Altai… One can touch the stars there

Doctor Alicia Rodríguez, President of the International Committee of the Banner of Peace, visits Russia

Our planet has beautiful and unusual places such as Altai in Siberia, Russian Federation.

The place where pines and birch-trees grow with the leaves moving in the wind and where the river Katun   covered with ice is passing through was called THE PEARL OF AISA by the great Russian painter Nikolai Roerich.

And this is a real pearl not only due to its amazing beauty but also due to its wonderful vibrations filling us with peace.

There are good reasons why there  are so many legends saying that Belovodiye or one of the illusory gates to mysterious Shambala is located there.

No matter if the legend true or not the truth is that energy vibration of the place guides us into a deep feeling of relaxation.

I have been there for a month.

I went over the mountains and spent several hours by the brooks listening to their songs.

I had a rest under the crowns of walnuts; I was drinking the dripping water when the sky was blue and cloudless.

According to mystical stories the tasty drops of water are used by Spiritual teachers to tell the people serving the Mankind about their presence.

The calmness and happiness one feels here are beyond words.

It is actually a great honor to be in Altai and see the snow-covered Belukha Mountains.

The region has several types of houses: one of them is a typical Siberian house built of timber and covered with a ridged roof the windows of which are decorated with a blue ornament.

I was happy to stay at one of the houses in a wonderful Zamulta village where I was invited by an agreeable translator Galina Ermolina from Novosibirsk. This old but beautiful house is inhabited by a special person, Ludmila Neverova, who changed nothing in the house which is 200 years old. The house still has 5 walls that have been used in Siberia for ages to protect people from the bad weather as temperature there can fall below 40°C. Green branches emitting a nice smell cover the floor in the sitting room instead of the wooden or earthen floor. My attention was captured by a classic toilet in the form of a small triangular house with two holes to place legs in them that was located in the garden. It was the first time when I saw the beautiful flowers and aromatic plants being put in such a place. The door is decorated by sophisticated frivolite lace which is so difficult to make and which is almost not made today.

Magnificent Larisa Malinovskaya, head of the local folk music group called The Crane, pleased us with Russian songs one evening when we were sitting by the fire. When it was my turn I decided to sing Veracruz mamba song that was enjoyed by the people.

Apart from being a pleasant and special person Ludmila also cooks very well. When we were saying good-bye she asked me for an autograph because she saw me playing in ‘The rich also cry’ that was shown in Russia several times and was heartily welcome there and I wrote the following: ‘For Ludmila  – light that makes our life lighter’.

Another type of houses often met in Altai called a YURT closely resemble the yurts seen in Mongolia though being different. Mongolian yurts are portable whereas Altaic yurts are made of wood, they are round or hexagonal and used to accept guests or drink tea with cakes or candies. I was invited into such a cozy yurt by a nice teacher Zoya Muzykova who hold me tight every time she saw me which I can never forget.

When I entered her yurt for the first time I was presented with a huge bunch of field flowers. She told me in Spanish: ‘Mother of Luis Alberto’ having in mind my role in ‘The rich also cry’ telenovela. As soon as I came into the yurt I considered myself at home. Her cozy hexagonal yurt, fire in the middle, chimney in the roof to remove the fume, multicolored pillows, beds standing next to one another around the fire… It all seemed very familiar.

Such homes are usually inhabited by indigenous people of Altai who look like the Mongolian and have similar traditions such as living in the cozy and multicolored yurts.

I came back to Malaga (Spain) from Russia several days ago but when I close my eyes I still clearly see the night sky of beautiful and mythic Altai in Siberia with so many stars that it seems they can be touched easily.

It seems that time has stopped there and is the same as it was a hundred years ago enabling us to enjoy the style of life.

Everything is real. Modest wooden houses that provide a shelter and so much of love. Nature which is growing freely and which is not spoilt by a human, transparent brooks that sing us to sleep, love of the people of Chendek village in Uimonskaya valley, Katun river you fall in love with because of its blue ice and force knocking you down.

All this gives you a feeling that spiritual hierarchy is present here. Creatures of higher vibration. Dear teachers who put out their hand to accomplish the mission humbly performed by them.

Actually, I didn’t plan to visit Altai this time but it seems that it was destiny that took me there.

When I came from Mexico to Malaga, I found some letters. There was a letter from my close friends in Siberia and another unusual letter saying ‘Please call the number as you have won a prize’. I gave such a call because of curiosity and I was very surprised when I was told that I won a plane ticket from Malaga to Saint-Petersburg.

I started meditating to ask Mahatma whether he was calling me. And deep in my heart I felt that he was.

Over twenty years ago I was honored to establish a sacred place on the Belukha Mountain with the Banner of Peace. A helicopter was flying above an amazing chain of wonderful snow-covered mountains and I appreciated the significance of the marvelous places to the full extent. We brought some soil from spiritual centers of Mexico, Teotihuacán, Palenque, Monte Albán, Popocatépetl volcano and also from those places in India visited by Krishna and respectfully mixed it with the sacred land of Russian Belukha Mountain.

During the simple ceremony held in front of TV cameras we threw the soil in silence to make the high vibration of the Banner of Peace stay there as the symbol of unity between all the creatures notwithstanding their race, political thinking or religion.

The symbol of the Banner of Peace was left there continuously spreading all over the globe as transformer of the Compensation law which will balance the chaos the planet is going through to some extent.

In a year I returned to Altai after I have visited the major part of the world and delivered over 3,000 Banners of Peace.

I delivered the Banner of Peace to over three thousand cultural, governmental, spiritual institutions and institutions that serve the mankind.

Right now ‘Together We Build The World Program’ has been carried out participated by over 300,000 people who are ready to be at peace USING THE BANNER OF PEACE in their lives that gives us the key to being well-balanced and healthy people using the symbol (see ‘Be A Banner of Peace’ book " Alom Editores).

In this successful context my life is strengthened with the recent mystical trip to Altai. I was honored to deliver the Banner of Peace to the State museum of Verkh-Yumona, a small village where the Roerichs lived before going on expedition to Asia. Affected to tears people took the message sincerely. The banner will stay in the museum forever in commemoration of our spiritual work.

It seems that the wonderful landscapes of Altai where the golden fields of wheat are decorated with blue and green lines of the amazing river of Katun and beautiful Belukha Mountain are impregnated with the Roerich’s presence.

Sitting under the warm rays of the evening sun I told the representatives of the Roerich’s museum in Saint-Petersburg why I devoted so many years of life to the Banner of Peace, about important presence of the Roerichs in the major part of the world, and about the work due to which I was nominated to the Nobel Prize in 1997.

During the conversation the place had a calm and harmonic feel. It seemed that souls of the people present were united to continue helping the mission.

I also spoke at the conference in a Siberian town of Byisk where I came across the spiritual topics that have never been discussed in public. The feeling of love emanating from the people accompanied with flowers and memories appreciated by me made the meeting with a group of Roerich’s admirers called Belovodiye and headed by Svetlana Sapoleva unforgettable.

She also invited me to speak at another conference in Altaic Chendyk village where followers of Roerich from the entire Russia gathered together.

After the conference we could listen to Russian and religious songs of The Crane local folk music group, the participants of which were wearing their traditional costumes and I was very grateful to see this. I liked the songs very much.

I appealed to them to live according to Roerich’s idea:

                                           ‘UNITY IN DIVERSITY’

So that all the followers of Roerich in the world could be united under the Banner of Peace

They wanted to know how our International Committee of the Banner of Peace, organization that doesn’t obtain any profit and where we don’t control the money could perform such a huge unique  work in the world under the Banner of Peace.

When I decided to renew the Committee founded by Nikolai  Roerich, a nice founder of the Banner of Peace and started working according to the most powerful Law of the Universe:

                                                      ‘THE LAW OF LOVE’

many people expressed surprise and doubts in relation to the fact that not much can be done without money.

Today as 27 years have passed we proved everyone that when you can persuade people in the urgent necessity to live in peace and harmony and when you are guided by the HEART BURNING WITH THE FLAME we can achieve anything positive we can strive for.

WE ARE THE ONLY COMMITTEE IN THE WORLD THAT DOESN’T CONTROL MONEY, no one of us gets salary and all our participants understand that if every person in the world will do something for the world every day we can replace the negative with the positive and the war with the peace.

When I stopped my conversation some of the delighted people approached me to kiss my hands.

I knew that it was not my hands they were kissing but the hands of Nikolai  Roerich who was a founder of the great idea represented by

THE BANNER OF PEACE

I also spoke at another conference where I told about our work that lasted for 27 years under the Banner of Peace. The conference took place in the State museum of Barnaul where I was interviewed and the delighted people presented me with beautiful roses and numerous souvenirs.

I obtained unusual gifts that would remind me of Altai. This is one of the gifts that were presented by a group of Buddhists from Ust-Koks. The bracelet had been a part of Maitreya statue set up in Buryatia next to Baikal lake in Tsugulsky monastery since 1896. During 60 years the monument was stored in a museum of religion in Saint-Petersburg. In 2005 the statue was restored by Fyodor Putischev who was blessed by the Buddhists for construction of temples.

After the Maitreya statue was restored it was decided not to hang the bracelet completely and to my surprise and gratitude Fyodor believed me