Today was the final session of the seminar and the good-bye ceremony. From tomorrow on, we will be at the Guru Puja celebration at Simhachalam, only returning late in the night to the retreat center.
The last days were intense seminar days interspersed with small excursions. Wednesday we visited a service center of the WTT, where daily about 150 needy people are taken care of by food distribution and where also free health consultations and professional training courses are held. Then we went to the Bala Bhanu School. Two months ago, I had seen the devastations of the Hudhud cyclone. Now we were very much astonished how well the surroundings of the school had been restored. Although in the neighbourhood you could see the traces of destruction – mainly remains of fallen trees – the school made a very good impression.
The students just had their exam day and all were in their classes busily writing. We had a look into all classes and then a short exchange with the teachers.
In the afternoon we visited the Theosophical Society (TS) of Visakhapatnam, one of the oldest in India. The new head of the TS feels very much inspired by the teachings of Master EK (Dr. E. Krishnamacharya) who had been given lectures in the premises in the 70s/80s. Their temple had been destroyed by the cyclone and you could still see a lot of dust around.
Yesterday we went to Ramadri, the temple site of the WTT about 20 km outside of Visakhapatnam. We could not see the Planetary Healing Centre, it seems that the devastations of the cyclone had destroyed number of trees.
At Ramadri we were very much astonished how well the site had been redone. The roof of the small buildings of the Mithila school for poor children had been redone, all the little temples and the buildings freshly painted and the garden beautifully set up again. Also the small shrines were reset to order and were shining in fresh brilliance.
The children gave us a warm welcome. We then walked around on the large compound and visited the new “Gosala”, the cowshed where now 60 cows are held. Their milk is distributed to the school children and poor people in the surrounding. Then we assembled in the amphitheatre, where Sri Kumar and Kumari-Garu distributed clothes to the school children. Afterwards Sri Kumar gave a talk and the children presented some Vedic recitations. When we had our evening prayer with the beautiful view over the ocean, groups of birds were flying through the sky which displayed sublime shades of pink and violet.
