Yesterday morning we departed from Banyoles. On the way we stopped to see again the magical little park of Les Estunes with the crevices in the earth. Then our journey continued to Olot, a town in an area full of extinct volcanoes. The last time we had been there 4 years ago we had seen some of them. Now there is no time – but our friend Rafael presented to us a “bomba volcanica” – a volcanic “bomb” – an egg-shaped stone formed under the pressure of an eruption eons ago.

A little “bomba volcanica”

The weather was very warm and heavy when we walked over the the home of Karla, the head of the WTT centre in Olot called Chandra, Healing Centre. Karla is an experienced naturopath and a homoeopathic doctor since nearly 2 decades. In the room of her practice about a dozen persons assembled for meditation in the afternoon. Some minutes after the start of meditation a sudden cloudburst started. After a long time of draught finally nature was pouring water on the dry meadows.

A Ganesha picture at the house of Karla

After the meditation Karla explained to me a little bit of her work. She is giving treatments and consultations, and the therapies are for her a way to guide people on the path of spiritual progress. Every Thursday they are doing a healing meditation where the names of persons to be healed are written on papers which later are burned in a little ritual.

After the meeting we went to Joanna, who is living in the same street. Some month ago she had opened a vegetarian restaurant and take-away, the only one in Olot. For a long time she had been cooking for people in her home, but now they have separate rooms. A hard work of setting up the location was lying behind them. They called it “a place of consciousness”. Her daughter-in-law joined us, and she was very fluent in English –  a good help for us.

They were just finishing the summer pause and Joanna showed us the kitchen and the storage rooms.

Joanna in the storage room

I was surprised to see here a picture I had done 2 years ago – a friend had done a card from it with a food blessing on the backside and distributed it to the group members.

Afterwards we went into the city. My wife wanted to by chufas – “tiger nuts” for a Spanish drink called horchata. In a big health food store we found these dry nuts which need to be soaked and ground before being used…

Then we saw another health food store of group members in the old town where we talked with them for a while.

It was nice to see how the different group members integrated their way of living with their activities in society in a very casual way. So you could find some angel cards or feng shui articles between the health food and they were giving nutrition information to those who seek it. We had to smile when we saw a car with the initials of Master CVV in the road where we had parked ours:

A fountain in a little park in the centre of Olot

After dinner in the house of our friend Rafael we dropped into sleep.

Krishna playing his flute in the house of Rafael

Yesterday morning some friends had come for the morning meditation and breakfast, followed by sitting together and talking. In the later morning we went to a nearby village to the house of Teja, an artist whom I met in India in January. She wanted to show me her works – a world of angels and subtle energies, thought she doesn’t give explanations to her paintings, the speak their own language. So also no comments from my side. The photos, however, don’t give adequate presentations of the subtle shades of white, pink, violet and gold (leaves).

At noon other friends from the group of Olot arrived and the afternoon quickly passed by filled with talks.

In the evening after meditation Reyes, an engineer who also had been with us in India, invited me to come to his house. But first he wanted me to show Les Estones – an enchanted treasure of Nature. He told me that for him it is the most beautiful point of the whole area and filled with fairies, and though it was.

A fairy on an information board at the entrance of the Les Estunes forest

There are deep crevices in the ground created by natural processes, and trees are growing from out of the holes.

You can walk through the canyon-like crevices which partly are very small

Looking up to the forest above

The entrance of the ravine

A tree growing through a crevice

We meditated for a while, merging with the silence and the majesty of the place

Tree and rock fusing

An enchanted castle of light

A huge tree at the corner of the forest said to be a special power spot

Afterwards Reyes took me on a small mountain dedicated to St Martyrius, the patron of Banyoles – though it seemed to me that the church used an old ritual place and integrated it into their religious  framework. There were the foundation walls of an old chirch and a stone table like an altar on which 3 youngsters were sitting.

View to the Pre-Pyrenees

Old olive trees – and also almond trees where we took some fresh almonds

View over the Lake Estany where we had been swimming the day before

Finally Reyes took me to his home. After showing me the different rooms of the house we arrived in the prayer and treatment room in orange colour. He explained to me that he is doing some energy lattice calibration technique working with sound and if I would like to have a treatment. Of course I said yes and laid myself down of the floor. He took some tuning forks, set them to motion and moved them over my energy centres of the body, stimulating them with the sound vibrations. Then he starting creating sounds with huge glass bowls and intonated sounds. A powerful vibration filled the room creating a deep relaxing movement in my body. He said he felt some blockages in one part which he stimulated for removal.

Singing glass bowls

When he brought me back I still felt the vibration going on in my inner.

The others were just preparing dinner – late, as usual in Spain. And then I had a look at some horoscopes and we talked until the eyes were calling for sleep.

Yesterday morning after breakfast we started from Banyoles to Girona. We we wanted to meet friends at 11 in the centre of the city, at the Plaza Catalunya. We were some minutes too early, so I took some pictures of the river crossing the centre and the place.

In front of the house

Our friend Mar is a physician and a dentist and her husband Josep a nutritionist. A hearty welcome, and then we went up to see their practice. Mar is doing biological dentistry, her practice is the only one in Girona and she also uses some very modern techniques of pain relief, neuro-therapy. There were not just the elements of a doctor’s practice, but also a number of a bit hidden things of their spiritual work:

Angels playing silent music on the wall. The grand-father of Mar had been a sclupturor making these angels, and Mar’s mother had been painting the sculptures of her father.

Master EK besides the telephone

The hands of Master KPK doing a water ritual besides the dentist’s chair

Ganesha greeting the patients at the reception table – they told me that the trunk of Ganesha pointing to the right symbolises support for spiritual unfoldment, while at most statues the trunk of Ganesha points to the left, symbolising material growth.

On the bookshelves between scientific books some symbols of inner archetypes and the OM

Aswani – the name of the practice Sri Kumar had given, named after the Indian twin-gods and healers, the Aswins. They are represented with horse-heads, symbols of the life force. You discover it in the painting. The whole practice was breathing Aquarian energies of the future. But we were also talking about the impact of the presence, the economic crisis in Spain, which hits many persons here and forces qualified professionals to search for a living abroad. Stories of the drama of an entire country in the clutches of economic recession.

Afterwards we went to their home, which was just around the corner in a nearby street, next to the Savoy hotel. First they showed us the lobby rooms of the hotel, for their house and the hotel are in the locations of an ancient monastery and you still can see the vaults and arcs of the ancient halls and cells.

Looking up the wall. The first balcony is from the apartment of our friends

Old wrought-iron decoration on the entrance door to the house

When we went up to their apartment I had a strange sensation which I thought it must have to do with this place. We first had a look around in the different rooms and in the centre a beautiful small covered inner courtyard where there was the meditation room.

Floating pots of fern in the courtyard

Krishna playing his flute in the little flower jungle

There was the feeling of some locked energies around, and we had the impression of the presence of long departed souls who didn’t move on to higher spheres, stuck there since the times of the old monastery. When talking about it we all had the same sensation and we decided to do a little ritual we had learned from Anton Styger for liberating these stuck souls and a space clearing for the remains of low astral debris. This inner work quickly showed a relief and the energy of the place seemed to become lighter and less burdensome. Our friends told us of other experiences they had with the presence of departed souls, but they hadn’t known how to deal with them. And they explained that in the past Girona had been a place of a number of atrocities in the name of religion and persecution – and when the remains of the old energies aren’t cleared away they don’t dissolve just like that; even if many modern people don’t believe in their existence and don’t have a sensorium for these realities they aren’t less influencing.

Afterwards we walked through the old town of Girona to a small restaurant with Breton pancakes and later had some horchata, a typical Spanish drink made with Chufas tiger nuts), and then again we strolled through oldtown alleyways back to our car. Angels were accompanying our way.

A little angel on the top of an old church

A shop window full of angels

An alleyway on the old town of Girona

In the later afternoon we went back to Banyoles, where our friends took us for a beautiful swim in the lake with a golden sunset behind the mountains, followed by a dinner in the garden till dark night.

Yesterday early morning we departed for our tour to Spain. During 3 weeks we will visit  group members of the WTT at different places along the Mediterranean coast but also in Madrid. Aurora, the head of WTT Spain, has helped us arranging and I had been busily arranging dates and details the last weeks.

In the morning it was cold outside, fog was laying over the countryside creating beautiful sceneries from the moisture of the heavy rainfalls of the last night.

Ready for take-off: A jet engine as a sculpture on the first motorway service station where we stopped for a tyre control.

Our travel companion – a light reflection or some devas at work protecting us on the journey?

The more we came to the south the more the heat was going up, and around 2pm, when stopping at a service station it was nearly suffocating. Some kilometers before the Spanish border the air was full of  smoke – forest fires. Helicopters were transporting water, we were closing the ventilation of the car and just quickly opened the window for paying at the toll station of the highway. When we passed over the pass to Spain all the forests on both sides, directly up to the highway was burned – an eerie scene.

We finally arrived at Banyoles, a little town not far from the Pyrenees, where our friend lives. A hearty welcome, a quick shower and then we had our evening meditation together. Two friends joined us. It was a beautiful feeling of familiarity – we knew each other from India this January and now we were sitting here together intonating the OM, in a vibrant atmosphere.

The friend of one of our friends, an Austrian living in Spain, took us for an evening walk along the beautiful lake of Banyoles where there had been the canoing of the Olympic games some years ago – now a mystical sunset was lighting the scene, while we were walking along an alley of plane trees.

A duck family passing by

Afterwards we were sitting in the garden for dinner till late, talking about experiences of guardian angels and accompanying dying persons, about the growth of the inner  child and spiritual transformations. Though tired from the long journey the magic of this profound exchange filled us with joy until we slipped into sleep.

I would like to share a short personal-impersonal group experience.

Each year when I go to India I order books of the WTT to replenish what has been going out during the previous year with the free book distribution. This year I am traveling along and two days ago the balance of a friend showed that the weight of my exceeded by far the luggage limits.

I listened inside what to do and then informed yesterday morning the group about it. I said, whosoever wants to help taking books and bringing / giving them for May Call in Switzerland in May could come to my room, even if if it is just for one or 2 books. Although all also had full suitcases, many came and took a few books. Now many of the books are traveling different ways and my luggage is again well within the limits… And I feel thankful about this experience.

The theme of the seminar was The Pythagorean Decad – the Cosmic Person in relation to us as the microcosm – I didn’t mention it in the blog, might be too specific of most readers… This morning I had to think of a paper artwork I did autumn 1990. It was about the manifestation of the cosmic person and the macro-micorcosm relation. The work was done with transparent paper glued on the glass of a door and I dissolved it when we left that apartment in April 1992. It shows how from the One the Three come out, then the 5 and man, the microcosm, surrounded by the 5 elements. You can see it as a little visual summary of the seminar. I haven’t published it elsewhere up to now – it’s a primer 🙂

So like the first post on my journey to India started with a painting this last post also concludes with a little work of art. I’ll depart this afternoon and might visit a friend during the stop in Hyderabad.

Yesterday afternoon we were blessed with the visit of the Master of Bhimili, Sivananda Murthi Garu.Normally he comes to give his blessings at every Guru Pooja, since 1972, but this year he could not come. So we were happy to have him with us for a short stay in the retreat centre.

The silent energy of his presence filled the whole room when he entered, and it was very beautiful to witness the two masters together.

I couldn’t follow typing the words he was saying, I just noted a few sentences I give here as a short extract:

“The Jagad Guru (World Tacher) has so many forms, yet one guru, one God, one form. The worship is to every form. We don’t know where we go, from where we have come. But man is not his body, man is not his mind. Jivatman is in the body. Together we are here for a while. We meet in truth. God has to be experienced. Is it my experience? No, we are with God. He is in air, water, earth, fire, ether. Each one of us we should be conscious that we are beyond the body. I have passed through many births and lives. The light shows you the path, that is the Guru. There is no language, no classification. His silence is , he is our father, protector. That is behind, the Sat Guru. Mind is talking too much. Mental silence makes you get out of the noise. Silence is there, we call it pranava, OM. God is not man-made. Think of one Guru in many gurus, one God in many forms. What is not truth is not the light.”

Sri Kumar honouring Sivananda Murthi Garu with a shawl and touching his feet

The Master of Bhimili, Sivananda Murthi Garu

We immediately afterwards left for another beautiful concert with Dr. Balamurali Krishna and his musicians, it was very impressive. Again Sri Kumar led a short meditation before the concert and afterwards honoured the musicians.

This morning Sri Kumar told us some interesting points about what he had said yesterday to the musicians and the public, for all was in Telugu. Again my notes are not complete and might contain mistakes:

“Balamurali was asked to sing some things from the book, but it was not good. That he did 50 years ago. Now he is in a kind of creativity, he is so far away into creativity, you can’t make him do things which are so much back. I spoke to the public, you should learn of such persons to be creative. It is only non-creative minds that go by structures. By 7 years he knew the musical system. He did not learn music in this life, he came back to give music. He is different from those who learn and accomplish. He has accomplished in previous lives and has come back. I also said, he is chosen by music, he did not chose. I also said, there are people who chose wisdom and try to follow, there are some others whom wisdom chooses. He belongs to the second category, not the first. Some people are born, even by birth they have not to learn, they cannot be compared with others.

He once was given 10 minutes time to sing in French (before members of the French government), he went back, looked to the language and music, came back and sung to the astonishment of all. This would be impossible for a normal mind. He was always very humorous, even yesterday. He said, there is a beautiful young lady by my side, I cannot sing. He is a very humorous person, very simple. He always says, I don’t know music, music knows me.

He comes from Andhra Pradesh, he has been given 14 doctorates all over the world, doctorate of letters. It is an honour. Outside India he has many awards, but not here. I said yesterday that no prophet is ever recognised in his native land. Yesterday I spoke of him, he told me he felt happy about what I said. He wants to come to my bureau now at 10 o’clock, so I wait for his phone call.
Our honouring him is nothing for him, it is honouring ourselves. He is above such things.”

At Guru Pooja an Indian friend sent me a newspaper article which I was able to read only now. It was from The Deccan Herald of 23 October 2011 about the Russian artist Svetoslav Roerich (23 Oct. 1904-30 Jan. 1993), the son of the famous mystic and painter Nicholas Roerich and of Helena Roerich, also a profound writer and mystic. Svetoslavand his elder brother George had been born in St. Petersburg, but had been living nearly all of his life in India, mainly in Bangalore where he died 3 February 1993.

The occasion for the article was the close of a long legal fight, a drama over the legacy of the Tataguni estate owned by Roerich’s wife, the late actress Devaki Rani, niece of Rabindranath Tagore. The litigation had started right after Roerichs death and only now came to and end with a decision of the Indian Supreme Court entrusting the State government with the responsibility of maintaining the estate, which contains numerous paintings by Nicholas ans Svetoslav Roerich. However, the paintings have suffered fungal infestation with many of them flaking. Experts are now chemically treating each of these affected paintings, a process that might take over a year.

I was happy to hear about this news, for I love Nicholas Roerich’s paintings very much and have blogged about him already at several occasions. There is a website of the Roerich and Devika Rani Roerich Estate Board, which gives paintings of Svetoslav and Nicholas Roerich – though it hasn’t been updated for years.

I had to think of Nicholas Roerich yesterday evening when two items were distributed to the group which members from the Littoral Group, Santa Fe, Argentina, had brought: A red sign of the Agni Yoga society founded by Roerich and his wife, with the 3 red dots in a circle, and a photo from the highest mountain of the Andes, the Aconcagua, shining in blue like Roerich’s paintings and saying – From the South of the South,with love – thank you Marta!

Newspaper clippings from the Deccan Herald

Wednesday after the morning lecture we had the visit of the famous Indian musician Dr. Mangalapalli Balamurali Krishna (see Wikipedia  – “He is acclaimed as a poet, composer and respected by all Indian classical musicians for his knowledge of Carnatic Music” or google his name for videos and more).

It was a very special encounter. In spite of his high age – nearly 82 – he is full of vital energy and joy. One of his disciples explained a bit about him, he then gave us a short taste of his beautiful dynamic voice.

Sri Kumar presented him to us as the most respected Indian musician of today. We were invited to ask him questions about music, and there was the question about how a traditional musician can be creative, being traditional. He said that like the day is always following the tradition of morning, noon, evening and night and there is all life being expressed in it. Sri Kumar added that life, being original, is always “apurva”, never before, always fresh and new.

We were invited to listen to a concert by Dr. Balamurali Krishna – the first of 3 days of concert in a big hall. Before we had our thanksgiving meeting in the afternoon at the end of an outstanding and fascinating seminar. The group expressed their thanks also in a traditional Indian, but ever new way by presenting clothes to Sri Kumar, Kumari Garu and the Indian members who had done a great job to make our stay so well.

Dorle, who did the German translation, saying some words of thanks – Julieta, who translated into Spanish, followed next.

At 5.15 pm we left with the busses – I was in a real “old-style” Indian bus, with a coconut-offering in the front of the bus and a motor roaring like an old ship engine.

In the bus some ladies were decorating their hair with flower garlands….

And then the ride through the evening traffic began. I enjoyed observing the traffic jam, but wouldn’t have dared to drive myself.

At one crossroad at the red lights I observed the meeting of old and modern India – a lady phoning and a saddhu sitting under a tree in mids of the traffic noise.

Finally arriving at the hall I was lucky to get a seat in the second row – but in the cold wind of air condition – brrr. Nevertheless, I said to myself, observing the huge hall filling, I think, with about 1500 persons.

At first Sri Kumar conducted a short evening meditation. Then Dr. Balamurali Krishna and the musicians were given a warm welcome and the concert began.

The singer was presented with the words that in his early childhood he was celebrated as a child prodigy and that now he is an ageless prodigy – and this he really is. I very much enjoyed observing him on the screen, where you could see his face bubbling with joy, while his voice produced sounds of an incredible lightness and variety, and the musicians adding to the splendour.They were playing raga compositions he had done himself. There was a flute player without, whose whistling was a real art, sounding like a piccolo flute. And a mouth-harp player creating sounds like an electronic percussion. The vina player and the two percussionists also were very impressive.

I liked one story told about the musician: In 1975 or so he gave a concert in Kerala. Suddenly while performing in the open air a little girl came onto the stage and sat on his lap. He immediately started to compose a song about this encounter – which he was singing to us. After the song was over, the girl stood up and disappeared into the crowd. Nobody knew who she was and she couldn’t be found again.

This morning, Thursday, we first had a fire ritual, later followed by a question-answer series, before at 11 o’clock 2 of the musicians came into our retreat centre – the whistler and the mouth-harp player (an Indian friend wrote to me that it is called morsing). Together with a young Indian brother who is a well-known percussionist, they explained to us their art and gave us a beautiful short concert in the lecture hall. In the evening we will go to the second recital  –  while already a number of group members are leaving. I’ll be departing tomorrow afternoon.

Playing flute without a flute

Monday morning the area was full of fog, when we went to the house of the head of the temple for morning meditation. Afterward my program was over – while the others went to visit the temple again and later a Hanuman temple, I went to bed – with “Indian intense intestine cleaning program through all channels” and sleeping till the moment of departure. And then 7.5hs bus ride, doped with allopathic medicine and looking like a ghost… I was very happy when the bus ride was over – but the group took very well care of me. Of course, I wasn’t the only one being treated by the “inside washing”.

Crossing the Godavari river bridge at Rajahmundry on the way back in the evening

We arrived past 10 – a quick jump into bed and up again early next morning. This morning, Tuesday, we had the final lecture by Sri Kumar followed by a first question-answer session. Again very intense – and though the look into the calendar says that the end is quickly approaching, I can’t “believe” it, the time is running so fast.

In the afternoon the busses brought us to the Daspalla hotel for a conference organised by the WTT and the Circle of Good Will India. Besides our group and members of WTT India there were a number of guest like the mayor of Visakhapatnam, the head of police and of another department the name I have forgotten. And quite some media people taking photos of the speakers and us. An Indian brother had told us before that normally they don’t invite the media, but they wanted to inform the public that the work the WTT is doing is beyond being a “Homoeo dispensary organisation” as they are perceived in the public.

First we had our evening meditation, then the conference started. The theme of the talks was Spiritual Fusion of East and West. Sri Kumar gave the introductory note. I liked very much how he spoke about the foundation of the World Teacher Trust by the establishment of Spiritual Hierarchy at the transition from Dwapara to Kali Yuga, the dark age in which we are living now. Some extracts from my notes, not literally:

“The World Teacher means Jagad Guru. We worship him in every person as the 2nd Logos or Vishnu who presides over the creation and who establishes and protects the law and order. The divine energy functions and expresses through the outstanding persons who contribute to the well-being of society serving the fellow beings and helping them to uplift society… The World Teacher is a principle available to those who seek from the Divine the ability to serve society better… The key is not to seek for you but for others. Many politicians were guided by Lord Maitreya and the invisible government.

He explained how Maitreya was a disciple of Parasara and how Krishna installed him at the time of his passing as the world teacher for this dark age, how he had learned before to live in several bodies at a time and continue living. This is mentioned at several places in the Puranas, but the Indians in general haven’t realised the role and importance of Lord Maitreya and the group of Masters he formed for this work, they have focused more on worshipping Krishna than on understanding the work Maitreya does. He is the teacher for the entire humanity and not the east or west. It is an all-inclusive path and not a path of sectarianism or exclusion. Each one can relate to him, the one cosmic energy, through prayer and meditation. “I could meet many truth seekers that seek the truth beyond religion. There is not religion higher than Truth”, as theosophy says.

Afterwards there were talks by 6 members of the group from the 6 countries present at the group living, speaking about their experience with the teachings in their lives. And then the two guests of honour. It was impressive to observe the different characters expressing.

Afterwards an excellent dinner was served – and I had to pay attention to my diet…

The group before the start of the conference

After dinner talks

ads through forests and tiny villages – we were quite away from civilisation. Suddenly I saw some temple towers in the wilderness, then some houses, and then a new big guest-house building where our busses stopped.

Where are we, we asked ourselves. What kind of a temple is it? We got nice big rooms, took a shower, then went with the busses to the temple compound.

At the beginning of the compound we left the busses. We saw a huge statue which we didn’t know. Later I heard it is representing Annamacharya, a singer-initiated who lived about 500 years ago and inspires many people even today.

We entered the temple through a huge gate and went around the inner temple.

The name of the temple is Dwaraka Tirumala, but I still had no idea what it was all about. We could read nothing, only Telugu letters. I followed closely Sri Kumar and Kumari and had the good luck to go with him into the innermost part of the temple. Two Vedic priest conducted a ritual and Sri Kumar was being honoured. We received flowers and sweets, then we went to a little side-shrine in the inner, where a mother goddess was standing, and then to another little shrine with another mother goddess. Some meters away Sri Kumar sat on the floor. There was a carpet and I sat there directly in front.

Then the Vedic priests came, offered him a seat, decorated him with a pink shawl and started reciting. Different priest sang in different modes.

Then they showered rice over him and also spread rice over us. We received a laddu, an Indian sweet. Then Sri Kumar started to talk, explaining what we had been witnessing, but not understanding

He said that in India, there are 4 most energetic spots, and we are at one of them. One is in the north, one in the south, one in the east, and this one is in the west. 5.500 years ago, after the departure of Lord Krishna, a sage went from Dwaraka, where Lord Krishna lived at the east coast of India, to this area to meditate. After intense worship he realised in himself the cosmic person in his upper 4 centres, the sahasrara, the ajna, the heart and the solar plexus centre – and as a sign of his realisation there was a stone statue of the Lord manifesting from out of the earth, but also only part of the four upper centres. After his realisation he went away from this place, not telling anyone of the place. But a king in the area had a dream where he saw all that had happened. He ordered his soldiers to seek everywhere in this forest area to find the manifested statue, and he explained where he had seen it in his dream. They found it after 4 days of search and were thrilled. The king had another dream where the Lord told him to construct a temple there. Since the feet are worshipped as the expression of the divine, but there were no feet at this statue, they made a stone statue of the same kind as the manifested statue and put it behind the smaller statue. The one of the forms of the Divine Mother represents Bhur-Devi, the gross matter, the other Sri Devi, the subtle nature. This is what we had seen in the innermost of the temple, but not understood.

Sri Kumar continued saying that the priests are continuously magnetising the place by singing mantrams and hymns, and we had listened to short extracts of the four vedas. There are many marriages conducted at this place, often 100 a day, and they are said to be very stable. The Lord worshipped at this place is Lord Venkateshvara, like in Tirupati, and it has the same energy as the place of the Lord of the 7 Hills. The head of the temple had organised the hounouring of Sri Kumar and gave him 2 new DVDs about the temple and everybody received a little commemorative shield with an image of the Lord in the two forms.

We were all very touched by the holy vibrations of the place and the auspicious ritual we participated in. Tomorrow morning we will be again at the temple for morning meditation.