The following day I pass Artvin and cross the Turkish-Georgian border. Cicadas start to be heard again. The climate now seems almost sub-tropical. I leave the gloomy Turkish border-crossing, with Turkish soldiers observing the happenings from watchtowers and enter the Georgian border-crossing, the architecture of which transplants me to science-fiction.
I have left a country in which most people still live in the country-side and and are more or less dependent on relatively unmechanised agriculture; strangers and foreigners are welcomed most heartfully and the locals almost anywhere do anything to help you in whatever situation you might be in. I leave, having learnt that there is actually an active Sufi-school in Istanbul, staying true to its roots and welcoming all, that surprisingly many people here do not hesitate to express their admiration to Hitler (?!), that I have actually missed the magical beauty of the "Rainbow Gathering" in mid-August and that real faith is an active and positive power in this country found side by side to the hypocrisy of using religion as a tool for power.
Barely have I crossed the border on foot, do I pass through the little coastal town of Sarpi. House music is heard from the beach and many people can be seen coming to spend time here and going for a swim. Something strikes me as being utterly different from the atmosphere I have experienced in the country I have just left. It takes some moments until I realize what it is. Everybody is walking around in shorts and bathing suits. The women walk freely, openly, laugh, and play, consciously or uncoscioussly, with their radiation. But men equally, naturally assuming the counterpart of this energy, seem lively and playful, contributing to the relaxed holiday-like atmosphere. Signs and commercials everywhere greet me with an alien alphabet. It binds my attention, it fascinates and I wish to learn it.
I continue to Batumi. It is evening and the bedazzling show of lights, fountains, neat parks and pompous and futuristic architecture, create an impression of copious wealth. At the ‘Boombully’s Beach Hostel’ I meet Dejan from Serbia and Montenegro. He lived and worked in Switzerland most of his life. We have just met:
“What’s your plan for tomorrow?” I ask
“Im going to Mestia in Svaneti, there’s a music festival there on the 3rd”
It the first place I planned to visit myself.
“You know what? impulsively, spontaneously I say I’ll join you; that is if you don’t mind of course”
“Sure, but you must know that I don’t plan. I go with the flow; take things as they come. I’ll go to the bus station to check if a bus comes. If not, I’ll go by other means.” Dejan answers
“Perfect, that’s just how I travel.”
“Good, so we’re in the same movie.”
Indeed we sense that this is so.
“So what do you think is our mission here?” Dejan asks
“Both of ours, the groups mission at the hostel, or that of humanity?” I wish to clarify
“Well, generally, why are we all here on earth?”
“I reiterate what I have said to Robert in Kemaliye: “We are not here to realize WHY we are here. Our mission is to realize THAT we actually are; to realize how deep and real our personal existence actually is; To embrace all of life’s fascets to their fullest, but to wisely and intelligently distil from among all of these, to distil from the extremes, the Sense of Universal Existence. On widening this consciousness all questions of ‘why’ start to dissolve. The essence of your being IS the answer”
Dejan thinks out loud: “If we at our essence are This already, if the One Existence is perfect, all-embracing, infinite and whole, where is there room left for evolution? It is then just the illusion of evolution from our point of view, this process in which the individual entities slowly realize their oneness with the Universe.”
I add “From our limited human perspective, once we have realized our unity with Life there can be no more question of progress; We have arrived, we have finished our journey. However there is of course progress and continuation. Within this absolute bliss of realized Oneness there is a further way. It just lies utterly outside of the capacity of human consciousness to conceive. The human stage is merely one part of an infinite chain of spiritual evolution. To us the end of OUR part seems like a state of infinite, eternal and omniscient Perfection.”
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