Sunday morning, 1 January, the Western group met with Master Kumar and members of the brotherhood of Visakhapatnam at Sundavaram, the site with statue of Master EK at the beach road, for morning prayer followed by a talk of the Master in Telugu with a “New Year” message and a breakfast. Among other things, Sri Kumar pointed out that there can be several beginning of a new year but the first of January is not a date marked by planetary or cosmic rhythms but given by a Roman emperor.
In the evening the seminar on “Citizen” started. The human soul is compared to a citizen, an indweller in the body. The city is no other than the human body: “The human body is by far the most beautiful form that is conceived by the third Logos in cooperation with the second Logos called Vishnu and the first Logos called Shiva.” The story gives the adventures of the soul which takes hold over the body and gets lost in it, in objectivity, and Master Kumar will speak about it during this seminar.
Wednesday, we went on a trip to the Anantagiri Mountains about 100 km from Visakhapatnam to visit the Borra Caves, a system of huge caves where there are some natural Shiva lingams in a mountain range. After leaving the city the road slowly climbed up the hills and we had beautiful sights over rice fields and mountain. After 2.5 hours we arrived at the caves. We had already been there nine years ago. On the way to the cave a group of monkeys was playing – and waiting for tourists to catch some eatables. A huge hole was like the gate to the netherworlds, from where a staircase lead into the first cave. It made me think of entering a giant skull. There was hole at the top from where light came in (the Sahasrara) and the entrance reminded of the Ajna center. Deeper down a bridge was leading over a gorge to a mountain inside the huge cave with a small cave. Inside, there was a natural Shiva lingam and some pictures of the Divine illumined by an oil lamp. A priest blessed us with a red brow mark.
Still deeper down at the end of the second cave we gathered to sing 21 times OM – a majestic feeling of penetrating the the surrounding matter by the rays of the spiritual light.
Later we went to a village named Araku for lunch. A member of the WTT had invited the group to this beautiful place with a tourist resort. Some musicians with flute and drums and a group of lady dancers in rose sarees came for a traditional local dance. They were inviting the onlookers to join them, and so I was whirled around for one round before getting back to the “role of an observer”.
It was already about 8 pm when we came back to the Retreat Centre.
Thursday morning the Master and Kumari-Garu conducted a fire ritual in the basement of Radhamadhavam, the site of the World Teacher Temple, where the seminar takes place and where they are also living. Later the rhythm of seminar lectures and the consultations of the Master continued.
