Adyar, Sunday 13 October 2013

 IMPRESSIONS  OF  RELIGIOUS   FESTIVITIES  AT  ADYAR

  

Adyar, Sunday, 13 October 2013

The hurricane landed in the state Orissa in the North of India. A few days before its arrival, we had here stormy weather with rain. At 6.10 today, the gate to the beach was closed already and there was no guard to be seen. Because it was dark we had taken the flashlight with us but decided not to take the umbrella. This last decision turned out to be a mistake because on the way back we received a good shower and had to change clothes as soon as we came in the room.

This week, everything was going according to Plan. Today is the Sabbath day of rest and tomorrow there is a religious holiday, again. At 9.30 a.m. there was a Mahanavami Puja in the Library for Sarasvati, the goddess of science, study and wisdom. After the puja, which lasted for about half an hour, we received 'prasad', part of which was in a pocket made of newspaper. The pocket we received had as news that the oldest man on earth had died at the age of 112.

We should save more time to do the study in the book, of which we were asked to make a summary. At lunch today, there were five at the table, talking and exchanging views about religions, sects and cults. One of the locals said that today is one of the most important Hindu religious festivities. People should rest and not even read a book, but reflect on enterprises for the New Year, in the fields of science and study. Tomorrow, one could start studying again. This appears to be somewhat like the Christian festivities at Christmas and the end of the year. So today, we had a very long siesta after which we got up to write in the blog. There also is a Skype appointment at 5 pm. This is of course 5 pm in Europe and after dinner we shall have all the time of the world for it.

Monday morning, we finally received the keys of the house and had a look there, before going to work. It is perfect and only needs some refreshment of the paint. We shall get a telephone connection on the landline, which has a splitter for the Internet. 

Monday night, we went with six to the last day of the Ramayana presentation in the Egmore Museum Theatre. Afterwards we had dinner in the room again.

E-mail is working perfectly, when the laptop with the usb-modem is positioned on the small table against the back door of the apartment.

In the office we made good progress at getting the knack of the system. When we left in the evening, we addressed the boss in our own mother tongue, which was a very pleasant surprise for us and a clear sign that the assimilation is on its way.

The guest from Europe is very entertaining and good company as we can speak in her mother tongue. She will be here for one week only, but has plans to come to India for six months each year. We had a long conversation in the ambassador service car of the former Secretary on the way back from the theatre. The journey through town was experienced as completely normal and thus we might say that we are beginning to feel at home in this country.

Tuesday, the study group was with eight persons. We read the article by the International President of the TS in this year’s October issue of the Theosophist about the study of the Secret Doctrine. Maybe the group is going into the direction of studying the SD. We met in the house of one of the students, because there was a meeting of the TS Madras Federation going on in the Great Hall. Thus we sat on the bed, which had been made especially at eight feet length for a late president, who had been of somewhat taller physical proportion than normal. We were told that Mahatma Gandhi had slept in the house, which was built more than two centuries ago. The guest from abroad said jokingly, that if she had been told earlier, she would have kissed the floor at entering the house.

On Tuesday, the walk to the beach in the evening surprised us with a beautiful sharp first slice of the moon together with the evening star, probably Venus. The dunes before the beach are really clean and one suspects, that citizens have been collecting the rubbish from time to time.

We saw that our future house was being cleaned one afternoon. The supervisor told us, that the bed poles for the mosquito nets would be found and thus we went out to buy a mosquito net and pillows.

Wednesday, we gave a presentation on “Life and Works of Tsong Khapa” in the Great Hall of HQ Building, at 7 p.m. with beamer, laptop and microphone. Afterwards, we were told that it was better than the same presentation we gave in another country. This is a good sign, and might be the result of the fact that we are at the right place at the right time. There were some 45 attendants and after the show, a representative from another lodge asked if we could give the same presentation for them too.

Thursday, the weather was fantastic with heavy rain and thunderstorm during the afternoon. It was a rather busy day with activities in relation to house-keeping and telephone connection. The furniture will come and the head of department will have matresses made for us on the three beds. Some extra furniture would also be made available. He said that the water of the Administration Building was good.

Further there needed to be given a pass photo for Immigration Service in all cases of foreigners residing here on the compound. Same pass photo to be given to Telephone Company with photocopies of passport and visa registration to get a land-line for telephone and internet.

Friday we were so busy that we almost forgot to write in the diary.
We woke up at 5.45, went to the beach, had breakfast, went to the administration for formalities, went to the new house to see what was to be done, went to work, got instructed in the procedures there, wrote a business correspondence by e-mail, went for lunch, had short siesta, worked on internet for the private and the national section’s e-mail correspondence, where we saw that through Linkedin our niece has found us and told us, that she has given birth to a daughter, two weeks ago, went back to work, were further instructed and ate a sweet with a cup of milky wheat porridge with nuts and raisins for the occasion of the tenth anniversary of one of the cooks, enquired about buying the Secret Doctrine for our professor in France, got back to the dormitory and checked the e-mail again, went for dinner and fetched drinking water, went to the beach, where the guard just closed the gate twenty minutes before time and felt obliged to reopen it, because a walker came back from the beach and risked to be locked out, got out to the beach and had a look at the waves and the half-moon in a beautifully colored, sunset lighted sky above the dark green woods of the TS compound. The servants and the guards all want to go home before dark. It seems that they are really scared in the forest like surroundings here.

The last few days there were lots of butterflies dancing around the lush green park, where many flowers have appeared after the recent heavy rains.

Friday, the new guest from abroad was in the study group again, where we were with ten. On the way back we talked somewhat about altruism, the subject of the study and she would like to see the meditation Diagram of HPB, because we mentioned it in the context that all fear disappears, when one is connected to the center, which is everywhere. In the diagram it is formulated as “Conceiving of UNITY by expansion in space and infinite in Time, either with or without self-identification….With memory of universality all dread vanishes during the danger and trials of life.”

Saturday and today, the weather was strangely heavy, because there is a tropical storm in the neighborhood. The waves at the beach were enormous and making a loud roaring sound. There also is a flu moving around here, with very bad symptoms. We had belly ache for a few days already, especially after eating the sweets, so we held long siestas.

Yesterday night at seven we went to a house of one of the locals, where the ladies had organized a puppet exhibition. We received 'prasad' at the beginning, before entering the exhibition. Upstairs, there was a sort of shrine or showcase of more than a hundred old and new puppets or statues of gods and goddesses. The tradition wants it, that the statues of three main goddesses are exposed, Durga on top and a little bit lower Lakshmi and Saraswathi each at the side, during nine days, three days for each of the three goddesses. Many little statues of Ganesh, of other gods and even of Father Christmas were also exposed. The set up looked a bit like what is done at Christmas, when the statues of Mary, Josef, the child Jesus, the shepherds, the three kings etc. are shown in the little Christmas stall or stable near or under the Christmas tree.

We looked up on the Internet, what was to be found about the killing of the Tibetan monk Akong Tulku Rimpoche. It seems, that money and spiritual teaching do not marry too well. Now we understand even better why the TS is keeping the material aspect of its organization to a necessary minimum.

That was the week that was,

Bye for now,

Brooder

Adyar, Sunday 6 October 2013

ANNIE BESANT'S BIRTHDAY COMMEMORATION

                                              

Adyar, Sunday, 6 October 2013

Wi-Fi was installed in the office, this week, so the Internet connection there now is speedy and without further problems. Wi-Fi might also still be possible for LBC. There seems to develop a consensus that for the visiting delegates and student-colleagues at TS headquarters a minimum of acceptable working conditions has to be put in place without touching at the beauty of the compound’s natural environment.

This morning no beach walks, because we were too tired after some minor digestive difficulties during the night. We should go to sleep at nine instead of half past ten.

The newly arrived guest was even half an hour later at breakfast, while our neighbor had left for an early Sunday morning beach running with the school. They both looked fine, when they showed up later.

For the rest of the day we worked quietly on the Internet and did some e-mail correspondence. The presentation of coming Wednesday evening at Adyar Lodge was updated. One hour was left for study, while two hours were spent on siesta, after lunch.

Tonight we went from 5 till 8.30 to the Ramayana presentation. We had a late dinner in the room and shall try to go to bed as early as possible, because tomorrow at 8 o’clock we shall receive from the Housekeeping Department the keys of the house, where we shall be moving to shortly.

One day we missed the evening study group, this week. Instead of study, we had tea and philosophical exchanges of views with our neighbor. He had been to the Immigration Service for his visa extension and appeared to have come there one month too early. Some four documents still needed to be produced for his visa extension. While he was waiting, another person in the queue told him, that his case the whole file had been lost and that he had start from the beginning.

The mosquito problem of the neighbor appeared to be caused by a loose screen on one of the highest openings in the back of the room. The screen is hanging loose at only one corner and the mosquito's have free entry. Two days later, we put a chair on a table and fixed ourselves the mosquito screen in place with a pin before the opening in the outside wall near the ceiling at the back of the room instead of waiting for the maintenance to come and do the job.

First of October was the Annie Besant Birthday Commemoration Day, which gave rise to an event organized in the Great Hall at Head Quarters Building, from 8.30 till about 10 am. There were three speakers under the direction of the President and with the Secretary as ceremonial master. At the end, flowers were laid before a portrait of Annie Besant, which had been positioned in front of the statue of the founders HPB an HSO. Altogether it was a respectful happening with attendance of about 50 people. There was a university professor, who was well prepared in her eloquent speech. Of the other speeches one was by the new head of one of the departments, who is a soft and well spoke gentleman and the other by the daughter of another head of department.

In the evening we went every other day with a group to a Valmikir Ramayana declamation or presentation by a very good lecturer in the Egmore Theatre at one of the museums here in town. The name of the poet Valmikir actually means ant- or termite hill. In Tamil Nadu it is a habit, that during about a week or a ten day period round the new moon after the autumn equinox, which is in the present month of the local lunar calendar, the Ramayana is read by people sitting together in a group. Friday there is a holiday in this context, which is called Malaya Amavasi (Great New Moon).

Late one evening we had tea with the neighbor, who had digestive problems and also needed to use our laptop for his e-mail correspondence. At ten o’clock we called it the day.

Wednesday there was Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday and thus another holiday with time to set things right.

Later that day, we sat at the small table and chair on the terrace at the back of the room. We said hello to two colleagues, who were walking by on their way to the administration building, where also our neighbor had gone that day, to arrange for the necessary documents asked for by the Immigration Service. Internet connection is good outside the room and our e-mail correspondence and our flight booking for next year could be taken care of without any problems.

There were messages from different sections about their programs and about possibility that one might come to Adyar to attend the School of the Wisdom in January 2014.

Our colleague and predecessor at the work place has come at the end of the week to initiate us in the secrets of his profession. He is still in function till the 19th of the month, which gives us just two weeks to get familiar with the system.

The software used in the office has been put on our laptop in a tutorial version and the last few days we had already the opportunity start to accustom ourselves a little bit to the presentations on screen.

After the evening outings to the Egmore Theatre of the museum near the Harrows Road, where the story of the Valmikir Ramayana continues to be presented by Sri M. (Mumtaz Ali) of the Satsang Foundation from 6 till 8 pm we had a late dinners from carriers placed by the cook in our room. Sri M. seems to know a lot about the TS and to have done research into the origin of the Secret Doctrine and the Book of Kyo-Te where the Stanzas of Dzyan and the commentaries are derived from by HPB. He is said to conclude, that these books are of older origin than the Vedas.

Thursday, the day started with a beach walk, on the way back of which we encountered a gunman with a rifle, who was walking behind a citizen, obviously as body guard. During lunch we were told, that the man is a High Court Judge and that this gunman has been walking with him since three days.

This week, it was often raining in the afternoon and before going to the Telephone Company to buy the Wi-Fi for the office, we had to wait a while. After about half an hour we went on the back of the motor bicycle of our colleague through a beautiful green and wet town, where we had to avoid the many puddles of muddy water in the roads.

Friday there was again a holiday with lots of time to rest and catch up with all the e-mail correspondence. Our neighbor was still busy with the visa authorities at Indian Immigration, where he had to produce all kind of forms.

There was room cleaning with new bed sheets in the afternoon.

We could make the necessary payments on PC-Banking of the bank at home.

When walking to the Administration Building, we met the new manager of Leadbeater’s Chambers, who was helping a new guest to carry her bag to LBC and who replied to our question, that she would not come to the theatre that night.

When we returned from the shore on Saturday morning, we saw that the gunman was again walking behind the judge to the beach. There was a small crowd of about a dozen non-regular walkers tailing the escort to the sea.

We bought oranges one afternoon at the fruit stall outside the Green Gate. The shopkeeper had chosen four of the best oranges for us. We had gone out through the Front Gate to recharge the cellphone, to drink some watermelon juice and to buy bed sheets and pillowcases.

The weather was marvelous after all the rain, which had fallen the last two weeks. While walking, we slow down our pace to be able to better look around in the coconut plantation, where there are cows grazing. We sit down under the Ban Yan Tree, where we can see young squirrels eating something from under the leaves, while they are hanging upside down and going from one little branch or even twig to the other. The new head of the Garden Department is doing a splendid job and the looks of the site are becoming much better. One can see and appreciate, that someone is really caring and taking things in hand in a professional way.

Latest news is that all foreigners lodging at the TS have to be registered on line in the database of the Indian immigration service.

Bye for now,

Brooder

Adyar 29 September 2013

View of Octagone Building and Adyar River at TS Head Quarters

Adyar, Sunday, 29 September 2013

This morning on the terrace of our room, we managed to go on internet. After the usual e-mail exchanges, we read for two hours in the book “Supranormal” by Dean Radin, in which he is making the case for scientific acceptance of the existence of the siddhis. He is presenting it in a well-documented scientific way. All the references should be verified, though, and that is not a simple job. We were told at the ITC in Naarden, where we attended a presentation by someone about the research of Ian Stevinson that part of the study and research into the subject of reincarnation, to which Radin refers, was financed by Xerox and that it appeared that not all the evidence was as convincing as a scientist would have wanted.

Sitting on the terrace in lush green surrounding was a wonderful experience and we wondered, why not more students were allowed to have the same experience.

After lunch, a good siesta prepared us for the talk before the inter-lodge meeting. At tea time, the assembled crowd of more than 50 members could listen to the thoughts of a well prepared advaita scholar and retired policeman about ancient wisdom in modern times. Living the dharma is following the law and not being harmful the speaker said, so he included ahimsa in the idea of dharma.

This week, it has been difficult to go on internet. Some days it took till half past nine in the evening, before we could start to use our e-mail.

Konstantin replied to our question about Sundays, in which we said to have learned in school that the weekdays and the one day of rest were from ancient Indian origin, that HPB in Transactions (25.04.1889) asserts that 7 days week is of Indian origin.

It appears, that in December there will not be a Wi-Fi installed at LBC. Some-one had been busy talking and wishful thinking, while we were taking the utterances for factual statements.

Work is interesting and completely different from the control work we were used to. The colleagues try to come to positive, workable solutions to the problems, which we encounter together.

The evening study this week was with ten or more people, but not allways the same. We read chapters 4 and 5 of Practical Occultism, which has quotations from ‘Light on the Path’ and other works of Indian philosophy. The participants tried to link the theosophical teaching with the Indian philosophies. The reader said that in former days, the children in India used to be taught these teachings from very early age.

One evening there was an interactive Adyar Lodge meeting on the book “Practical Occultism” with some 16 people, which was very good. The moderator summed up the conditions for living the life of an occultist as given by H. P. Blavatsky, the result of which was a long list we could not remember. We shall have to look it up.

During another evening at the study group on the booklet “Practical Occultism” we witnessed an exchange of views about how one could become of service to one’s fellow workers. It appeared that the different personal kingdom builders were difficult to cope with. After that there was a more mellow conversation about the trip to the South-East Asian Theosophical Conference in Bali during the first week of November, when the participants would like to visit Borobudur. Our whole life we have wondered if and when we would see this extraordinary, world famous Buddhist Temple and now all of a sudden it is just happening, without any special personal effort, but as part of a group dynamic, which is taking form. Like the petals of a flower opening harmoniously in space and time. In this same spirit, yesterday one confirmed that the special psychic powers come naturally, when time is there. We should not force developments, but be aware of them as they take place.

Friday, there were about 14 people resent in the study group and the discussions were lively. Mostly it was about meditative life or living the life in the form of an altruistic prayer. There were two visitors, of whom one seemed kind of medium as he was at certain moment staring at the ceiling, while looking absent minded. For the rest of the time he participated actively in the discussions and said to have been meditating for some ten years. Best was to sit for meditation round three in the morning. This was confirmed by another person, who told a story about consulting a wise guru in the case of a sick child. He advised that the girl should meditate for half an hour at about three in the morning. We referred to the eightfold path of Buddhism, which leads to meditation. Further we said, that a meditative life begins with learning to meditate and that probably the easiest way to learn is to start at about three in the morning. This is the time, when the world is as quiet as can be. We made the comparison with learning how to write between the lines, while later the writing becomes automatic. So after learning how to meditate the meditative state becomes an automatic way of life.

Because the room we occupied has to be whitewashed and tiles have to be laid in the bathroom we had to move to another room, so we moved from Room 11 to room 10. These rooms are not situated next door to each other, but on different floors and at opposite sides of the building, which is more than 50 meters long.

We had felt the urge to move as quickly as possible, as soon as we came here last week, but the move to a permanent residence is for a later phase. It was good to experience though that the urge to move was about changing rooms in LBC. When we were told, that we had to move, we were not surprised. Except for the meals, the walks, the study and one visit to the International Secretary in the Administration Building, one whole day was taken by packing, moving and unpacking. The "green form" for moving house has not been signed yet. The General Manager said that the house will have to be cleaned thoroughly, because it is infected with ants.

In the new room, the electricity sockets are of the old model and the plug of our new water kettle, for which new sockets had been installed in some other rooms, did not fit. We managed to boil the water with a big one thousand watt boiler for heating laundry water in a bucket, which we had placed in a completely filled tea pot. Later an electrician fixed a new plug to the cable of the kettle.

The connection to the Internet works also in the new room, but we have to position the laptop with the usb-stick-modem either outside on the terrace or inside the room as far as possible towards the back door, which door would have been the front door in the earlier days, when the building was newly constructed and the dining room with a terrace overlooking the Adyar River were situated on the ground floor.

Walking after dinner is quiet and relaxing. Dinner though is in a hurry, because kitchen workers want to get home before dark. We work till almost five o’clock, have dinner at half past five and go to the beach before the gate closes at half past six, where the guard tries to close earlier, because he also wants to get to a safe place before dark.

We also saw another head of department, who is almost 80 years old and looked much better than in June. We had an exchange of views about how long he might continue to work here. May be he would like to stay as long as possible, he said, because he is here now since about ten years and has to decide if he would want to do something else.

The beach walk in the morning before breakfast is beautiful, when there are no clouds and one can see the sun rise. We should get up at five o’clock to be on time for that.

One resident told us today, that LBC will not stand another century, because the iron inside the reinforced concrete beams is rusting. The only and very costly solution would be to put up new beams fixed to the existing ones. That might be a scenario for the next generation in the year 2050 or so.

Yesterday we just had Tulsi tea with the neighbour, who was ill with digestive problems. He must have caught some bug during the holiday at the beginning of this week and his indisposition became worse during the last days. He had even skipped lunch, at which there was a tofu dish, with delicious sauce.

It has been raining during the night and some days even during the afternoon siesta. We did not hear it most of the time, because we still sleep like a rose, now on the matress which we have borrowed from a compatriot, who told us that we could have it temporarily, because he is not coming to Adyar for the time being.

The laundry had arrived and clothes for one week had been washed clean and ironed by the TS Laundry Department for a dazzling, subsidized price of less than one euro everything included.

The work was normal and most of the week we had internet access in the workplace, also with the usb-modem of another provider, which we borrowed from our neighbor at LBC, who has had to move rooms too.

On Saturdays work is only in the morning. We are slowly beginning to participate and share the responsibility with the more experienced colleagues. Next week there are just two and half working days (Monday, Thursday and Saturday), while the other three days are official holidays, one for Deepvaly and the other two for commemorating A. Besant and Gandhi. 

We have become associated member of Adyar Lodge by a procedure a little bit different from the one applied to our predecessor, who became president of this same lodge as soon as she had arrived in Adyar. But different tempora have different mores.

The pc is having access to internet again inside the room, and we should hurry to post the blog.

Bye for now,

Brooder

Adyar, Sunday 22 September 2013

The Bay of Bengal

Adyar, Sunday 22 September 2013

Last Wednesday at 3 a.m., we arrived at Chennai Airport in a barely half full airplane from one of the Gulf States. Being back in India was giving a surprisingly good feeling. People are friendly and helpful. The airport- and taxi-business are well organized.

In our apartment or student’s room at Leadbeater’s Chambers everything was in order and almost in the same state as when we left it three months ago. Some repairs of the doors have been done, which gave a good impression for the newcomer we are. The people at the Green Gate consider us to be a “regular”. When entering this morning through the Main Gate, there has been no delay, because as soon as the guard had recognized our face, the taxi driver could take his old-timer car further into the compound.

At lunch and dinner, there was some company to make conversation.

In the afternoon we went to say hello to the President and had an long conversation about our whereabouts, our Section and the TS in General. The president was appearing in much better physical condition than in June. She confirmed that she is working regularly in the office during the afternoons. She wanted us to go and work in another department and manage its financial administration. This is a more tangible position than the one we had in the department, where we were employed from November till June this year. So the next day we reported to work in this other department after a hello-goodbye visit to the colleagues at the old department.

Internet has been working every day, but sometimes the signal was too weak. After dinner, we just managed to download the software for the T-Classic disk, before the first study group started at 7.15 p.m. The good news is that LBC will have Wi-Fi, which is to be operational during the Convention, this year. Workmen are also busy to refresh the whitewash of the ceilings and walls in the rooms. New floor tiles are being put in the shower rooms and the woodwork will be repainted during the same exercise, which is to be finished before the Annual Convention begins at the end of the year. By 15 December, a new elevator should be installed at LBC and be operational.

These first days, we took a lot of rest by having siestas after the meals, except after dinner, when there is the study group. In the new department we have been introduced to the colleagues. A small two page description of the procedures has been made by the colleague, who left. Within two weeks, he will come back for one week to give us some explanation about the actual work. This seems just like being back in our old job again. The person responsible for housing shall see when we can move to our new house, though he said that nothing had been prepared for that yet. He has the age of 79 years, but he said that he feels like 25. We replied that we always feel like a 14 year old boy, who knows nothing of this big, wide world. 

During dinner our colleague told us about the visit of a man, who had been a successful investor and came to the TS in Adyar with the intention to help the Olcott School, where the colleague is teaching. The man has become member and wants to come to the Annual Convention in December. We promised to send our co-worker, who is living here at the dormitory, a copy of page 35 from the August Theosophist, where the conditions for participation at the Annual Convention are stated.

Getting up in the morning is very easy here, firstly, because every day before breakfast we make a walk to the shore of the Indian Ocean’s Gulf of Bengal and secondly, because we sleep here like a baby. When we shall have moved to our own house, we shall be able to make our own breakfast, which will be a little bit more like what we are used to, with fruit juice, yofu, muesli, nuts and fruits. On our lap-top the internet is working in the office and in the apartment. We have been updating the websites and going through the e-mails of the last several weeks, when we were preparing for our deep dive into this ocean of peace and harmony, which India seems to resemble to. 

Very much aware we are of the special grace we have received in being allowed and in having been given the opportunity to accept and live a considerable part of our life here in this special spiritual place.

Sunday, day of rest, was highly applicable today. Most of the time the internet connection did not work on our P.C., because if connected it usually said either “limited” or “edge”. We thought to have learned in school that the weekdays and the one day of rest were from ancient Indian origin. At lunch nobody could confirm this. So there definitively is a need for a more advanced study center here. If and when LBC will have Wi-Fi, we could look these things up a little easier than it is the case now. We met the new International Secretary in his office, today, where he was working with two assistants. Hopefully he will manage the business and the Convention will be a success.

This evening, luckily the internet connection worked and we could answer the e-mail messages from our home countries. 

Our colleague at the dormitory left, because there is an end-of-term school holiday of a few days and he was invited to go on leave with some of the other teachers. Temperature is of 30° to 31° C. and stays about the same during the day and the night. We managed to go to the shop today to buy the necessary toothpaste.

That’s all for now,

Mr. Brooder

Adyar, 16 June 2013

Adyar, Sunday, 16 June 2013

This week, we were down with a severe cold, but have been working on an article, which seems to have to be written. We missed two days at work, but were not the only one taking sickness leave.

Not much news from this sick man, except, that the article might be finished by the end of this month.

We have been resting a lot, during the time of which there was one dream staying in our consciousness. It was about the bibliographic database with citations on theosophical subjects. Someone really urged us to go ahead with it.

 

We have been working on a presentation on two great philosophers Anaximander and Tung Zhong-zhu.

The study group stays a good evening event, socially as well as for study.

For the rest we are becoming more and more familiar with the local culture, which has its peculiarities.  

Saturday, the boss gave us a booklet with commentaries on the Bhabavat Gita to read on the plane. Our cold was completely over. The siesta does good, if it is not too short.

The beach walk was a lot cooler and remarkably social as many hikers said hello, on Saturday. There was a school class at the beach playing cricket and Frisbee with one of their teachers.

We went to the internet shop because the modem was not working well. It functioned in the shop and also at home again. Seized the opportunity to buy oranges and had some orange juice for vitamin C.

As picture we chose the panoramic view of HQ Hall of the International TS here at Adyar made last winter by Richard Dvorak. See : http://www.panoramicearth.com/7661

We also put the photo of the beach cleaning party during the School of the Wisdom 2012, because this morning at about half past six, there were more than one hundred people cleaning the beach and dunes. A wonderful sight of commitment by the citizens of Chennai.

And that is all for the time being.

Good bye,

Mr. Brooder

Adyar, 9 June 2013

Buddhist stupa at TS campus in Adyar

Adyar, Sunday, 09 June, 2013

This week we could do some reading in old Theosophists on the TS website. Most of the issues are not available on the site, which is a pity, because if they were, there would be a large public who could read all these old issues, which generally keep their actuality.

We started to make a systematic footnote scheme for the thesis. First we made an excel sheet, but that did not have enough functions, then a table in word, which was much too small. At last we started a database. This is the best solution, but needs our self-training on the job, which is a task without end. We have started though and that is the most important step if one wants to arrive at a chosen end.

When we make progress even if it is just a tiny little bit, we have a general feeling of satisfaction and well being, which does give the worker some courage to continue. Also the health is becoming better.

On Monday at half past 3 pm there was room cleaning again and this time with water mopping of the floor.

At the after dinner study group sometimes there are eleven participants. That gives rise to somewhat more lively discussions. The participants were talking also about their health and one remarked, that workers at TS in Adyar are cared for so they do not fall ill.

We have conversations with our co-resident at LBC about that we have no urge to leave this place.

In the beginning of the week, the walk to the beach was very hot, because there practically was no wind. Later there was almost tropical rain and it became cooler.

On Wednesday there was office cleaning at the work place and we had to stay on the balcony. Thus we could have a social exchange of information with the colleagues, which was nice.

We work from 9 am till about 2 pm. One day after work, we went to the bookshop to buy “A study in consciousness” by A. Besant.

Another day began very warm and sweaty with now and then clouds. At work everybody was about half an hour later. In the afternoon we did some reading in “A Study in Consciousness” by A. Besant. She starts with a very summary of the beginning of a Solar System, as explained by H. P. Blavatsky in the Secret Doctrine based on the Stanzas of Dzyhan, and goes further in the traces of C. W. Leadbeater’s teachings on the Holy Trinity.

One day around four pm there was heavy rain pouring down for about half an hour or so. That was really cool and it stayed so the rest of the day and evening.

For most of the participants of the study group it is very intense to hear, that we have to give up all our personal interests and only be concerned with the suffering and needs of others.

At the end of the week, we had to go out of the campus to buy shampoo and to pay for the Internet connection. We had an orange juice in the fruit juice shop and bought a watermelon in the fruit stand in Besant Nagar.

After that in very sweaty condition, we managed to do just a little bit of study. During the day we also manage to do sometimes meditation with attention to the breath and concentration on the nose tip as advised by the Buddha. One does not look cross eyed at the nose, but it is with the attention of the mind that one remains at the nose tip. We have to tell one of the study group members about this, because this member complained about headaches caused by looking cross eyed at the nose tip.

Friday at 5 pm we went for a bath in the ocean again, which was a greater success that we expected, because without throwing us over the ocean let us calmly progress into the deeper water and we could have a real swim for the first time. The water current to the North was not too strong and by swimming against it with not too much force, we managed to come ashore some twenty meters upstream. The danger was therefore not too big, that day. The water comes very high on the beach, so we thought that it might be the New Moon.

Friday evening, after the study, together with our commensal volunteer worker here, who will start on Monday to work as teacher in the Olcott School, we ate the whole watermelon of two Kg . It was a nice evening.

Only half a workday on Saturday, so the workweek is not that old fashioned here. When we were at primary school, our father had to work on Saturdays morning and afternoon, but we went to school only in the morning, just like on Wednesdays.

We started editing our article on a certain religion, which is not so well known, but called a theosophical religion.

The citations, footnotes, bibliographies for our thesis and publication are beginning to form a real nightmare. Still we seem to be pushed with determination in the direction of establishing an integrated database for notes, citations and bibliographies. The problem is to find a suitable piece of software, which is user friendly enough for our uninitiated mind. We have tried several library databases for foot- or end notes and bibliographies. The one from Wiki seems to be OK.

The weather is not too hot and with the doors and windows closed, we can keep the room cool enough to continue working on our studies. This is also because of the rain from the last few days. Saturday we saw the water flow steadily into the ocean, but on Sunday evening the sandbank was blocking the river again.

We have worked on an article practically the whole Sunday, except for the meals and the morning and evening walks to the beach. So much, that we forgot to ask our mate at the dormitory if we could play a game of chess again. Anyhow, he has his first working day tomorrow, so he was probably busy with his preparation.

Laundryman, who did not come this week is now promised to come on Monday. Hopefully we shall have clean clothes, before we leave on holiday. This sounds strange, because life begins more and more to feel like one long holyday.

Good bye,

Mr Brooder

Adyar, Sunday, 2 June 2013

Adyar River streaming into the Ocean

Adyar, Sunday, June 02, 2013

From 9 am till 2 pm we were working every day this week with great satisfaction. In between we had lunch from 11.30 till 12 am. Some days, after 2 pm we managed to get the laundry man to do his job.

In the afternoon we do reading and some days at 4 pm we go out on the bicycle to buy things like batteries for the torch and a new keyboard for our laptop PC, which is functioning perfectly now. On the way back we usually stop at the fruit stall and buy a water melon, a Kg of green oranges for pressing juice, or a papaya.

After dinner we have a shower and go to the study group. The group reads the text of “The voice of the Silence” by H. P. Blavatsky and most of the participants give their comments. This study in the evening continues with five to seven people and lasts sometimes about half an hour longer than the 45 minutes originally planned. It gives a good general basis for exchange of ideas on the spiritual path, which all present are trying to find.

We made a draft contract and draft letters necessary for the visa of the volunteer, who was here for many years in the recent past and wants to come and work again at International TS Headquarters, this summer.

It was much cooler this week. The Adyar River was streaming vehemently into the sea through the canal which had been dug out in the sand bank by a bulldozer dragging machine. There has been a little bit of rainfall during one or two nights and days.

One day we saw, that there was a dragging machine in the middle of the river busy to deepen the bed of the river in order to have more water flow out so it cannot stagnate and form breeding places for mosquitoes.

We filmed the river streaming through the sandbank, while three boys were swimming in it. They even went back into the water, when they saw that we were filming with our cellphone and tried to behave as real movie stars.

We keep waking up before the alarm clock goes off.

We made a phone call to a friend in Europe of about three minutes for some Rs 26, which is not expensive at all as changed in US currency it is $ 0.50.

Skype worked finally, because we tried the connection at a later time. The family was at the dinner table and we could join in for a few minutes.

Once a week before dinner, we go for a swim in the ocean. That sometimes is a rather rough but good exercise. When I paid the bill of the dormitory just before supper, we could inform the manager, who was interested in our swimming escapade that one of the first times we went swimming, we had a painful shoulder before, but that after the natural movements in the strong waves our shoulder was completely without pain and had come back to normal.

Sunday was a real day of rest with even a rain shower at the end of the day. We played a few games of chess with one of the volunteers staying here in the same dormitory and did some reading afterwards.

The research for our study is showing a “mère à boire” (an ocean to drink) as our professor said to us 42 years ago, when we were about to make our first thesis on the Entry of England into the European Common Market.

Wikipedia nowadays really is one of the best sources with good texts and a wealth of references.

PC and Internet are very useful, but a pest if we are under siege by commercial sites and services. We managed finally to change our password for Facebook. One commercial site was able to get publicity in our Facebook timeline from a guy with over five thousand friends.

The beach walk in the afternoon was very quiet, today, as the rain had just stopped.

That was all for the week from,

Mr Brooder