Finding the Peace Shrine

(Treasure of the heart!)

On my first evening in Vishakapatnam we went up the local hill, Kailasagiri. It was incredibly beautiful with huge white statues of Shiva and Pavarti at the top. As we wandered further on I couldn't believe my "luck" - we came to an Ashram World Peace centre! 
Virtually in the middle of nowhere, up this hill!  It felt so right, so perfect. All round the walls were symbols of all the main world religions. Apparently it used to be a war base. After the war Sri Swami Omkar bought the disused buildings and surrounding land saying he wanted to turn the "war base" into a "peace base". He meditated in silence there for 6 years before turning it into a Universal Shrine of Peace.

It is a shrine for all religions. "God is one - worshiped in different forms" is the belief of Hindu culture. This shrine to world peace has an amazing atmosphere - very beautiful. I felt very in tune with it, and with the founder (now passed on). The energy felt very like that of Gandhi and St. Francis - very gentle, very peaceful yet very powerful and beautiful.

So we decided to hold the first day of the workshop in the Peace Shrine. I was so excited, it was absolutely perfect! I had brought the Life Foundation Peace Flame with me to pass on - what a gift - finding a Peace centre to do it in! It felt so perfect.  

Incidentally, one strand of the peace flame had originally been brought to Wales from India where it had been lit from Gandhi's funeral pyre flame, which I visited in Delhi.