December 22, our little travel group – 2 friends from Germany and me coming from Switzerland – met at Abu Dhabi airport to continue together our journey to India.
We were very warmly received at the WTT center Sadguru Tapovana in Bengaluru and stayed in their guest rooms.
We relaxed a bit, had some exchanges with group members. Sri Joshi, the head of the centre, showed us the rooms in his house where Master Kumar and his wife Kumari garu used to stay, and we saw his spiritual library with many precious gems of wisdom. In the evening and the following morning, we joined the group prayers.
Next morning after prayer and breakfast, the taxi picked us up from the journey to the Master Mountain Retreat of WTT in the Nilagiris near Kodanadu viewpoint.
There had just ended a group gathering for Winter Solstice celebration. The journey took about 8 hours, with only a short pause. This year, the vegetation was lush green – there had been plenty of rain. Partly there was intense traffic, especially on the passes with many hairpin bents, where truck drivers from both directions were manoeuvring to get through and bike and car drivers using the occasion to press forward.
Short before Kotagiri in the Nilagiris there were police controls asking were we were going and if we were tourists. “No, they are going to an ashram”, the driver replied, and the police let us pass. I smiled. We are in India – no one in the West would have expected such an exchange at a police control.
At the retreat centre, Ramakrishna, the manager of the house, a very committed and helpful person, came out, together with Reyes from Spain, who had already participated in the winter solstice meeting at the ashram, welcoming us. It was so beautiful to be again at this magic place and experience the energy and the view of the mount.
Master KPK recommended to do the morning meditations at the Mount with open eyes, observing the sublime beauty of the rise of the day – from darkness to first colours at the horizon, then the array of intense dawn colours, from dark blue, violet, orange, yellow and then the “explosion of the sunrise – having a fantastic view.
At the lower part of the scene, fog / clouds covered the valleys but above the ocean of clouds, there happened the beauty of the creation of a new day. Reyes sat outside in front of the window – the next days also the other friends joined in the freshness of the morning, at a height of about 1700m – I preferred to stay inside, in the vibrant energy of the prayer room.
After the meditation, we went to the nearby viewpoint. Only a few people were already out. During the day, many day-tourists from various Indian states were now, at Christmas time, coming to the viewpoint.
13 years ago, during my first visit, there was nearly no tourism and also also no ashram building. Master Kumar had spotted the place a little earlier, following some hints and indications – in 2009, during the activities of the 100th Master CVV May Call celebrations, there had been a first group life at the place, which, some years later, the WTT could receive for the construction of the Master Mountain ashram building. It was inaugurated in 2016, and end of 2016, we were a first group from the West coming for a small group live there. It was now my 5th visit to the mount, and the 6th to the Nilagiris, and the stay was very profound.
During our stay, we had group exchanges about the meeting of Master EK and Albert Sassi which built the bridge for Master EK and the Aquarian wisdom coming to the West, and we also read the text from the book “Man Sacrifice” about the flight of Master Djwhal Khul and the sage Jaimini for the visit to the ashram of Rishi Agastya in the Nilagiris.
In the morning of 26 December, after the meditation, we did a fire ritual at the basement of the retreat center.
When we were about to leave the basement, I noticed a bright light in the previously dark neighbor room. There was a tube of light falling into the room through a ventilator hole. Within this tube, you could see fluctuations between the light rays and the denser remains of smoke from the ritual.
It was a mystic experience. I called the others to come back into this “initiation chamber” in the basement of Master Mountain.
It immediately reminded me of the ancient initiation chamber at the top of the Extern Stones in North Germany, where the candidates received the Light on summer solstice only. The chamber was later destroyed by Christians wanting to eliminate heathens’ sacred places.
This “initiation chamber” at Master Mountain is probably only “open” during the time around winter solstice, and we happened to witness it because we were there at this time of the morning, at around 7:50 am, after the fire ritual.
Soon afterwards, the pillar divided into two, because of the ventilator hole. The sun moved away from this position and the pillar disappeared. It was a group experience, which we shared all together as a gift of the Sun.
In the afternoon, we went for a walk through the nearby tea plantations. There was a big wave of clouds coming, covering the Mount, and later also the retreat center for a moment. When looking at the mount, it appeared as if seeing the great Rishi Agastya, regarded as an expression of Shiva, facing north-east, looking at a Shiva lingam.
