Culture and Advice
Once back in the Netherlands, I gave up my apartment in Amsterdam and settled with my dad and his wife in the new town Almere. I started a business called Culture and Advice. My first assignment was to advice a museum on their policy concerning landart. Soon I got more assignments and am now fully booked until 2008. With this company, the organization costs of the Loka Foundation can be covered.

Loka Foundation
The real challenge has been to establish a foundation that offers material and practical support from the west to realize the Centre of Knowledge in Varanasi. A place where children and young people of the villages near Varanasi can receive high quality education - free of costs. To start the foundation was and is a process that took longer than I first thought. But then, beginnings are most important (and they say most hard!). Creating a solid basis that you can always fall back on is essential for any company or institution, always.
The foundation should be a fact within three weeks. More people in the west are getting involved with the activities, some companies are interested and the website should be ready somewhere in december. Our aim is to start building the centre beginning 2008. Almost every week I am in contact with the people in India. There are now 10 children living in a small brick building on a piece of land, receiving classes from professional teachers every day. These students teach the children of the nearby village Domary. More work is happening, every week. The last ten days they placed a water pump, to provide the people of Domary with clean drinking water. This pump was financed by my yoga school in Amsterdam, who for this cause had organized a day with yoga activities. All donations of the day went to the water pump.

Every day I feel the children of India looking in my eyes, keeping me company. So young and so pure. There is wisdom in their eyes. They have experienced so much at such a very young age. Their smiles are the motor behind the work in the west.

For more information about Culture and Advice and the Loka Foundation, see: www.loka.in.

Yesterday I arrived in Mumbai, I am staying with Pranati and her family. Pranati I met last December and kept in contact with, she is related to the family in Dehra Dun that have become dear friends during my stay in India. Pranati lives in Bandra, the ‘Bollywood’ neighborhood of Mumbai where all the film stars have their apartments looking out over the sea. Mumbai is quite a different place to Benares, India’s spiritual heart, where I spent so long. Mumbai is the economical center of India. It is interesting. Or maybe Pranati and her family make it interesting.

Pranati and her family live in a house built on top of a shop, the family has lived there for 60 years. Son Sunjay is married to Vibha, the sister of my friend in Dehra Dun, and they have a young boy who is very much loved and makes sure the house is always full of life. Both daughters - strong Indian women - have made the conscious decision not to marry and to dedicate their life and energy to something different. Pranati works with the Times of India, officially as tax editor. But actually the environment and crimes against women are her cases - issues she heartily wants to investigate and write about. It is so interesting to talk with her, she has many knowledge and a deep passion for her work. Her sister Aditi works as a computer specialist and teaches individuals of all ages. ‘Sometimes I wonder what I would do in life if there were no computers’ she was telling me this morning ‘I just cannot imagine!’ she continued. ‘You know, the first time I touched a computer was an amazing experience. I remember typing a text and then using the backspace button and there was no smudging of ink, just a pure white space where I had just typed something before….. it almost made me cry as this machine was something I would imagine as a child, and then it had become real!’

Besides her passion for computers, Aditi spends her free time contributing to different projects. This week she is taking me to a place at the beach where a woman is taking care of 50 street children. The children are getting classes in several subjects and Aditi wants to propose to teach them computers. Also she believes that the general education children receive lacks building of character. So she has started giving classes, every Sunday, teaching young children the values of life by translating philosophical issues into stories. ‘If you buy a television, you get a manual with it. This manual shows you have to make optimal use of the television. Without the manual it will be difficult, almost impossible to make full use of the television. Like this manual, for people there is the Bhaghavad Gita. It is a book that - if you study it carefully - will enable you to truly make the best of your life.’

Their father, aged 90, has a room in the house with only his bed and many books inside. His wife he kindly requested to move to another room some years back, as he needed more space for his books. He cannot hear and speaks little, but when he does speak, he words are like pearls. To be able to communicate with father we write him notes, which he kindly answers with a light in his eyes. He showed me his book collection yesterday and it made me want to lock myself up in a cave for at least a year, taking a pile of these precious scriptures with me. My hands were trembling from what my eyes saw. Books on poetry, philosophy, art, history. About India and its position in the world.

During my stay here in India, from what I have seen and softly touched, I believe there are many hidden treasures in India that can enrich the entire world. Being in India and having a deep experience of its culture is like touching the essence of what it is all really about. Knowledge here goes far beyond anything I have ever learned at school or university. It is pure knowledge. Yet India is so modest. Maybe that is what makes it so great.

On the land where I had been teaching, construction work was going on and the teaching had stopped. The last weeks I had spent writing a plan, making new contacts and continuing my classes in The Gita. Then it was time to leave. The plan I will continue in The Netherlands, as it is a long process and there I can also find ways to finance it - my mission for the coming time. So I left the holy town that stole my heart, feeling half relieved of its constant confrontation, intensity and working in 45 degrees, on the other hand feeling a pain in my heart when saying ‘pranam’ (goodbye) to the amazing people I had met, the children, the river….

By leaving Benares the journey back has started. After a 24 hour train ride I arrived in the valley of Dehra Dun and that is where I now am, staying with the same Indian family where I started in India. They live in a house just out of town, surrounded by trees, where birds are singing. They have many guests so it is never really quiet. They took me to Mussoorie earlier this week, a hill station nearby were the grandfather is working as an engineer. We visit museums, learn, talk, eat and play together. It is mango time in north India, and we are living on mango shakes at the moment: fresh creamy milk from the cow with juicy mangos, some sugar put together in the mixer. It is a good life.

Monday I am leaving for Delhi. In Delhi and Mumbai I still have some work to do before I leave the country. Plans almost suddenly changed as some days ago I wanted to take the train straight back to Benares. Government men had started molesting the boundary of the land where we are realizing the school/center. In the state (Utter Pradesh) elections had been held and now it is not possible to build within 200 meters within the Ganges. My colleague and some other people in Benares are now solving the problem, thankfully they have some influential contacts. Now hopefully the construction work can continue after paying bribes. I keep hope for the best. If there is anything India has taught me it is that everything is possible in the world

Lord Balaji symbolizes goodness. He is believed to be a very merciful form of the Hindu God Vishnu, being the fulfiller of every wish made to him by the devotees. With his conch he creates the cosmic sound that destroys ignorance and with his disc he destroys evil.  

Center of knowledge 

Balaji has become the name of a ‘Center of Knowledge’ arising along the Ganges, enclosed between the old city of Benares and the village of Domari. Construction work for some offices, a boundary and soon also a school are going on. So much has been happening the last couple of months, in Benares. In the same simple brick building where I am following Indian philosophy lessons, I have also been teaching English to children from the villages. Every afternoon they would come, about twelve ‘vidyarti’ (students) walking together, with their torn clothes, scruffy hair, smiles on their faces. They could also choose to play or do so many other things, but instead they would spend their free hours - every day! - on classes Sanskrit, English and mathematics. They had something naughty about them but were at the same time very respectful and polite. They were singing and learning together, afterwards playing a match of cricket. I never imagined teaching to be so much fun. It is very fulfilling to share knowledge. And to see a smile on a face of a child who has so little – is something indescribable.

Creating a new world…

From the simple brick building where we were teaching and getting taught, plans for the future started arise. To create a place where knowledge is shared. A place from where further social and economical development is stimulated. First by building a ‘real’ school where children that have the potential but not the opportunity to study, can be provided with high quality education. Children that live on the streets and are often forced to work by their parents. Or children living in the villages, not having the opportunity for good education. Our plan is inspired by the educational system used in vedic times (1500 bc) , when it was normal that teachers and students were living together so that the students could follow the living example of the teacher, and classes were provided free of costs. We combine this ancient knowledge with new experiences on the field of education and using contemporary technology. The idea is to start small and good, first of all admitting 10 students to the 4-year program but reaching many more by also continuing to provide classes to the children of the nearby villages and initiating projects involving many more people. The students living in the ashram will be following a very busy busy schedule filling all seven days of the week, following not only ‘high’ subjects like Sanskrit and science, but also gaining experience in more practical fields like gardening, driving and the digital world. We will also initiate projects to raise social awareness, like cleaning certain areas of town and planting trees together and remembering people of Indias beauty reflected in the cultural heritage by maintaining the neglected buildings of Benares, revealing their hidden beauty. There will be attention for culture and art by organizing monthly concerts (Benares is known for it’s musicians), exhibitions and lectures are to be held and artists and historicans can give guestclasses.  This and many more ideas will be brought into practice from the beginning of 2008. To finance the educational project, for the first five years Balaji will depend mainly on funds and sponsors. We will develop commercial activities that should eventually finance the center, like organizing weekends with speeches on the art of living and concerts and 10 day courses Indian Philosophy,  given by my colleague, a philosopher. We have even found a publisher who will press and translate his books.  Basically Balji will be a place where the best of the modern cities and village life come together, where the ancient eastern culture and philosophy and interesting ideas from the west are combined. A world where the best of all times and places is brought together thus transcending all cultures and religions.  

Thanks to some people in Mumbai that have warm feelings for the idea, we could start realizing the plan very quickly. We did so by planting 200 trees some weeks ago, shortly after construction work for the school started and the plan is to open the center by the beginning of 2008.

Writing at the Ganges 

Since the brick building where we were teaching is now being transformed into something quite different, I have stopped teaching and am writing a business plan containing all our ideas and ways to realize them. I am happy to have found the help of a businessman doing so. At the same time I decided to move out of my very conveniently located but terrible hotel, and moved to a homely place where there is some feeling (for aesthetics) inside. The hotel has a great balcony looking over the Ganges where I can sit and work on the laptop. And am surrounded by the most amazing books, all with an autograph and sometimes a story from the author inside. The hotel is quite deserted at the moment (it is 45 degrees in Benares), but apparently normally interesting guests stay here. It feels good to stay here, a special place, in every way. They gave me the room with hanging above my bed….. a painting of Balaji.   

We left at three in the morning from Benares to get a night train, the world still dark and quiet, arriving in Bihar just after sunrise. A jeep was waiting for us at the train station. As we drove through Bihar I noticed the fresh green fields with people working on it, palm trees along the road, children playing, no plastic and dirt, nowhere in India had I seen so much cleanliness before. Bihar is the poorest state of India. For this reason I had mentally prepared myself for the trip. But poverty in the countryside is totally different to the poverty of the cities.

The Guru was going to give a speech that evening in a remote village during a ‘Krishna festival’ (Krishna is the God of love). We drove for some hours, the main road turning into a country road, the country road turning into an even smaller road. For some time we drove over a footpath until there were no more roads and paths and we were far away from everyone and everything. Eventually we arrived in a village where we were warmly welcomed. In India hospitality is very important. Guest is God, they say. Everywhere they give you food and insist you eat many. So now again we enjoyed chai (tea), sweets, meals until we were completely ‘pura hoglia’ (full).

That evening the Guru, Sanat, musicians and devotees of the Guru passionately spoke and sang and rituals were performed for the thousands of people that by now had seated themselves in front of the stage. The speeches were about the divine, about living a useful life, an inspiration for the villagers that knew many struggles. Mieke, Peter and I were invited on stage as guests of honor. The Guru was living an intense life. Every evening of the year he gave lectures, some days traveling as much as 150 kilometers (on Indian roads…) and this at the age of 75. Straight after he finished his speech he jumped in the car again, to a next destination.

After the performances we were taken into the dark streets of the village and arrived at a house that was characteristic, with interesting architectural details, clean and full of atmosphere. We stood on the roof for some time, staring at the uncountable stars. There was no electricity. In daytime the villagers used energy provided by solar panels. The family provided us a meal looking like something you would expect in the best restaurant, only it was better, being freshly home made of own grown products. Plates filled with small delicacies, made to perfection. In this village all seemed so pure. It was real luxury. The three of us got the best room of the house and were to share the same bed, as Mieke and Peter were assumed to be my parents.

The next morning I asked if it was possible to take a bath. They looked a bit puzzled at me, talked, and eventually an old man walked me to a big blue house a couple of streets away. I entered the door and walked into an open square and my eyes were touched by what they saw. There were the morning mist, birds flying, climbing plants hanging, and women covered with colored cloths, laughing and washing under the water pump their long and wet hair hanging. I had to wait for 10 minutes before I could use the toilet as they insisted on cleaning it first. I washed, we had some chai together and tried to have a conversation until I was called away as we were due to leave.

The jeep took us on a long trip over the bad roads of Bihar, roads that gets flushed away every monsoon. Even only driving at 20 km an hour we had to hold on firmly to the seats, or whatever possible, because it was so bumpy. Again we arrived in a beautiful, natural place: one of the Guru’s ashrams where 30 students were studying and living. Sanat gave us a guided tour, we walked past a small animal farm and the different fruit trees and he pointed out the many fields belonging to the ashram, providing food for both teachers and students and the poor villages in the area. We stopped walking at a well. It looked like one from old times, the ones you read about in fairy tails. Looking deep down inside we saw the water quite a few meters below us. We heard the sound of frogs croaking coming from the dark water. It was like looking into a different world. For the frogs this was the whole world. For them the world ended where the wall of the well started. They knew nothing of the world beyond the well because they could not perceive it. We stood there for a while, wondering.

We got fresh milk and curd from the ashram’s cows and stayed all morning at the ashram, admiring the place, eating, playing, and resting. In the afternoon we started the long journey back to Benares. We sat in the car, all tired from some nights with little sleep, but most of all amazed by the seemingly unspoiled world we had entered. It was like Mahatma Gandhi used to say, that the soul of India dwells in it’s villages.

Every day starts with watching the sunrise and practicing yoga in the early hours. Every free moment of the rest of the day is filled with studying the Baghvad Gita. An amazing book that inspired great people like Gandhi to make the best of time on earth, living a useful and fulfilling life by making use of personal qualities. It is practical wisdom, an inspiration for every action based on deep knowledge of the self and the world.

Every afternoon we take a little rowing boat to the other side of the holy Ganges. Our boatman Bappoo waits for us alongside Assi ghat*, the busy cremation place of Benares where piles of wood are burning dead bodies all day. We step carefully into the clean, small boat and silently Bappoo takes us to the other side. He says nothing but his eyes seem to know all. Maybe the river taught him many things words cannot conceive. On the other side of the river awaits for us a different world, far away from busy city life. First we walk over the river sand, feeling like Bedouins in the desert. Old clothes are scattered around, sometimes a dead body wrapped up in blankets. In the monsoon all this sand is part of the river. Now it is no mans land, used by the very poor to cultivate cucumbers, by the children to play football.

After a 20 minutes’ walk we arrive at a small brick house, surrounded by sand, trees and only the sound of birds singing. Here we have our Indian philosophy lessons, given by our gifted teacher Sanat. He devotes his life to gain and share knowledge, was able to recite the Sanskrit Baghvad Gita by heart at the age of 11, already then understanding it’s deep meaning. He is so driven by what he does, he can pass nights without sleep. Besides being both student and teacher, he is also a good businessman, his philosophy of life is not only based on higher truth but also on successfully living in the world. He is helping Mieke and Peter who have been trying to buy land in Benares for some time now. There eye fell on a beautiful spot by the river, wanted by many. The land is owned by five brothers and until now every deal has failed because of problems between them. Sanat got them together and being both convincing and charismatic in his negotiations, the land has never come so close to be sold.

After philosophy class we play a game of football with the young students, keeping mind and body in balance. Then we head back to Bappoo once again. While the sun slowly disappears behind the skyline of Benares, we slowly reach the other side of the river, where the busy ghats are waiting, the burning of the bodies still continuing, life and death being so close together.

We feel lucky to live a good life, every day interesting things happening that make you wonder, make you feel truly alive. Bappoo helps us out of the boat, we say goodbye by putting the hand on the heart and giving a respectful nod with the head to each other. Bahoud acha din he. Such a beautiful day.

* Ghats are steps leading into the river, being used for worship, bathing, washing clothes, etc.

My friends from Belgium, Peet en Miek, have been here for a month now. Every year they cycle from south to north India, 170 km a day when they are on the road. I came to Benares to visit them, share experiences and time together. They love this town. There must be something in the air here as I can think of no rational reason why to like being here, but every day I fall asleep, totally fulfilled, and wake up in the morning with a lust for life.

Yesterday we went with a little boat onto the Ganges at 6 o’clock in the morning to see the sunrise; it was beautiful to be on the water that early. I took some photo’s, will try to put them on the website later. Afterwards we had yoga, like every day, from 8 until 10 o’ clock. We have a busy schedule, Peet and Miek are very active people. They take me to the best restaurants (they have their own restaurant in Belgium, in the Arden mountains, so I am accompanied by experts), visiting friends and they are trying to buy land on the other side of the river to build an ashram, that is like an Indian monastery. So I go with them, it is an interesting process to buy land in a country where so little is organized and where there is a lot of fraud. You have to know the right people, like with many things in life, and most of all you need a lot of patience, wanting things to go faster delays the process. The slower you move the faster you go is the golden rule. Then we have Hindi classes, from a young Indian teacher at the other side of the river, where we sit under the veranda in the countryside, eating papaya, away from the busy town, learning some new sentences. So much to do when even a day of doing completely nothing here is interesting as so much is continuously happening around you, a life so overwhelming, unexplainable. You find yourself in situations that you could have never imagined, meet the most eccentric people, see things that go beyond your craziest fantasies.

Being in India feels like not being in a different country, on a different continent. It is more like being on another planet.

I traveled to Jaipur for an International Cultural Festival. For 10 days there was going to be a full program with artists from all over the world. There were performances, concerts and exhibitions in an ambience of forts, temples and palaces. It was truly amazing. One evening I was watching a concert of a Spanish guitarist playing with local musicians, and Salman Rushdie sat beside me on one side, William Dalrymple on the other. They were there for the literature part of the festival, great authors from all over the world that have a connection with India were invited. After being at the foot of the Himalayas for some time I felt dried out, my soul longing for the city life, for the culture and arts. Jaipur gave everything, it was a magical time.

After the festival was finished an Italian friend with whom I shared a passion for food, asked me to come and eat fresh fish. I was surprised as we were in the desert. A couple of days later we were on our way to South India, Goa, to the beaches and palm trees to enjoy 10 days of being in paradise.

I traveled back to Jaipur for an International Festival for short cultural movies, it was interesting. Short movies were shown from 33 countries all over the world, some bad some great. The last evening, after the awards were presented, they invited me to celebrate with the organizers, sponsors, film makers from India, Italy, Lebanon, Austria, Bollywood stars and drank Indian champagne with them.

After the festival finished my friends in Hotel Diggi Palace left and it felt like time to move on. My Belgium friends Miek and Peet had emailed that they had arrived in Benares (Varanasi) and were going to stay there for some time. From Jaipur there was a direct train connection to Benares, taking only 24 hours….