Some 130 years ago, Helena P. Blavatsky introduced Shambhala to the western seekers, otherwise to have remained hidden, known only to a few scholars. “Shambhala” is a Sanskrit word meaning “the source of happiness” or else “place of peace and tranquility”.
Another reference to it was made by a Portuguese catholic missionary Estevao Cacella, who had heard about Shambhala (transcribing it as “Xempala”) and who believed that it was another name for China only to find out in 1627 that he had been mistaken.
In Budhism, Shambhala represents the Pure Land, a kingdom whose existence is both ideal or spiritual and also physical or geographical. Under this context Shambhala became known to Western culture and affected budhist and non-budhist seekers alike. Reaching the West its reputation influenced spiritual seekers as well as occult tradition.
In Tibetan Budhist tradition Shambhala is a mythic kingdom hidden somewhere in Inner Asia. It is recorded in various ancient texts such as Kalachakra Tantra and in the Zhang Zhung texts which predate Tibetan Budhism. In the Bon texts it is mentioned as Olmolungring. Opinions vary as to the location of Shambhala. It is usually said to be situated in central Asia or in Western Tibet. The ancient Zhang Zhung texts place it on Sutlej Valley in Himachal Pradseh while the Mongols place it on some south Siberian valleys.
In the Theosophical Glossary Shambhala is referred to as a mysterious location, a city where Kalki Avatar will appear according to the Purana prophecy. “Kalki” is Vishnu, the Messiah on the white horse according to the Brahmans. To Budhists he is Maitreya Budha also Saosiad, the Parsees’ Savior and Jesus Christ of the Christians. And it adds that all of these “messengers” are going to appear before the end of Kali Yuga.
In Kalachakra Tantra it is recorded that Shambhala has an “outer”, an “inner” and an “alternative” meaning. With regard to its outer meaning, Shambhala is an actual location even though only individuals of a particular Karma can see and perceive it. It is a pure land on the human level and only the “grace”- endowed can see it.
The other two meanings – the inner and the alternative – indicate Shambhala’ s more sublime states, that can be perceived through intuition and meditation and any information on it can only be orally handed down from master to pupil. Those who initially taught above tradition used pseudo names and the oral traditions preserved by Tibetans differ as to the time it first appeared on earth.
H. P. Blavatsky says about Shambhala that “it is a mysterious locality…and to Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and other religious traditions it could be the place where a Messiah is born”; she also says that “All these messengers are to appear before the destruction of the world –says the one; before the end of Kali Yuga – say the others”.
Is there actually any specific geo-scientific evidence of its being an island in the area of today’s Gobi desert? That was the question posed by Kara Le Beau in her article “Roerich’s Shambhala” published in the Theosophy Watch: http://theosophywatch.com/ addressed to a professor of the Department of Earth and Space at the UCLA. He replied that Gobi desert stretching between China and Mongolia was covered by water at one time! Maybe that’s how the legend can be substantiated.
Nicholas Roerich was the first one to lead a scientific expedition to Central Asia (1924-1928). It was the first expedition to the mountainous areas of Tibet covering an extended area from north to south, from China to India. An archaeologist and painter himself, he depicted the grandeur of the Himalayas in paintings while the possibility of discovering Shambhala was among the purposes of the expedition.
“Shambhala is a Holy Place, where the earthly world links with the higher states of consciousness” he explains in his book “Heart of Asia” and goes on saying that: “…in Asia they know there exist two Shambhalas, an earthly and an invisible one”.
Master Kuthumi, also, reveals in the Mahatma Letters (155) that “the inhabitants of Shambhala – when yet an island in Central Asia, were called Sons of the Fiery Mist, and they were those who triumphed over the selfish but not entirely wicked nature of the magicians of Poseidonis…”
The roots of that holy place have existed ever since life began to unfold on earth, explains H. P. Blavatsky in the Secret Doctrine (S. D. II, 400) saying namely that “the heart of Mother Earth beats under the foot of sacred Shambala, which then was not yet born”.
The Imperishable Sacred Land
As mentioned in the Secret Doctrine human kind dates almost 18 to 19 millions of years on earth. It also mentions that even before the appearance of human kind there had already been formed the holy center of Divine Guardians and Instructors who were to undertake humanity’s training and progress.
In the Secret Doctrine (S. D. II, 6) where H.P.B. records the continents that gave refuge to the humans during their millions of years of evolution, she refers to the first continent which she calls “Imperishable Sacred Land”. She says that it never shared the fate of the other continents, in other words, that it never submerged and was the only one whose destiny it is to last from the beginning to the end of the Manvantara throughout each Round. It is the cradle of the first man and the dwelling of the last divine mortal. ..Of this mysterious and sacred land very little can be said except perhaps…that the “pole star has its watchful eye upon it from the dawn to the close of the twilight of “a day” of the Great Breath.
And later on (S.D. II, 372, fn.), she says that “the first continent, or island, if so preferred, “the cap of the North Pole” has never perished nor will it to the end of the Seven Races”.
Its counterpart in our physical world is known as the Holy Island transferred from the previously submerged continent to the emerging one, when earth undergoes severe changes due to volcanic eruptions and other reasons. And “...they found refuge in the great desert of Gobi where they still reside invisible to all…” (S.D. II, 372)
The great geological upheavals coincide with the end of a Root Race. According to occult evolution, human kind runs through seven basic phases called Root-Races during which both earth and humanity undergo changes which of course our memory fails to keep. But the facts themselves come down to us either as myths or as initiation and are progressively proven by modern physics, geology and anthropology.
Shambhala is “the city of the gods” that shifts position following a great deluge –four of them having taken place so far, says the Secret Doctrine.
“It is a very mysterious locality on account of its future associations in Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and other religious traditions where a Messiah figure would be born”. (Theosophical Glossary)
The Wondrous Being
It is also mentioned that the “Wondrous Being” – the Heart of the divine guides- descended from a high region in the early part of the Third Era –Race during which the “Sons of Wisdom” incarnated; it is said that in that race incarnated spiritual Beings who had reached spiritual perfection during prior cycles of evolution. That Wondrous Being is the Tree from which, in subsequent ages, all the Sages and Hierophants sprang. Under the silent and direct guidance of the Wondrous Being– also called “the Great Initiator”- all the other less divine Teachers became the guides of humanity. It is they who gave the first notions on arts and science as well as of spiritual knowledge. And it is they who have laid the foundations of all ancient civilizations. (S. D. I, 208).
These Beings appear first as gods and creators; then they merge in nascent man to finally emerge as divine kings and rulers (S. D. II, 366)
“Plato is the first sage among the classics who speaks at length of the divine Dynasties and locates them on a vast continent which he calls Atlantis”, says H. P. Blavatsky (S.D.II, 371)
She also refers to Champollion who “was struck with amazement when finding…. the remains of a list of dynasties embracing…. the Reign of the Gods and the Heroes”.
Are there any references in Greek Mythology?
In Greek Mythology, Shambhala is hidden in references related to the Hyperborean land. The Hyperboreans were a mythic people living far to the north of Thrace. Hyperborea (land beyond the “Boreas” or else “North wind”) was a region that lay beyond Scythia. There says Pindar “Never the Muse is absent… Neither disease nor bitter old age is mixed in their sacred blood; far from labor and battle…Never on land or by sea you find the marvelous road to the feast of the Hyperborea” (Pindar; Tenth Pythian Ode; translated by Richmond Lattimore)
Greeks and Romans alike called Hyperborea an unspecified region near the North Pole, where according to Pliny, Herodotus, Virgil and Cicero its inhabitants lived a blissful life to the age of one thousand years. According to Herodotus (4.13) the Hyperborean land was surrounded by two rings, the first with the gold-guarding griffins and the second one with the one-eyed Arimaspians. The term one-eyed indicates the man who possesses the sixth sense, the one possessing astral powers. Hesiod also mentions that region which was considered by all as situated above the Arctic Circle. Strabo (11.4.3) refers to it as a peninsula or an island located beyond France and other descriptions put it somewhere in the Ural Mountains.
Alone among the twelve Olympians, Apollo, was thought to withdraw to the Hyperborean land in wintertime. According to the Secret Doctrine “hyperborean” was the name chosen for the Second Continent, the land that stretched out its promontories southward and westward from the North Pole… It was a real continent which knew no winter in those early days and which the Greeks called “the land of the Gods” (S. D. II, 7)
According to the esoteric tradition and as already mentioned, the Divine Guides adapting themselves to the evolutionary changes from continent to continent necessarily followed the emerging shapes of life and form so as to be able to communicate with the evolving humans and to convey divine knowledge to them. Thus, Herodotus refers to the “wondrous dynasties of the gods that preceded the humans, followed by that of demi-gods, heroes and finally by men.” (S. D.II, 366)
Furthermore, Pausanias says that the Hyperboreans were sending mysterious gifts packed in straw first to Dodona; then the so-packed gifts were passed from people to people to end up at the Apollo sanctuary on Delos. In that passage we get a symbolic description of the way initiation and divine knowledge were relayed from generation to generation, from one root-race to the next and from continent to continent.
During yet older times, in the Lemurian era –root race, esoteric tradition mentions that Manco Capak , the legendary founder of the Inca dynasty in Peru and Cusco and his brother were the sons of god Inti. Along with the rest of their siblings they were sent by Inti up to earth carrying a golden staff and were instructed to build a Temple dedicated to Sun god at the spot where the staff sank into the earth. The golden staff sank at Cusco which was named “the navel of the world”; the navel of the world is considered to be a spot where the geodynamic balance of the planet is reinstated and a spot, a Gate, where the hierarchy of the divine guides manifests. In the S.D.II, 319 we read that “Lemuria’s elect had taken shelter on the Sacred Island… (now) the “fabled” Shambhala, in the Gobi Desert”.
In Hinduism the term Shambhala bears three meanings:
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the place where one gets peace and security
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“that which attracts others” or “that which confers distinction”
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a place situated near water, “water” being the connotation of physical matter.
In Theosophy, Shambhala is the place of the divine governance of Earth.
Shambhala is the link between humanity as a whole and its heavenly nature. It is the dwelling place of the Masters of Compassion who watchfully supervise the mental and spiritual progress of the human kind. There stands “the Initiator….because the lonely sore-footed pilgrims on their way back to their home are never sure to the last moment of not losing their way in this limitless desert of illusion and matter called Earth-Life”. (S.D. I, 208)
