Mystery of Shambhala

Mystery of Shambhala

Part One

By JASON JEFFREY

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, Shambhala

For thousands of years rumours and reports have circulated that somewhere beyond Tibet, among the icy peaks and secluded valleys of Eurasia, there lies an inaccessible paradise, a place of universal wisdom and ineffable peace called Shambhala ? although it is also known by other names.

James Hilton wrote about it in the 1933 book Lost Horizon, Hollywood portrayed it in the 1960s film ïShangri-laÍ, and recent films such as ïKundunÍ, ïLittle BuddhaÍ and ïSeven Years in TibetÍ 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 ñplace of peace, of tranquillity,î 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.

Legends say that only the pure of heart can live in Shambhala, enjoying perfect ease and happiness and never knowing suffering, want or old age. Love and wisdom reign and injustice is unknown. The inhabitants are long-lived, wear beautiful and perfect bodies and possess supernatural powers; their spiritual knowledge is deep, their technological level highly advanced, their laws mild and their study of the arts and sciences covers the full spectrum of cultural achievement, but on a far higher level than anything the outside world has attained.

By definition Shambhala is hidden. Of the numerous explorers and seekers of spiritual wisdom who attempt to locate Shambhala, none can pinpoint its physical location on a map, although all say it exists in the mountainous regions of Eurasia. Many have also returned believing that Shambhala lies on the very edge of physical reality, as a bridge connecting this world to one beyond it.

The Sanskrit and Tibetan Shambhala has also been identified by no less an authority than Alexandra David-Neel, who spent years in Tibet, with Balkh ? in the far north of Afghanistan ? the ancient settlement known as "the mother of cities". Present day folklore in Afghanistan asserts that after the Muslim conquest, Balkh was known as the "Elevated Candle" ("Sham-i-Bala"), a Persianisation of the Sanskrit Shambhala.

Tibetan lamas spend a great deal of their lives in spiritual development before attempting the journey to Shambhala. Perhaps deliberately, the guidebooks to Shambhala describe the route in terms so vague that only those already initiated into the teachings of the Kalachakra can understand them.

As Edwin Bernbaum says in The Way to Shambhala:

As the traveller draws near the kingdom, their directions become increasingly mystical and difficult to correlate with the physical world. At least one lama has written that the vagueness of these books is deliberate and intended to keep Shambhala concealed from the barbarians who will take over the world.1

The lamaÍs reference to the barbarians ñwho will take over the worldî is directly connected to the prophecy of Shambhala. This prophecy tells of the gradual deterioration of mankind as the ideology of materialism spreads over the earth. When the ñbarbariansî 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 snowy 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.

As the cultures of the East and West collide, the myth of Shambhala rises out of the mists of time. We now have access to numerous Buddhist texts on the subject, along with reports by Western explorers who set out on the arduous journey in search of Shambhala. There is much we can learn for our own individual journey of spiritual understanding.

The Lost World of Agharta

The idea of a hidden world beneath the surface of the planet is a very ancient one indeed. There are innumerable folk tales and oral traditions found throughout many countries speaking of subterranean people who have created a kingdom of harmony, contentment and spiritual power.

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 kingdomÍs true identity. These early travellers knew it as Agharta (sometimes spelt Agharti, Asgartha or Agarttha), although it is now commonly known as Shambhala.

Taking the legend in its most basic form, 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 ïSynarchyÍ. 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-YvesÍs 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-YvesÍ 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 ñGuru Pandit of the Great Agarthian School.î Elsewhere he refers to the ñHoly Land of Agartthaîƒ 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 ñMissionsî: Mission des Souverains, Mission des Ouvriers, Mission de Juifs, and finally Mission de lÍInde (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 ñSovereign Pontiffî, who is assisted by two colleagues, the ñMahatmaî and the ñMahangaî. 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 ñmages of Agartthaî had to descend into the infernal regions below them in order to work at bringing the earthÍs chaos and negative energy to an end. ñEach of these sages,î Saint-Yves wrote, ñaccomplishes his work in solitude, far from any light, under the cities, under deserts, under plains or under mountains.î3 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 ñradiatedî 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:

Continue to read:
http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/mystery_of_shambhala_part_one.html

related link:
http://www.foundation.bw/OnSynarchy.htm

 

lost worlds are delightful fantasies, and in a sense, there ARE many real lost worlds. the worlds of perceptions of forgotten and absorbed cultures. often possessing great wisedom and their wisedom and lore lost with them. many cultures only partialy and not unrecoverably lost are still with us, in the perceptions of those unnoticed, passing quitely and inconspicuously among us. those raised in families close to their indiginous roots especialy. and those who have come to be reguared as wise and honored elders among them.

though for the most part and outward seeming these are no saints, often far from it, but merely ordinary everyday people. whose grandmothers and grandfathers remember weaving baskets, not as a form of therapy, but as pratical and neccessary items of everyday use. and planting corn, or harvesting and proccessing acorns.

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