I was in Germany in the beginning of May 2001, when the days in Germany already started getting longer. It confused me very much in the beginning that it took so long to get dark outside and that is was light so early in the morning already. In India the whole year around the sun rises at about the same time and sets at about the same time, maybe with one hour difference in between summer and winter.
However, as I said, not everything was new in my life in the west. One element of my days was a fire ceremony which I did every morning after getting up and showering but before eating anything. Even drinking water had to wait until I was done with this ritual, which is called hawan.
I was carrying a bag with me with all the ingredients for doing this fire ceremony. I had black sesame, rice, sugar, many different herbs, ghee, a small fire pot and even small woods. So wherever I would be, there would always be the possibility to perform my ritual. I had started this daily morning ceremony in the year 1988 and had not missed doing it even for one day and did it very intensively during my time in the cave.
In Germany I faced a few difficulties but they were overcome easily. The flat was small and had no garden, so I opened the windows of the living room, sat in the middle of the room with my fire and started. It did not take long and the fire alarm, which I had not known anything of before, started making a lot of angry and loud beeping. I was quite surprised until my friend came running in, switched the machine off and explained it to me. From the next day on we did not forget to cover the sensor of the alarm and to move my fire pot close to the door to the small balcony which we kept wide open so that the smoke could leave the apartment.
My Indian friend in Itzehoe had another guest, the husband of his sister. So it was the three of us together in his apartment and we cooked Indian food together, discovered Germany a bit more and also meditated together. Of course I was a religious, spiritual person and they knew I had been working my whole life as a guru. So whenever there was another person invited and four people or more together, I was asked to talk about something religious, in short, I was asked to preach. They expected something wise of me and were happy when I talked for half an hour.
So in this way my visit was full of extremes. At home we meditated and I did my fire ceremony and when we went out, my friend told me of his neighbour, the suspected prostitute or showed me the Reeperbahn in Hamburg with all the red light area around it. This, too, was quite a memorable experience, if not to say a shock for me. I had never imagined that such a place existed with sex clubs on both sides of the road, women with much make-up and less clothes inviting you to come in and the whole atmosphere in this place. The posters and pictures that were displayed everywhere and the offers made were something completely new to my eyes and mind, so that I was just walking down the road with my eyes wide open.
After about ten days in Germany, my friend brought me to the airport again for me to go to my second destination where I should have some more surprising experiences in this culture. I was going to Mallorca, Spain.
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I had to laugh at your description of how the Reeperbahn in Hamburg impressed you. I live in Hamburg and sometimes like to walk down the street there. There are some good theaters, too, you know.So when you go there, you can see foreigners from different countries staring at the bars and night clubs. I once saw a group of young, probably Indian boys, who were standing in front of a strip club and it looked as though they were debating whether they should enter or not. In the end they decided not to. Already in that time I thought that this must be a fully new sight to them. Their morals told them however not to go in there 🙂
But Swami ji there are red light districts in India too!
Of course this business takes place all over the world but in the life that I was living, I never saw that. I was a religious guru, so for the first time I saw it in Europe where it is openly displayed like a tourist attraction. Everybody who visits Hamburg walks by there at least once.In India you will never see advertisements with lights flashing and pictures inviting you in. There are red light areas in big cities but not with strip clubs and night clubs that are so publicly displayed.
0E:))))) I love the part with the Fire ritual (Hawan ) very much :))) …Thank you so much for sharing your life with us :))
That’s the difficulty about travelling and being in another culture: you never know what comes next. But when I say difficulty, I don’t mean that in a negative way. The difficulty can also be seen as a challenge. We can find out where our border is and at the same time we can widen our horizon.