Linklight Introduction

Linklight links us all to the Light whether by religion or personal growth.

INTRODUCTION

I am happy that you have found your way to Linklight.

Linklight has been online since 1996 when hardly anyone knew about the Internet.
I could see the potential and power of the Internet in communication and in getting a message to people.
I also saw the potential of negative influences on the Internet.

Linklight was a solution to the problem that came immediately. I saw in my mind a web of white light links all over the planet linking different positive Light sites together. The answer was to create a site with mutliple links of positive energy all over the planet. It did not matter what their content was as long as it was positive. This would negate the negative influences and keep the whole web positive. After all if a tiny drop of ink in a glass of clear water could taint the whole glass almost instantly, why not a tiny drop of positive energy linking all over the web to create a positive energy for the planet.

So I started to look into the possibility. I found that to register a domain name was over 150 dollars, and hosting was very basic and expensive. The way to find things seemed to be to use the newsgroups, and you even had to download seperate software to look at any images. I decided to register LightLink.com but it had already been taken so it became LinkLight.com.

I created a very simple website, and started to look for links. When I found them I would look through the site, decide if I wanted to use it and then create a link on my site. It was a very time consuming task, but I got into it and spent hours doing it.

How would I know if a site was any good or not? How would I know what topics to look for? What made a linkLight ? These questions were relatively simple for me. You see, since I was about 12, I had had a deep interest in the Spiritual aspects of humanity, and how the mind worked. It started when a teacher at school asked us in class what we thought God was. My answer was that "God is in the mind, we are all connected and we are constantly looking for something that we can identify with and explain this inner knowing. People then worship stones, idols, trees and wise people and that becomes a religion."

Well, the teacher was not at all happy about this idea, thinging that I should have come up with some kind of Christian answer. But inwardly I felt that this was right, and so started looking for answers. And years later I was still looking, but my knowledge had increased enormously. Because of that I am able to tell what is positive or negative. I also knew that there were as many different ways to God as there are people on Earth, and who was to know if their way was better or worse than someone else's? So if it was a place where people were seeking, that was good enough for me.

So when you look at the Linklight Links pages you will see that they are very diverse, from New Age, to traditional Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, or almost any religion you can think of. There are also links to tarot readers, to psychic readings, to astrologers, and spiritualist sites. Away from religion there are links to personal growth sites, and retreat centers, to places where you can learn meditation, yoga or other forms of relaxation and self discovery. So if you are a seeker, then Linklight is the place ot come and seek. I know that some people are very fundamentalist in their outlook on life, and may be upset or offended in what they find, but others who recognise what I have learnt will enjoy the variety, and the single site where hopefully they can find what they are looking for. Sometimes it is the most unexpected things that you come across that have the most powerful answers in our search.

Enjoy your visit and come again to find more. There are links to literally thousands of related sites, and articles on many different topics. I am developing an area where I will keep adding my own discoveries about life on the path and hope that somewhere you will find what you need to progress another circle of the spiral upwards.


FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND.
Write up when site is organised.
Introduce the main links pages, and the articles on these links.
Introduce more about me and my thoughts and solutions.
Write articles on the most requested links initially.


MORE ABOUT ME

When I first conceived LinkLight I was working as a pilot based in Nigeria. I had a lot of flying experience, most of it in light aircraft and flying single crew, which to the uninitiated means on my own. This was the way I liked it, and I used to love looking at nature from above, and thoroughly enjoying the incredible variety of sights offered by the formation of clouds and different light. Inluding circular rainbows.

I was approaching 50 and I was getting a bit tired of the flying I was doing. It was routine, but by then the company I was on contract to was insisting that we operated like they were in Europe. 2 pilots pretending to be flying an airliner while flying on an unknown route, but in reality flying an aircraft designed for one pilot on the same route flown several times a day was actually hard work, and in my opinion more dangerous in Nigerian airspace as there was so much time spent talking to each other, checking each other and confirming decisions, that there was less time concentrating on what was happening outside the aircraft, which was where the real challenges lay. The air traffic control system in Nigeria at that time was interesting to say the least, and a near miss once a month seemed normal especially flying a tuboprop aircraft amongst faster jets. I will be writing other sections on my flying experiences, and a friend suggested calling it "Learning to fly without wings" There were many spiritual lessons from my 15.000 hours flying, and also the time I spent reading while flying on boring stretches was also very useful to me.

ETHIOPIA

One of the big advantages of this work in Nigeria was that I was working only 2 months and then having a month off. It was unaccompanied, which meant that my wife was at home in the UK. But the downside of that was also a great upside. If I went home on every leave, I would have to pay UK tax, and that was not a good idea. So I used to use many of my leaves as an opportunity to travel, both all over Europe, but to India as well.

The flight to Bombay from Lagos was best done with Ethiopian Airways. They were a very good airline, and the journey was overnight to Addis Abbaba, followed by a long wait of 6 hours before the onward flight to Bombay. Arrival time in Bombay was about 8 pm which meant staying in or near the airport. This was an expensive option compared to the rest of India, and was a great learning experience for the adventures to come over several visits.

But what comes to mind now is to talk about Ethiopia. Travelling on the airline, and reading the inflight magazine I realised that Ethiopia was a most unusual country. It is the only country in Africa with it's own written language, the traditional music was distinctive and gentle. It was also very cheerful. I listened to it for hours via the in-flight system. I read a lot about the country in the magazines and here is a summary...(To be done after reviewing the magazines.)

As I have mentioned before, one of the nice things about the flying I was doing was being able to read a lot. Not only when I was flying, but during the occasional night stops, and at home in my room and by the pool. In nearly 7 years in Nigeria I managed to accumulate about 500 books, all of them about spiritual or esoteric matters. One of these was a long book called 'The sign and the seal' which detailed the journey of the Arc of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Axum in Northern Ethiopia. It was a fascinating story, which rang so true to me. So I decided that on one of my journeys through Ethiopia I would stop over for a week, and find my way to Axum to visit the place where the Arc is kept.

So in (Date to be confirmed) instead of waiting for 6 hours after arriving from Lagos, I cleared immigration and found myself outside the terminal building. I found a taxi and asked him to take me to a cheap hotel or guest house. He refused saying that all tourists had to stay at one of several expensive tourist hotels. I asked how much they were, and found that it was a lot more than I was prepared to pay. I tried again and several drivers later I found one who was prepared to help me. He took me to the equvelant of a guest house. They were surprised to find me on their doorstep. But they were happy to have me. The other guests were a couple of men from Kenya, a salesman from Egypt, and a couple of Sudanese. There was also an Indian businessman. They were happy to talk to me, and as a group we had many interesting conversations about life in their respective countries. It made a change for me as they were close to home, not tourists, or assylum seekers, and they were just carrying out their business.

One of the things I discovered was that about every 6 hours the Ethiopians carried out a ceremony with incence, charcoal and coffee. We all sat round this small charcoal fire, fanned it and then put some coffee beans into a tin, heat it up and then they ground it into coffee grains. Then from that they made hot black and very strong coffee in tiny cups. While the coffee was being roasted incense was put on the charcoal, and they tried to explain the spiritual significance of the ceremony to me, but I did not fully understand as their English was not up to that level of conversation. Still I joined in and made it as spiritual a ceremony as I could.

While I was staying in Addis Abbaba I could not resist walking around, and being taken around by my now very friendly and helpful taxi driver. I looked around and found out more about the country. I spent some time in a couple of bars with the friends of the taxi driver. That was another interesting time. Finding out how the locals lived, and what they thought of the English and the Nigerians. I found that generally the English were received quite well as they had helped a bit to remove Mussolini who had invaded the then Abbysinia in the late 30's. Also we gave their Emperor Hiale Salasse who was a direct descendant from David, a place to be in exile for 5 years. And the fact that I was there talking to them and asking questions made me popular with them. This was not normal tourist activity, but then I am not one or your regular tourists wherever I go. I like to explore off the beaten track, and this has always opened doors.

So I asked more questions. This was difficult for them as they did not have a lot to say about us. I asked why they were able to speak any English at all, and it seems it was the infulence of their ex-emperor. But they were more interested in me. What was I doing in their country? Why was I visiting them, where was I going? I told them that I worked in Nigeria and was on my way to India and wanted to visit their country as it seemed to be such an interesting place. At the time Babangida was the President of Nigeria, and they all knew about him, corruption and the decline of a nation. Just the mention of Nigeria and there was a real commotion, with many of them wanting to have their say. Most of them did not speak any English, but one mention of the word Babangida, and they all joined in. It seemed as though the reputation of Nigeria was not very high in the North East of the Afrian Continent.

I asked them about Ethiopia the Russians, and civil war. I could not understand how such gentle people could be involved in civil war. As ususal it was a small minority that caused the problem. In the end it seemed it came down to the Red sea coast. The ports were there and without them Ethiopia was landlocked. Eritraia would have the ports, and potential tourist industry on the Red Sea. That was the area where I was going to. Would there be problems? The general opinion was no. The troubles had now died down, and there was peace. It was causing problems in other areas. For example Ethiopian Airways was left alone during the war, and it was run by people who were interested in running an Airline. It did well, and standards were improving all the time. However after the war, the people who had run off to make money from the war came back, and wanted to run the airline the way they wanted it. As much for themselve as possible, and led by their ego's would want things doing their way, regardless of how useful it was to the airline. Standards started to fall. This is a typical African story.

Generally Ethiopia was a very different country to the rest of Africa. The rhythm of the music for example was totally different, and the people had a different feeling about them. They had their own traditions and ways of doing things. There was a traditional dance I had never seen anywhere else, and in it the women shook their breasts in a most unusual way. I cannot describe it but it was most intriguing! I remember one of our Aircraft Engineers who had to come to Ethiopia to work on an aircraft. He expected to have to supervise everything. When he got to work in the morning he found the aircraft was stripped and fully prepared. Everythign was laid out very professionally, and all he had to do was to inspect the part they could not do, sign it off, and then he left them to put it back together again.

It was time to fly to Axum. Early in the morning I boarded the ATR 42 for the journey to Axum. The landing was on the runway was intresting, it was dusty. Looking out when the props were put into reverse there was nothing to be seen except brown dust. At the airport I could not help noticing wrecked Russian transport aircraft scattered around the airport. The hammer and sickle was also prominent. I went to town and found a cheap hotel. There was a very nice tourist hotel there but again it was more than I wanted to pay to sleep in, although I enjoyed eating there.

The food in Ethiopia was not terribly enspiring. Grey meat, a special kind of bread and sphagetti which was a hangover from the Italian occupation. Greens and salad were rare, and I suppose considering the famine in Ethiopia, what was available was good. Around the resteraunt were pictures of the story of the journey of the Arc to Ethiopia. It was a well known and very open story there and no one who doubted that the Arc was in Axum. I heard a story about how the Arc was brought out to defend Ethiopia against a modern army, and a huge battle was won by the Ethiopians because of it. So this was a very interesting and powerful item to go and be near, and it was here, almost next to the hotel.

In the morning I walked to the place where the Arc is kept. A square and unassuming building next to a church built by Heile Salasse. It seems he did a lot for his country, for education and for religion. If I recall correctly it was built for the women. I went to the building of the Arc. It was quiet and deserted. There were doors, but they were locked. Yet from the book I knew that the gardian of the Arc lived there. So where was he? I found my way down a hill to the bottom of the building, and there was a door that was open, but it was on the other side of a gate in the iron fence. But while I was looking the guardian came out of the door. He came over to see me. He did not speak English at all, but we communicated by sign language. Eventually he found someone who spoke English and I was invited into the building where the Arc of the Covenant is kept. Well not into the bit that mattered, but still in the building. The basement where I was was some kind of religious museum. There were various artefacts around some which seemed very ancient. But the thing that horrified me was a book. A very old book written in the Ethiopian script, adn it was on a pedastle like the ones found in our churches. But it had been tampered with. Someone had scrubbed out many words and phrases. I had no idea what they were, or what had been removed, but the thought was that this is the way so many religions are distorted. Perhaps not so blatantly, but even old documents are tampered with and the meaning distorted because somoeone does not believe what is being said because of a new distorted teaching. Perhaps a bit like all reference to reincarnation being removed from the Bible in 325 AD.

I talked to the guardian about the Arc. He told me that it made him scared. At midnight every night he performed a ceremony and it seemed as though the Arc responded in some kind of way that frightened him. ( Out of interest midnight in the old Ethiopian time is 6 pm in our time.) After a while there was nothing else for me to see and do so I went over to the Church of St. Mary of Zion. I wanted to know about the religion in the area. It seems that in Ethiopia there are 3 major religions. In parts there is a Muslim influence and the people are predominantly Muslim. However the majority are Christian. But even here there are two types of Christianity, One is traditional orthodox christianity similar to the Russian and Greek orthodox church. The Ethiopian branch is similar, and they have produced the beautiful crosses that can be seen all over Ethiopia. They are very ornate, often in brass or silver, and I saw priests getting onto buses before a journey and blessing the occupants by touching their heads with the cross. The other Christianity is pre-Christ. They worship using the Old Testament, and their main focus is the Arcangel Gabriel. They pray in circlar buildings, and the music is also very unusual with old stringed instruments being sed for the background. There used to be quite a few Jews, the remmenants of the people who brought the Arc to Ethiopia. They were very different to the traditional Jews, having preserved the traditions from very ancient times without updating into anything modern. I understood that they even used to sacrifice cockrels. But some years ago they all moved back to Isreal. I recall reading that they had a lot of trouble integrating back there as they were so different with their beliefs. This was somthing which to me really adds credibility to the story of the Arc.

While I was in Axum I wanted to have a really good look around. It was definitely not a tourist town, but it should have been. There was so much there that was of interest. Lying around all over the place were hugh stone needles. These stones were very tall, often made of huge blocks of stone, and carved with writing and images similar to Cleopatra's needle. At least one of these has been erected by the Colleseum in Rome, having been removed by the Italians. The large ones would never be moved in a hurry. No one seems to be aware of who the people were who made these needles. Whoever they were they were very advanced. Some people had built houses over the fallen needles. It remeinded me of Avebury in England where up to the end of the Eighteenth Century people had used the huge stones there to make houses, and even part of the church.

I decided to walk to the Queen of Sheba's palace. These were ruins near the airport. I found a track that seemed to be going in the right direction and set off. I was a little nervous initially as I had read of many landmines still in the ground in this part of the world, but common sense prevailed. This was a well worn track I was walking on. I came across a group of people sitting under a tree. They were very surprised to see me and were wondering if I was Russian. I said no, I came from England. They relaxed a bit at that, and we started to talk in a mixture of English, sign language and even a bit of Italian. Again they wanted to know about me. I tried to tell them that I was looking at the Arc and making my way to the palace, and they could not comprehend why anyone would want to come so far to do that. After a while I turned to leave and as I walked along the track, someone who had been on the edge of the group stood in front of me, blocking my way and started to become very aggresive. His eyes were bulging out and he was shouting and waving his arms at me. I could not understand what was the matter, and one of the group under the tree tried to explain that he was suffering from the effects of the war and thought that I was an enemy and he did not want me to pass. It seemed that if he had a weapon he would want to kill me. They all started to talk to him to try to calm him down, but it seemed to make him worse, and I was getting a bit worried about where this was likely to go. Suddenly I had an inspiration. He had been standing in front of me a few feet away and any time I tried to move, he would move in front of me. If I turned round he would grab me from behind. I stepped towards him and embraced him. Initially he tried to move away, but I tried to embace him with love and healing energy. He calmed down immediately, and then broke down into sobs. The others were amazed at his reaction. I was amazed as well, but reasoned that he had probabely never felt love from anyone in his life. He calmed down, kept wanting to shake my hand and say sorry, and then offered to lead me to the palace. I accepted and he led me along the track till we got to the ruins. He then left me and walked back with a friendly wave.

I started to explore. Wondering what it had been like in the time of the Queen of Sheba. It must have been much more green and fertile then. While exploring a young boy of about 14 suddenly appeared and wanted to show me around. He wanted me to pay him to do it. I said no, I was happy on my own, but he would not go away and followed me around, occasionally telling me about where I was. I was not sure if he really knew, but thanked him for his time. He wandered off and I was left alone to my thoughts, and was thinking about what the Queen would have thought if she came back now, and looked out of her palace. About half a mile away was a wrecked Russian transport aircraft on the edge of the airfield.

Back in Axum I found a shop selling the beautiful crosses I had seen the priests carrying. Some of them were small, but very old and very beautiful. Some had green corroded bits on them and were of copper and silver. They were not exactly cheap, but extremely good value for money. I bought a variety of them including a large silver one. I was very happy that I had found something that I could take away with me to remind me of Axum.

One morning I was out early as I had been told that there was a ceremony involving the Arc. I went to watch and it was almost like being taken back in time, and the place seemed like ancient Egypt. I remember from the Bible pictures of people in flowing robes and long trumpets, and it was like that here. The women also had hairstyles that were like the old Egyptian hyroglyphics. Straight hair to the bottom of the neck, and a straight cut fringe. The procession seemed so ancient and farmilier. What intrigued me was that the Arc was in a wooden casket under a canopy, but the guardian who is never supposed to leave the Arc was nowhere to be seen. So it must be a replica that is taken out on these ceremonial processions.

Later I went down to a large dam which had very little water in it. The women were walking down to the water and carrying it out in large containers on their heads. I had found that this dam had been there for thousands of years, and it occured to me that the scene I was looking at had hardly changed at all in that time. It was like going back in time over 2000 years. The whole atmosphere of the place was that of an ancient place which of course it was. A small dusty but very unique town which had been the capital of the area hundreds of years before. A place that had had it's day, but was now forgotten. But to visit it no one could forget it. I was there for just a few days, and am writing this 12 years later and the memories are very clear. I would love to go back there, and explore more of the country.

Back in Addis Ababa, I resloved to look at a bit more of the country. I took a bus to the South East and noted what a poor country it was. But everyone was very friendly. There was not much to see in the place I went which was a large swimming pool using the water of some springs. It made a change to just relax in the sun, but there was harldy anyone there. I managed to find something to eat, and had a really nice salad. However the most memorable thing about this pool was monkeys who were on the prowl grabbing anything that moved or was available for them to move. Seeing a monkey stealing a bottle of coke and drinking it while it was running away from the owner of the drink was hilarious.

There was only one more thing that I wanted from Ethiopia before I left. I did not have time to go and find all the other cities and sights in the country, it was about the size of France, but what I could get was some music. So I went searching for a music shop. Not easy. But when I did find one, it was not what I expected, they did not seem to have any music. I told them what they wanted, and imitated the rhythm that I remembered from the airplane ride. They recognised it immediately and ran off coming back with a tape which sounded like the sort of thing that I wanted. I negotiated a price and expected them to give it to me. But no, they went off to the back of the shop and copied it for me. While I was there I also bought some of the rather strange music from the very old Christian tradition that I had found. Again very unique and original.

So time to move on. I went back to the airport to check in for my flight to Bombay. I went through the security checks with my hand baggage. I ususally only travel in these countries with hand baggage. Firstly it is easy to carry around, and secondly I am less tempted to buy too many things as I have nothing to carry them in. So not surprisingly the metal crosses that I had bought triggered the alarms. I said what it was that I had in the packaging, and was told to bring them out. The official looked at them and said. "These are very ancient he told me". I was pleased and said that I also thought so. But then he turned to me and wanted to confiscate them. He said it was forbidden to take ancient artifacts out of the country. I said that I did not know that. He said that I should have known, but the shop would have known that it was forbidden to sell these things. I said that it was actually a tourist shop that I had bought them from and produced the receipt. He looked, and asked what I had been doing in Axum. I said I went there to look at the Arc of the Covenant. He looked surprised that I would want to do that. He then asked where I was going, and I said to India, again on a Spiritual search. I said the crosses were not for resale or anything, they were for my own use. I stared him in the eyes, mentioned again that they were bought in a tourist shop, and it would not do his tourist industy much good if it got out that this is the sort of thing that happened to tourists, to have their purchases taken from them at the airport. He kept looking at me and then let me go with my crosses. I said that I asked that he have a blessing from all the crosses. He grinned and said "Thank you".

When I checked in I had asked for an upgrade from economy to business class. It often worked for me as the name in my ticket was Capt Puddy and that helped. The check in lady was able to offer me a free upgrade to business class, and after complimenting her and her country and she asked me if I wanted a window seat. "Yes please" I replied. Smoking or non-smoking. "Non Smoking". "Sorry we do not have any non-smoking window seats" I said I would take the aisle. Soon I was in my seat feeling very pleased with myself, and noted that the plane was nearly full. Then I noticed the lady who checked me in walking down the aisle looking for someone. I felt it was me and tried to hide. But she spotted me. I thought she was going to send me back to economy. She asked me if I still wanted a window seat. I said yes if possible. "Hope I thought" She asked me to follow her and she led me to the front of the aircraft, and asked if the two windows would do. "Yes please" I said gratefully and returned her beaming smile. Now I was really being looked after.

The first class of Ethiopian Airways was very good. Excellent service with constant care and attention. I tried just about every food that they had on offer, much of it traditional and not available in Ethiopia, but available on the plane. After those pleasures, I found myself talking to my fellow passenger who turned out to be an Indian businessman in the medical drugs business. Apparently they mad a lot of drugs in India and these were sold all over Africa, but many unscrupulous people sold fake drugs instead of the real ones, and he was constantly going to Africa to supervise testing and trying to maintain a good reputation for Indian drugs.

Soon we arrived in Bombay, and I went out into the humid and hot atmosphere of chaos, noise and hubbub that is India. I had been before and knew how do deal with it now. I ignored all the agents looking for clients for their hotels at inflated prices, and found a taxi driver who was willing to take me further afield from the airport to a decent but reasonable hotel. Unusual it was as well. The room was all mirror, including a huge mirror on the ceiling. I was too tired to really notice, and dropped off into a deep and satisfied sleep having taken a look at myself lying happily in bed. (Innocence)

INDIA

I was on a hunt. Some time earlier I was visiting a German friend of mine who I had met on a previous trip to India. She lived near Munich and one night she invited me to a concert of an Indian Swami who played his music on a synthasizer. I thought this would be very different, and it was. Ganapathi Sachinananda plays ragas on the synthesizer and wears orange robes and is accompanied by traditional tabala players and other traditional accompanyment. It was to me both unusual and wonderful. While the music was playing occassionaly he would walk amongst the audience looking at people and holding a really long crystal in his hand like a wand. Apparently he heals while he is doing this.

The next day we were invited by a friend of my friend's to a small private gathering where Ganapathi was playing in a barn, and there were about 50 people there listening to him, and then he answered questions. The questions were often asked in German, and they would be translated for him, he would reply in English and he would then have this translated into German. I was able to listen to his answers and directly. When asked why he used a synthasizer, he answered that the sound was much purer than the sitar he used to play. With the purer sound came a purer healing energy.

When he was leaving he stopped at the end of the row I was sitting at, he turned to me and said in English. "See you in India" I was surprised for two reasons. Why had he chosen me to speak to, and why in English? I also thought that it was unlikely that I would see him in India.

About a year later, I arrived in Bangalore. I knew that somewhere near here was the Ashram of Sai Baba who I had heard all sorts of conflicting things about, but I wanted to check him out for myself. I went to a bookstall, found the address and asked someone how to get there. It was several hours to the North. I was wondering how to fit in a visit to him and perhaps go to the Ashram of Ganapthi Sachinananda, who had an ashram near Mysore which was to the West. For some reason I began to feel in conflict about who to go and see. I decided that I would go to whichever destination had the first bus. As I arrived at the bus station in Bangalore in the motor tricycle from the airport, in the dark, someone came running up to us as we stopped and called out to me: "Express bus to Mysore leaving now. Hurry come now!" I went and that is how I found myself just outside Mysore at the Ashram of Ganapathi Sachinanandea. It is also the best way to find out where you are being led to in India. The unconscious knows best. Call it that or the Soul or whatever, allow yourself to be led that way and you will end up wherever you have to be. When I had my first meeting with Swamiji as he liked to be known, he recognised me immediately and said. "I knew you would come".

Every ashram in India is different. It depends on the leader of the ashram and also the people who are visiting at the same time. In this ashram all the Westerners were in large dormatories. Both male and female together.

On one side of me in the dormatory was a young lady from Switzerland. She was a singer and was one of many Swiss people there. There were many Germans, French and Americans as well. We also talked a lot about many different things, and we shared several journeys together into the City of Mysore and the amazing Mysore palace. It is nice to find someone to share experiences with and we suited each other very well. I was sorry when she left and was tempted to travel with her, but she was heading in a different direction. I have met many people in India and visited them later in their own countries, and kept in touch with them over the years. I have met some of my closest friends in this way, or people who I have shared some wonderful experiences with. In the same dormatory at the same time I was there my friend Richard Van Donk was staying with his wife Linda. We exchanged visits to each others counties, Richard taking me up Mount Shasta, in California, and I took him to several sacred sites in England. I will talk about these in a later section of these jottings.

On the other side of my bed was a man from Denmark. His name was Kurt and we talked a lot over the time I was visiting the ashram. I told him about my experience and how I ended up at this ashram. He told me that he was going on to the ashram of Sai Baba, and had been going for 12 years. He told me that it was enormous, and my chances of even seeing him were remote. He went because he took parties of people to Sai Baba and as he had been going for so long, he was in a priviliged position and his parties were given a private audience for a short time. I asked it it may be possible for me to join him, and he said unfortunately not. Everything was booked and prepared and all the others knew each other. He also told me that it was probably good that I had not gone on my own, I would have been disappointed.

Later I admired a small brass pill pot that Kurt had on his bedside table. I liked it as it had a six pointed star on it and to me that is a wonderful symbol. As above so below. The balanced symbol of the spiritual and the material. He then gave it to me. I refused initially, but he said he could get plenty more, and to enjoy the gift. I have always believed that in order to give you have to be able to receive, and here was my chance to put it into practice. I was getting something I really liked and he was having the pleasure of giving me something that was giving me so much pleasure. To refuse his gift was to refuse him the pleasure of giving to me. address details and I met him in America and he visited me in England. Both wonderful experiences for us all. I accepted gratefully and put it in a pocket on the outside of my bag.

Another time we were talking again about Sai Baba and his teaching. Kurt told me that many people who wanted to learn went to see a man called Premananda. He was actually from Sri Lanka, but lived in Southern India. Amazingly he looked very much like Sai Baba, and he was a very powerful teacher in his own right. Kurt also said that Sai Baba himself actually sent people from his ashram to see Premananda. He knew that his devotees had trouble getting to him to learn, and he also knew that as long as his devotees learnt what they needed to learn it did not really matter who they got the teaching from. I immediately had more respect for Sai Baba, and decided that I was going to go to the ashram of Premananda as soon as I left this ashram.

There were so many things that happen around Swami Ganapathi Sachinananda. So many that it is difficult to know where to start, and also how to get going. I think I will start with a bit about him and the ashram. In India there are many varieties of ashram, some of them predominantly full of Indians, but there are many that have a large Western presence as well as Indians. Swamiji calls his Western visitors "His Angels". This is because they contribute so much to his projects financially. He also happens to be good at finding ways to get money from visitors, but there is no real pressure, just a bit of emotional blackmail. The ashram was very well constructed and clean. What bothered me was a hugh billboard image of Swamiji at the entrance to the ashram at least 30 feet high.

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