Since one week we are now in Visakhapatnam for the seminar on „Pruthu – The First King of the Planet“. The story which Sri Kumar is commenting is from the Bhagavatam Purana. Often his talks contain interesting hints to situations people here were just experiencing. Tuesday morning there was the Capricorn full moon fire ritual; Thursday morning the weekly fire ritual – these are always very uplifting ceremonies.
Here are some lines from the beginning of yesterday morning’s lecture:
“I hope that now that you can comfortably enjoy here. There were changes of food, of residence. By the time you feel well you are back to Europe. The seers don’t stay more than three days in a place. In three days the mind, the senses and the body settle down at a place and finds comfort and then the senses also find comfort and then they get accustomed to it. And then the body looks for a bedroom and gets stuck to the bed. First, second, third day not, and then it is comfortable. Not that it is comfortable but it has adapted. After three days you get localised, put roots. The seers therefore say, we don’t stay anywhere more than three days because they know they get stuck very easily at a place. They understood the quality of the earth with its attraction. If you stay longer you form a habit. Therefore they do not stay more than three days so that they do not get localised.
When we feel very uncomfortable – there are many people who feel very uncomfortable when they have to move. But they get stuck. Discipleship is a practice of delocalising yourself. If at Barcelona you may not feel like moving out of Barcelona, in Münster, it is so comfortable to stay there. This kind of localisation has its own limitation. Brother Navaneetham can explain it better. Brother Navaneetham is the best example of localisation; he never got out of India. He should be able to see what exactly caused the localisation. He has not much traveled. Saturn itself is a localising planet. He causes the localisation. Now you are already here from three0th December night – four nights you have attended, so you get localised. Better you dematerialise the place so that you don’t develop roots around. There is a saying in Sanskrit: Man is better off by movement. If he does not move he gets stuck and then he loses the globalness….
Where you see many ways of variation you know that there are thousand ways of living. For an Indian to be outside of India he is totally upset when there is no Indian food. Likewise you stay in Germany or Spain. The material part of the being always looks out for rest. If you are daily sit in a personal chair, one day when someone else sit there you get upset. You are accustomed to it. In a matter of four days such a settlement get sedimented. The muddy water in a glass keeps on settling itself. Likewise we encounter localisation. This one has to overcome. We have to settle in Brahman and not in anything else. Our abode is Brahman, then there is no further place, no further localisation.
Yesterday afternoon we went to Ramadri, a beautiful place overlooking the Bay of Bengal. There the WTT has developed a stony hillslope over the years into a beautiful garden with many little temples, a free Mithila school for children of the fishermen colonies and a “Gosala”, a place where cows are maintained with a sacred attitude. The milk is used for the calves, the children and temple rituals. Ramadri is a place of vibrating spirituality.
After going through the different places of the site we gathered in the little amphitheatre, where the children of the school presented to us recitations of mantrams, hymns and things they have learnt. Furthermore, some children presented traditional dances.
Sri Kumar with his daughter Shanti and children of the Mithila school of Ramadri
Afterward the Master spoke about the service activities done at Ramadri, which is also called “Hamsavanam”, the Swan of the pulsation of life.
“Ramadri is a fivefold service center – serving the earth, the plants, the animals, the humans and the Devas. Service in health and education, uplifting the poor to better conditions, transforming the hill-slope. A small but effective team of workers took charge of this work under the chairmanship of Mr. and Mrs Murthy with the help of children. Every Thursday bananas are offered, from the banana trees around. Where there is offering without expectation it is an act of goodwill. There is transformation through meditation, sharing of wisdom and charity activities. Here we have a very clean view of the ocean. The sound of the waves brings the sound of OM…”
After the evening prayer the group returned to Visakhapatnam.
