Last Thursday Sri Kumar and most of the remaining group members left Iguazu. Our group from Europe, however, was staying 2-3 more days and wanted to visit the Falls again. It was clouded and at the Falls much less crowded than on Saturday. We wanted to go to the St. Martin’s Island lying directly in front of some major falls but the water was again higher than the day before where boats could land on the island. So a few friends and I decided to go for a short boat ride on the Iguazu River, where the boats come very close to the waterfalls.

The people coming from a previous ride were totally wet. Luckily I had my bathing trunks with me. We got waterproof sacks to store our clothes and life jackets were fastened. The engines roared and the boat slid through the turbulent waters. Two times we approached the falls on the left and the right side of the island. When the boat came to the left side for the third time we approached the huge waterfront up to a few meters. It was a thundering roar and the mist of waters drenched us.

Then we went to the other side of the island. We slowly approached one of the falls and then the boat speeded up to go directly through the fall. A huge gush of waters poured down upon us. I had to close my eyes and hold my breath. It was an incredible feeling of joy to be in the midst of the energy of the waters.

The boat took another round and again we went through the gushing waters – wow! I hadn’t expected these strong energies. We all laughed when the boat came out again and drove back to the landing platform.

When I put on my clothes it started raining. A nice blessing of the waters, I thought.

We then went to the “Devil’s Throat” which we now called Angels’ Throat. In the meantime more tourists had arrived. For a while we gazed like hypnotized into the huge masses of waters. Sometimes birds seemed to disappear behind the falls. From the abyss clouds of fine mist ascended and were blown like passing angels over the upper river or came blessing us.

At lunchtime it was still raining. We stood around some umbrellas of a kiosk and observed the play of the coatis, small furry animals with long mouths. There were warnings not to feed them. But they were clever. A man came with a pizza and put it on a table. A coati attacked him and while the man chased it away a group of 7, 8 coatis jumped on the table and disappeared with his fresh pizza. Angry he went into the kiosk again and came out with another pizza. And again they tried to get hold of it. Miquel from our group laughingly said, they are really doing a good group cooperation. I could successfully defend my sandwich…

Afterwards we again went to the Superior Trail above the falls. Inma, a doctor from Barcelona, had brought a small carved stick decorated with some ribbons and “Peace on Earth” in 4 languages on the four sides of the stick. On tours to holy places she uses to plant somewhere a “peace stick” but this time the stick should “go with the flow”. We formed a triangle, sang 7 times OM and then she threw the stick with our blessings into the roaring fall. When we returned to the railway station we saw a beautiful toucan with its huge orange beak sitting on a tree.

The train took us back to the entrance, where our taxis picked us up again. Next day, Meinrad and me were returning via Rio and Frankfurt to Switzerland, while the rest of the group had one more day to visit again the falls.

Arriving in Iguazu on 4^th September in the later afternoon the bus left the main road and entered into a small unpaved road winding through the rainforest. After some kilometres it stopped in front of the entrance building of the main building of the Village Cataratas Hotel – an impressive site all surrounded by forest. A number of smaller houses were built into the forest and connected with little wooden bridges. Other group members from North America, the Caribbean, Venezuela and Brazil as well as from various Argentinian groups dropped in. Since the seminar was about to start on 6^th September the meeting hall was not yet set up. So we met outside the beautiful dining hall building for evening meditation while the sun set with intense colours.

Next morning a bus and various cars brought us to the Argentinian side of the famous Iguazu Falls. Sri Kumar and Kumari Garu also joined the tour. It was a radiant blue sky and lots of tourists were pouring into the national park. We got into a small train which brought us to the upper part of the falls, the Garganta del Diablo, the Devil’s Throat. Sri Kumar said that we should think of them as Angels’ Throat, where there is a centre of a very sublime energy. The whole area is an Ashram of Synthesis related to a divine seer called Brahmanaspati and there is also located a 7^th ray ashram of Count Saint Germain. We arrived at 12 o’clock at the Angels’ Throat and, surrounded by the rising mist of the falling waters we intonated 21 times OM. In the presence of these strong vibrations of the thundering falls we all were in a blissful enrapture. Again and again the wind blew blessings of water clouds over the group. On the way there were plenty of butterflies and also other animals.

We afterwards went to the Superior Trail, where bridges lead us close to the top of other parts of the falls with splendorous views to the St. Martin’s Island near which the centre of the Ashram is located in the etheric realm. We wanted to take a boat to the island but the water was too high so that the boats could not land. But the sun created rainbows all over the falls.

While most of the group members relaxed at a restaurant, I went with some friends to the Lower Trail to see further views of the falls. It was a most impressive experience.

Next day the group living started. The members from Posadas had prepared a sublime altar with a huge picture of Hanuman, the great cosmic Master who arrived on the planet 18 million years ago. He is a Vanara, a being which can change his form at will and mostly stays in a monkey-like form. Sri Kumar started his talk saying that he was very much surprised about this picture and he never had seen such a beautiful presentation even in India, and so in the course of the seminar he also spoke about Hanuman and his work. A short extract from my notes, from the opening words of the seminar:

“Iguazu means Ikshvaku; Ikshvaku is the first solar king on the planet. Much solar energy prevails here. May we find our original entity as solar beings.

From the Solar God to the solar king there was a transmission of synthesis. It is also called yoga. The Solar God received initiation from Manu Vaivasvata. Manu Vaivasvata himself received the yoga of synthesis from higher circles. From the higher circles to Manu Vaivasvata, from Manu Vaivasvata to the Sun God, from the Sun God to the solar king on earth there has been the initial transmission of the yoga of synthesis. That is what Lord Krishna said in Bhagavad Gita. He said, I initiated the Sun God. The name of the Sun God is Vivasvata. The son of the Solar God Vivasvata is Vaivasvata. The Sun God is called Vivasvata. His son is called Vaivasvata. The sun’s light is said to be the Son of God. The Sun God has a son. The name of the Sun is Vivasvata. His son is Manu who is called Vaivasvata.

What is Vaivasvata? – the light of the sun. It is received by our Earth. Between the Earth and the Sun there is a field of light, it is called Manu Vaivasvata. This Vaivasvata, the Manu, and his son are on the earth, he is called Ikshvaku. He is the first solar king on the planet. The waterfall here is in relation to the sound Ikshvaku – Iguazu. This is a centre of synthesis. Lord Krishna gives a hierarchy of the yoga of Synthesis. When Krishna speaks I AM, this initiated the Sun God. The Sun God initiated Manu; Manu initiated the solar king. The solar king tries to initiate the beings on Earth.”

The three days of the seminar went quickly by, filled with meditations, inspiring lectures and exchanges with the many group members present. On Sunday there was a fire ritual followed by the blessing and name-giving ceremony for children.

In the night of the second day suddenly a hailstorm with torrential rains broke out. Next morning we saw that the hailstones big like eggs had demolished a number of car windows and caused other devastations. Sri Kumar explained that this release of energy was an expression of a cleansing of conflict energies.

On the 9^th, the day after the seminar, the members who still remained there, went together with Sri Kumar and Kumari-Garu to the Brazilian side of the waterfalls. On the way we stopped at a shop where they sold crystals and jewels: Huge amethysts and rock crystals, all kind of crystal sculptures and a number of handicraft works. Radiant jewels in all rainbow colours attracted the people most. While some could carry with them a few of the treasures of the earth I enjoyed taking photos.

From the Brazilian side of the fall we had again a gorgeous view of the falls. And after some days of clouds the sun was again back with rainbows over the falls. We stood at the Angels’ Throat and again sung 21 OM in the roaring sound of waters.

Afterwards Sri Kumar and some of the group members did a short helicopter flight over the falls while the other members went to a Birds’ Park with colourful tropic birds – all kinds of parrots, flamingos, toucans and also some huge serpents and a crocodile. The battery of my camera, however, had stopped and so I took the impressions with the camera of the heart.

Most of the European members had relocated after the seminar to a cheaper hotel. Thursday early morning a small bus brought us back to the seminar hotel for a final meditation with the Master. We all felt full of gratitude for this splendorous tour full of inner and outer highlights and a plethora of profound teachings. Thursday afternoon Sri Kumar and his wife left towards Rio and India, while we had again 2-3 more days.

Monday, 31 August around 9.30 pm we arrived at the Centro de Espiritualidad Fátima in Posadas, located at a catholic nuns’ monastery/seminary of missionaries who had come from Germany. A beautiful park with high trees partly with orchids surrounded the old main building. A part of our group, including myself, was located there, while another part lodged in a newer building in another area of the huge ground. I got a small cell where the room was much higher than the base; it was simple but suited for a seminar, even a tiny bathroom.

The group of Posadas had arranged a beautiful altar with a big poster of Nicholas Roerich’s painting of the World Mother. The main topic of the meeting was about the occult side of the sign of Virgo:

“Normally we do not meet so much with the groups of the West in the month of Virgo. Once I spoke about it in Argentina and about service in Montserrat, and the Virgin dimension in St. Moritz. Now I am presenting to you the other dimension, the pride and the intellect. If you relate to Virgo it is causing the fall. Not all in Virgo is virgin nature. A part of it relates to pride, a part of it relates to intellect and a part relates to virgin nature. The first part is that of virgin nature, the second part relates to intellect and the third part relates to pride. Once the pride sets in the fall is certain. Men of pride are bound to fall. Men of intellect are bound to complicate themselves. Men of virgin nature have the facility of the impression of light, love and will. The soul qualities can reflect and can be received when there is virgin nature. Virgin nature enables the reflection of divine nature and also what is beyond the 3 qualities as pure consciousness. Pure consciousness leads us into 3 qualities which are called divine qualities, will knowledge and activity. These four constitute the divine side of nature they can be reflected on Akasha which we call virgin nature. This we call sky, the virgin matter. It is reflection upon that; the higher reflects itself on the Akasha. The nature most high reflects on Akasha and by such reflection the formations happen on the lower planes of matter. This impression causing imagery is called Samudra. If you look for the meaning of Samudra it says ocean. But if you get into the key of etymology it reflects that which is above. That is why we have the statement as above so below, that is the virgin nature. That which is higher is reflected and the nature impregnates, bringing down divine manifestation. That is where the virginity of nature, the Immaculate Conception. Immaculate means, by impression it receives and gets impregnated. When you reach that nature in you you are with the will of God, the plan, the knowledge of God. Everything impregnates you. According to that you function here.“

Thursday there was a fire ritual where also one of the nuns participated. It was followed by a marriage ritual. At the close of the seminar there was a question-answer session. Dr. Kumar picked up again the point that humans should better not live together with animals / pets in the house since their presence will draw from us: “They are not very contributive to you, you contribute to them.” The animals and plants should be left in their natural surroundings. Sacred plants can be in the compound but not in the house; flowers, however, are fine. If animals come by themselves to stay with us for a while it is ok but we should not try to keep them with us. Crystals and precious stones as well as silver and gold are very good; iron should be kept outside. Leather is fine for humans, when it is treated the animal vibrations are out. It is better than synthetic materials.

Thursday evening there was a public lecture in the town-hall, which was completely filled. A children’s choir gave a welcome. Dr. Kumar spoke about education, human values and the need of cooperation. At the beginning there was some noise and hustle and bustle in the hall but the topic captured all. With his humorous stories and vivid examples, Dr. Kumar captured the attention of all and in the end there was a thunderous applause.

Friday morning the bus brought us to the Parana River, where a white catamaran boat was waiting for us. During about 3 hours we had a beautiful ride up the river. We had a stop in front of a grotto of the Virgin Mary on the Paraguay side of the river and at some impressive rocks in a rainforest area, where the native Indians used to do rituals.

Later at a ship’s berth of a hotel in the forest our bus picked us up again and we continued our ride towards Iguazu, where we arrived in the late afternoon.

Last week Thursday morning we went to the national airport of Buenos Aires for the flight to Santa Fe. At the airport we met friends from Germany and from the States who just had arrived. A welcome talk in a cafeteria and then the check-in. Soon afterwards we entered a small Saab air-plane with 36 seats of which our group nearly occupied half of them. Soon Buenos Aires disappeared below us and the followed the huge Parana River. Vast areas were covered with inundations. When the plane came down I thought, where will it find a dry place to land. But then the runway of Santa Fe airport appeared. The temperature was warmer than in Buenos Aires, and a deep blue sky filled with brilliant light greeted us when we stepped out of the plane.

Some members of the Santa Fe group gave us a warm welcome and presented flowers to Dr. Kumar and Kumari-Garu. Quickly the luggage was stored in a small bus and some taxis. Also from the ground you could see some inundations around. Although there were temperatures reminding me of summertime many trees still had no leaves. We came through the city of Santa Fe and crossed a branch of the Parana River where on the other side the seminar hotel, a tall glass tower appeared.

Already many Argentinian members had arrived. We were about 150 people from different groups of Argentina and other Latin American countries, from the States and Europe. The lecture hall was beautifully decorated with images of paintings of Nicholas Roerich and a huge poster Master CVV over Mount Aconcagua was greeting us at the front-side.

The conferences of Dr. Kumar were about different aspects of the wisdom teachings and about the axis of the energies of Leo and Aquarius. He pointed out that although we are already in the month of Virgo, the full moon is considered as the full moon of Leo, since during the main part of the full moon hours the moon was in the constellation of Dhanishta, which is located in Aquarius. The main focus, however, was on keeping in one’s awareness during the day the link that we are all consciousness manifested in forms and that all forms and situations we see are expressions of this pure consciousness:

“The scriptures in the east say, as you take shower let a part of you be related to be with the divine. As you dress up yourself, let a part of you be engaged with the divine while the other part is taking bath and dressing up. Let a part of you be engaged in light while you are driving to work. Likewise when at work let a part of you be engaged in light. Anything you do let a part be engaged with light, a small part, that is enough, it keeps the door open into that part of your being which is the lightened part. We are not only personalities, we are lighted beings as souls and we are pulsating beings of light. We have a field of light into which we can consciously walk when we can dedicate a part of our being to the field of light. That part slowly magnetises you.“

The time flew by. On the last day there was a fire ritual followed by a marriage ceremony, a lecture and a question-answer session. In the evening those members who had not yet departed assembled in the premises of the Santa Fe group in the city. We sat close together for evening meditation and another question-answer session. There were very profound questions and the answers, as usual, very thrilling.

Next morning the plane brought us back to Buenos Aires. Instead of staying at the airport we went with a part of our group by taxi to a nearby park with a beautiful lake, where we passed the day. In the afternoon we returned to the airport, where more members had arrived for the flight to Posadas.

When we entered the airplane there was a gorgeous sunset which I captured with some photos. In the plane a friend offered me her seat at the window so that I could take some other pictures. There was an incredible symphony of rainbow colours at the horizon which slowly turned to dark and faded away into violet-red. When we left the airplane at Posadas a warm wind brought smells of tropic air. And again some Argentinian friends gave us a warm welcome for the next part of our journey.

Last week on Wednesday morning, the group visited Sudama, a centre dedicated to a variety of social service activities. At the centre Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar gave a talk on the importance of selfless service to society and expressed his deep admiration for the work done at Sudama. Afterwards the group members presented self-made healthy food items to to our group from the West.

I had a very cordial talk with several members of Sudama. They told me about the great spectrum of their service activities, and they do it in silence: They are giving support to people in need in different fields of the society – in prisons, psychiatries, in areas of great need on the countryside, where people live in great poverty, to children (support to schools), in the area of health (a number of doctors is collaborating) and especially in the field of healthy nutrition / cooking, where they instruct people how to follow a healthy vegetarian diet. The group is also publishing a magazine about healthy living.

Sudama is working as a group since 30 years; Sri Kumar gave the name to the group and visited it every time he came to Argentina. I was deeply impressed by their dedication, high standard and perseverance of the service work done.

In the evening we went to the Teatro Quiron, a centre for cultural activities run by a member of the WTT, where Dr. Kumar spoke about inner normalisation with the help of sound, colour, symbol and number.

Last Thursday the group went / flew to Santa Fe. My impressions will follow soon – the internet-connection was difficult the last days and I was online only for a few minutes.

Last Friday the group went to Olavarría, about 350 km south of Buenos Aires. The small highway lead through seemingly endless flat Pampa areas, just with a few bushes, Eucalyptus trees and cows – on meadows all around surrounded with barbed wires… And there were lots on inundations along the brooks and on the meadows.

The group of Olavarría gave us a warm welcome. We were lodged at apartments in different parts of the town. We could not discover the traffic rules at the crossroads – it seemed that the rule is “first comes, first served” – and so it was when we drove with an Argentinian lady through the city…

The following days there were lectures of Dr. Kumar in the morning and in the evening. On Sunday there was a fire ritual followed by a marriage ceremony for 2 couples of Olavarría and a guitar concert.

Outside it was quite cold and windy but the weather was mostly fine. And there was a special brilliance in the light. Monday the group went to the park of Olavarría with huge old eucalyptus tree, and of course, we took the obligatory group pictures… Afterwards we visited the Harmony Yoga Centre of Alicia Delucca – a beautiful house of a serene ambiance with a yoga hall and some rooms for group activities surrounded by a little garden.

We had a lot of joy with the small group of 6 persons in our apartment, and so the time passed by quickly. Tuesday morning the bus brought us back. And again we drove through the endless horizon of the Pampa before arriving in the crowded and restless city of Buenos Aires.

Tuesday morning we continued our city tour – bur first we had to walk a while to reach the place where we left off the bus tour the day before. And since the buses started over an hour later we decided to continue walking to the next bus stop point. High skyscrapers and a lot of traffic were the major impression of that part of the journey. Finally we caught a bus only to get off a few kilometres later at the Japanese garden – quite a contrast to the quarter we went through before. It is springtime in Argentina now, and we saw that the first cherry trees had already blossomed. We enjoyed the serene beauty of the little lakes with gold fishes and a read bridge, statues, rocks, a tea house and, of course, some bonsai trees.

Since the time of our ticket was running down – we could continue once we board the bus – we decided to take a shortcut of the tour and drove back into the direction of our hotel. Some hundred metres before the hotel we saw a nice Italian restaurant. We were very astonished when we entered – there our lost German friends were sitting with two Argentinian friends. So we came to know about their adventures of the flight being cancelled and how they stood just in front of the gate at Frankfurt airport when they were not allowed to come in since the boarding was about to be completed…

In the afternoon we walked over to the Bibioteca Teosófica, the Theosophical Library of Buenos Aires, where the evening talk of Dr. Kumar was to take place. There were already a number of Argentinian friends, and they gave us a very warm welcome. I met a few people whom I knew via the web but now saw them for the first time live.

A quarter to 6 Dr. Kumar and his wife came – and there was again that thrill in the audience which I experienced also many times before at other occasions. The group had prepared an Indian song which they sung as a welcome greeting. After evening meditation, Dr. Kumar started his talk about “The Voice of Silence” – not the well-known booklet of H. P. Blavatsky but the experience of the voice itself. Here is a very short extract from my notes:

“There is a triangular door (Master shows the forehead). There are 3 points in the forehead, there are Ida, on the top of left eyebrow, and Pingala on the top of right eyebrow, and the Sushumna, on the centre of the front. That is the take-off point. Stay inside, just visualize. Imagine that you go there and move out into the sky. It is all silence around, above it is silence, below it is silence. If you can stay for a while there we can listen to the voice of silence. The voice of silence is the voice of God. When we go beyond the trinity in us, it is not the point of will, of love and of light, it is the basis of all this, into which we have to get in. Then the Voice is heard. Generally you hear the humming sound. But there is a plan that you can also hear. That is all the work is. The most high meditation is needed to hear the voice. Go beyond the triple nature. It is in the 9th nature of pure consciousness. There you listen to the voice of silence.”

Around half past nine we started to walk back to the hotel. And when nearly an hour later I got into my bed, I immediately fell asleep…

Last Sunday afternoon I set out for a 4 weeks’ journey to Argentina to join the tour of Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar through different parts of the country. At Zurich airport I met an old friend with whom I had already been travelling several times in India. In Frankfurt, we were supposed to meet two other friends for the flight to Buenos Aires but we did not see them there, neither when we landed in Argentina after a long night flight of over 13 hours. We searched all around in the arrival hall, asking at different offices but in vain. However, we found another lady of the group , from Spain.  We finally decided to leave the airport without the two German friends.

The elderly taxi driver corresponded totally to my cliché of an “Argentinian”. He was very jovial, spoke a lot about his country and gave each one of us a small Argentinian coin as a souvenir and for good luck.

In the hotel we came to know that the feeder flight of our German friends had been cancelled shortly before the start due to a technical problem. They had to take a taxi instead and arrived some minutes too late for check-in. Though we were a bit tired, we decided to join the group of friends who already was at the hotel for a bus trip through the city. Deborah, an Argentinian friend, whom I had met 2 years ago in India, was our tour guide, and it was very nice. We took a 24 hours tourist bus ticket and sat on the top of a double decker. It was a bit chilly but the weather was fine – after days of rain.

At several places we got off the bus to see some old quarters with art markets and colourful houses. We stopped at an art centre where the World Tango Festival going on. We had the good luck to get tickets for free and just arrived in the hall for a Tango concert – an outstanding event. 5 musicians plus some special guests enchanted the audience with their enthusiastic representation. It was a concert without Tango dance but of a great allegresse. The festival went on for the rest of the day but we left after this section. We had a look into an improvised Tango hall set up under a highway, where many people were dancing to the music in rapt attention.

The trip continued to some other quarters of the city. We finally got off near the Rio de la Plata, had an Italian dinner, went along a channel for a while before going back home.

Later in the evening Dr. Kumar and his wife arrived at the hotel, where we awaited him together with some Argentinian friends. It was a warm welcome. Afterwards we dropped into our beds, very tired from the jet-lag and the long day.

Occult symbolism is a way of describing subtle truths, which to a common understanding appear as contradictory or nonsense. An intuitive approach helps gain deeper insights.

Virgo stands for the slow unfoldment of the soul on the spiritual path, secretly growing through crises in the womb of material life. The aspirant is compared to a child, whose soul / Sun silently develops a pure, virginal nature under the protection of Mother Nature. Nature again is a reflection of the spirit and thus is compared to the Moon, who is the ruler of Virgo on the subtle planes.

Meditating on the painting for the month of Virgo, I received the image of a chasm at the bottom in which there was the soul and at the top the head of the Divine Mother. The chasm was like penetrating through the seven planes of creation. A few days later the hint came, Isis and Osiris. I googled for a statue of these two Egyptian gods and studied about their symbolism. In the plethora of meanings I found that Osiris, the “Lord of Truth”, is compared to the Sun. Isis is described as his wife, his sister and even his mother, and also as the Virgin Earth. I found the image of a grey stone statue with Isis protecting the child Osiris. Her headgear is like a solar disc hiding the true spiritual sun, thus being the “moon” to the higher sun, which is carried by Mother Nature. Osiris wears a headgear like a receptacle receiving the divine flame.

I transformed the statue into golden colour and did some digital restoration. I then created the chasm penetrating through the seven planes and surrounded Isis-Osiris by an aura of radiating energy – the veil unveiled. When the clouds of conceptualisation are left aside, the symbolic presentation provides a view of Mother Nature protecting the Solar Child.

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.

14 May 2015, pencils and photo work

It is a commercial but well done, and the message is spiritual: “We are greater than I”.

The description of the video spot of Samsung created in partnership with the World Surf League says: “It shows how we are all connected, intrinsically co-dependent, and tied together for better and for worse.” And further:

“No individualism here, no ego, no celebration of one hero. In surf, as in technology, one cannot reach the next level alone. Without the people around us, without “We”, without “Us”, “I” is nothing. Together, we make each other better. Together, we push, we inspire, we challenge and redefine each other. We Are Greater Than I.”

May it be so with Samsung, the surfers and with all of us: no ego, no celebration of one hero… And not a side-blow to a competitor who uses “i” in the names of his products.

This viral video got over 5 million views within a month.

(C) Samsung, from the video