Sunday, 26 May. The highway took us from Murcia through rugged and arid regions and slowly climbed higher and higher. We passed Granada and went over a mountain range up to 1400 meters. It was hot, but there were patches of snow on the mountains.
On the route to Cordoba, pink oleander bushes bloomed for long stretches on both sides of the road – it looked a bit like “Barbieland“. The temperature rose and the countryside looked desert-like; as we approached Cordoba, it was 35°C. It got even warmer over the next few days.
We arrived in the afternoon and stayed at the Hotel Delicias for the first two days. Late in the evening, part of the group members from Germany arrived and also the tour group with Guru Prasad, the son of Master Kumar. For Monday, the Spanish members had organised a guided tour to the old town of Cordoba and the Mosque-Cathedral for our group.
It was a very interesting 3.5 hs tour through the old Jewish quarter and the “Mezquita-Catedral” and the tour guide gave many interesting and humorous insights.
After the tour, the group met for lunch in a restaurant. In the afternoon, members of Cordoba group offered us a ride to the group center some kilometres outside the city. A surprise:
Through an avenue of palm trees we came to a beautifully arranged building surrounded by plants and flowers and a little fountain at the entrance.
It felt like being in an ashram. Inside, there were numerous objects of spiritual symbols and mandalas an artist-group member had created. The name of the group is Karuna_a – Karuna is a Sanskrit word for love and compassion. And the _a stands for anahata, the heart center.
The group gave us a warm welcome, sang some songs with vibrant dynamism and offered some sweets. You could feel a great commitment. Outside, the temperature had come up to 38 °C, but the many plants around the house created a cooler and serene ambiance.
Later, group members drove us back to the hotel – the impressions of the visit continued to resonate inside.
