WHAT IS SHAMBALLA? IS SHAMBALLA A REALITY??

I was reading a book called “The autobiography of an yogi”. It is a very famous book
and it is a book that gives a glimpse of spiritual India. It gives a glimpse of the other
face of India. Incredible India. The writer was a disciple of Shyama Charan Lahiri also
known as Lahiri mohashoy. The writer was Swami Yogananda Lahiri Mohashoy’s Guru
was Babaji a celestial guru who is believed to have been living for the past hundreds of
years. He is believed to be living in the Himalayas and is believed to have powers to
materialize anywhere at will and dematerialize at will. I will narrate a story here to
illustrate this very nature of such Gurus. This story is a factual story as experienced by
Shyama Charan lahiri mohashoy.

"Babaji's first meeting with Lahiri Mahasaya is an enthralling story, and one of the few
which gives us a detailed glimpse of the deathless guru."

These words were Swami Kebalananda's preamble to a wondrous tale. The first
time he recounted it I was literally spellbound. On many other occasions I coaxed my
gentle Sanskrit tutor to repeat the story, which was later told me in substantially the
same words by Sri Yukteswar. Both these Lahiri Mahasaya disciples had heard the
awesome tale direct from the lips of their guru.

"My first meeting with Babaji took place in my thirty-third year," Lahiri Mahasaya
had said. "In the autumn of 1861 I was stationed in Danapur as a government
accountant in the Military Engineering Department. One morning the office manager
summoned me.

"'Lahiri,' he said, 'a telegram has just come from our main office. You're to be
transferred to Ranikhet, where an army post [1] is now being established.'

"With one servant, I set out on the 500-mile trip. Travelling by horse and buggy, we
arrived in thirty days at the Himalayan site of Ranikhet. [2]

"My office duties were not onerous; I was able to spend many hours roaming in the
magnificent hills. A rumour reached me that great saints blessed the region with their
presence; I felt a strong desire to see them. During a ramble one early afternoon, I was
astounded to hear a distant voice calling my name. I continued my vigorous upward
climb on Drongiri Mountain. A slight uneasiness beset me at the thought that I might
not be able to retrace my steps before darkness had descended over the jungle.
 "I finally reached a small clearing whose sides were dotted with caves. On one of
the rocky ledges stood a smiling young man, extending his hand in welcome. I noticed
with astonishment that, except for his copper-coloured hair, he bore a remarkable
resemblance to myself.

"'Lahiri, you've come!' The saint addressed me affectionately in Hindi. 'Rest here in
this cave. It was I who called you.'

"I entered a neat little grotto which contained several woollen blankets and a few
kamandulus (begging bowls).

"'Lahiri, do you remember that seat?' The yogi pointed to a folded blanket in one
corner.

"'No, sir.' Somewhat dazed at the strangeness of my adventure, I added, 'I must
leave now, before nightfall. I have business in the morning at my office.'

"The mysterious saint replied in English, 'The office was brought for you, and not
you for the office.'

"I was dumbfounded that this forest ascetic shouldn't only speak English but also
paraphrase the words of Christ. [3]

"'I see my telegram took effect.' The yogi's remark was incomprehensible to me; I
inquired his meaning.

"'I refer to the telegram that summoned you to these isolated parts. It was I who
silently suggested to the mind of your superior officer that you be transferred to
Ranikhet. When one feels his unity with mankind, all minds become transmitting
stations through which he can work at will.' He added gently, 'Lahiri, surely this cave
seems familiar to you?'

"As I maintained a bewildered silence, the saint approached and struck me gently
on the forehead. At his magnetic touch, a wondrous current swept through my brain,
releasing the sweet seed-memories of my previous life.

"'I remember!' My voice was half-choked with joyous sobs. 'You're my guru Babaji,
who has belonged to me always! Scenes of the past arise vividly in my mind; here in
this cave I spent many years of my last incarnation!' As ineffable recollections
overwhelmed me, I tearfully embraced my master's feet.

"'For more than three decades I've waited for you here-waited for you to return to
me!' Babaji's voice rang with celestial love. 'You slipped away and vanished into the
tumultuous waves of the life beyond death. The magic wand of your karma touched
you, and you were gone! Though you lost sight of me, never did I lose sight of you! I
pursued you over the luminescent astral sea where the glorious angels sail. Through
gloom, storm, upheaval, and light I followed you, like a mother bird guarding her
young. As you lived out your human term of womb-life, and emerged a babe, my eye
was ever on you. When you covered your tiny form in the lotus posture under the
Nadia sands in your childhood, I was invisibly present! Patiently, month after month,
year after year, I've watched over you, waiting for this perfect day. Now you're with
me! Lo, here's your cave, loved of yore! I've kept it ever clean and ready for you. Here's
your hallowed asana-blanket, where you daily sat to fill your expanding heart with
God! Behold there your bowl, from which you often drank the nectar prepared by me!
See how I've kept the brass cup brightly polished, that you might drink again
therefrom! My own, do you now understand?'

"'My guru, what can I say?' I murmured brokenly. 'Where has one ever heard of
such deathless love?' I gazed long and ecstatically on my eternal treasure, my guru in
life and death.

"'Lahiri, you need purification. Drink the oil in this bowl and lie down by the river.'
Babaji's practical wisdom, I reflected with a quick, reminiscent smile, was ever to the
fore.

"I obeyed his directions. Though the icy Himalayan night was descending, a
comforting warmth, an inner radiation, began to pulsate in every cell of my body. I
marvelled. Was the unknown oil endued with a cosmic heat?

"Bitter winds whipped around me in the darkness, shrieking a fierce challenge. The
chill wavelets of the Gogash River lapped now and then over my body, outstretched on
the rocky bank. Tigers howled near-by, but my heart was free of fear; the radiant force
newly generated within me conveyed an assurance of unassailable protection. Several
hours passed swiftly; faded memories of another life wove themselves into the present
brilliant pattern of reunion with my divine guru.

"My solitary musings were interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. In

the darkness, a man's hand gently helped me to my feet, and gave me some dry
clothing.

"'Come, brother,' my companion said. 'The master awaits you.'

"He led the way through the forest. The sombre night was suddenly lit by a steady
luminosity in the distance.
 "'Can that be the sunrise?' I inquired. 'Surely the whole night hasn't passed?'

"'The hour is midnight.' My guide laughed softly. 'Yonder light is the glow of a
golden palace, materialised here tonight by the peerless Babaji. In the dim past, you
once expressed a desire to enjoy the beauties of a palace. Our master is now satisfying
your wish, thus freeing you from the bonds of karma.' [4] He added, 'The magnificent
palace will be the scene of your initiation tonight into kriya yoga. All your brothers here
join in a paean of welcome, rejoicing at the end of your long exile. Behold!'

"A vast palace of dazzling gold stood before us. Studded with countless jewels, and
set amidst landscaped gardens, it presented a spectacle of unparalleled grandeur. Saints
of angelic countenance were stationed by resplendent gates, half-reddened by the glitter
of rubies. Diamonds, pearls, sapphires, and emeralds of great size and lustre were
imbedded in the decorative arches.

"I followed my companion into a spacious reception hall. The odour of incense and
of roses wafted through the air; dim lamps shed a multicoloured glow. Small groups of
devotees, some fair, some dark-skinned, chanted musically, or sat in the meditative
posture, immersed in an inner peace. A vibrant joy pervaded the atmosphere.

"'Feast your eyes; enjoy the artistic splendours of this palace, for it has been brought
into being solely in your honour.' My guide smiled sympathetically as I uttered a few
ejaculations of wonderment.

"'Brother,' I said, 'the beauty of this structure surpasses the bounds of human
imagination. Please tell me the mystery of its origin.'

"'I'll gladly enlighten you.' My companion's dark eyes sparkled with wisdom. 'In
reality there's nothing inexplicable about this materialisation. The whole cosmos is a
materialised thought of the Creator. This heavy, earthly clod, floating in space, is a
dream of God. He made all things out of His consciousness, even as man in his dream
consciousness reproduces and vivifies a creation with its creatures.

"'God first created the earth as an idea. Then He quickened it; energy atoms came
into being. He co-ordinated the atoms into this solid sphere. All its molecules are held
together by the will of God. When He withdraws His will, the earth again will
disintegrate into energy. Energy will dissolve into consciousness; the earth-idea will
disappear from objectivity.

"'The substance of a dream is held in materialisation by the subconscious thought of

the dreamer. When that cohesive thought is withdrawn in wakefulness, the dream and
its elements dissolve. A man closes his eyes and erects a dream-creation which, on
awakening, he effortlessly dematerialises. He follows the divine archetypal pattern.
Similarly, when he awakens in cosmic consciousness, he will effortlessly dematerialise
the illusions of the cosmic dream.

"'Being one with the infinite all-accomplishing Will, Babaji can summon the
elemental atoms to combine and manifest themselves in any form. This golden palace,
instantaneously created, is real, even as this earth is real. Babaji created this palatial
mansion out of his mind and is holding its atoms together by the power of his will, even
as God created this earth and is maintaining it intact.' He added, 'When this structure
has served its purpose, Babaji will dematerialise it.'

"As I remained silent in awe, my guide made a sweeping gesture. 'This shimmering
palace, superbly embellished with jewels, hasn't been built by human effort or with
laboriously mined gold and gems. It stands solidly, a monumental challenge to man. [5]
Whoever realises himself as a son of God, even as Babaji has done, can reach any goal
by the infinite powers hidden within him. A common stone locks within itself the secret
of stupendous atomic energy; [6] even so, a mortal is yet a powerhouse of divinity.'

"The sage picked up from a near-by table a graceful vase whose handle was blazing
with diamonds. 'Our great guru created this palace by solidifying myriads of free
cosmic rays,' he went on. 'Touch this vase and its diamonds; they will satisfy all the tests
of sensory experience.'

"I examined the vase, and passed my hand over the smooth room-walls, thick with
glistening gold. Each of the jewels scattered lavishly about was worthy of a king's
collection. Deep satisfaction spread over my mind. A submerged desire, hidden in my
subconsciousness from lives now gone, seemed simultaneously gratified and
extinguished.

"My stately companion led me through ornate arches and corridors into a series of
chambers richly furnished in the style of an emperor's palace. We entered an immense
hall. In the centre stood a golden throne, encrusted with jewels shedding a dazzling
medley of colours. There, in lotus posture, sat the supreme Babaji. I knelt on the shining
floor at his feet.

"'Lahiri, are you still feasting on your dream desires for a golden palace?' My guru's
eyes were twinkling like his own sapphires. 'Wake! All your earthly thirsts are about to
be quenched forever.' He murmured some mystic words of blessing. 'My son, arise.
Receive your initiation into the kingdom of God through kriya yoga.'
 "Babaji stretched out his hand; a homa (sacrificial) fire appeared, surrounded by
fruits and flowers. I received the liberating yogic technique before this flaming altar.

"The rites were completed in the early dawn. I felt no need for sleep in my ecstatic
state, and wandered around the palace, filled on all sides with treasures and priceless
objets d'art. Descending to the gorgeous gardens, I noticed, near-by, the same caves and
barren mountain ledges which yesterday had boasted no adjacency to palace or
flowered terrace.

"Re-entering the palace, fabulously glistening in the cold Himalayan sunlight, I

sought the presence of my master. He was still enthroned, surrounded by many quiet
disciples.

"'Lahiri, you're hungry.' Babaji added, 'Close your eyes.'

"When I reopened them, the enchanting palace and its picturesque gardens had
disappeared. My own body and the forms of Babaji and the cluster of chelas were all
now seated on the bare ground at the exact site of the vanished palace, not far from the
sunlit entrances of the rocky grottoes. I recalled that my guide had remarked that the
palace would be dematerialised, its captive atoms released into the thought-essence
from which it had sprung. Although stunned, I looked trustingly at my guru. I knew
not what to expect next on this day of miracles.

"'The purpose for which the palace was created has now been served,' Babaji
explained. He lifted an earthen vessel from the ground. 'Put your hand there and
receive whatever food you desire.'

"As soon as I touched the broad, empty bowl, it became heaped with hot butter-
fried luchis, curry, and rare sweetmeats. I helped myself, observing that the vessel was
ever-filled. At the end of my meal I looked around for water. My guru pointed to the
bowl before me. Lo! the food had vanished; in its place was water, clear as from a
mountain stream.

"'Few mortals know that the kingdom of God includes the kingdom of mundane
fulfilments,' Babaji observed. 'The divine realm extends to the earthly, but the latter,
being illusory, can't include the essence of reality.'

"'Beloved guru, last night you demonstrated for me the link of beauty in heaven and
earth!' I smiled at memories of the vanished palace; surely no simple yogi had ever
received initiation into the august mysteries of Spirit amidst surroundings of more
impressive luxury! I gazed tranquilly at the stark contrast of the present scene. The
gaunt ground, the skyey roof, the caves offering primitive shelter-all seemed a gracious
natural setting for the seraphic saints around me.

"I sat that afternoon on my blanket, hallowed by associations of past-life

realisations. My divine guru approached and passed his hand over my head. I entered
the nirbikalpa samadhi state, remaining unbrokenly in its bliss for seven days. Crossing
the successive strata of self-knowledge, I penetrated the deathless realms of reality. All
delusive limitations dropped away; my soul was fully established on the eternal altar of
the Cosmic Spirit. On the eighth day I fell at my guru's feet and implored him to keep
me always near him in this sacred wilderness.

"'My son,' Babaji said, embracing me, 'your role in this incarnation must be played
on an outward stage. Prenatally blessed by many lives of lonely meditation, you must
now mingle in the world of men.

"'A deep purpose underlay the fact that you didn't meet me this time till you were
already a married man, with modest business responsibilities. You must put aside your
thoughts of joining our secret band in the Himalayas; your life lies in the crowded
marts, serving as an example of the ideal yogi-householder.

"'The cries of many bewildered worldly men and women have not fallen unheard
on the ears of the Great Ones,' he went on. 'You've been chosen to bring spiritual solace
through kriya yoga to numerous earnest seekers. The millions who are encumbered by
family ties and heavy worldly duties will take new heart from you, a householder like
themselves. You must guide them to see that the highest yogic attainments aren't barred
to the family man. Even in the world, the yogi who faithfully discharges his
responsibilities, without personal motive or attachment, treads the sure path of
enlightenment.

"'No necessity compels you to leave the world, for inwardly you've already
sundered its every karmic tie. Not of this world, you must yet be in it. Many years still
remain during which you must conscientiously fulfil your family, business, civic, and
spiritual duties. A sweet new breath of divine hope will penetrate the arid hearts of
worldly men. From your balanced life, they will understand that liberation is
dependent on inner, rather than outer, renunciations.'

"How remote seemed my family, the office, the world, as I listened to my guru in
the high Himalayan solitudes. Yet adamantine truth rang in his words; I submissively
agreed to leave this blessed haven of peace. Babaji instructed me in the ancient rigid
rules which govern the transmission of the yogic art from guru to disciple.
 "'Bestow the kriya key only on qualified chelas,' Babaji said. 'He who vows to
sacrifice all in the quest of the divine is fit to unravel the final mysteries of life through
the science of meditation.'

"'Angelic guru, as you've already favoured mankind by resurrecting the lost Kriya
art, will you not increase that benefit by relaxing the strict requirements for
discipleship?' I gazed beseechingly at Babaji. 'I pray that you permit me to communicate
Kriya to all seekers, even though at first they can't vow themselves to complete inner
renunciation. The tortured men and women of the world, pursued by the threefold
suffering, [7] need special encouragement. They may never attempt the road to freedom
if Kriya initiation be withheld from them.'

"'Be it so. The divine wish has been expressed through you.' With these simple
words, the merciful guru banished the rigorous safeguards that for ages had hidden
Kriya from the world. 'Give Kriya freely to all who humbly ask for help.'

"After a silence, Babaji added, 'Repeat to each of your disciples this majestic promise
from the Bhagavad Gita: "Swalpamasya dharmasya, trayata mahato bhoyat"-"Even a
little bit of the practice of this religion will save you from dire fears and colossal
sufferings."' [8]

"As I knelt the next morning at my guru's feet for his farewell blessing, he sensed
my deep reluctance to leave him.

"'There's no separation for us, my beloved child.' He touched my shoulder

affectionately. 'Wherever you are, whenever you call me, I shall be with you instantly.'

"Consoled by his wondrous promise, and rich with the newly found gold of God-
wisdom, I wended my way down the mountain. At the office I was welcomed by my
fellow employees, who for ten days had thought me lost in the Himalayan jungles. A
letter soon arrived from the head office.

"'Lahiri should return to the Danapur [9] office,' it read. 'His transfer to Ranikhet
occurred by error. Another man should have been sent to assume the Ranikhet duties.'

"I smiled, reflecting on the hidden crosscurrents in the events which had led me to
this furthermost spot of India.

"Before returning to Danapur, I spent a few days with a Bengali family at

Moradabad. A party of six friends gathered to greet me. As I turned the conversation to
spiritual subjects, my host observed gloomily:

"'Oh, in these days India is destitute of saints!'

 "'Babu,' I protested warmly, 'of course there are still great masters in this land!'

"In a mood of exalted fervour, I felt impelled to relate my miraculous experiences in

the Himalayas. The little company was politely incredulous.

"'Lahiri,' one man said soothingly, 'your mind has been under a strain in those
rarefied mountain airs. This is some daydream you've recounted.'

"Burning with the enthusiasm of truth, I spoke without due thought. 'If I call him,
my guru will appear right in this house.'

"Interest gleamed in every eye; it was no wonder that the group was eager to
behold a saint materialised in such a strange way. Half-reluctantly, I asked for a quiet
room and two new woollen blankets.

"'The master will materialise from the ether,' I said. 'Remain silently outside the
door; I shall soon call you.'

"I sank into the meditative state, humbly summoning my guru. The darkened room
soon filled with a dim aural moonlight; the luminous figure of Babaji emerged.

"'Lahiri, do you call me for a trifle?' The master's gaze was stern. 'Truth is for
earnest seekers, not for those of idle curiosity. It's easy to believe when one sees; there's
nothing then to deny. Supersensual truth is deserved and discovered by those who
overcome their natural materialistic scepticism.' He added gravely, 'Let me go!'

"I fell entreatingly at his feet. 'Holy guru, I realise my serious error; I humbly ask
pardon. It was to create faith in these spiritually blinded minds that I ventured to call
you. Because you've graciously appeared at my prayer, please don't depart without
bestowing a blessing on my friends. Unbelievers though they be, at least they were
willing to investigate the truth of my strange assertions.'

"'Very well; I'll stay awhile. I don't wish your word discredited before your friends.'
Babaji's face had softened, but he added gently, 'Henceforth, my son, I shall come when
you need me, and not always when you call me. [ [10]'

"Tense silence reigned in the little group when I opened the door. As if mistrusting
their senses, my friends stared at the lustrous figure on the blanket seat.

"'This is mass-hypnotism!' One man laughed blatantly. 'No one could possibly have
entered this room without our knowledge!'
 "Babaji advanced smilingly and motioned to each one to touch the warm, solid flesh
of his body. Doubts dispelled, my friends prostrated themselves on the floor in awed
repentance.

"'Let halua [11] be prepared.' Babaji made this request, I knew, to further assure the
group of his physical reality. While the porridge was boiling, the divine guru chatted
affably. Great was the metamorphosis of these doubting Thomases into devout St.
Pauls. After we had eaten, Babaji blessed each of us in turn. There was a sudden flash;
we witnessed the instantaneous dechemicalisation of the electronic elements of Babaji's
body into a spreading vaporous light. The God-tuned will power of the master had
loosened its grasp of the ether atoms held together as his body; forthwith the trillions of
tiny lifetronic sparks faded into the infinite reservoir.

"'With my own eyes I've seen the conqueror of death.' Maitra, [12] one of the group,
spoke reverently. His face was transfigured with the joy of his recent awakening. 'The
supreme guru played with time and space, as a child plays with bubbles. I've beheld
one with the keys of heaven and earth.'

"I soon returned to Danapur. Firmly anchored in the Spirit, again I assumed the
manifold business and family obligations of a householder."

Lahiri Mahasaya also related to Swami Kebalananda and Sri Yukteswar the story of
another meeting with Babaji, under circumstances which recalled the guru's promise: "I
shall come whenever you need me."

"The scene was a Kumbha Mela at Allahabad," Lahiri Mahasaya told his disciples. "I
had gone there during a short vacation from my office duties. As I wandered amidst the
throng of monks and sadhus who had come from great distances to attend the holy
festival, I noticed an ash-smeared ascetic who was holding a begging bowl. The thought
arose in my mind that the man was hypocritical, wearing the outward symbols of
renunciation without a corresponding inward grace.

"No sooner had I passed the ascetic than my astounded eye fell on Babaji. He was
kneeling in front of a matted-haired anchorite.

"'Guruji!' I hastened to his side. 'Sir, what are you doing here?'

"'I'm washing the feet of this renunciate, and then I shall clean his cooking utensils.'
Babaji smiled at me like a little child; I knew he was intimating that he wanted me to
criticise no one, but to see the Lord as residing equally in all body-temples, whether of
superior or inferior men. The great guru added, 'By serving wise and ignorant sadhus,
I'm learning the greatest of virtues, pleasing to God above all others-humility.'"
There is another factual story about Babaji which only proves that such Gurus are still
there in India, The spiritual center of the earth,and that they have tremendous powers
that will be harnessed by such Gurus to pull mankind from slipping into oblivion.

This is an incident of 1942 when the king of Kumaon invited an army officer of Western
Command, LP. Farrel for a picnic trip to the hills. There was a special reason for inviting
Mr. Farrel; in spite of his being a Britisher he was very much interested in Indian
religion, philosophy and culture. He had a few opportunities of witnessing
demonstration of miraculous feats of some Indian yogis. He had become a pure
vegetarian. That is why he always welcomed any opportunity to go towards the
Himalayan wilderness, with the hope of meeting some saint or yogi who could initiate
him into spiritual sadhana.

Mr. Farrel, the king and the queen and their entourage reached a place near Nainital full
of natural beauty. It so enchanted them that they decided to camp overnight there. So,
the dozens of tents were pitched and the lonely place got filled with the hustle and
bustle of servants. Gossip, merriment, eating and drinking went on till midnight.
Everyone went to bed and due to exhaustion of the whole day’s exertions, immediately
slipped into deep sleep. The first phase of the sleep was hardly over when Mr. Farrel
felt that there was someone near his cot. He waked up and clearly listened-"We need
the place where your tents have been pitched. You vacate this place. If you are unable to
understand, then you should come to that northwestern hill in front of you. I will
explain you everything." "But who are you?" – saying this Mr. Farrel got up from the
bed and lit his torch. But there was no one. He came out of the tent but there too no one
could be seen nor heard anyone’s footsteps. After a momentary fear he became normal
and then went back to his bed again for sleeping. It was 3.30 AM by his watch.

Despite his best efforts he could not sleep. Somehow he was keeping his eyes shut.
Again he felt someone’s presence. Still lying on the bed he opened the eyes and he saw
a shadow of a person standing in front of him. This time again he uttered the same
words. In order to identify that person, as soon as Mr. Farrel lit the torch, even the
shadow vanished. His body started shaking and perspiring. This army officer who did
not get frightened even by watching the horrible bloodshed in the war, momentarily got
un-nerved and dumbfounded by mere imagination of a supernatural being. He lay
awake in his bed with his eyes closed till the morning but heard nothing. A strange
attraction was arousing within him to see the hill mentioned by the shadowy presence.
He put on his clothes and shoes and silently came out of the tent and walked towards
that hill.
Describing this incident Mr. Farrel has himself written: "The way to the place where I
was directed to reach was very difficult, narrow and dangerous. I was not at all able to
climb up by myself but I was constantly feeling that somebody was showing me the
way and was providing me the energy to climb up. After a hard effort of three and a
half hours I could climb up. It seemed difficult to go ahead due to heavy breathing and
perspiration. So I sat down on a square stone, lying down on it to take some rest.
Hardly two minutes had passed and the same voice awakened me. ‘Mr. Farrel! Now
you put off your shoes and slowly climb down the stone and come to me. With these
words in the ears, I looked around and saw that a saint, with very weak constitution but
brilliant splendor on the forehead, was standing in front of me. Leave aside the
acquaintance, I had never met or seen him earlier. Then how could he know my name?
He was here, then how did his shadow reach in my tent in the night? There was no
communication link like a radio or a microphone etc between us. Then how could his
voice reach me? Several such questions arose in my mind. Putting a stop to the
unending trail of questions the sadhu said-whatever you have heard and seen cannot be
understood by ordinary human mind. For this purpose one has to do long sadhana and
the practice of yoga, abandoning the worldly pleasures and attraction of the senses.
There is a specific purpose for which you have been called here."

Farrel could not make out whether the saintly person was a human being or a god. The
thoughts arising in his mind were being constantly read by that person like an open
book. Mr. Farrel climbed down the rock and in a short time reached the place where the
Sadhu was sitting. The place was so small that only one person could take rest there.
There was nothing except the fire burning in the Dhooni (firepit).

Farrel further writes- "The Sadhu patted me on the back with his weak hand and I was
stunned how could this electricity like power be there in that old body. My body that
was almost breaking with pain due to exhaustion - now seemed light like a flower. As
an humble gesture of respect for him I knelt down and touched his feet. I had seen
many sadhus; but I have always felt that sahdus and saints who had influenced Indian
philosophy and increased its dignity were not those who were roaming around on the
roads but they were truly such secluded and devoted persons only. Their physical
bodies might weigh 80-90 pounds but intensity of their energy and power was more
than that of thousand bombs and they were the storehouses of knowledge."

The Sadhu told me-"I have inspired a youth to reach the place where your tents have
been pitched. He was my disciple in his previous birth. His sadhana is half-completed.
Now I want to guide him again to undertake his sadhana and penance for the universal
welfare. But the memories of his previous birth are dormant. The impressions and
circumstances of this birth are attracting him. Therefore he is unable to take up the
sadhana again. I have called him through subtle inspiration. If he comes here and is
unable to locate the directed place, then he will get confused. In that event, whatever I
want will not become possible, Therefore, please vacate that place immediately."

Mr. Farrel said – "Lord! Please tell me also a few things about my previous birth "? The
Sadhu replied-"My son! These siddhis (accomplishments) are not for demonstration.
They are meant for some special purposes and it is better they are utilized for that only.
Of course, if you wish you can be present at the time when I show him the events of his
previous birth. Now you go. People are searching for you in the camp. I too am in a
hurry." Mr. Farrel returned to the camp. Indeed, people had been searching for him.
Mr. Farrel narrated the incident to the king. They then left that place and pitched the
camp some 200 yards away.

By the evening of that day a young man did indeed come searching for that place. After
satisfying himself in all respects, he sat down there. In the meantime, Mr. Farrel also
reached there. His curiosity was getting more and more intense as the time passed. In a
short while sadhu too reached there. Mr. Farel and the young man touched his feet and
stood waiting for his instructions. That place was in the centre of a grove of trees.. After
lighting the fire sadhu did some puja, recited some mantras and told us to sit down in a
meditating posture. A ray of light emanated from his forehead and a circular spot of
light appeared on the trunk of a thick tree. Then whatever was seen in the spot was just
like a cinema where they saw the characters actually walking and talking. Like a movie,
they saw the events of the previous birth of that youth with their own naked eyes. In
between that youth used to get excited and would say – ‘Yes-yes I had done that’.

At the end, that youth touched the feet of that sadhu and said "Lord! Now my
attachment with the mundane world is broken. I am ready to take up the unfinished
sadhana of my previous life. Please guide me so that I can complete the unfinished
task." The Sadhu said – "My son! Today you take rest here. In the morning, you return
to your home. At an appropriate time, I will call you." After that Mr Farrel did not know
when that youth was called again? What he became later and with what name he
became popular? But he became a staunch devotee of Indian religion and spirituality.
This incident has been narrated by Mr. Farrel himself in an article in the May 17, 1959
issue of Saptahik Hindustan (a weekly Hindi magazine).

These incidents though, are rare, but they are true and these incidents do happen of and
on but it happens to people who are choosen by the powers themselves. Not all and
everybody is priviledge to such sightings and incidents. Celestial gurus and saints do
live for eternity and it is believed that they stay somewhere in the Himalayas and that
these gurus can materialize out of no where and can vanish in thin air. It is believed that
there are seven such celetial gurus or saints and that they keep a watch on humanity
and when the earth is burdened with evil and when the people of this earth begin to
play GOD themselves and Humans begin to looses all qualities of the most precious
creation of GOD, these saints come into action. They select certain people with qualities
that are essence of the creator and then will save the earth and its inhabitants from total
annihilation. Indian scriptures are filled with descriptions of immortal souls like Shiva,
Bhairav, Hanuman, Ashwatthama and many siddhas. There is a story in Kalki Purana,
which goes like this. When Lord Kalki saw that the entire world has sunk neck-deep in
perversities like sex indulgence, anger, greed, attachment, ego, laziness, etc. and the
light of the souls had been extinguished, he decided to guide the masses groping in the
darkness of ignorance. The darkness was dense. The entire world was badly trapped in
the materialistic pursuits and the pleasures of the senses. Lord Kalki felt that he lacked
the power required for this awakening of the masses. Then his spiritual mentor
Parashuram called him to the Himalayas and made him undertake a penance at a place
where he (Parashuram) had himself done it. This penance awakened the enormous
power, which was needed for the transformation of the era, within Kalki. Lord
Parshuram was born in Vedic Yuga, which came much earlier than the Kaliyuga. His
presence in Kaliyuga too is an indication of his immortality and a testimony of the fact
that immortal souls like him are still present in the Himalayas. Dr. Hari Dutta Bhatta,
Shailesh has given an interesting description of his mountaineering experience of
Janwali (Garhwal) hill, which is 22000 feet above the sea level, in Dharmayuga (Hindi
weekly, 23 rd August 1964 issue). He was convinced that some supernormal power
saved him and his group from getting buried under a landslide. All these incidents
prove the fact that immortal souls possessing fierce supernatural power are still present
in the Himalayas and they will remain there for an infinite time.

Modern scientists are also actively engaged in the research for finding the elixir of life.
Zoologists of Russia, France, Britain, Germany, USA, etc. have been investigating for a
long time the process of aging and death. On the basis of the results obtained so far,
they have concluded that death is not an inevitable phenomenon. Aging is a kind of
disease. If it be possible to find a cure for it, a person could live for a thousand years.
The modes and methods of kayakalpa (rejuvenation) mentioned in Ayurveda also
prove this fact.

In traditional histories of India like the Puranas and Brahmanas, it is pointed out that in
addition to the kingdoms in northern India, there were kingdoms north of the
Himalayas with the same culture as in India, which would be in the regions that we are
considering for the Celtic peoples. Most important is the famous land of the Uttara
Kurus, described as a spiritual paradise north of the Himalayas. Comparison of
European Celtic culture with Hindu culture shows a large number of similarities
between them. Some of these were shown in a two part article that appeared in the May
and June issues of the magazine Hinduism Today. Therefore, we have cultural evidence
to back up the traditions and the archaeology. Religiously, these red-haired northern
Vedic people are known to have some point taken up Buddhism. Certain traditional
sources indicate that they learned Buddhism from the Buddha previous to Siddhartha
Gautama, who was named Kashyapa. A Kashyapa rishi also appears as one of the
oldest Vedic rishis and as associated with northern regions like Kashmir, that was
originally called Kashyapa Mira or Kashyapa’s lake. Tibetan literature, I have been told,
indicates that they learned their Buddhism, not from India, but from "Shamballa" which
is placed exactly where these people lived.

Such a prediction has been made in Kalchakra a sacred text of the buddhist,now
mainly of Tibet of which I will speak later, one can find the necessary teaching provided
for preparation of the prophesized war. We find in it ‘the psychology of invasions’ and
detailed instructions on how to build various machines to ward off the invaders. The
sacred texts go on to say the Dark Age will last until the year 2424 AD, when a ‘great
war’ will begin in India. The human race will be rescued from total destruction by the
armies of Shambhalla riding ‘flying horses’ and ‘boats that fly in the air’. According to
the Vedic Text Shambhalla is also called as the “Paradesh”.

James Hilton wrote about it in the 1933 book Lost Horizon, Hollywood portrayed it in
the 1960s film ‘Shangri-la’, and recent films such as ‘Kundun’, ‘Little Buddha’ and
‘Seven Years in Tibet’ allude to the magical utopia. Even author James Redfield, noted
for his New Age best seller The Celestine Prophecy, has written a book called The Secret
of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight.

Shambhala, which in Sanskrit means “place of peace, of tranquillity,” is thought of in

Tibet as a community where perfect and semi-perfect beings live and are guiding the
evolution of humanity. Shambhala is considered to be the source of the Kalachakra,
which is the highest and most esoteric branch of Tibetan mysticism. As per the vedic
scriptures this esoteric place lies somewhere in the Himalayas and it could be the
ultimate Hindu pilgrimage place which Mount Kailash and the Mansorovar lake.

Shambhala can be identified with the region surrounding Mount Kailash, the mountain
in southwestern Tibet holy to both Hindus and Buddhists. This makes sense because,
according to Tibetan etymology, Shambhala means the abode of bliss, a synonym for
both the Hindu god Shiva and the Buddha-figure Heruka. Hinduism regards Mount
Kailash as the seat of Shiva, and Buddhism as the main location of Heruka. Some
scholars identify the three regions between India and Shambhala – Bhotia, Li and Chin
– as Tibet, Khotan and China, and then presume that Shambhala is somewhere in East
Turkistan (the modern Chinese province of Xinjiang), but this seems to be erroneous.
These three names are also used respectively for the Terai, Kathmandu Valley and
Dolpo regions of southern, central and northwestern Nepal. The sixth region, Himavan,
the land of snows, is a common name for Tibet. Mount Kailash is not really Shambhala,
however, but only represents Shambhala on this earth. The Kalachakra Tantra speaks of
four holy places around Vajrasana (Bodh Gaya), the site where Buddha manifested his
enlightenment: Five-peaked Mountain in the east, Potala Mountain in the south,
Shambhala in the north and Oddiyana in the west. These are the special places
associated, respectively, with Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, the Kalki rulers and Guru
Rinpoche. They can be identified with Wutaishan in northern China, the Vindhya
Range in southern India, Mount Kailash in southwestern Tibet and Swat in northern
Pakistan. If we go to these places, however, we do not actually find these great beings
living there, or even archeological traces of them. As explained earlier, the journey to
Shambhala is a spiritual, not a physical one.

"Holy places never had any beginning. They have been holy from the time they have
been discovered, strongly alive because of the invisible presence breathing through
them. Man is amazed or fearful as he feels the vibrations of invisible power in the air,
and religions, feebly falling behind like all human institutions, gradually assign various
names and symbols to delineate the mystery."

Mount Kailash is the ultimate place of pilgrimage for the disciples of four religions. For
Hindus the mountain is the abode of Shiva, the God symbolising all the destructive
forces in the universe and yet at the same time all regenerative power and energy. At
the summit of Kailash, Shiva sits on his celestial throne. Almost significantly, the
mountain is also perceived as the physical manifestation of the mythical Mount Meru.
The Hindus have for centuries traversed the Himalayas to circumnavigate Kailash,
believing that a circuit of the mountain will erase the sins of a lifetime and break the
karmic cycle.

Hindus also believe that the waters of the sacred lake Manasarover were created from
the mind or 'manas' of Brahma, the God who symbolizes the creative force in the
universe. Hindus revere the whole Himalayan Range as a manifestation of the divine
consciousness. The presence of the mountain and sacred lake is the ultimate
endorsement of the sanctity of the whole range. Buddhists, particularly the Mahayana
Buddhists of Tibet and the surrounding region, call the mountain Kang Rinpoche, the
'precious snow mountain'. For them this is the cosmic mountain, a link between the
physical world and the spiritual universe. For Buddhists and Jains the concept of Meru
is also crucial, for it lies at the centre of their cosmology. Kailash is seen as the physical
manifestation of Mount Meru.

The Jains, a small but important religious sect in India, know Kailash as Mount
Ashtapade. It was on the mountain that the founder of the faith, Rishabanatha, attained
spiritual liberation.

Prior to the introduction of Buddhism in Tibet, the prevailing faith was the Bonpo
religion. To the adherents of Bonpo, Kailash was, and is still known as the nine-storied
swastika mountain, the mystical soul of the Tibetan Plateau. The swastika is the holy
image for all these religions and is symbolic of spiritual strength. Kailash and
Manasarover have also been dubbed the fountainhead of the world. Early pilgrims
recognized Kailash and the nearby lake as the source from which stemmed the river
systems of virtually the whole of the Indo-Gangetic plain. Indeed within a few miles of
the holy peak can be traced the source of the rivers Indus, Brahmaputra, Sutlej, Karnali,
and although somewhat further off, the holy river Ganges. That the rivers should be
considered holy is no surprise, for they are the lifeblood of Northern India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh and irrigate the land that still sustains a third of the subcontinent's
population. That they their legendary source should be seen as an object of devotion
and pilgrimage is easily explained. The rivers which find their source in this remote
part of the Tibetan Plateau enter the plains thousands of miles apart, a unique and
extraordinary phenomenon. In geographical chronology, The Tibetan Plateau was
formed before the Himalayas themselves, and thus the river systems, which drain from
the plateau predate, the mountains through which they flow.

As the Aryan tribes moved from Central Asia Southwards onto the Indian
subcontinent, so they developed a cosmology, which became the basic of Vedic faith.
Central in this cosmological model was a mountain called Meru, 'Shining like the
morning sun and like a fire without smoke, immeasurable and unapproachable by men
of manifold sins'. On the summit of Mount Meru stood Indra's heavenly city Swarga
and leading upto the mountain was the pathway to the stars, where the souls of the
dead await rebirth.

Perhaps the most complete description of the cosmological pattern comes from the
Vishnu Purana, which explains how the world is made up of seven continents, ringed
by seven oceans. The central island has Meru as its core, bounded by three mountain
ranges to the north and three to the south. Mount Meru is the central fulcrum of the
universe, and the navel of the world, from which four mighty rivers take their source.
This legend spread throughout Asia and found expression in the design of temples,
stupas, pagodas and other places of religious worship. As the early Vedic beliefs
became transformed into the religions we are aware of today, so Kailash has become the
earthy avatar of Mount Meru. People of all times from around the world have stood in
awe when faced with majestic mountains. From these sublime experiences have come
myths about great mountains as homes of the gods, as stairways to the heavens, as
pillars of the earth. One mountain range in particular inspired this kind of awe, wonder
and devotion - the vast Himalayas.

The Tibetans and the Hindus especially held the great Himalayan mountain range as
sacred. Its grand peaks seemed to reach beyond the profane human realm and stretch
up, touching the divine realm of the gods, so the Tibetans and Hindus saw the
mountains as a means of transition between both the human and heavenly worlds. The
mountains were created, myth tells us, by the god Indra. A huge herd of flying
elephants had displeased him, so he punished them by cutting off their wings and they
turned into the Himalayas. The mountains were important to all of the gods for they all
made sacrifices there. They were especially significant to the god Shiva, however,
whose paradise was on Mount Kailas and whose deep meditation upon the mountain
ensured the continued existence of all things. The most sacred mountain of the whole
Himalayan range though was most definitely Mount Meru. As we have discussed,
Mount Kailas is the home of the great god Shiva. Well, Mount Kailas is an actual
Himalayan mountain in the Ngari region of Tibet. It rises 22,000 feet high from the edge
of the Tibetan Plateau and is highly inaccessible. It is Mount Kailas then that is the
physical embodiment of Mount Meru for the Buddhist and Hindu peoples. Mythical
Mount Meru was thought to be the axis of the universe, sitting at the centre of the
Himalayas. Myths say that Meru rested on the hood of the coiled primeval cobra
Vasuki, who, it was said, caused earthquakes when he yawned. It was also believed that
the whole world would be devoured by this ancient snake at the end of the present age,
world cycle. The Hindus and Buddhists both regarded Mount Meru as sacred for it was
thought to be the centre of the cosmos and supported all of the spheres of existence,
from Brahma's divine city of gold at its peak, to the seven netherworlds at its base, and
especially as the source of the sacred Ganges river. They said that Mount Meru's slopes
were studded with glittering gemstones and were thick with trees heavy with delicious
fruit. Its peaks were rimmed with gold and a huge lake encircled it. The divinity of this
mountain is reflected in the religious objects of worship, yantras, of these peoples for
the mountain is symbolized in their conical shape. Mt. Kailash, at 6714 m also known as
Tise, Kailasa & Kang Rinpoche(Jewel of the Snows), has since time immemorial been
celebrated in many Eastern cosmologies as Mt. Meru, the axis mundi. And as the center
of the physical & metaphysical universe, Mt. Meru is sacred to the Buddhist, Jains, the
Hindus & the Bonpos. For the Hindus, the mountain represents the seat of Lord Shiva;
for the Buddhists, a terrestrial projection of the cosmic mandala of Dhyani-Buddhas &
Boddhisatvas….The Wheel of Life; for the Bonpos, Kailash was the sacred nine storey
Swastika Mountain, upon which the Bonpo founder Sherab alighted from heaven. Four
of the great rivers of the Indian subcontinent originates from here: the Karnali, which
feeds into the Ganges (south); the Indus (north); the Sutlez (west) & the Brahmaputra
(Yarlung Tsangpo, east.

A single circumnambulation around Mount Kailish wipes away the sins of a lifetime.
Revered by Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and Böns, this remote Tibetan mountain attracts
scores of pilgrims.

High on the remote western Tibetan plateau, in the northernmost region of the
Himalayas, sits Mount Kailash, the holy mountain. The Tibetan people have named it
Kang Rinpoche, or Snow Jewel, and the Indians refer to it as Mount Meru. Buddhist,
Hindu, and Jain pilgrims from the world over go to this holy mountain to
circumambulate rather than scale the 22,028-foot high peak. In fact, climbing Mount
Kailash is forbidden. The only person to have ever been atop the sacred mountain was
Milarepa, a 11th century Tibetan Buddhist yogi.

Mount Kailash is commonly referred to as the center of the universe in Eastern religious
texts from India to Japan. Rooted in the seventh hell and bursting through the highest
heaven, it is also believed to be the World Pillar. Hopi Indians recognize Kailash as
being at the opposite side of their Black Mesa, thus it’s a cosmic backbone.

Hindus who walk around the 32-mile circumference of Mount Kailash use the term
parikrama. They believe that Lord Shiva, one of their three main gods, resides atop
what they call Mount Meru. Tibetans refer to the clockwise circumambulation as a kora.
Both words mean the same thing: pilgrimage. Doing a walk around the mountain can
wipe away a lifetime’s worth of sins, or negative karma as is the term in Eastern
religions. “He who performs the Parikrama, the ritual circumambulation of the holy
mountain, with a perfectly devoted and concentrated mind goes through a full cycle of
life and death” Lama Anagarika Govinda, ‘The Way of the White Clouds.’ The Jains
who refer to Kailash as Mount Ashtapada believe the founder of their faith,
Rishabanatha, resides atop the mountain. And the Böns [or Bönpos], the religion which
predates Buddhism in Tibet, maintain that the entire mystical region and the Nine-Story
Swastika Mountain is the seat of all power. When viewed from the south face, a
swastika can be seen. Unlike the Jains, Buddhists or Hindus, the Böns make
counterclockwise circumambulations. “According to Bönpo accounts, 18 enlightened
teachers will appear in this eon and Tönpa Shenrab, the founder of the Bön religion, is
the enlightened teacher of this age. He is said to have been born in the mythical land of
Olmo Lung Ring, whose location remains something of a mystery. The land is
traditionally described as dominated by Mount Yung-drung Gu-tzeg (Edifice of Nine
Swastikas), which many identify as Mount Kailash in western Tibet. Due to the
sacredness of Olmo Lung Ring and the mountain, both the counter-clockwise swastika
and the number nine are of great significance in the Bön religion.” From ‘The Office of
Tibet’

Devout Tibetan Buddhists will do full length prostrations, a feat which takes several
weeks, around Mount Kailash, increasing the amount of purification they will receive.
Many pilgrims do a complete round of the mountain in one day, an accomplishment
made more difficult by the 15,000-foot high altitude. Pilgrimages are by their very
nature meant to be arduous, and as the Ngari region of Mount Kailash has no airports
or train stations nearby, people arrive at their spiritual destination by foot, horseback,
yak or jeep. Tarchen is a small settlement near the south face of the mountain; the place
where most pilgrimages begin. Those unwilling or unable to make the kora around the
mountain can hire someone who will, thereby splitting the accumulated merit 50/50.
This doesn’t allow either the person who sponsors the kora or the one who actually
makes the journey to attain instant enlightenment. For those who make the kora, aside
from enduring highly changeable weather conditions, there are four prostration points
in which to pay physical homage. Many pilgrims make sure they visit the three
monasteries located along the path. Near the top of the kora is the Shiwa Tsal, named
after the famed cremation grounds in India. Pieces of clothing, a lock of hair or a drop
of blood are left there as an offering, signifying the pilgrim’s understanding of death
and rebirth. At the highest point of the circuit, just over 18,000 feet, is Dolma La Pass,
meaning ‘She Who Helps Cross.’ [The Sanskrit name for the female Buddha is Tara].
This refers to the crossing over to liberation as well as being able to complete the
pilgrimage circuit around Kailash. The great boulder of Tara is swathed with long,
colorful strings of prayer flags which send out messages of peace with each flap they
make in this windy region.

Mount Kailash is also the source of four major rivers: the Indus, the Brahmaputra, the
Karnali and the Sutleg. The comparison to the Indian legend of Mount Meru from
whose summit flows four great rivers that irrigate all of Asia is hard to miss.

Eighteen miles southeast of Kailash is the circular, turquoise Lake Manasarovar, or Tso
Rinpoche, [Precious Lake], a 64-mile circuit, which is rarely completed except by the
most devout. Bathing in the lake, or even dousing one’s head with the holy water, is
said to be of enormous spiritual benefit to those who can brave the icy water which
many claim contain miraculous powers. Hindus are told that complete immersion into
the lake ensures they be reborn as a god. Tibetans, on the other hand, avoid bathing in
the lake so as not to make it dirty. This is a freshwater lake, three miles above sea level.
There is a saltwater lake, separated by a narrow peninsula, named Raksas Tal, or devil’s
lake. Pilgrims don’t bathe or circumambulate this crescent moon-shaped body of water,
but do pay their respect by glancing in its direction.

Five monasteries have been rebuilt on the shores of Lake Manasarovar since 1981—
before the Chinese invasion in 1959 there were eight. Fatigued pilgrims are allowed to
stay in the monasteries. Fewer than 500 Indian nationals are allowed to make the
pilgrimage per year due to the Chinese and Indian governments. Most of the Indians
allowed in are selected via a lottery and the ability to pay their own way is evident in
the fact that the majority of them are middle-aged businessmen from large cities.

Before the Cultural Revolution, pilgrims were selected by their bountiful faith. They
traveled on foot or horseback. Some of them made the journey by doing the full-length
prostrations along the way, an endeavor which could last for years, depending upon
the distance and the weather conditions. Few pilgrims were armed, making them prey
to thieves. But even under such extreme conditions, they were unafraid of death; dying
during a pilgrimage pretty much guaranteed them a lot of good karma points.
Pilgrimages require a degree of flexibility that most people aren’t required to possess in
a world with guaranteed insurance benefits and retirement plans. To make a spiritual
journey is to rid oneself of habits and to open the heart, making the pilgrim ego less and
pure; then allowing this transformation to reach out and positively affect others.

”There is no place more powerful for practice, more blessed, or more marvelous than
this; May all pilgrims and practitioners be welcome!" Milarepa, Tibetan Buddhist yogi
[circa 1052 – 1136]

The spiritual center of the World has had different names in different traditions, but in
many spiritual systems there is referred to a certain and unique point of emanation of
spiritual order, most often described in a way that indicates it being placed in a parallel
world or a higher dimension. The Hindus have called it "Paradesha", the Buddhists
"Shambhala", the Christians and the Jews the "Garden of Eden". In the esoteric literature
it has become known as "Shangri-La", "Agarttha" or "the Land of the Living".

The early European travellers to Tibet consistently told the same tale of a hidden
spiritual centre of power. Adventurers recounted fantastic tales of a hidden kingdom
near Tibet. This special place is known by numerous local and regional names, which
no doubt caused much confusion among early travellers as to the kingdom’s true
identity. These early travellers knew it as Agharta (sometimes spelt Agharti, Asgartha
or Agarttha), although it is now commonly known as Shambhala.
Is there really a hidden galaxy of minds living in seclusion in an inaccessible part of
Asia, or is it merely a myth? Shambhala, the "Hidden Kingdom," is thought of in Tibet
as a community where perfect and semiperfect beings live and are guiding the
evolution of humankind. Shambhala is considered to be the source of the Kalacakra,
which is the highest and most esoteric branch of Tibetan mysticism. The Buddha
preached the teachings of the Kalacakra to an assembly of holy men in southern India.
Afterwards, the teachings remained hidden for 1,000 years until an Indian yogi-scholar
went in search of Shambhala and was initiated into the teachings by a holy man he met
along the way. The Kalacakra then remained in India until it made its way to Tibet in
1026. Since then the concept of Shambhala has been widely known in Tibet, and
Tibetans have been studying the Kalacakra for the least 900 years, learning its science,
practicing its meditation, and using its system of astrology to guide their lives. As one
Tibetan lama put it, how could Shambhala be the source of something which has
affected so many areas of Tibetan life for so long and yet not exist?

Tibetan religious texts describe the physical makeup of the hidden land in detail. It is
thought to look like and eight-petaled lotus blossom because it is made up of eight
regions, each surrounded by a ring of mountains. In the center of the innermost ring lies
Kalapa, the capital, and the king’s palace, which is composed of gold, diamonds, coral,
and precious gems. The capital is surrounded by mountains made of ice, which shine
with a crystalline light. The technology of Shambhala is supposed to be highly
advanced; the palace contains special skylights made of lenses which serve as high-
powered telescopes to study extraterrestrial life, and for hundreds of years Shambhala’s
inhabitants have been using aircraft and cars that shuttle through a network of
underground tunnels. On the way to enlightenment, Shambhalans acquire such powers
a clairvoyance, the ability to move at great speeds, and the ability to materialize and
disappear at will. The prophecy of Shambhala states that each of its kings will rule for
100 years. There will be 32 in all, and as their reigns pass, conditions in the outside
world will deteriorate. Men will become more warlike and pursue power for its own
sake, and an ideology of materialism will spread over the earth. When the "barbarians"
who follow this ideology are united under an evil king and think there is nothing left to
conquer, the mists will lift to reveal the icy mountains of Shambhala. The barbarians
will attack Shambhala with a huge army equipped with terrible weapons. Then the
32nd king of Shambhala, Rudra Cakrin, will lead a mighty host against the invaders. In
a last great battle, the evil king and his followers will be destroyed.

By definition Shambhala is hidden. It is thought to exist somewhere between the Gobi

Desert and the Himalayas, but it is protected by a psychic barrier so that no one can find
the kingdom who is not meant to. Tibetan lamas spend a great deal of their lives in
spiritual development before attempting the journey to Shambhala. Those who try to
get there who are not wanted are swallowed by crevasses or caught in avalanches.
People and animals tremble at its borders as if bombarded by invisible rays. There are
guidebooks to Shambhala, but they describe the route in terms so vague that only those
already initiated into the teachings of the Kalacakra can understand them.

Strange sightings in the area where Shambhala is thought to be seem to provide

evidence of its existence. Tibetans believe that the land is guarded by beings with
superhuman powers. In the early 1900s an article in an Indian newspaper, the
Statesman, told of a British major who, camping in the Himalayas, saw a very tall,
lightly clad man with long hair. Apparently, noticing that he was being watched, the
man leaped down the vertical slope and disappeared. To the major’s astonishment, the
Tibetans with whom he was camping showed no surprise at his story; they calmly
explained that he had seen one of the snowmen who guard the sacred land.

A more detailed account of these "snowmen" guardians was given by Alexandra David-
Neel, an explorer who spent 14 years in Tibet. While traveling through the Himalayas
she saw a man moving with extraordinary speed and described him as follows: "I could
clearly see his perfectly calm impassive face and wide-open eyes with their gaze fixed
on some invisible distant object situated somewhere high up in space. The man did not
run. He seemed to life himself from the ground, proceeding by leaps. It looked as if he
had been endowed with the elasticity of a ball, and rebounded each time his feet
touched the ground. His steps had the regularity of a pendulum."

While people (especially Tibetan lamas) have been searching for Shambhala for
centuries, those who seek the kingdom often never return, either because they have
found the hidden country and have remained there or because they have been
destroyed in the attempt. Tibetan texts containing what appear to be historical facts
about Shambhala, such as the names and dates of its kings and records of
corresponding events occurring in the outside world, give Tibetans additional reason
for believing that the kingdom exists. Recent events that seem to correspond to the
predictions of the mythic kingdom add strength to their belief. The disintegration of
Buddhism in Tibet and the growth of materialism throughout the world, coupled with
the wars and turmoil of the 20th century, all fit in with the prophecy of
Shambhala.Shambhala is the place where King Sucandra, having come from the north
of Kashmir, brought and developed the practice of Kalachakra, after he had received its
empowerment and teachings at Dhanyakataka.

Shambhala Prophecy
The prophecy of Shambhala states that each of its kings will rule for 100 years. There
will be 32 in all, and as their reigns pass, conditions in the outside world will
deteriorate. Men will become more warlike and pursue power for its own sake, and an
ideology of materialism will spread over the earth. When the “barbarians” who follow
this ideology are united under an evil king and think there is nothing left to conquer,
the mists will lift to reveal the icy mountains of Shambhala. The barbarians will attack
Shambhala with a huge army equipped with terrible weapons. Then the 32nd king of
Shambhala, Rudra Cakrin, will lead a mighty host against the invaders. In a last great
battle, the evil king and his followers will be destroyed. The Buddha prophesized that
all who received the Kalachakra empowerment would take rebirth in its mandala.

Kalachakra Mandella - “Wheel of Time”

The outer meaning deals with the universe and all traditional sciences such as
astronomy, astrology, mathematics, and medicine. The inner meaning relates to the
human body, its internal structure and subtle energies, to be developed through yogas
and tantras. The secret meaning refers to the complete cycle of study and practice of the
Tantric meditation on the Kalachakra deity and its Mandala. The “Kalachakra Tantra” is
regarded as the essence and heart of Vajrayana. The first king of Shambhala, Sucandra,
an emanation of Vajrapani, requested Buddha Sakyamuni to give teachings about
Kalachakra. On the full-moon day of the third month, at the stupa of Dhanyakataka in
the south of India, before an assembly of innumerable Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Dakas,
Dakinis, gods, nagas and yakshas, the Buddha manifested in the form of Kalachakra,
transmitted the complete empowerment and gave teachings on this Tantra, which
belongs to the most profound and highest class of Tantras. When back in Shambhala,
King Sucandra built up a three dimensional mandala of Kalachakra, absorbed himself
in the practice and gave the transmission of the whole cycle to all inhabitants of the
kingdom of Shambhala.

By definition Shambhala is hidden. It is thought to exist somewhere between the Gobi

Desert and the Himalayas, but it is protected by a psychic barrier so that no one can find
the kingdom who is not meant to. Tibetan lamas spend a great deal of their lives in
spiritual development before attempting the journey to Shambhala. Those who try to
get there who are not wanted are swallowed by crevasses or caught in avalanches.
People and animals tremble at its borders as if bombarded by invisible rays. There are
guidebooks to Shambhala, but they describe the route in terms so vague that only those
already initiated into the teachings of the Kalacakra can understand them.

Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) was born in the Ukraine to Russian nobility.
Endowed with extrasensory powers, she traveled the world in search of occult, secret
teachings and spent many years on the Indian subcontinent. From 1867 to 1870, she
studied Tibetan Buddhism with Indian masters, most likely from the Tibetan cultural
regions of the Indian Himalayas, during her purported stay at Tashilhunpo Monastery
in Tibet.

Blavatsky encountered Tibetan Buddhism at a time when European Oriental

scholarship was still in its infancy and few translations or accounts were available.
Further, she was able to learn only disjointed fragments of its vast teachings. In her
private letters, she wrote that because the Western public at that time had little
acquaintance with Tibetan Buddhism, she decided to translate and explain the basic
terms with more popularly known concepts from Hinduism and the Occult. For
example, she translated three of the four island-worlds (four continents) around Mount
Meru as the sunken lost islands of Hyperborea, Lemuria, and Atlantis. Likewise, she
presented the four humanoid races mentioned in the abhidharma and Kalachakra
teachings (born from transformation, moisture and heat, eggs, and wombs) as the races
of these island-worlds. Her belief that the esoteric teachings of all the world’s religions
form one body of occult knowledge reinforced her decision to translate in this manner
and she set out to demonstrate that in her writings.

Together with the American spiritualist Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, Madame Blavatsky
founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 in New York. Its international headquarters
moved to Madras, India, shortly thereafter. When her colleague Alfred Percy Sinnett
identified Theosophy with esoteric Buddhism in Esoteric Buddhism (1883), Blavatsky
refuted his claim. According to her posthumously published Letters of H. P. Blavatsky
to A. P. Sinnett, Blavatsky’s position was that Theosophy transmitted the “secret occult
teachings of trans-Himalaya,” not the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Nevertheless,
through her writings, the West first came to associate Shambhala with the Occult and
many subsequently confused this connection with the actual teachings of Buddhism.

In 1888, Blavatsky mentioned Shambhala in her main work, The Secret Doctrine, the
teachings for which she said she received telepathically from her teachers in Tibet. She
wrote in a letter that although her teachers were reincarnate “byang-tzyoobs” or
“tchang-chubs” (Tib. byang-chub, Skt. bodhisattva), she had called them “mahatmas”
since that term was more familiar to the British in India. The Tibetan source of the
teachings in The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky claimed, is The Stanzas of Dzyan, the first
volume of commentaries to the seven secret folios of Kiu-te. “Kiu-te” transcribes the
Tibetan “rgyud-sde,” meaning “tantra division,” which is the title of the first section of
the Kangyur, the Tibetan translations of Buddha’s words. “Dzyan” transcribes the
Sanskrit “dhyana” (Jap. zen), meaning mental stability. Blavatsky was aware that The
Kalachakra Tantra was the first item in the tantra division of the Kangyur, since she
mentioned that fact in one of her notes. She explained, however, that the seven secret
folios were not actually part of the published Kiu-te, and thus we do not find anything
similar to The Stanzas of Dzyan in that collection.

It is unclear to what extent Blavatsky actually studied the Kalachakra texts directly. The
earliest Western material on the topic was an 1833 article entitled “Note on the Origins
of the Kalachakra and Adi-Buddha Systems” by the Hungarian pioneer scholar
Alexander Csomo de Körös (Körösi Csoma Sandor). De Körös compiled the first
dictionary and grammar of Tibetan in a Western language, English, in 1834. Jakov
Schmidt’s Tibetan-Russian Dictionary and Grammar soon followed in 1839. Most of
Blavatsky’s familiarity with Kalachakra, however, came from the chapter entitled “The
Kalachakra System” in Emil Schlagintweit’s Buddhism in Tibet (1863), as evidenced by
her borrowing many passages from that book in her works. Following her translation
principle, however, she rendered Shambhala in terms of similar concepts in Hinduism
and the Occult.

The first English translation of The Vishnu Purana, by Horace Hayman Wallace, had
appeared in 1864, three years before Blavatsky’s purported visit to Tibet. Accordingly,
she explained Shambhala in terms of the Hindu presentation in this text: it is the village
where the future messiah, Kalki Avatar, will appear. The Kalki, Blavatsky wrote, is
“Vishnu, the Messiah on the White Horse of the Brahmins; Maitreya Buddha of the
Buddhists; Sosiosh of the Parsis; and Jesus of the Christians.” She also claimed that
Shankaracharya, the early ninth-century founder of Advaitya Vedanta, “still lives
among the Brotherhood of Shamballa, beyond the Himalayas.”

Elsewhere, she wrote that when Lemuria sank, part of its people survived in Atlantis,
while part of its elect migrated to the sacred island of “Shamballah” in the Gobi Desert.
Neither the Kalachakra literature nor The Vishnu Purana, however, has any mention of
Atlantis, Lemuria, Maitreya, or Sosiosh. The association of Shambhala with them,
however, continued among Blavatsky’s followers. Blavatsky’s placement of Shambhala
in the Gobi Desert is not surprising since the Mongols, including the Buryat population
of Siberia and the Kalmyks of the lower Volga region, were strong followers of Tibetan
Buddhism, particularly its Kalachakra teachings. For centuries, Mongols everywhere
have believed that Mongolia is the Northern Land of Shambhala and Blavatsky was
undoubtedly acquainted with the Buryat and Kalmyk beliefs in Russia.

Blavatsky might also have received confirmation of her placement of Shambhala in the
Gobi Desert from the writings of Csoma de Körös. In an 1825 letter, he wrote that
Shambhala is like a Buddhist Jerusalem and lay between 45 and 50 degrees longitude.
Although he felt that Shambhala would probably be found in the Kizilkum Desert in
Kazakhstan, the Gobi also fell within the two longitudes. Others later would also locate
it within these parameters, but either in East Turkistan (Xinjiang, Sinkiang) or the Altai
Mountains.

Although Blavatsky herself never asserted that Shambhala was the source of The Secret
Doctrine, several later Theosophists made this connection. Foremost among them was
Alice Bailey in Letters on Occult Meditation (1922). Helena Roerich, in her Collected
Letters (1935-1936), also wrote that Blavatsky was a messenger of the White
Brotherhood from Shambhala. Moreover, she reported that in 1934 the Ruler of
Shambhala had recalled to Tibet the mahatmas who had transmitted to Blavatsky the
secret teachings.

Paramahansa Yogananda, in his Autobiography of a Yogi, writes about his guru’s

guru’s guru, Mahavatar Babaji, an immortal sage of great age who remains forever
young. Yogananda mentions the sage’s abode to be a spot pulsating with the energy of
siddhas and yogis—Gyanganj. Hidden in a valley somewhere in the Himalayas,
Gyanganj or Siddhashram is supposed to be the abode of immortal saints with
supernatural powers who silently and secretly guide humanity’s destiny. Sai Kaka, a
yogi who claims to have visted Gyanganj, says: “On the adhyatmic or spiritual level, it
(Gyanganj) runs the universe. On the adhidevik or celestial level, the earth and water
elements are absent, enabling powerful activity. At this level, Gyanganj impacts many
planes (of existence) and beings. On the adhibhautic or gross level, Gyanganj siddhas
guide human beings in spiritual and social fields.”

Available accounts place Gyanganj north of Kailash-Manasarovar in Tibet. It is also

believed to exist on a higher plane. References to it are found in the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. Gopinath Kaviraj, in his book Siddhabhoomi Gyanganj, details the place
and its superhuman inhabitants. He talks about the experience of his guru, Swami
Vishudhananda, who visited Gyanganj to learn surya vigyan or solar science. This
knowledge empowered him to manifest objects and transform one object into another
by manipulating the rays of the sun.

In his autobiography, Yogananda describes his encounter with Swami Vishudhananda

in Calcutta where he witnessed the master creating perfumes out of thin air. Paul
Brunton, in his A Search in Secret India, claimed that he not only witnessed
Vishudhananda create perfumes but also bring a dead bird back to life. In Tibetan
Buddhism, Shambhala is the source of an esoteric branch of mysticism called the
Kalachakra, and great gurus are believed to visit Shambhala to receive these teachings.
The myth also finds mention in the indigenous Bon tradition of Tibet, where it is known
as Olmolungring

In Tibet, this legendary land of spiritual enlightenment is known as Shambala, a

Sanskrit word which to the Tibetans means "the source of happiness". It is not heaven
on earth but a mystical kingdom that guards the most sacred and secret spiritual
teachings of the world, including the Kalachakra (Wheel of Time), the pinnacle of
Buddhist wisdom. Buddhists trace Shambala to Gautama Buddha who is said to have
assumed the form of the Kalachakra deity before his death and delivered his highest
teaching to a group of adepts and gods in south India. Among those present was King
Suchandra, the first king of Shambala, who wrote down the sermons and took them
back with him. Various Buddhist texts give instructions for finding Shambala, though
directions are obscure. It is assumed that only accomplished yogis will find it. The
kingdom is hidden in the mists of the snow mountains and can be reached only by
flying over them with the help of siddhis or spiritual powers. James Hilton's novel, Lost
Horizon, about the lost kingdom of Shangri-La, was inspired by the legend of
Shambala. Shangri-La has since come to mean a remote, beautiful, imaginary place
where life approaches perfection; utopia, in short. Shambala was not a figment of the
imagination for Madame Blavatsky , founder of the Theosophical Society . She
considered it the abode of the mahatmas or spiritual adepts, in the mountains of Tibet,
Mongolia and India. They live on through centuries in various incarnations,
perpetuating the knowledge of earlier, more spiritually advanced, civilizations like the
Egyptian and the Greek, and teach it to worthy pupils.

One of these adepts, Koot Hoomi (or Kuthumi Baba, at least 500 years old) was
Blavatsky's guru. In India, this secret, sacred land is known as Gyanganj or
Siddhashram. References to Gyanganj or secret ashrams can be found in Hindu
scriptures such as Valmiki Ramayan and Mahabharat. Guru Nanak called it Sach
Khand.

The technology of Shambala is highly advanced. The windows of the palace function as
powerful lenses that serve as telescopes high-powered enough for studying life on other
worlds. For hundreds of years, the inhabitants have been using aircraft and subways.
This advancement is not limited to the mere material, for the inhabitants have been able
to develop powers of clairvoyance, swift long-distance travel on foot, and also the
ability to materialize and disappear at will.

The belief in the existence of Shambala has been reinforced by reports of unusual
occurrences in the Himalayan region where it is thought to be. In the early 1900s The
Statesman carried a report by a British army officer of a very tall, lightly clad man with
long hair who, when he noticed the major, leaped down a vertical slope and
disappeared.( This incident I have mentioned earlier in this article also ans I am
mentioning here only to impress upon my readers that Himalayas could be that
gateway to heaven that we are talking about , without prejudice ) Tibetans back at the
encampment showed no surprise at the major's account, but simply explained that he
had seen one of the guards of the sacred land.

Alexandra David-Neel, the French adventurer who spent 14 years in Tibet, reported
seeing a man moving with extraordinary speed: "I could clearly see his perfectly calm
impassive face and wide-open eyes with their gaze fixed on some invisible distant
object situated somewhere high up in space. The man did not run. He seemed to lift
himself from the ground, proceeding by leaps. It looked as if he had been endowed
with the elasticity of a ball, and rebounded each time his feet touched the ground. His
steps had the regularity of a pendulum."

Shambala supposedly can be perceived only by those sufficiently pure both in mind
and karmic resolution. It is also held that the reason we do not hear from anyone who
has successfully found it is either because they do not want to return, or because they
have been destroyed in the attempt. There are texts listing the Shambala rulers along
with corresponding events in the outside world, and also predictions for the future.
The decline of Buddhism in Tibet, the rise of materialism everywhere, and events of the
tumultuous 20th century can be discerned in those predictions.

I have mentioned about the prophecy of the Shambhalla The prophecy of Shamballa
describes a situation similar to that of Ithaca in Homer's story of Odysseus. Both involve
the idea of returning to the source and both places are threatened with barbarian
invasion. This prophecy tells of the thirty-two kings that will rule in Shamballa and of
the rise of brutal materialism in the world. It says that when the dungans have become
more troublesome than ever, the Panchen Lama will be born as the son of the king of
Shamballa. The dungans will lay waste to Tibet, and the people, following the Dalai
Lama, will abandon their homeland to set off for Shamballa, where they will be
received by the new king. The dungans will subdue Asia and Europe and will even try
to invade Shamballa, but they will be defeated by the forces of the king and driven back
into their own country. This great final battle represents a confrontation between the
desire-ridden personality and the Higher Self, where the true 'king' extends his rule
over the vestures of the outside world. But the details of the prophecy are so closely
mirrored in the shadowy struggles of recent history that it cannot but remind one of the
Tibetan world-view which assumes that everything conceivable probably exists in the
world. The great battle between truth and ignorance rages at the gates of Shamballa as
it does in the human heart, and whole nations and their armies simply galumph along
hideously, acting it out on the gross physical plane.

Going home to Shamballa is like the 'journey to the East', to the birthplace of Apollo
and Hermes. It is the home of the Sons of Will and Yoga who lived on as remnants of
the Third Race, and all of the avatars of Vishnu are said to have sprung from its centre.
In the Hindu tradition, Kalki will be the last of these avatars, and according to Tibetan
calculations, he corresponds to Rudra Chakrin, the last king of Shamballa. Just as Rama
possessed the aid of Hanuman in the Ramayana as he fought the barbarian demons, so
the king will possess a General Hanumanda who will assist him in that final great battle
foretold in the prophecy. The link between Vishnu and Shamballa is also forged in the
mysterious teachings of time and cycles, which must be understood at some level in
order even to enter upon the battleground. This is inextricably interwoven with the
mystery of the Earth itself, who demonstrates these cycles in all her shifts and flows. It
is said that at the beginning of human life, only the North Pole of the earth was
motionless and dry. This island is a 'skull-cap' which prevails during the entire
manvantara of our Round. It is the head of the mother from which pure waters flow, to
become foul at her feet. When they return to her heart, they are once again purified, for
her heart beats "under the sacred foot of Shamballa". This heart also lies beneath the Sea
of Knowledge, which existed where the sands of the Gobi Desert now stretch in
desolation and throw up miraged outlines of lost cities as though it were a graveyard
yielding forth its ghosts.

Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) was the set-designer for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He
was also an ethnographer, a Himalayan explorer, and besides being a disciple of Helena
Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy, he may have been a spy for the Soviets. He
promoted the notion that he was an incarnation of the Fifth Dalai Lama, because of
seven moles on his neck. He wrote, ca. 1928: "I remembered how during our crossing of
the Karkaroum Pass, my sais, [syce: groom, master of horse] the Ladaki, asked me. 'Do
you know why there is such a peculiar upland up here? Do you know that in the
subterranean caves here many treasures are hidden, and that in them lives a wonderful
tribe which abhors the sins of the Earth?' And again when we approached Khotan the
hooves of our horses sounded hollow as though we rode above caves or hollows. Our
caravan people called our attention to this . . . . "Long ago people lived there; now
they have gone inside; they have found a subterranean passage to that subterranean
kingdom." ’

Dhaval a ardent tourist has recorded his experience in the website, virtual tourist as
follows "In the summer of 1998 we decided to explore sikkim region. we were group of
3 friends. On the summits of Sikkim, the foothills of the Himalayas, among the
blooming rhododendrons and the fragrant Balu - the healing plant - a lama who looked
like a carved image from the middle ages told us, pointing towards the five summits of
Kanchenjunga: 'There is the entrance to the holy land of Shambhala. By passages
through wonderful ice caves under the earth, a few deserving ones have, even in this
life, reached the holy place where all wisdom, all glory, all splendor are gathered.

Another lama of the Red Hat sect told us about wonderful Asaras, Hindu in
appearance, with long hair and white attire, who often appear in the Himalayas, 'wise
men who know how to master the inner energies and to unite them with cosmic
energies.' According to this lama, the head of the Medical School in Lhasa, a learned old
lama, knew such Asaras personally and was in touch with them.

Once before sunrise, while camping in the Himalayas, the I went from my camp to the
neighboring cliffs to see the majestic snowcapped outlines of the mountains. On the
opposite side of the gorge rose a high rock. Great was my astonishment when, through
the morning mist, I noticed on the rock the figure of a tall man, almost naked and with
long black hair. The man was leaning on a tall bow, attentively watching something
behind the rock. Then, apparently noticing something, the silent figure, with great
strides leaped down the almost vertical slope. Amazed, the I returned to the camp and
asked the servants about this strange apparition. To my surprise, they took it quite
calmly and with reverence told him: 'Sahib has seen one of the snowmen who guard the
forbidden region.'

I asked a lama about the snowmen and again the answer came in a surprisingly calm
and affirmative way: 'These snowmen are very rarely seen. They are the faithful
guardians of the Himalayan regions where the secret Ashrams of the Mahatmas are
hidden. Formerly, even in Sikkim we had several Ashrams of the Mahatmas. These wise
Mahatmas of the Himalayas direct our lives through unceasing work and study. They
master the highest powers. And, as perfectly ordinary people, they appear in various
places, here, beyond the ocean, and through out Asia.

ONE TIBETAN LEGEND

Wandering in a hidden valley beneath the snow-wrapped shoulders of Dhaulagiri, a

lone hunter from the region of Dolpo hearkened to the echo of lamas chanting and the
beating of drums. Tibetans tell the story of how this simple transient followed the
sound of the music towards its source, which brought him to a doorway in a great cliff.
Passing through it, he found himself in a beautiful valley adorned with verdant rice
fields, villages and a gracious monastery. The people who lived in this valley were
peaceful and happy, and they extended to the hunter a warm welcome, urging him to
stay. He was delighted with their blissful existence but soon became anxious to go back
to his own family and bring them to enjoy the beautiful valley. The residents there
warned him that he would not be able to find the way back, but he was determined to
leave. As he made his way out through the cliff door, he took the precaution of hanging
his gun and his shoes beside the entrance to mark it. Confidently he went to fetch his
wife and children, but when he returned to the hidden valley, he found the gun and
shoes hanging in the middle of a blank rock wall. Old Tibetan records tell of long and
difficult journeys undertaken by some who are vainglorious but successfully
accomplished only by Adepts who have the eyes to see it. Having heard stories of a
celestial temple atop a mountain in India, a British expedition in the nineteen thirties
climbed the sacred peak and, having seen no golden temple, mentioned this to a holy
man, who smiled and said, "No, you probably wouldn't have." As such places have
been called the birthplace of the gods, it is small wonder that sceptical men would find
it difficult to see them. The Greeks believed that only the gods and great heroes guided
by Hermes could know Elysium and "only those mortals were translated thither who
had come through a triple test in life". This was the Hyperborean land that answered to
the pure land of Shamballa where, it is said, the Masters of the Snowy Range assemble
every seven years. To find one's way into the presence of such beings must be difficult
indeed, and yet many have wondered and dreamed and risked all they had in their
efforts to discover the way.

How can anyone begin to find the way to Shamballa? In 1775 the Panchen Lama wrote
a detailed guidebook inspired by the vivid experiences and instructions he had received
in dreams. This Shambhalai Lamyig describes many ordeals and is considered by those
who pursue these mysteries to be one of the main sources of information about the
place and the journey to it. The other major sources are the Kanjur and Tanjur, a three-
hundred volume set which is considered the sacred Tibetan Buddhist canon. These
palm leaves contain the earliest known mention of Shamballa, the Pure Land whose
name in Tibetan is bde'byung or 'Source of happiness'. The Buddhists say that the Pure
Land is not a paradise but a land only for those who are on their way to nirvana. They
believe that whoever reaches it or is reborn there can never fall back into a lower state
and that it is the only pure land that exists on earth. The Pure Land Doctrine or
Sukhavati teaches that a Bodhisattva may make a vow of compassion that after he has
obtained supreme Buddhahood he will establish a Buddha-field wherein conditions
will be conducive to enlightenment. Sukhavati is one of the names of the Buddha and is
not nirvana itself but a symbol of it, and Japanese Buddhists assert that to be reborn
there is to achieve enlightenment. Thus Shamballa is not an end in itself but rather an
exalted stage leading to something even more incomprehensible beyond.
The Sanskrit sham (happiness) bhal (to give) has the same meaning as the Tibetan and
this happiness is born of the shedding of illusions. Popular Tibetan tradition suggests
that many who reach there are not immortal nor fully enlightened. They retain some of
their illusions and failings, but they continually strive to become free of them as they
move closer towards rebirth in that blissful place. The kings of Shamballa are
enlightened and believed to be an incarnation of a Bodhisattva who is in essence a
source of happiness. The Panchen Lama was a king there and will be reborn as such in
the future as a channel through which the Buddha-state manifests in the world, as
though that office was a reflection of an eternal truth which asserts itself cyclically in
time. Just so do other centres appear and disappear like the seven sacred localities
where the Kabiri created fire on the island of Samothrace. Such places are reflections of
Shamballa which manifest, ripen and become forgotten by humanity. They remain in
the world as islands or mountains, but their power is doubted and the aura of
transcendence which hovers around their floating headlands and barren peaks is sensed
only by the very few.

The Mahabharata describes Uttarakuru, the land of enlightened Sages, as lying to the
north of Mount Meru, although some say it is to be found in the Tarim Basin or in
Siberia. Arjuna is described as travelling to Lake Manasasarova and then to Mount
Kailas before crossing the Tibetan Plateau leading on to the Kunlun Mountains and
Khotan. Some guidebooks place Shamballa far to the north of this, mentioning the polar
regions and the North star. Chinese and Tibetan records identify it as the Sacred Island
of Adepts which continues to exist in a place well known to them, whether the
surrounding topography changes or not. The changes and flow of the earth's history are
thus acknowledged, whilst at the same time the changeless nature of Shamballa is
suggested. The Kingdom of Shambhala plays a vital role in Vedic cosmogony. It is
known as the Axis of the Universe, and there is some evidence that it may have its
physical location at Mount Kailash, the mythological abode of Lord Shiva. Shambhala
has also been mentioned in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and is an integral part of
Buddhist philosophy.

According to legend, somewhere in the Northern mountains of India there is a hidden

Kingdom invisible to the outside world, whose land is beautiful beyond measure,
abounding with fine golden sands and crystal waters. Its fruits are delicious and of
excellent taste, and its flowers exude the most heavenly fragrances. The inhabitants of
Shambhala are said to always be cheerful, free from sickness, disease, and old age; and
wealthy beyond measure. All are wrapped in the finest silks and adorned with rubies
and diamonds, or the lapis lazuli and other sparkling jewels. Sages there live in the
highest state of God-Realization, and all live in peace and harmony.
The Buddhists, mainly in Tibet, maintain a cultural inheritance rich in allusions to
Shambala. It is said, that from there came the most important teachings of the Tibetan
Buddhist line, such as the Kalachakra Tantra initiation, which is currently being spread
in the West by the Dalai Lama. He and the Panchen Lama traditionally function as
'ambassadors' of Shambhala in our world. Through the ages Shambhala has also
manifested on the earthly plane in different cultures of our planet. According to the
ancient Vedic scriptures its representation has been held by people such as the
Hyperboreans and the Atlanteans (both also described by Plato) and in historic times by
the Tibetans. Any true spiritual path works in accordance with teachings from
Shambhala, but few are concerned with the direct communication with the inhabitants
and rulers of this sacred realm.

Shambhala, known as the “Hidden Kingdom,” is thought of in Tibet as a community,

where perfect and semi perfect beings live and are guiding the evolution of humankind.
Shambhala is considered to be the source of the Kalacakra, which is the highest and
most esoteric branch of Tibetan mysticism.

The Buddha preached the teachings of the Kalacakra to an assembly of holy men in
southern India. Afterwards, the teachings remained hidden for 1,000 years until an
Indian yogi-scholar went in search of Shambhala and was initiated into the teachings by
a holy man he met along the way. The Kalacakra then remained in India until it made
its way to Tibet in 1026. Since then the concept of Shambhala has been widely known in
Tibet, and Tibetans have been studying the Kalacakra for the least 900 years, learning its
science, practicing its meditation, and using its system of astrology to guide their lives.
As one Tibetan lama put it, how could Shambhala be the source of something, which
has affected so many areas of Tibetan life for so long and yet not exist?

Tibetan religious texts describe the physical makeup of the hidden land in detail. It is
thought to look like and eight-petaled lotus blossom because it is made up of eight
regions, each surrounded by a ring of mountains. In the center of the innermost ring lies
Kalapa, the capital, and the king palace, which is composed of gold, diamonds, coral,
and precious gems. The capital is surrounded by mountains made of ice, which shine
with a crystalline light. The technology of Shambhala is supposed to be highly
advanced. The palace contains special skylights made of lenses which serve as high-
powered telescopes to study extraterrestrial life, and for hundreds of years Shambhala?
s inhabitants have been using aircraft and cars that shuttle through a network of
underground tunnels. On the way to enlightenment, Shambhalans acquire such powers
clairvoyance, the ability to move at great speeds, and the ability to materialize and
disappear at will.
Taking the legend in its most basic form, Shambhalla and Agharta is said to be a
mysterious underground kingdom situated somewhere beneath Asia and linked to the
other continents of the world by a gigantic network of tunnels. These passageways,
partly natural formations and partly the handiwork of the race which created the
subterranean nation, provide a means of communication between all points, and have
done so since time immemorial. According to the legend, vast lengths of the tunnels still
exist today; the rest have been destroyed by cataclysms. The exact location of these
passages, and the means of entry, are said to be known only to certain high initiates,
and the details are most carefully guarded because the kingdom itself is a vast
storehouse of secret knowledge. Some claim that the stored knowledge is derived from
the lost Atlantean civilisation and of even earlier people who were the first intelligent
beings to inhabit the earth.

The first Westerner to popularise the legend of Agharta was a gifted French writer
named Joseph-Alexandre Saint-Yves (1842-1910). Saint-Yves was a self-educated
occultist and political philosopher who promoted in his books the establishment of a
form of government called ‘Synarchy’. He taught that the body politic should be treated
like a living creature, with a ruling spiritual and intellectual elite as its brain. In his
quest for universal understanding, he decided in 1885 to take lessons in Sanskrit, the
classical and philosophical language of India. He learnt far more than he expected.
Saint-Yves’s tutor was a certain Haji Sharif, who was believed to be an Afghan prince.
Through this mysterious personage, Saint-Yves learnt a good deal about Oriental
traditions including Agharta. The manuscripts of Saint-Yves’ Sanskrit lessons are
preserved in the library of the Sorbonne, written in exquisite script by Haji. According
to Joscelyn Godwin, writing in Arktos:

Haji signed his name with a cryptic symbol and styled himself “Guru Pandit of the
Great Agarthian School.” Elsewhere he refers to the “Holy Land of Agarttha”… In due
course he informed Saint-Yves that this school preserves the original language of
mankind and its 22-lettered alphabet: it is called Vattan, or Vattanian.2

Saint-Yves soon discovered his training enabled him to receive telepathic messages
from the Dalai Lama in Tibet, as well as make astral journeys to Agharta. The detailed
reports of what he found there became the crowning volume of his series of politico-
hermetic “Missions”: Mission des Souverains, Mission des Ouvriers, Mission de Juifs,
and finally Mission de l’Inde (The Mission of India). In The Mission of India we learn
that Agharta is a hidden land somewhere in the East, below the surface of the earth,
where a population of millions is ruled by a “Sovereign Pontiff”, who is assisted by two
colleagues, the “Mahatma” and the “Mahanga”. His realm, Saint-Yves explains, was
transferred underground and concealed from the surface-dwellers at the start of the
Kali Yuga, which he dates around 3200 BCE. According to Saint-Yves, the “mages of
Agarttha” had to descend into the infernal regions below them in order to work at
bringing the earth’s chaos and negative energy to an end. “Each of these sages,” Saint-
Yves wrote, “accomplishes his work in solitude, far from any light, under the cities,
under deserts, under plains or under mountains.”3 Now and then Agharta sends
emissaries to the upper world, of which it has perfect knowledge.

Agharta also enjoys the benefits of a technology advanced far beyond our own. Not
only the latest discoveries of modern man, but the whole wisdom of the ages is
enshrined in its libraries. Among its many secrets are those of the relationship of soul to
body, and of the means to keep departed souls in communication with incarnate ones.

To Saint-Yves, these superior beings were the true authors of Synarchy, and for
thousands of years Agharta had “radiated” Synarchy to the rest of the world, which in
modern times has chosen foolishly to ignore it. When the world adopts Synarchical
government the time will be ripe for Agharta to reveal itself.Much of what Saint-Yves
reveals in his books about Agharta, to the modern reader, appears of a bizarre nature.
His writings are in a similar vein to the reports of strange worlds visited by numerous
out-of-body explorers over the ages. After his own investigation of Saint-Yves, the
respected historian of esotericism Joscelyn Godwin wrote: I believe Saint-Yves did ‘see’
what he described, and that he did not consider himself, to the slightest degree, to be
writing fiction or deriving anything from anyone else. The proof is in his utter
seriousness of character, and in the publications and correspondence of the rest of his
life, which take Agartha… for unquestionable realities.

“ I believe the idea of Shambhala has not yet come to full flower, but that when it
does it will have enormous power to reshape civilisation. It is the sign of the future. The
search for a new unifying principle that our civilisation must now undertake will, I am
convinced, lead it to this source of higher energies, and Shambhala will become the
great icon of the new millennium.”— Victoria LePage

In conclusion One can only say that There is a story which illustrates this difficulty in
telling of a young man who set off on a quest to find it. He crossed many mountains
and finally came to a hermit's cave, and when the hermit asked him where he was
going across these wastes of snow, he replied, "To find Shamballa." "Ah well, then," said
the hermit, "you need not travel far. The kingdom of Shamballa is in your heart."
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