Adyar, Sunday 17 November 2013

Broken Big Tamarind Tree

Adyar, Sunday 17 November 2013

Foundation Day was celebrated today in the afternoon at 5.30 pm. There is a full moon and festivities make lots of cracking noises of the firework. The lecture in the Great Hall was delivered by a Chief Justice, who was extremely well informed about theosophy, but said that it was the first time he came to the TS Estate at Adyar. Then there was beautiful singing and the about one hundred attendants could lay flowers before the images of the founders.

Speeches in the Great Hall at Foundation Day Celebration

The TS Presidential election battle has really started with incredible ferocity.

There is coming about a new order in the TS Head Quarters at Adyar, now that the president has died. Everybody is anxious to know who the nominees for the election of the new President will be.

These will be known by 11 January 2014 and the elections will take place consequently during 15 weeks after that date. So the news will be known by the end of April 2014. The new President will take up office one month after that, by the end of May 2014.

For the convenience of the nominators and the voters, we publish an Excel sheet in which the candidates for president can be evaluated.

Evaluation Sheet for TS Presidential Elections

The figures are to be considered as examples only

The water wells have been cleaned at very short notice, so there will be clear water during the convention in December.

Today a big tamarind tree has fallen over the road in Adyar HQ estate near the post office. It will take several days to remove it completely.

On Thursday, we ordered an all-in one printer, which should have arrived on Saturday. Today the printer has not been delivered by the Internet shop yet, because of the heavy rain during the weekend.

Mattresses have arrived and the servant to help clean the house will come in due course.

The place here is still wonderful, when we come out of the house in the morning it is a bit chilly with moisture damp in the air, which is giving a magical atmosphere all around and makes one think about the “Mist of Avalon”.

The weather is not to be considered as hot and temperature at 8 p.m. is inside the house is 27° C. It feels rather cold, but that is because the physical body must have adjusted to the tropics after the heat we had to go through in the months of May and June.

During the evening study group in the Great Hall, where the symbols and images of the world’s religions are figuring on the walls, with the word Theosophy at the highest and centrally dominant position, the Director of the School of the Wisdom has given an explanation on the teachings in the booklet “Light on the Path”.

The commentary on the second sutra “Kill out ambition” says that ambition is the first curse. This is because it is an expression of selfishness. In the Diagram of Meditation by HPB it is said, that one has to begin with conceiving of Unity by expansion in space and infinity in Time. Further that if there is perpetual presence in imagination of all space and time, the memory of universality will result is absence of fear. See the Diagram of Meditation by H. P. Blavatsky.

One of the members of the study group drew the attention to sutra four of the booklet Light on the Path which gives the paradoxical koan that one has to be without ambition, but work like those who have ambition.

Radha’s 90th birthday was on the 15^th of November. She was born in Parsi Quarters on the TS-estate here at Adyar.

We are so busy with all sorts of administrative and establishing house activities, that we almost loose track.

The walks to the beach in the morning and evening are a welcome interruption in the busy flow of events.

Adyar Beach

There is much rain at night, in the morning and in the evening. By some kind of miracle it stops raining when we have to go to the dining hall for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Work load becomes bigger and bigger and we should do more hours. The colleagues remain very cooperative. In the afternoons we sometimes have a long siesta.

The Adyar Lodge annual meeting, which was held in the Blavatsky Bungalow on Saturday, was finished within about half an hour. This is very efficient and well prepared work. The lodge has about 700 members, out of which number only some 16 attended the annual meeting.

We met two people when we were on our way to home after the meeting and invited them for tea. We now have a sitting room with arm chairs and a coffee table. The latest news was exchanged. Wi-Fi is supposed to be dangerous for human health and in Australia there seem to be places where it is replaced by cable connections with many hubs.

We were informed, that on 21 November 2013 a memorial event will be organized at Kalakshetra, which is a Dance School Theatre where normally several hundreds of people can admire traditional Indian dance performances. The movie “The River” will also be shown.

That’s all for this week,

Bye,

Brooder

Adyar, Sunday, 10 November 2013

 Borobudur

Adyar, Sunday, 10 November 2013

This was a day of rest and conversations with the newly arrived participants of the School of the Wisdom, which will start tomorrow morning. The garden department has been cleaning the wild undergrowth around our house, during the last few days. This was to be done for the occasion of the Convention, explained one of the workers.

There were a TOS and a Madras Theosophical Federation meeting in the afternoon with a presentation on shamanism after these meetings.

During the morning walk some 14 days ago, there was again the man followed by a man with a rifle gun and this time it was an automatic weapon similar to a Kalashnikov. The rest of the week, we did think we saw the same man walking without a body guard. Hopefully someone has brought a sense of proportion to the mind of the walker.

The last weeks, we see fireflies under the trees in the darkest part of the way back from the dining hall not far from our house.

It is a busy time moving to a new house and doing a new job.

The drinking water bottle of 20 lit. was commanded by our new colleague, as the man answering our phone call just let the line go silent. The bottle should have been delivered at 8 pm, but was delivered at the house of the neighbor at 7 pm, who did not have to pay as he was told, that the bill would come later.

One morning the young dog, who sat under our chair in the Great Hall was lying under a desk at the Treasury. We joked, that it had been born near the Bookshop last winter and had probably had enough of the books and went straight for the money, this time.

Ants are still everywhere on the porches and in the kitchen. They are speeding along their highways and sometimes carrying an egg in their mouth.

The IPF Conference:

During the cremation of our beloved president we were with an Indian delegation of about two dozen delegates at the Indo-Pacific Federation's Conference in Bali, Indonesia. On 1 November it began with an opening ceremony at 5 pm. There were about 90 participants. Originally we were checking in with 16 delegates at Chennai airport, but four of us (Secretary, Vice-president, his wife and The Editor) had to go back after the check-in, because the sad news came, that Radha had died while we were on our way to the airport. At the opening of the Convention on Friday afternoon some of the speakers have given short testimonies of their encounters with Radha. These were very to the point and greatly appreciated by the delegates.

Delegates at Indian Pacific Theosophical Conference 2013 - Bali

Meditation in the group of more than 50 people was very special experience.

There were talks by Ravi Ravindra about Actorless Action, by Linda Oliveira about Discovering the Diamond, by Chong Sanne about the History of the Theosophical Society in China and by Vic Hao Chin about Mainstreaming Theosophy.

On Sunday we went to Borobudur on Java. Most interesting but fatiguing experience. We missed the last visit to the Parabrahman Temple, because the rain had started to pore down. The Buddhist initiation mountain Borobudur had lost its power and there were only stones reshuffled by the restaurationnears financed by the UN. It was as touristic as the Sacré Coeur in Paris with lots of too pro-active souvenir sellers. Compared with Avalon it was nothing but dead matter. The UN had even put slabs of lead in horizontal layers under the stones to prevent influx of water. At the lower levels many stones had been heaped against the vertical sides of the terraces to prevent them from sliding down the hill.

We did not go on the temple tour excursion, which was in the program for the next day of the conference, but had a morning of rest and an afternoon of work. After some exercise of swimming, and reading a book, we were back to normal again. We had dinner with two other delegates, one who had stayed to organize a trip to another quieter island after the conference and the other, who came back from the temple tour without having had dinner. At about ten or eleven in the evening there was several times a tokèh bird just above our head making its call with very loud voice. We wondered what significance the presence of that bird might have.

On the last day of the conference there were many warm contacts with people we had met before and some new contacts with people we met for the first time. The laptop was put to use for another delegate to communicate with family.

There were interesting talks by Pedro Oliveira on TS & the Social Media, by Ravi Ravindra about Mindfulness in Action and Mindlessness in Love, and by Isis Resende about Theosophy in Brazil.

In the evening of the last day of the conference, we had dinner on the beach and witnessed there a real Balinese dance performance of the Ramayana. We saw a very thin slice of the moon just before it would be new with the round sphere if its night side against the dark sky.

The next morning we had a swim in the sea and the pool before going to the airport. From midday till midnight the travelling kept us busy and being part of a group helped a lot to make the experience an agreeable one.

It was very good to be back in the HQ at Adyar, where there is no atmosphere of tourism and money making.

Happy, healthy and in peace, yes.  At occasions, people say even, that we are very lucky here. The handbag, which we had forgotten in the taxi, when we arrived in Adyar just after midnight, came back to us the same morning.

Today we got our first consolidated bill, which is like a tip. The servant said that we should call her by the first name and not address her as madam. All three meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner are at the very modest price of not even one euro per day.

People are beginning to arrive from abroad. Dinner time has been set at 6 pm again because the monsoon period is over. On Friday we heard for the first time again the sounding of the gong by the cook Moni. We had at our table three from India, one from Norway, one from Iceland, two from Bolivia and one from Australia.

The election fever begins to rise and we receive information, from which one might conclude that there seems to be a lot of pushing and pulling before the start of the race in order to get a good position.

On Saturday 9 November 2013, a memorial was organized in the Great Hall for the deceased President of the TS, Radha Burnier. Messages from abroad and from India were read out by respectively the International Secretary and the General Manager. Condolence speeches were delivered and several speakers could express themselves each one during two minutes. After that there was a beautiful chant by the General Manager followed by the putting forward of flowers before the portrait of Radha by those present, who felt like paying respect to her in this way. For us this was a special event, because we had never before lived through this ritual except the one done before the portrait of A. Besant on the 1^st October 2013. 

The positioning of the flowers before the portrait from our two folded hands at the heart chakra really gave rise to an strong feeling of affection towards the deceased, which was much more intense than we had expected.

Bye for now,

Brooder

Tuesday 5 November 2013

The President of the Theosophical Society, Radha Burnier died on Thursday 31 October 2013 round 9 p.m. after respiratory problems were diagnosed by her doctor round 3 p.m. 

She will be missed by all of the members. 

May her soul find peace and light.

(Portrait by courtesy of S. Ramu and Neeta Argawal)

Adyar, Sunday 27 October 2013

Path along the Adyar River

 

Adyar, Sunday, 27 October 2013

The theme of the Convention, which is to be held at the last week of the year, is “New Mind for New World” and the theme of the Symposium is “Regenerating Wisdom”.

These days are too short for us to keep up with the new pace.

Today we studied in the book “Supernormal” by Dean Radin.

It was a rather cloudy day and this evening there came a thunder storm with rain pouring down. The electricity was gone several times for some minutes, but as soon as we had lit a candle the electric light came back again.

We did not go to the beach in the morning, but were on time for breakfast at 7 a.m. House cleaning has begun and was done by ourselves as we are used to. This made us think about what the colleagues told us forty years ago, that we should engage a maid and a gardener, because there was so much unemployment in the country.

We did some laundry and hung it to dry in the dressing under the fan. The weather is so humid, that outside it would take too much time to dry. We shall do the ironing ourselves as we already have been doing lately.

There were lots of stains of paint and cement on the beautiful bathroom tiles, which we managed to scratch off with the little knife for pealing potato’s and cutting vegetables that we brought from our home country to India. We mopped bathroom and also the dressing room with the laundry water and regretted not to be able to avoid eliminating a number of ants. Because of the rain, they are still moving around and appear to relocate their nests, as we saw them walking with eggs in their mouths. One seemed to have lost its way on the work tablet of the kitchen. A few days later we saw, that there was an ant’s highway in the corner between the kitchen tablet and the wall. They come in at one side on this tablet in the corner of the kitchen walls and leave through the hole in the tablet and the wall at the other side of the kitchen, leading to the outside, where the gas containers for the kitchen probably are supposed to be situated. In front of the front porch they also are reallocating and carrying eggs from one side of the house to the other.

They are gradually moving out of those parts of the house where we are giving them signs of habitation. The bathroom, the bedroom and the kitchen are practically abandoned by them, but they still vividly remain active coming in and out of the doors and windows with their very busy colons most of the time marching further along in the corners between the walls and the floor in the living and the dining room. What exactly they are foraging is not too clear. One thing is sure, it cannot be water. They are actually still coming into the kitchen through the window and go out through the hole in the other wall, which is obviously for the gas tube. The rain, which falls especially during the night, might pose them more relocation problems than we are encountering ourselves.

Ahimsa and karma were discussed during the study group this week and it was said, that one man, when he asked the Buddha, why he had such a severe skin disease, was told that in a past life he had burnt numerous ants in the pieces of wood, which he had thrown into the fire. So we try not to kill them or the mosquito's, but it is not always evident to us, that we have to be attentive and wait to do the cleaning until the ants are gone. By the time we take the shower while we are preparing and after brushing our teeth, usually all the ants have left, except for one or two of them, who were too slow anyhow and who’s survival or not does not really have an influence on the survival of the group soul as a whole. 

  

We sleep without problems in our new residence, which has not been occupied for a long time. It will take a few weeks and may be several months to put everything in a better order there. It was built by the aunt of the president in office to date, who was married to the third president. Maintenance has to do a lot of repairs and adjustments to make the house look pretty again, like it must have, when it was built very modern some 75 years ago. This will not be easy, because the head of maintenance does not come every day and there appear to be not enough skilled workers to do the job. As an example, the man in charge at Maintenance told me that there are 100 houses on the compound, for which there is only one carpenter. This week, maintenance came quickly to replace the shower head, which was completely rusted. The house needs some attention, but is basically good. All iron rusts very quickly, because we are so close to the ocean. Now the bathroom is beginning to shine again as it should. The radiation has to begin in the center. Some time ago we read in a publication, that it takes the photons, which have been created by fusion inside the sun, about one million years to come out from the center to the surface, where they take off at the speed of light. There must be an awful lot of Higgs-boson particles keeping them so long inside. And do they have the speed of light while inside the sun for one million light years?

The first visitor came for tea in the afternoon, which was a good reason to sweep the front porch and bring some order in the house. Our discussion with him about the apes descending from man was reopened and we shall have to find the American Scientist article of some four years ago about the genetic DNA proof of this theory to show and try and convince him. He said he had found on Internet the other articles, which we also had seen, about theories based on bones, which were not convincing.

We stupidly did not answer the question about the origin of life in the right way according to the Theosophical Teaching and only said that the man of the first race on the first globe of the first round was a being of spiritual fire. We should have added that these first men were the Lunar Pitris left over from the preceding planetary manvantara of the Moon’s planetary logos.

The Madras Theosophical Federation had organized a talk by a journalist on the election systems in India and the UK. It seems that the time is coming for change in the system, as the majority of the voters do not see themselves represented in parliament. Astonishing fact is, that more than 55% of the Indian parliamentarians are multimillionaires with + 2.5 crores or more, if our memory from the talk serves us right.

Today we took pictures of the path along the Adyar River, which is in the process of being made better accessible, straightened out and cleaned up by the men of the subcontractor working for the Garden Department.

We have to find a printer and a filing cabinet. Printer can be bought on Internet, but the furniture should in principle be available at the compound.

The monsoon now has really started It has been raining every night, sometimes until ten in the morning. 

There was a funeral of one of the workers, who expired Sunday afternoon last week. The procedure was almost the same as in our country of origin, except, that what is done there in three to five days here is achieved within 24 hours after the event of death.

We removed all our possessions from the room in LBC to the house of residence with the help of one of the colleagues and his car. Altogether it took about half an hour.

Work is a satisfactory occupation and we have to discipline ourselves not to become a workaholic, like our predecessor who seems to have been combining many functions. We should delegate and obtain an overview of what is happening and decide what is important and what is not. We discover the way the system has been put in place and try to follow in the steps of our predecessor. It is nice to be busy again. Business is very similar to what we were used to before our retirement, so we are developing the necessary confidence to go for the long haul and try to gradually improve during each cycle of activities.

Internet is working in the new residence, but still no Skype with the family and friends. We have to make Skype appointments, like the neighbor at LBC usually does.

Someone said that the president was not well on Monday, but at twenty minutes to three that same day we saw her going in the direction of her office in the service car.

One day the service provider for our Internet connection sent us a message on the cellphone that we had to bring our visa papers and passport with a photo to their nearest shop in order to be able to maintain our Internet connection. One the way back from work, we got a lift in the company car as it is called here and could inform the president that we had moved to the new residence and had passed there a good night sleep. She inquired if we would continue to have our meals at LBC and we confirmed that we planned to continue to eat there and even our breakfast at seven o’clock on our way back from the early morning beach walk.

Wednesday there was a visitor from United Lodge of Theosophists, who also is vice-president of the International Theosophical Conference. Gene Jennings is his name and he visited the TS Head Quarters at Adyar for one day only. He had a quick tour organized by the Theosophical Publishing House, on which he visited the President, the Library, Leadbeaters Chambers and Head Quarters Building. In the evening there was a meeting on the subject of Theosophical Organizations in history. Very lively discussions with some 20 people present. After a short introduction on the different theosophical organizations from the past, like Plato, Pythagoreans, Phylatheleans of Ammonius Saccas, Jacob Boehme etc., an exchange of opinion took place. During the discussion, which lasted almost one hour, the subject ranged from the existence of elementals to the beginning of the sixth root race. Opinion was expressed, that there is no scientific proof for existence of elementals on the physical plane. Others stressed, that with will power one could accelerate the development of one’s spiritual consciousness. Also was emphasis laid on the teaching, that study and knowledge alone do not lead to spiritual growth, but that leading a life of service does have as result, that one becomes wiser and more compassionate. If we have understood him well, Gene spoke about power of the mind and awareness mirroring spirit in matter and fusing into oneness of consciousness. From his words it was clear, that he had read many theosophical works. His best one-liner is that he experienced the reading of the Secret Doctrine as reading poetry. This is a not so often heard appreciation of the Magnum opus of H. P. Blavatsky, which many theosophists might consider worthwhile to be reflected upon, at least. Communication between the East and the West is not easy, because the words used are not having the same meaning and the accentuation and pronunciation of the same English language are making it sometimes almost impossible to really understand the essence of what the other person wants to communicate. The same goes for communication between the different disciplines of science, philosophy and religion. When the scientist stated, that there exists no scientific proof for the statement, that there are elementals living in the physical world, the president of the lodge replied, that it therefore is the task of the scientist to find such proof.

We have a company vehicle, which was written off in the books of the department and are thus at risk of becoming involved in the rat race here. We should probably have to limit the use of the vehicle to occasions, which will take us outside the compound.

The subject of the evening study group is very interesting as we have begun with the book “Self Study” by I. K. Taimni, which starts with an explanation of the principal theosophical teachings. On these there are obviously different interpretations. One filibuster with Stentor’s voice ventilated the opinion, that plants do not have a soul or consciousness. We quickly threw in the short line “Everything is Consciousness”. It is sleeping was the riposte. So a sleeping man or animal would not have a consciousness? We could not pose this question, because others also protested.

Then there was the obligatory discussion about vegetarianism. It appeared once more that the concept of “ahimsa” or non-violence cannot be understood by those, who really are unwilling or not ready to try and change their diet.

After the study there was a conversation with an aspirant, who did not understand what we said about the multiple universes above and below in unlimited space. So it is better to be silent and try and understand what exactly is happening.

The Laundry man has billed us for one T-shirt too much for the second last service, which we received this week. We on the other hand had counted one towel too much for the last service, which we had already given for collection at Leadbeaters Chambers, last Saturday, when the Laundry man had a punctured tire and therefore did not deliver as promised. This time he promised again to have the laundry cleaned and ironed on Saturday, what did not happen, because it was raining too much again. It keeps pouring down during the night, so in the morning we do not always feel like going for a nice beach walk, but stay in bed as long as possible.

We have been invited to give several talks. We are surprised and humbled by the great honor bestowed upon us. Please let inspiration come and override our senseless daily life of leisure and luxury here in the incomparable beauty and serenity of the TS Headquarters at Adyar.

Yesterday after dinner on the way to the beach we met three participants from the Study Group, who were just discussing the possibility that we could publish a photo of the path along the river, which recently has been cleaned by the Garden Department from rubbish and undergrowth.

And that was the week that was again.

Bye for now,

Brooder

Adyar, Sunday, 20 October 2013

Visitors at the fallen tree on Bakrid holiday

Adyar, Sunday, 20 October 2013

The weather at the beginning of this week was extremely wet and warm, so we were wearing a completely soaked shirt, when we came home after going to the shops one afternoon, even while it did not rain one drop.

The monsoon has begun, though, and rain is falling during the night till just before breakfast. Today between one and two o’-clock in the afternoon, when we sat on the terrace behind the room, we had to put on a long sleeved shirt over our T-shirt, while it was just about the hottest time of the day. The sky was cloudy, there was a wind coming from the sea and the temperature came down to about 27° C.

The cat has moved her three kittens from the basement under the dormitories to just outside the wall of the restaurant. There the overhanging roof and a small building standing at about one meter distance were protecting her nest rather well from the rain and possible attacks of predators. In the evening she also got more attention from the kitchen staff, who moved the three kittens inside the wall of the dining room, which obviously is a much safer place.

Since a few days a monkey is looking at our bananas, while it is sitting on the roof of the kitchen building or sometimes even on the wall around the restaurant. It might be interested in the kittens.

Monday was a perfect day of rest and new beginning. Astrologically we are still in the sign of Libra, which is usually connected with Venus, the Greek and Roman goddess of love and art.

Giving in to the natural reaction to rest when we felt tired has resulted in a good state of health. It is all in the mind, and after resting and feeling better again, we even could do our meditation exercises. We sometimes had the impression to have experienced a little progress in the techniques taught to us last year. These were from the book with comments on the Yogasutras of Patanjali by I. K. Taimni, which was studied during the School of the Wisdom 2012 conducted by Mr. Yayaswal.

We had to go into town in the afternoons to buy some household things as soap, broom, buckets, mop, dust bin, towels, drinking glasses, plates, spoons, battery charger, multiple electrical sockets connector, padlocks, bed covers and extra mosquito nets for single beds, just to mention a few. All the shops are at walking distance. We also had to recharge the pen-drive modem. We have to buy almost everything a normal household collects in the course of the first weeks of settlement. Coming back from the shop with some buckets and towels in our possession, we met one day with visitors, who were admiring our house and seemed to know who had lived there more than half a century ago. We invited them to see the inside of the house and especially the women were happy to be able to admire the place.

For the price of the equivalent of about 14 euros we bought two new shirts with short sleeves and a pair of trousers, because for the few clothes we have, it takes them rather long to return from the Laundry Department. In the shop nobody spoke English and on top of that we had to try on the trousers while we were standing behind a counter at the back of the shop and three salesmen were smiling and joking. Our shopping thus becomes a pleasurable intermezzo for the shopkeepers and the foreign client. “Where are you from”, they asked and our reply was without hesitation that we were from India. They laughed and we explained that we are resident with an employment visa. Then one other client took out his agenda with a world map in it and asked us to point out where our country was situated on his map. Everybody was very joyful and happy about the encounter and about the business being done of course.

One day on our way back we met a person, who was eating a banana while standing with his driver in front of the fruit stall, where we bought four oranges for 35 rupees, the equivalent of 40 euro cents. He enquired about our origin and we replied with information about our birth place. He appeared to be very interested in Theosophy and had come from Bombay to Chennai to buy books at Adyar Bookshop. After an inspired talk about Arhat Yoga, pranic healing and healing religions in general, we exchanged telephone numbers.

These days we started at 5.30 a.m. with consumption of an orange. Then there was the beach walk at round six o’clock and afterwards before breakfast some time for meditation exercises. A few people sit in meditation posture or do yoga- and pranayama exercises on the dunes and at the beach.

In the evenings we usually study and drink a cup of herb tea before going to bed at about 9.30 p.m. One day we went to bed at almost quarter to eleven and thus much too late.

Last Sunday, there was a TS Lodge meeting in our home town of origin and we were informed by e-mail that it was a success, because there were exactly the ten people present and necessary to start a healing group. Some of the members had wanted to start a healing ritual, which they had attended almost every month for a long time already at the TS in another city. Now they shall be able to start such a group under the guidance of the person, who is organizing the ritual. Although rituals are not necessary for spiritual growth, they can be of great help for those who are used to them. This particular exercise is destined to be practiced by TS lodges and seems to harmonize the group of participating members. During dinner we discussed the item with our neighbor and we agreed that practically everything in human life is ritual.

On Monday evening, we went to a good-bye party organized by one of the colleagues for the colleague who is leaving the workplace this Sunday. We spoke about our meeting with the person from Mumbai in front of the fruit stall. The colleagues present agreed that Arhat Yoga is practiced by many Indian Buddhists of to date.

Tuesday at breakfast there were three again. This time an old acquaintance from Hayderabath had come. He will join the party going to the Southeast Asian conference in Bali from 1 to 6 November.

We went to the Telephone Company on the back of a motorcycle again. The driver was 45 minutes late and we thought that we really would have missed our lunch. To our surprise, the driver, working for the TS, was so keen on being helped as quickly as possible, that he managed to go to exactly that counter, where the clerk was so agreeable, that within fifteen minutes our application had been processed. We made the necessary payment and the driver would collect the receipt the next day. This looks like just another way of non-formalistic speeding up of administrative procedures to make the waiting time in the queue as short as possible. It must be an achievement worthy to be mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records.

Wednesday, it was bank holiday, because of Bakrid, a Muslim festivity, and not all the colleagues were there. In the TS compound a tree had fallen over the road and blocked it for traffic. Just as we had been wondering the last few days how all the motorized vehicles roaming about could be reduced in number. Now there were busloads of families, some of them obviously Muslims, visiting the place. They were so numerous, that a couple could wander till right under the middle of the big Banyan tree. The old lady from New Zealand, who has lived and worked here for more than 20 years and usually is walking alone, now was surrounded by more than a dozen curiously looking visitors, who seemed to enquire about her life here at the TS estate.

We ordered and received a 20 liter drinking water bottle for the new house, where we shall be moving in on Monday afternoon at 5 o’clock. That day we may have our dinner in the room at LBC, which will be practically emptied of our stuff by then, or take it in a carrier with us to the new residence.

The evening study group was usually with nine participants and has started with the book ‘Self Culture’ by I. K. Taimni. The 15 occult principles were reread several times and extensively commented upon. There was sometimes room for expression of different opinions, which is a reassuring thing. Listening and asking to repeat what was read or said are good signs of an open communicative atmosphere. Several times reference was made to various sources of theosophical teaching.

In the afternoons there were again lots of butterflies dancing around each other in the green boarders along the road and also above the road, sometimes interested in and flying during several paces in front of the walker.

At about 6 p.m. the last few days, there was a beautiful full moon to be seen from the beach, of which we took a lot of pictures one day with our cellphone, not too sharp, because of night vision, but rather moody. The other day, we were at the beach gate about ten minutes earlier than the day before and there was more daylight. The full moon was even more beautiful than the day before and we took some pictures with a camera.

On the 18^th October we were in India since one month again. It seems much longer as we are beginning to feel at home and appreciate the culture and organization of the international headquarters of the Theosophical Society. The work is close to our professional experience and should not pose too big a problem. This week we even appear to may have become a little bit productive.

One afternoon, when we were walking on our way back from the headquarters building, we saw two water buffalo's. These animals tend to move about very slowly all over the place and are normally in a group of about six. They were grazing the lawn in front of the main building.

With several colleagues we discussed the possibility of a project aimed at organizing academic studies in the form of a Faculty of Comparative Study of Religion, Philosophy and Science, like the one we ourselves have been studying at for five years in our country of origin. They all were demonstrating a favorable attitude to the idea. Such a Faculty could easily be run by the Theosophical Society at the existing facilities. The teachers would have to be representatives from the different religions, philosophies and sciences and would not earn a salary or honorarium. This sort of academic studies would be meant for students, who have finished their education at secondary schools like the Olcott School and are interested in continuing their academic studies in accordance with the second objective of the Theosophical Society.

 

Saturday there was another farewell party, now at the office, for the colleague, who we are replacing. There was music, snacks, tea, short speeches, jokes and a general feeling of departure. Monday he will be gone and, by coincidence or not, that is the day we shall be moving to our new residence here on the compound. When we were on the way out of the gate, the Telephone Company called for the installation of the connection. It came out, that a new line had to be laid, which is a major work, because the wiring has to go underground. We shall thus have to continue with the cellphone and the pen-drive modem, for the time being. Wi-Fi still appears to be a realistic option for Leadbeater Chambers, as it has been planned to be operational during the Convention and may be during the School of the Wisdom.

That was the week that was,

Bye for now,

Brooder