I thought it would be just a short surgery of the left ear – implanting a stapes prosthesis to allow better hearing – when I entered our local hospital mid-October. The surgery went well the doctor said when I returned back to consciousness. Everything is fine.

I came back home two days later but I did not feel stable – there was a constant feeling of vertigo. It increased over the next days. The surgeon had a look at the ear and decided to send me to the university clinics of Berne. The computed tomography did not show anything special but they decided to open the ear again. It turned out to be a second surgery, where I got a new stapes prosthesis, a smaller one, and three days later I came home.

The constant feeling of vertigo continued or became even worse. I hardly could eat and felt like vomiting. I could not leave the bed alone and the control of my legs went from bad to worse.

After four days, my wife called the ambulance. Two ambulance persons carried me down and and drove me to the emergency room of the university clinic of Berne, the Inselspital. There were ENT specialists but they could not identify the reason of my collapse. A lady doctor from the Neurology department supposed that there might be blood in the brain and initiated doing a lumbar puncture. It showed that there was blood in the brain.

Next morning they did a CAT with contrast agent. It showed the blood in the brain. They inserted a tube into the back to reduce the perssure in the brain. Within a few hours, this brought a significant improvement. For the next 8-12 days I was under constant observation – I had to lie constantly in bed. Slowly the situation seemed to become more stable, and so I came into the neuro-chirurgical department. Though I was far from moving myself, the doctor was very optimistical and said that the health progress is going on well.

One week later, I entered the rehabilitation clinic Schönberg at the lake Thun.

The symbol of Sagittarius is the bow and the arrow. In spiritual astrology, Sagittarius is located at the base centre in the human body. The arrow is seen as the vertebral column, where you find the column of light called sushumna. When the higher consciousness awakens, the power of kundalini moves upwards through the sushumna in a spiral manner. The science of yoga describes the sushumna as the central balancing energy line surrounded by ida and pingala, the energies of materialisation and spiritualisation.

The bow to shoot the arrow of consciousness upwards to the head centre is the sacred word OM. With every OM we can visualise the upward path of kundalini through the sushumna to the head and beyond. OM exists as the triple aspect of spirit, soul and matter, represented as ida, pingala and sushumna.

I depicted the arrow of consciousness as being surrounded by two energy lines and going through the etheric centres. The centres are formed out of the whirlpool of the etheric plane, for which I used a picture of the solar plasma. The bow is symbolised by the blueish horizon. In the sky you see Jupiter, the lord of Sagittarius, and the Great Bear. This constellation is linked to Sagittarius as the birthplace of the seven judges which bring down through Sagittarius the seven states of consciousness in man.

9 August 2018, pencils and photo work

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.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Sagittarius paintings.

The video:

I just refound a picture taken on 5 Dec. 2017 from a page of “Letters of Helena Roerich” Vol. II, 17 May 1937, where a rainbow formed from a prism in the window while reading the text:

“Indeed, all can be achieved through the striving of the heart, but do not forget the most essential quality – patience. ‘The great man is he who is strongest in the exercise of patience.’

If you realize that each obstacle is a benefit for the growth of the spirit, you are already on the Path. It is said in the Teaching: ‘Let us refer, with regret, to the generally accepted idea of comfort and security. In it is contained torpor and vacuity. We learn to welcome all inception of thought, and We always esteem the pressure of a forward striving. A multitude of examples may be cited from physics and mechanics showing pressure as a motive force. For many, it is not easy to agree that pressure is but the gateway to progress. But if humanity will recognize this truth, in so doing it will also understand the meaning of progress. From the point of such cognition it is not far to Brotherhood.’

I appreciate that you understand how overloaded I am by work. Indeed, if I do not answer, it is only because of the complete inability to do so, otherwise I am always glad to answer questions. I do not like meaningless letters. When there are questions, it means one is thinking, which is especially valuable, for the development of mind and incisive thinking brings us closer to the Higher Consciousness, and great Collaboration becomes possible.”

© 1967 by Agni Yoga Society. Published 1967.

The text was published 30 years after Helena’s writing the letter; my reading it happened to be 50 years after the print, 80 years after the writing. Time guards jewels.

From the subtlest to the grossest state, there are seven planes of existence. These planes are related to the seven kingdoms of nature. Three kingdoms are below the human kingdom and three kingdoms are above the human kingdom. Below us are the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms; above us are the kingdoms of the planetary, solar and the cosmic devas. These devas express through our planet, through the solar system and through the cosmic system.

In this image, these seven kingdoms are illustrated by symbolic representatives. The amethyst at the bottom represents the mineral kingdom. The violet crystal is surrounded by a sphere of green leaves and a pink lotus grows from out of its centre, both representing the plant kingdom. The leaves are surrounded by a blueish sphere. I generated it with photos of Venus and of a school of fish to illustrate the transition to the animal kingdom. This kingdom is represented by a group of coatis on a brownish sphere, for which I used colours of a photo of Mars. The group of people looking towards the Sun symbolizes the humanity aspiring for higher evolution.

The three higher kingdoms are indicated by the sphere of the Earth, by the Sun surrounded by planets and by the stars in the background. A ray of light coming from the Sun illumines the path of the different kingdoms towards higher evolution.

21 July 2018, pencils and photo work

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.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Scorpio paintings.

The video:

100 years ago, on 15th October 1918, Sai Baba of Shirdi left his physical body. He is a great siddha on the second ray, who is further manifested without being in a physical form. Through many examples and miracles he has demonstrated the constant connection with the omnipresent divine principle. His presence has influenced and transformed millions of people.

In the book “Shirdi Sai Sayings” Sri Kumar gives central teachings of this great initiate. It is also available online.

Below you will find two stories that Sri K. Parvathi Kumar told 20 years ago at a group life on Mount Rigi, Switzerland (retranslation from German).

You all know Sai Baba from Shirdi. A great Master who lived in the early part of this century. He could command the elements. He could deliberately create fire, water and wind. He could spread, penetrate everything. How he spread, that also requires a story.

There was a disciple who took care of a horse that Sai Baba had received as a gift. There are crazy disciples. A disciple gave Sai Baba a horse. What does he want to do with a horse? Imagine a person giving another one an elephant as a gift. Does he then give a gift or a problem? Often you get problems with gifts. So a disciple gave Sai Baba a horse. Sai Baba is someone who is always in contact with Cosmic Person. And immediately he understood that it is a fun that the Cosmic Person makes with him. So he did not reject the horse. He accepted the horse as if it came from Cosmic Person. That is the beauty of a master. Whatever comes to him, he accepts it with reverence, because for him there is nothing else but the Cosmic Person. So a disciple came to him with a beautiful Arabian white horse and gave it to the Master. The Master took it because it is the will of the Lord and daily he washed it and fed it and sought food to feed it. An activity for him and an activity he did with joy and without discomfort. He never cursed the disciple who had given him the horse. He understood that it was the will of the Cosmic Person that he had to take care of this horse.

So the people who came to see him – every day many came to the Master to receive his blessings and find solutions to their life problems – and they saw him doing so much with the horse. He is not able to take care of the people who visit him; he has to take care of the horse. That’s how people see it. But the Master sees it differently. Be it a horse or a human being, he only cares about the Cosmic Person. Quite simple for him! So for him it is devotion to the Cosmic Person, be it the horse or a human being or something else.

A disciple thought that he should help the Master to feed the horse. He went to the Master and said to him, “Master it is very painful for us to see how you have to work with the horse, that’s why I want to take care of it,” and Sai Baba understood that it is the will of the Cosmic Person. The Cosmic Person is happy about the devotion he has shown to the horse and that is why the Cosmic Person now wanted to free him from the horse.

The views have different wavelengths; some have shorter wavelengths, others have longer wavelengths. And so he gave it to the disciple and said: “Please take care of it as I took care of it”. – “Of course I will, and I know how to take care of a horse.” This second sentence is additional. To say that one knows something with the emphasis on the word knowledge means one does not know.

So Sai Baba looked at him from below, but said nothing, and the disciple took care of the horse. One day the horse was a bit angry and the disciple had enough and so he hit it once with the stick on the back. After having led the horse to the meadow and then back again in the evening, he came to the Master to touch his feet. And the Master pulled his feet back very quickly. The disciple asked: “What has happened, what have I done wrong?” – “There is something you must do on my back and not at my feet.” – “What happened to your back?” The Master said, “Go and look at it.” He had a thick stripe on his back. The disciple was very horrified and very angry: “Who is this fool who hit you like that?” Masters never answer in a way that would be hurtful. “Someone today has beaten my horse during the day and I have received it.” End; the disciple is on the ground.
He didn’t say, “You did it, why did you hit the horse?” He just said, “Somebody did something to my horse and I received the slap.” And the disciple understood what had happened. He hit the horse and the injury was received by the Master. The horse is free of pain, although it also has the stripe.
Then he asked the Master for forgiveness. The Master said, “You were the one who did this?” He said, “Yes, I did make that mistake.” – “But you said you know how to take better care of the horse than I do. Is that the way you treat it?”

This is just to give you an idea of how the Master is everywhere. If anyone in the group gets hurt, then the Master who rules that group knows about it.

Let’s get back to the story about giving.
There was another disciple who regularly brought food to the Master. Shirdi Sai Baba lived in an open building. He did not want to live with others in their houses. But if he wanted to, he would go. He never needed an invitation. If he wanted to, he would invite himself to the other houses. The disciple who regularly brought food to the Master said every time he gave him food, “Master, when will you come to my house?” The Master never answered.
After a few months the disciple said, “Tomorrow there will be a great sacrament in my house. Many are invited to receive food in my house. I would be very happy if you could come tomorrow and have lunch with us”. The Master said, “I will come!” – “At what time will you come, because we are used to making appointments.” The Master said at twelve noon.
So the disciple did the sacrament and was about to serve food to the invited guests and he was looking for the Master. It was lunchtime now. The disciple did not find the Master, not even after an hour, and he was disappointed. He served all those who had been invited and he himself had taken nothing to eat. He was angry and this anger arose because of a disappointment. So he went to the Master at three o’clock.
He looked at the Master and cried. “You said you wanted to come and you didn’t come. You disappointed me. We made an appointment and you disappointed me. I feel that I am not happy enough to receive Your grace”.
Then Baba said, “No, no, you disappointed me.” And the disciple said, “How?” The Master said, “I said I would come at twelve o’clock and I came at twelve o’clock and you beat me.”
It is for the disciple as if he received another insult to the injury.
He said, “I waited for you at my door at twelve and you didn’t come and you say you came and I hit you? What is all this magic supposed to mean?” – “At twelve noon, didn’t a brown dog come to your house? And didn’t you throw a stick at him? Fortunately the dog was able to avoid the stick and ran away. Who do you think is the dog?”
The disciple was surprised. And then the Master said, “I am as much here in this form that you see as I am in the dog. If you can’t see me in the dog, don’t come to me. If you can see me in all forms, then you are my disciple. Have this spirit of giving to everyone to whom you give something, because in everyone you give only to me”.

The scriptures speak of this virtue of giving. But the best spirit of giving is when you always know when giving that you are giving it to the Cosmic Person, in whatever form. Such a spirit will establish you firmly in balance.

Re-translated from the German transcription of the seminar “The Word and its Work” of Sr. K. Parvathi Kumar, Mt. Rigi, Switzerland, December 1998

The wisdom teachings explain that number 432 forms a major key to understand greater time cycles:
The whole creation is an alternation of active and passive phases called the days and nights of Brahma. The days are again divided into sub-periods called Manvantaras which are further divided into cycles called Yugas. Each great Yuga is subdivided into four Yugas which are composed of units containing 432 solar earth years multiplied by tens, hundreds and thousands.

The apparent rotation of Jupiter around the earth zodiac is twelve solar years. Six sets of 72 years give the duration of time for Jupiter to go round the apparent zodiac 36 times and for the precession of the equinoxes by 3 degrees. This period is 432 years which forms the base number for the computation of the great cycles of Yugas and Mahayugas.
This is how Master EK (Ekkirala Krishnamacharya) explains one aspect of Number 432. It is a major key to divide time into various ages that mark different cycle and different energies.

In 2017, Chris Jordan, a photographer and artist, has created his “Mandala 432“, a beautiful artwork inspired by the stained glass rose windows in cathedrals. In the description of this artwork he writes (extract):

“One thing that my favorite rose windows do is work at the limits of our perception of color. At the edge of blue-violet/ultraviolet, our perception drops off, but right at that threshold there’s something interesting going on energetically, a kind of electric pulsing that is hard to describe but I think we all feel it.
To achieve that blue-violet effect, the designers of rose windows used lots of pure blue cobalt glass, with occasional small spots of red, and even less magenta. Yellow and green are also used sparingly within the blue, to create patches of blue-green that make the blue-violet areas feel even more rich. From a distance, these colors all combine to give the experience of that electric blue-violet space. The color space of computer monitors does not contain edge-of-perception violet/ultraviolet, but a fairly convincing illusion can be created using this mix of colors.”

In many of his teachings, Master KPK (K. Parvathi Kumar) explains the qualities of violet and working with its energy. Violet can be experienced in the interludes between the known and the unknown. It is the bridge into the subtle world. Read more about working with violet colour here.

See here my other blogposts about the work of Chris Jordan: “E Pluribus Unum” – From Many, One: A Sublime Mandala Work, Midway – A Love Story for Our Time from the Heart of the Pacific, Chris Jordan: A Slow-Motion Apycalypse in Progress.

Click on the picture (from the video, copyright Chris Jordan) to see the video Mandala 432 on his website. The music is King’s College Choir in Cambridge, UK.

The formula “E Pluribus Unum” (from many, one) is the traditional motto of the United States used on seals and coins. Its meaning, however, is much more profound than just uniting different ex-colonies to one nation. It is even deeper than what the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus gives as “The one is made up of all things, and all things issue from the one”. The eternal wisdom teachings explain that focussing on diversity, as we do with our analytical minds, makes us lose the sense of oneness. All multiplicity is coming from one source, is being held in existence by the unfathomable background of all and is merging again into the inconceivable oneness – from many to one.

Chris Jordan, a photographer and artist, has created a mandala named “E Pluribus Unum”. In the video project realised in 2010, he visualises the many different “organisations around the world that are devoted to peace, environmental stewardship, social justice and the preservation of diverse and indigenous culture” (from the video) by zooming from a detail structure to a great globe of interconnected lines expressing the beauty created by all the goodwill work done on the globe.
The video contains a million names of such organisations – Chris explains that it would need to include more than twice the number of names to cover all activities.
All these projects seem to be different activities but together they form one unified effort to promote the well-being of earth and of the beings living on it – a great visualisation of oneness done through Chris’ video.
The mandala is constructed around a circle containing 108 equally-spaced points. In Eastern wisdom, the number 108 is explained as containing profound keys to understand time cycles, like 4 x 108 = 432.

In many of his artworks Chris visualises complex realities in photos or movies. See also my 2007 blogpost about his activities or about the trailer to his impressive video “Midway” about plastics polluting the Pacific Ocean.
His works are intended to raise our awareness to understand complicated relationships by visualising with his “environmental art” the effects of pollution, mass consumption or destructive behaviours.

See more on his website or his videos on Vimeo.

Picture (c) Chris Jordan, from the video

Creation is compared to a wheel. The movement is greatest at the periphery; the point of stability is at the centre. The formation of the globe of space happens through a process of radiation: objectivity comes out of subjectivity. Dissolution is through a process of contraction: the creation merges again into subjectivity. The centrifugal and centripetal forces are kept in balance by the Libra principle.

In the human body, Libra is located at the navel. Its higher counterpart, Aries, is found in the head. Libra represents the equilibrium between the outgoing horizontal movement towards objectivity and the inward vertical movement towards subjectivity. When the fulcrum is stable, there is an ascent of consciousness to higher planes.

At the centre of the image you see a human silhouette with the nervous system representing the lines of force permeating the body. There is a centre of light around the navel and a higher centre of light at the head – the human brain representing the head centre. It is linked by the central vertical column of consciousness. The Libra principle at the navel is also the centre of the horizontal movement through space illustrated by expanding waves, and spheres of transparent globes representing the planes of creation.

12 June 2018, pencils and photo work

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.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Libra paintings.

The video:

Recently, I came across a fantastic time lapse video with sequences of the Sun’s atmosphere observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft between 2011 and 2015. The music “Una” by Murcof (from the Album Utopía, 2004) fits very well with the scenes of solar eruptions.

From viewpoint of the Wisdom Teachings, the essence of the Sun and of ourselves is but one and the same. We are no different from our Sun.

There is a beautiful prayer in the Isavasya Upanishad. Here, the disciple who can withdraw at will from the activity of externalisation through the senses is compared to the Sun that withdraws his rays. When the rays of the Sun are withdrawn the Sun globe is visible. Likewise, when the externalisation from the senses is withdrawn, the Soul is visible. Sun is the Soul. The Sun globe appears like a golden disc when the rays are withdrawn. Likewise, the disciple also experiences his golden form when he suspends the activity of senses. This golden form is the subtle body which is immortal and divine. (from Agni. The Symbolism and the Ritual of Fire, by Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar; see also his book on “Sun – That I Am“)

PÛSHAN EKARSHYE
YAMASÛRYA PRÂJÂPATYA VYÛHA RASMÎN
SAMÛHA TEJAHA.
YATTE RÛPAM KALYÂNATAMAM.
TATTE PASYÂMI YO
SAVASOW PURUSHAHA.
SOHAM ASMI.

Meaning:

“Oh! Solar God,
You are the son of Prajapathi.
You are lone ranger of the sky.
You are all nourishing and all regulating.
Please withdraw your rays and brilliance.
By your grace I would then be able to see
Your beautiful golden disc.”

Isavasya Upanishad, 16th Mantram
Here you can listen to the prayer or download the text.

Image from the video, courtesy of: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Scientific Visualization Studio

Here is a sublime Sanskrit song which is part of the Madālasā Upadesha, or teachings of Madālasā. Madālasā Upadesha Stotra is the teaching of Saint Madalasa to her children. Upadesha means instruction. The stotra (hymn) is also known as Putra Upadesha Stotra or Putropadesha Stotra. The story of Madālasā is in Chapters 25-30 of the Mārkandeya Purāṇa. The Mārkaṇḍeya is one of the eighteen ‘great Purāṇas’ said to have been narrated by Rishi Mārkandeya.

The stotra is sung by Gabriella Burnel and the recording was commissioned by friends and students of the School of Practical Philosophy in Australia. Gabriella is a Sanskrit scholar and an accomplished musician and musical theatre performer; she is well-known as a composer and performer of poems and hymns drawn from the Sanskrit tradition (more info about her and the song on the website).

You find more background of the Madālasā Upadesha in German on the website of Yoga Vidya, also the text and another recording of the song together with MP3 download links on the page.

Here are more beautiful Sanskrit songs by Gabriella Burnel: Sanskrit Vedic Prayers, SANSKRIT SONG – The Wonder of Sanskrit, Sanskrit Song ‘Anandamayi’= MADE OF BLISS, Bhagavad Gita “I do nothing at all” – Gabriella and the Planets, Sanskrit Prayer to Dhanwantari, Relaxing Sanskrit Song: Tāra (ft Shiva Sutras), Life is a DANCE, Sanskrit Song for Ganesha, Shri Lakshmi Stotram – Happy Diwali, Sing Through Me- Song for Children inspired by Sanskrit Text, and many more.

Please also read the beautiful words of Gabriella about “Why I Studied Sanskrit”

Image (c) extract from the video.