna playing flute, with Nandi at his feet.

Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman in a boat, surrounded by white horses

Sarasvathi, the Goddess of the Word and of Wisdom, sitting on the white swan (symbol of respiration), playing veena (instrument with 7 strings, symbolising the 7 planes, the music of creation).

Another statue of Hanuman, in deep devotion

Enchanting Krishna, playing the music of the soul

Riding through the ocean of shopping illusions

Melancholic angel: When shall I be redeemed from this boring shop existence?

Harlekin pondering on the mysteries of commercialism

Two days ago a big parcel from the WTT-centre in Einsiedeln arrived, with books we will take to India in January. One of the copies, however, was for us – a beautiful hand-bound book on “25 Years The World Teacher Trust – Global”. Our friends in Einsiedeln had produced it in a limited edition. Last August we had been at the celebration, where a first copy was given to our teacher, Dr. K. P. Kumar.

The book now has been enlarged with photos of the celebration and texts of the talks. I went a bit through the volume and was deeply impressed by all the work which had been done by Sri Kumar: 27 pages were filled with titles of talks and seminars given all around the world during these 25 years. I had the good luck of participating in a small number of these, and they had left a lasting impact on my life. And I’m looking forward to the next seminar in January.

I’m always amazed about the deep wisdom pouring out of him, with a tremendous range of spiritual topics. The book contains a lot of photos from the sacred places  he had been visiting all around the globe – and some places evoked memories in me. There are also some photos with our children, from a ceremony of introduction into writing and another ceremony of introduction into the wisdom teachings. Many groups have contributed reports on how they met the Master and the teachings, and some of the service activities were portrayed. Among these there is also the article about our group, which, with his guidance and inspiration, slowly but steadily had evolved over the last years.

Through all these cumulated contents and pictures you get a faint impression of the enormously powerful, but very silent spiritual impulse which is manifesting through this work.

The sign of the WTT on the cover of the book symbolises the wings of the work of Spiritual Hierarchy uplifting humanity and the life on the Globe, thus creating a progressive movement.