With gratefulness I am looking at a new flower next to my office table – an audumbara plant. I would like to tell you the story of its background.

2015-16, when I was translating the biography of Srīpāda Srīvallabha to German, I came to know about the spiritual importance of the audumbara (ficus racemosa), which is said to carry the energy of Lord Dattatreya. In the book there are many mentions of the audumbara and in one part a saint is quoted saying:

“When the period of death approaches a sadguru may subject His disciple to terrible mental agony, horrible dishonours, unbearable troubles and losses and erase accumulated karma and grant him rebirth. An incarnation may subject His dependant to slight trouble and grant him rebirth. However, Srī Dattatreya attracts the life force of His dependants to the audumbara tree where He always lives and rescues the body of the dependant from the life force released from the audumbara tree. The ignorant dependant thinks that he is alive from the life force in his body, but the fact is that the life force emanating from the audumbara tree is conducting the bodily functions of the devotee uninterruptedly. The moment the period of death elapses the life force issuing forth from the audumbara tree firmly establishes in the devotee and the devotee lives for some more time. The audumbara tree will remain perfect however much the life force may be released from it. The reason for that is Srī Dattatreya remains well established at the base of every audumbara tree in a subtle form…
Whenever any difficulties arose in our house we used to solemnly go round the audumbara tree and present our troubles to that great tree. Our suffering was reaching Lord Datta. Our troubles were solved in an unanticipated way. The audumbara tree was acting like a bridge of friendship between us and Srī Dattatreya.
Sir, worship of the audumbara tree is a very important duty of Datta devotees. If an audumbara tree is in the house, it is as though Srī Dattatreya is verily in our house. However much the efficacy of the audumbara tree is described it amounts to an understatement only.”

When in January 2017, I presented the book to the temple at the birthplace of Srīpāda in Pithapuram, South India, I received some small fruits from the audumbara tree at the temple. I later gave them to Elli; she is a group member from Germany and regularly participating in the online study groups I am organising. Elli can make plants and flowers grow; she has a “green thumb” and a deep inner relation to plants. Two weeks ago, she brought 60 pots with audumbara plants for the members of the May Call celebration in Germany grown from these audumbara fruits (and she will distribute about 40 more plants at the seminar with Sri Kumar end of July in Billerbeck, North Germany). Their entire apartment had been filled with pots containing the saplings, and her husband had managed to store all the 60 plants in their camping bus, without accidents… I spoke a bit about the importance of the audumbara and Elli asked the members to chose their audumbara trees. Thus, the 60 saplings started their journeys to several parts of Europe – and one came to my home.

Audumbara trees on the window sill at the May Call celebration

When a member from Miami wanted to get seeds, Elli said to me that growing the audumbaras was not so easy: “I opened the small figs and put the tiny seeds, like yellow sand, on kitchen paper. And I sprayed water over them, several times a day. Over two months, nothing happened. Then 7 seeds started to sprout, and suddenly the entire paper was filled with green sprouts.”

Now, after more than a year, beautiful little plants have developed. Elli was very enthusiastic: “They were spreading such a lovely atmosphere all around. And when by accident a leave fell down, I rubbed them a bit and they emanated a wonderful smell.” And she felt the healing powers of the plants and described them to me. I was wonderstruck by her great love for the plants.

She then wrote a care sheet for those who got a plant:

Please note that the tree is growing in the tropics !!!! It cannot stand frost. The plant needs a lot of sun and heat.
Water: Test: Touch the earth with your finger to see if the earth is dry or damp.
Only water the plant when the soil is dry. The amount of water the plant needs is very varied.
If the leaves roll or hang down, the plant gets too much water. Please check if there is water in the planter. Pour the water out.
Place the tree, only in the plant pot, on a saucer 2-3 days in the sun. The audumbara tree does not like wet feet.

Plant mantra: OM Srim Hretaja Namaha
(Please contact the Devas for this plant to be beautiful.)

From July on every tree needs a bigger pot. The audumbara tree also requires a special soil: tub plant soil for “Mediterranean trees.”
If a leaflet is accidentally broken off by the audumbara tree, put the leaf on the spot causing pain or just on the forehead. If the leaf has dried for more than 2 days, it smells wonderful and the healing powers are more intense. Just try it.

My flower is now already in a bigger pot, of course with tub plant soil for “Mediterranean trees.” And with a little Dattatreya statue in front of it.

The primordial light permeating creation is called the Mother of the World. The seers realized different stages of reflection of this light into the various states of creation. The reflection is called with different names at different planes but all are understood as expressions of the moon principle. The satellite of our Earth is just one dimension of this principle. Neptune is seen as a higher dimension, and on a supra-cosmic plane the principle is called Soma in the Eastern scriptures. The reflective principle functions in us as the mind, mirroring the light of the soul. The sixteen phases of the ascending and of the descending moon phases are called the sixteen syllabled name of the Divine Mother. They correspond to gradations of light and of consciousness.

For the illustration of the Divine Mother I reworked a Chinese painting of Quan Yin. The halo around her head is formed by merging an image of the Sun and of Neptune. She holds Neptune in her hands, lying in the crescent. From there, water, the vital energy, pours down to Earth. For the downpour I used a photo of the Staubbach Fall in the Bernese Alps. The bottom is created from a view over the lake of Geneva seen from an airplane. In the background of the Mother there is a dark blue moon representing the background of the cosmic moon principle. It is surrounded by the bright and the dark halves of the moon phases, where the lower sphere forms another crescent. Above the upper half you see a sphere of stars indicating the vast dimension of the Divine Mother.

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 Cancer paintings.

The video:

Last week there was an international May Call celebration in the Bildungshaus Neckarelz, in South Germany – a beautiful place near the river Neckar. It was conducted under the auspices of WTT Germany and organised by the WTT group of Lake Constance. The group life started on Sunday but we, a small group, came already on Saturday for preparation. The May Call Day meetings are always very inspiring; last year we had met in the Vosges, France.

The team of the Bildungshaus (education center) of the Catholic church was very welcoming and we enjoyed the preparation work very much. Elli and Peter had brought about 60 little audumbara trees – sacred trees related to the energy of Lord Dattatreya – which Elli had nursed from the seeds I had received at the birth place of Sripada last year.

Little audumbara trees on the windowsill

Sunday afternoon all 60 group members had arrived – from Austria, Belgium, France, Switzerland and from various parts of Germany. Manfred and Sabine had organised the group life and the program had many facets – besides the morning and evening meditations there were a water and a fire ritual, yoga and qigong exercises, talks about various topics: a short introduction to NLP, Sacred Geometry and the mystics behind numbers, Blavatsky’s influence on the art of the 20th century, an innovative project of community living and about Master CVV, the comet tail and the energy of synthesis.

May Call Day itself, Tuesday, 29 May, started with meditation followed by a fire ritual in the amphitheatre at the Temple House church. With the singing of mantrams, Agni, the deva of fire, was invoked and all of us offered a stick of wood into the fire.

Later, I could give an introduction to the significance of the May Call, and this was followed by the cake ritual and distribution of presents – the audumbara trees, natural ointments prepared by the Lake Constance group, honey, bookmarks and crystals. Since we could not do a candle ritual inside, the group formed the symbol of perfection, the symbol of WTT, with white roses.

In the evening, after some musical presentations and reading of poems by Tamara we gathered outside with candles in a big circle and sung some songs – a magical moment, with Venus shining above the dark trees.

Wednesday morning I spoke about “The Unusual Ones – Jewels of the Divine”. I had prepared a presentation with 10 short sketches of extraordinary Indian saints and yogis but time allowed only 6 ones. With a review and an outlook on how to continue with the May Call celebration this very uplifting meeting ended.
The same small group which had arrived one day before the group life stayed one more night to slowly conclude and reflect on the events. A touching time.

A friend just sent me the link to a beautiful video by Conservation International (CI). On their website they explain that for more than 30 years, CI is working to build a healthier, more prosperous and more productive planet. They want to empower societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the well-being of humanity.

In their camplaign “Nature Is Speaking” they aim at raising awareness that people need nature in order to survive: “Our goal is simple: It’s time to change the conversation about nature to focus on what we all have in common: Our shared humanity.” The voice of Nature is Julia Roberts.

The video contains sublime images and a touching message.

Picture from the video “Nature is Speaking” (c) Conservation International

The point of the birth of objectivity from subjectivity is visualised as the gate of the temple linking the inner space with the outer space. It is symbolised by the glyph of Gemini ♊ or the Greek letter ‘Pi’, Π. Pi is the path from the circumference to the centre or the origin; it is called the path from visibility to invisibility. Pi stands for wisdom; the upper line of the symbol projects two vertical lines meaning that the duality emerges from the unity. Gemini is worshipped as the birth of the first Androgyne, the male-female God, the divine pair of Shiva and Shakti.

The centre of the image shows the gate of the temple formed by a duplication of the Greek letter Pi. The gate is standing on the periphery of the circle whose centre is the sun. The sun is located in the middle of the upper line of the symbol. The circle reflects again in the lower part of the image representing objectivity. On the surface of the water the light reflects like a path of light leading to the gate. In the inner of the gate there is a lingam of light, a symbol of the divine. From out of it comes forth the first pair.

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 Gemini paintings.

The video:

2 February 2018, pencils and photo work

Today 18 years ago, on 16 May 2000, I passed a threshold in my life. It happened at the beginning of a group life with Sri Kumar at the then Taurus full moon, and it was my active joining the World Teacher Trust. I already wrote about it in two blogpost four years ago, “How I joined the WTT” (WTT: World Teacher Trust), and “Fire and Flame for the Fire Ritual”. I do not want to repeat these memories but I would like to share some facets of the unfoldment which started from that date on and was speeded up ever since.

Step by step, new activities and responsibilities crept into my life. For a long time, I did not realise their inter-relatedness. But looking back, I notice that while the scope and intensity of activities grew new skills developed. New activities build upon existing ones, and the latter always had to be maintained as a basis. For example, when I started publishing a newsletter, the related activity  had to be maintained and incoming new activities had to be integrated.

This way, the activities gradually started spreading into other fields, mainly by writing, structuring, condensing. The growth took partly place in my profession but it was more so in the realm of my volunteer activities for the wisdom teachings. For a long time, the two fields developed in parallel. Later, when I left my job, I focussed intensely on the latter activities.

I don’t want to give a list, but looking back, I see that the inner blessings came following the power of rhythm. I think this is nothing specific with me but of a general relevance. When you pick up an activity of goodwill and follow it with the related attention and continuity, its rhythm generates a magnetism attracting new and similar aspects.

I witness that although I do things with an active commitment, its impact is much better when it is not related to my personality. Things grow by themselves, through me as a doer but not by my feeling as a doer. It might sound strange to some but it contains the “magic trick”. Another, more “magic trick” is to stay aligned with the inner, the divine, to keep contact and follow the rhythm of inner work. Without this, the outer cannot thrive.

A basis topic in what I am doing since many years is: How to reduce complexity and make complex ideas or systems available in an easy manner. I started synthesizing themes of the wisdom teachings already in the 1970s with meditation seminar and in a way it has accompanied me in many forms. But only since I receive the conscious guidance of Sri Kumar, my mental structures became clearer and more fluid. And by following great role models, I got deeply formed, inside out.

The 8th May is celebrated as ‘White Lotus Day’, in remembrance of Madam Blavatsky or HPB, as she was called by her friends. In his discourse on 8 May 2016, Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar said:

“On this day, Madam HPB passed over in the year 1891 and after the departure, she attained a permanent place in the Ashram of a Grand Master in the Himalayas. Grand Masters themselves declared this day as ‘White Lotus Day’ because to fulfil their grand Plan, Madam HPB was born. She was a highly pure soul which can be compared to a white lotus. It is said that there was no other being as pure as her, at the time when she was in a body. She went through lot of hardships in her life and worked towards the establishment of truth and Divine wisdom on the planet. It is considered a highly difficult task because it is the age of Kali and lot of lies was spreading around and the messengers of Kali were very powerful in their work. Through her, the Divine wisdom spread all over the globe.
So on this day, we should recollect her. She keeps giving her presence to all groups which aspire to learn and practice the path to Divinity. She has a body of light and she is always prepared to grace sincere aspirants. She was given the title ‘Upasika’ by the grand Masters. It means she was highly devoted to the Divine and his work.”

Here is a text extract of HPB’s book “From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan“, where she speaks about her encounter with Master Morya, her teacher, whom she called there the “Thakur” or “Gulab Singh”. Have a good White Lotus Day.

“The Thakur went on smoking, and as for me. I sat on my folding chair, looking lazily at everything round me, till my eyes rested on Gulab Sing, and were fixed, as if by a spell.

“Who and what is this mysterious Hindu?” I wondered in my uncertain thoughts. “Who is this man, who unites in himself two such distinct personalities: the one exterior, kept up for strangers, for the world in general, the other interior, moral and spiritual, shown only to a few intimate friends? But even these intimate friends do they know much beyond what is generally known? And what do they know? They see in him a Hindu who differs very little from the rest of educated natives, perhaps only in his perfect contempt for the social conventions of India and the demands of Western civilization…. And that is all—unless I add that he is known in Central India as a sufficiently wealthy man, and a Thakur, a feudal chieftain of a Raj, one of the hundreds of similar Rajas. Besides, he is a true friend of ours, who offered us his protection in our travels and volunteered to play the mediator between us and the suspicious, uncommunicative Hindus. Beyond all this, we know absolutely nothing about him. It is true, though, that I know a little more than the others; but I have promised silence, and silent I shall be. But the little I know is so strange, so unusual, that it is more like a dream than a reality.”

A good while ago, more than twenty-seven years, I met him in the house of a stranger in England, whither he came in the company of a certain dethroned Indian prince. Then our acquaintance was limited to two conversations; their unexpectedness, their gravity, and even severity, produced a strong impression on me then; but, in the course of time, like many other things, they sank into oblivion and Lethe. About seven years ago he wrote to me to America, reminding me of our conversation and of a certain promise I had made. Now we saw each other once more in India, his own country, and I failed to see any change wrought in his appearance by all these long years. I was, and looked, quite young, when I first saw him; but the passage of years had not failed to change me into an old woman. As to him, he appeared to me twenty-seven years ago a man of about thirty, and still looked no older, as if time were powerless against him. In England, his striking beauty, especially his extraordinary height and stature, together with his eccentric refusal to be presented to the Queen—an honour many a high-born Hindu has sought, coming over on purpose—excited the public notice and the attention of the newspapers.”

You can read here the little brochure about Helena P. Blavatsky which I once published. And here you find my annual blogposts about the White Lotus Day.

Statue of H.P. Blavatsky by Alexey Leonov (c)

Two days ago, Sebastián, a friend from Buenos Aires, sent me the video he had done on the basis of my Taurus painting. (The last blogpost was about the creation of this image.)

The painting was inspired by the Taurus Full Moon seminar Sri Kumar held 20 years ago, 1998, on Mount Rigi, Switzerland. It was my third seminar and I was deeply impressed by it. These are some of Sri Kumar’s words from the seminar:

“Taurus is the bull. The bull is called Vrishabha in Sanskrit. Vrishabha also means the downpour of the energy of Will. The energy of Taurus is the bull. It is a bull of higher circles and the planet is the cow which is impregnated by the energies of the bull. This is an annual happening. The full moon of Taurus is an important event for the planet. The energy impregnates the earth and the beings on this earth. Therefore, Taurus full moon is known as the time where you can be impregnated by the Will.”
Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar, Taurus full moon 1998

The astrological sign of Taurus, a semi-circle above a circle, symbolises the moon through which the energies are received from higher circles and passed on to the earth. Taurus is called ‘Vrishabha’ in Sanskrit meaning the downpour of light. The star Aldebaran, which is called ‘Rohini’ in Vedic wisdom, is understood as the eye of the bull through which the energies are transmitted. When the sun passes through the constellation Rohini (between 11 and 24 degrees of Taurus), he is called the impregnating bull which impregnates the life on earth. It is also a spiritual impregnation which can give us a fresh dose of energy for acts of good will.

To illustrate this symbolism, I merged the image of the head of an Indian cow with the image of the crescent moon. I edited a photo of Aldebaran and placed it at the top as the sun from which a fiery drop comes down into the bowl formed by the horns of the cow. The earth indicated with a flower meadow shows the fullness of the freshly impregnated life.

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 Taurus paintings.

20 December 2017, pencils and photo work

On the way back from the CVV Sharing meeting I visited several friends. First I travelled with Wolfgang to the place where he is living now, the community living project in Dahlem-Harmstorf, a small village south of Hamburg. Already during the two hours drive we had an intense exchange, also about his commitment in another project in South Germany – project peace, a fascinating one-year training and orientation for young people between 18 and 25. Wolfgang is now also active in creating a North German equivalent of project peace.

Wolfgang and his wife Karina are also the initiators of the community project in Dahlem-Harmstorf, “Gemeinschaft Mittendrin Leben” (Community Right in the Middle). It is a living community that develops without a hierarchy and where each one is and remains autonomous and responsible for themselves, also in financial terms: the community is the owner of the land and buildings by way of shares for constructing the houses.

Upto now they have a total of 12,000 square meters of land available, with houses of a former farm with  a former main house and residential house, stable building and a barn. The main house of 1889, with about 300 square meters of living space, is a listed building and was renovated by April 2017. Two new buildings (straw bale houses) have been created in 2017, and they are currently expanding their group house (the “Backhaus” – baking house). In the project, 15 to 20 residential units are supposed to emerge, as well as common areas (shop, office, workshop). There is more space around with a forest and meadow area; the group will decide what happens to the areas and buildings, how and where they will be developed.

When we entered the residential building, where Wolfgang is living, lots of children boots were lying in the entrance corridor – a children’s festival as well as a marriage had just taken place the previous days. Several young families with were around, partly community members.

Wolfgang took me on a tour through the site – first we visited the “Backhaus”, where renovation work is taking place; at the same time, it serves for organisational meetings.

Then we visited the two new “straw bale” buildings which had a very nice ambience. The first residents just had moved into one of the houses; everywhere signs of ongoing work were still to be seen.

The barn will be transformed into a big assembly hall for meetings, concerts etc. Wolfgang explained: “In this area there are many innovative people who have come in the wake of the Gorleben protests – against the construction of a nuclear repository. The university of nearby Lüneburg has developed to a centre for environmental and ecological development research.”

“Here we will have gardens and a parking”, Wolfgang explained.

In the evening I met several members of the project – they regularly meet on Sunday evenings for an open silent meditation in the living room of Wolfgang and Karina’s apartment. There was a 84 years old lady who is still living in the direct neighbourhood – she now has given her manor house to the community and plans to move into one of the new apartments: “I’m thrilled to start something new at my age.”

Next morning before leaving, Wolfgang and I made a little promenade along the countryside. He explained that the whole area belongs to two big farmers; the extensive use of the soil in great parts of the larger area has destroyed the foundations of life and big masses of slurry from mass pig farming is sometimes creating a pungent smell. “The economic pressure and the expectation of the customers for cheap meat has devastating results. Up to now the ecological awareness is still dormant or has not reached yet awakened an awareness of the consequences. It is private farming, and the state does not intervene.” They hope for a change in the attitudes by working for a change in consciousness.