Journey to Group Livings of WTT in India, Part 4: Visakhapatnam: Group Living/Seminar and Visits

This year’s January group living of the Western brotherhood of WTT in Visakhapatnam, India, was very special, and for me already before going there. It was my 21st journey to a January group living and the 23rd journey to WTT in India, the 27th journey to spiritual group livings in India since 1982. How would things be, a bit after Master KPK had passed over 1 November 2022? Sri Kumar had often explained that the MASTER is an eternal principle and that a teacher is just an expression of of the Master Consciousness.

Sunrise over the ocean. Master Kumar told that at this place,in the subtle, there is a temple linking the city of Vaisakha to the Vaisakha Valley, where Hierarchy meets each year during Vaisakha Full Moon in Taurus.

Master KPK has left behind a great treasure of books, audio and video recordings having come from his tremendous work of teaching. We had planned to do a seminar in the rhythm of earlier group lives with the January 2016 recordings about “Female Hierarchy”. Master’s teachings had been most sublime and the video recordings had been well edited but aren’t published yet.

Guru Prasad during fire ritual

Guru Prasad, the son of the Master, or Bharath, a group member and family member, were always present to ensure that the projectors were working well. We were just a small group of 8 members from Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the US. But we felt we were gathered there by the will of the Master.

Pictures of Master KPK and Mother Krishna Kumari, his wife, decorated with flowers during fire ritual

It was a harmonious gathering. And it was a surprising coincidence that at the beginning of the first lecture, Master KPK mentioned that the group lives in India started in January 1988 with a small group of 8 members from the West and then slowly grew with the years, with an average of 30-60 members.

Masters of Hierarchy, a statue of Krishna and an image of Hanuman in the room dedicated to Master KPK, where he used to give consultations

From 2 to 9 January, we saw the 10 lectures of the 2016 seminar. We were all intensely absorbed into the presence of the Master – there was no feeling of seeing a YouTube video or that the presence of the Master was not physical – it was the Presence in the presence. The temple room is strongly vibrating through the ritualistic work having gone on since 1977 at this place, although the building changed. The rooms dedicated to Master EK and Master KPK are very magnetic with the presence of the energies of the Masters and it was an ongoing profound experience, like a focal point of a radiance of Light in a vibrating silence.

Pictures of Lord Venkateshvara, of Gopis dancing with multiple manifestations of Lord Krishna and of an Ashram

We were invited to the homes of Guru Prasad, Bharath – living now with his family in the 5th floor of Radha Madhavam – and other members. We made small excursions with their cars – to the Annadanan Project (explanations later), where there is now the storage of the Dhanishta Publications, to the Bala Bhanu School of WTT seeing the radiant faces of the children, and to the social service project of Master EK Samskruthi Sadan doing professional training programs, especially for empowering women, to the temple and service project of WTT “Hamsavanam” in Ramadri, to the new impressive temple compound of the Tirupati Devastanam on a hill dedicated to Lord Venkateshvara, to the office of Chartered Accountaints “Rao and Kumar” which the Master had developed over many years and where Guru Prasad, together with 10 other associates, and many interns, are doing an impressive professional activity. It was touching sitting at the places where the Master had been working.

Annadanam project, by members of the team of Master KPKs office – daily free food production with an automatised cooking machine and distribution at various places to people in need Guru Prasad explaining the automatised cooking machine Food coming from the machine, before dispatch Part of the store rooms of the books of Dhanishta at the Annadanam project The group at the new temple of Lord Venkateshvara near Bheemili Gorgeous sunset at the temple At Balabhanu Vidyalayam school of WTT – combining regular education with living spiritual values The group at Bala Bhanu school At Master EK Samskruthi Sadan – women professional empowerment training At Ramadri – Temple project of WTT combined with professional training of women and cow culturing center In the office of Rao & Kumar – the room where Master KPK used to work Guru Prasad explaining the office Valedictory function – celebration of end of seminar in the home of Guru Prasad and Gayatri

We further followed water and fire rituals at Radha Madhavam and participated in beautiful music concerts – of Smt Padmavathi Pappu playing Vina, accompanied by her son Jayadev, and of Kaliprasad Indraganti, an excellent bamboo flute player together with a team of other musicians.

On the 9th of January, there was the end of the seminar and the valedictory function, expressing our gratitude to Guru Prasad and his wife Gayatri and the team of helpers from the Indian brotherhood.

On 10th of January, we visited the temple of Simhachalam dedicated to Lord Narasimha. It was very nice to be there again, like in many previous years. And in the evening, the Guru Puja celebration started, about I will report later. But something else also happened which impacted the entire group and especially me, about which I will the in the next blog post – the passing of my dear friend Mark Ray, who had started his home journey on the 9th.

The group at Simhachalam temple