Transcript
[0:11] my home.
[0:29] If you can really be with Kalash even
[0:32] for a few moments,
[0:34] life will never again be the same for
[0:37] you. It is a phenomena [music]
[0:40] beyond all human imagination.
[0:53] Namaskarum
[0:55] and welcome to
[0:57] 360 sguru 360.
[1:00] Shraana is a month deeply associated
[1:03] with Shiva with pilgrimage, austerity,
[1:07] devotion and an inward turning of
[1:10] attention.
[1:13] So it feels especially fitting that in
[1:15] this episode I would be speaking about a
[1:18] journey to a place that has drawn
[1:21] seekers [music] for thousands of years.
[1:24] Kyalash. We are on the way to Kyash.
[1:27] This is the 21st year that I'm traveling
[1:29] to Kyash in 2026. 2026 is also the
[1:35] firehorse year in the Tibetanian and
[1:37] Chinese zodiac traditions. This
[1:40] alignment comes only once in 60 years.
[1:44] So it is held as a very sacred year. The
[1:47] firehorse year in the Tibetan tradition
[1:49] has a special association with Mount
[1:52] Kalash. And it is traditionally said
[1:55] that completing the kora or the
[1:58] circumambulation around kalash during
[2:02] the firehorse year carries 13 times the
[2:06] spiritual merit of doing so in an
[2:08] ordinary year. Whether one chooses to
[2:11] take that literally symbolically or
[2:14] simply as a part of mythology [music]
[2:17] surrounding this extraordinary mountain,
[2:20] it adds another layer of intrigue
[2:23] [music] to an already remarkable
[2:25] pilgrimage.
[2:26] As for me, I'm quite literally riding my
[2:30] fire horse this year and my fire horse
[2:33] happens to be a multistrader.
[2:37] A motorcycle allows me to experience the
[2:40] journey in a way that it is immediate
[2:44] and unfiltered.
[2:46] In many ways, hugging the terrain rather
[2:49] than being enclosed in the shell of a
[2:51] car, you feel the heat and the cold, the
[2:55] wind, the rainfall and snow possibly,
[3:00] and above all the altitude and every
[3:04] shift in the terrain beneath you. You
[3:06] don't just see the landscape, you become
[3:09] part of it. For me, that intimacy with
[3:12] earth is an important part of the
[3:14] journey. So perhaps there is no better
[3:17] fire for this journey than my
[3:20] motorcycle. I have never been a
[3:23] pilgrimage kind of person. If I close my
[3:27] eyes, I'm done.
[3:30] When I wandered around, I simply
[3:32] wandered around without a purpose or a
[3:36] destination.
[3:38] Definitely not trying to find something
[3:42] or learn something or glean something
[3:44] from the travels, just drinking in life.
[3:48] So why this journey to Kalash?
[3:52] Why do I keep coming back every year?
[3:55] Despite bad bathrooms and well, I can't
[4:00] say that anymore. The facilities have
[4:03] improved tremendously since we first
[4:05] came here. They have improved rather a
[4:08] bit too much. I never really had uh any
[4:11] intention of ever coming to Kalash
[4:14] because whenever people
[4:16] uh talked so much about Kalash I
[4:19] resisted because they were talking about
[4:22] how they saw Shiva and Parvati floating
[4:25] in the clouds. I don't want to go there
[4:27] because Shiva in the cloud means uh the
[4:30] bull also and the will
[4:33] definitely fall upon your face. So I
[4:35] have heard so many spectacular things
[4:38] that people had experienced and above
[4:40] all I saw the adventure of driving
[4:42] through Tibet. So the first time we came
[4:46] it was just out of curiosity. I thought
[4:49] we will go just once and here we are
[4:52] today the 21st year because the first
[4:56] time I came it so overwhelmed me that
[5:00] what we saw in Manas is more fairy
[5:04] talish than any fairy tale. It's simply
[5:07] amazing and unbelievable.
[5:10] My great-g grandandmother was a great
[5:12] storyteller.
[5:15] I have still not met anyone who could
[5:17] tell a story like that. If we went for a
[5:21] month-long vacation to our ancestral
[5:23] home, she would start telling the story
[5:26] uh post dinner time and we were all open
[5:29] mouth, open eyed, open ear sitting
[5:31] [music] there. The princess will start
[5:34] combing her hair. The comb will start
[5:37] from here. By the time it reaches the
[5:40] end of her hair, it will be a month in
[5:44] between
[5:46] so many things that will happen. A story
[5:48] inside a story inside a story and time
[5:51] for us to leave and go back to school
[5:53] has come and we beg her please tell us
[5:58] the end of the story. She would say no
[6:01] come back next summer. [laughter]
[6:04] She was over 100 years but she was sure
[6:07] she will see us next summer.
[6:10] She told us all kinds of stories. I
[6:14] thoroughly enjoyed the stories but they
[6:18] never passed through the filter of my
[6:19] skepticism. I enjoyed the way she told
[6:23] the story with such involvement and with
[6:26] such description and detail that it went
[6:29] on endlessly. But I'm not the kind to
[6:32] believe grandmother's stories.
[6:35] But after being in Lake Manasur,
[6:39] I'm willing to believe any toothless
[6:42] grandmother's story. If you even taste a
[6:45] little bit of it, it is too fantastic
[6:48] for any logical mind to [music] come to
[6:50] terms with it. It's just absolutely
[6:54] insanely fantastic.
[6:57] There is a tremendous amount of activity
[7:00] upon the lake. The beings or the life
[7:02] forms there are nothing like what we
[7:05] generally know as life.
[7:08] It is life but not the way we know it.
[7:12] These beings are in bunches. In our
[7:15] understanding of life, we know beings as
[7:19] individual beings, never as bunches.
[7:22] These are bunches of beings. They are
[7:25] individual but they are still in
[7:27] bunches. They move by tendency but they
[7:30] are still conscious. You cannot
[7:33] differentiate whether [music] they are
[7:35] truly conscious or unconscious. The
[7:38] first few times we came to Manasur were
[7:40] we set up a few exploratory experiments
[7:44] and what I see is they know the human
[7:47] system thoroughly. We really don't know
[7:50] anything about them except what we have
[7:53] observed from outside. But they seem to
[7:56] know everything about us. One aspect is
[7:59] they are constantly tugging at my ring
[8:02] finger to a point where sometimes I have
[8:05] to close my hand and sit. The ring
[8:08] finger is like the very key to the whole
[8:11] cosmos. If you give me enough time, we
[8:15] can open up the whole cosmos with just
[8:17] the ring finger because this finger is
[8:21] like a key to the existence. This I
[8:25] believe is essentially human. If some
[8:28] other form of life knows about it,
[8:30] either they have a role in making us who
[8:33] we are or they know what we know or
[8:36] maybe it's one of them who taught us all
[8:38] this.
[8:40] On one of these trips, I thought, let me
[8:43] try something. And I separated one of
[8:46] these beings from the bunch and took
[8:50] took them I don't know what how to refer
[8:53] to that them it him her whatever into my
[8:58] system but it became so restless and uh
[9:03] like it wants to go and created such a
[9:06] sense of you know increased sense of
[9:09] temperature and stress within my system.
[9:12] I tried to contain it but I saw that it
[9:15] started creating some damage to my
[9:18] system a little bit. So I thought it's
[9:20] better to just let it go. And uh that
[9:23] was the end of that experiment because I
[9:26] don't think uh we were ready to hold
[9:29] them in any sense and they were not
[9:32] willing to be held either.
[9:35] I don't want you to believe whatever I'm
[9:38] saying. If you told me, I wouldn't
[9:41] believe you. So, let's be fair to each
[9:43] other. But don't be a fool and
[9:46] disbelieve it either. Because assuming
[9:49] that whatever is not in your knowing or
[9:53] in your experience cannot exist is the
[9:57] very crown of ignorance.
[9:59] I have been in touch with many mystical
[10:02] things but nothing of the scale and
[10:04] intensity that is happening in manasur.
[10:08] Beneath manasurover there is a huge
[10:10] space a subterranean space which could
[10:14] be about 2 or 3 km in diameter in my
[10:17] perception. That is what it seems like
[10:20] to me. But it may actually be just the
[10:24] size of a grain of sand because there is
[10:26] a way of folding up space.
[10:29] This space is light sea green kind of
[10:33] color and these bunches of beings are
[10:35] coming in and coming out and at the
[10:38] bottom there are some very small life
[10:40] forms parked there. According to our
[10:43] ways of thinking we can think it is some
[10:46] kind of a nursery maybe but that's just
[10:48] conjecture. And the most incredible
[10:51] thing which is absolutely intriguing is
[10:54] there are half-formed human forms,
[10:56] dozens of them. And on the side [music]
[10:59] there are what seems like electric blue
[11:02] colored rocks. There is a lot of
[11:04] movement and traffic happening around
[11:06] this place. But none of these beings
[11:09] ever go near that space. Somehow
[11:13] everybody maintains a clear distance
[11:15] from those rocks which are glowing
[11:18] electric blue. We know from our
[11:20] experience that if there is a realized
[11:23] being who is very static and in one
[11:26] place his aura will be generally bright
[11:30] white but if there is a realized being
[11:33] who is active and dynamic then always
[11:37] his aura shall be electric blue it's
[11:40] based on this that in Indian culture the
[11:43] gods are blue skinned Shiva Krishna Rama
[11:48] it is not that their skin was blue
[11:50] because they had blue aura. They were
[11:52] referred to as blue gods. So these blue
[11:56] rocks and these half-formed human forms
[12:00] are very intriguing. We have managed to
[12:03] gain a certain access to these aspects.
[12:07] But still whatever we think is happening
[12:10] there is probably not the way it is. It
[12:13] is something that is far beyond our
[12:15] imagination and conjecture. Just the
[12:18] intrigue of this space is so fascinating
[12:22] that it keeps me coming back every time.
[12:25] The first time we came on the Kalash
[12:28] trip, we came with 163 people with very
[12:31] rudimentary arrangements and there were
[12:34] no roads anywhere in the entire place
[12:37] and we were just finding our way through
[12:39] the Tibetian plateau. We crossed 83
[12:41] rivers and on one drive I drove 11
[12:44] kilometers up river in the water. Our
[12:47] four-wheel drives were getting stuck
[12:50] everywhere and it was 16 days of drive.
[12:53] I enjoyed it thoroughly because I was
[12:56] driving. Others were being uh thrown
[13:00] around in the four-wheel drives uh
[13:05] towards being made into a pulp. I was
[13:08] always telling them being in a Land
[13:10] Cruiser don't complain.
[13:13] There has been a 12,000year history of
[13:15] pilgrims from India making it to Kalash
[13:18] without a single year's break
[13:20] irrespective of the weather not for
[13:23] livelihood not for business not for
[13:26] conquest but in seeking
[13:29] walking 3,000 kilometers men and women
[13:33] can you imagine what fire these people
[13:37] what kind of fire they carried in their
[13:38] hearts I want you to just imagine And
[13:42] suppose you started off from southern
[13:44] India. You had no fancy down jackets,
[13:47] whatever equipment, no trekking boots at
[13:50] the most one woolen blanket barefoot a
[13:53] thousand years ago if you started off
[13:56] and walked up to Kalash 3,000 km. What
[14:00] it would be? There was a wonderful
[14:03] devotey of Shiva a few hundred years ago
[14:06] from a place called Karakal in Tamil
[14:09] Nadu. She never bothered to introduce
[14:12] herself to anyone. So they just called
[14:14] her Karakal Amayar. The saint who came
[14:18] from Karakal. When she went to Kalash, I
[14:22] want you to understand what it must have
[14:24] taken for a woman to walk all the way
[14:27] there in those days. She went around
[14:30] Kalash,
[14:31] which is normally 3-day track
[14:34] approximately 58 kilometers.
[14:37] But she walked on her hands and knees
[14:41] not letting her feet touch the ground
[14:43] because she saw it as the very body of
[14:46] Shiva.
[14:47] So this is not a tour. This is not an
[14:50] adventure track. This is a pilgrimage.
[14:53] If you are a treker, you wear down the
[14:56] mountain path a little more than it
[14:58] already is. If you are a pilgrim, you
[15:01] don't go there to wear the mountain
[15:03] path. You go there to wear yourself
[15:06] down. In some way, you must become less
[15:10] than who you think you are. The idea of
[15:12] a pilgrimage is the journey itself
[15:16] should make you less and less as you go
[15:18] by. Your likes and dislikes, your
[15:21] sensibilities. It is with this you have
[15:24] built your personality. Your personality
[15:27] is an accumulation of all kinds of whims
[15:30] and fancies you have created.
[15:32] >> [music]
[15:32] >> Kailas is still what it was a thousand
[15:35] years ago. But back then the journey
[15:38] would wear you out in such a way by the
[15:41] time you got there you were all
[15:43] receptivity. But today the journey is
[15:46] not wearing you out because of the
[15:48] airplanes, the highways, the buses.
[15:52] From the first time we went and how it
[15:55] is today, there is a 500% improvement in
[15:59] the comfort level. Except for the
[16:02] altitude which continues to remain a
[16:04] challenge.
[16:06] Most other challenges have been
[16:08] flattened out. Only altitude. That's the
[16:11] only challenge. The mountains are very
[16:14] democratic. They don't care whether you
[16:17] are a king, a sage, or a great warrior.
[16:21] Once the altitude begins to rise,
[16:23] [music]
[16:24] everybody breathes the same thin air. So
[16:27] technology
[16:29] and engineering has advanced. But just
[16:32] because we are going in comfort, no one
[16:35] should miss the significance of what
[16:37] Kalash is. Modernday life and technology
[16:41] can deliver us there with ease. But let
[16:46] our comfort and convenience not work
[16:48] against us. Unfortunately, this is what
[16:51] I see. As people and societies become
[16:54] affluent, as life becomes more
[16:57] comfortable and convenient, they will
[17:00] not become more sensible. Most people
[17:03] lose their fundamental sense about life.
[17:06] One of the main reasons is the way we
[17:09] have set up education today. Education
[17:12] is geared towards making you exclusive.
[17:15] But the fundamental dimension of
[17:16] spirituality is to become all inclusive
[17:20] not exclusive. Inclusiveness is life.
[17:24] Exclusiveness is death. One classic
[17:27] example of someone who was immensely
[17:30] capable and empowered but turned into a
[17:33] very exclusive life is Rahana. Rahana
[17:37] was a fierce devotey of Shiva. There are
[17:39] many stories about him. A devotey
[17:43] shouldn't become great. A devotey should
[17:45] never think I'm a great devotey. But he
[17:48] was a great devotey. He came to Kalash
[17:51] all the way from down south and began to
[17:54] sing Shiva's praises. He had a drum
[17:58] which he used to set the beat and
[18:00] compose 1,08 verses extandas
[18:06] stotra. Today Shiva was so pleased and
[18:11] enamored listening to this music as he
[18:14] sang slowly Rahana started climbing
[18:17] kalash from the southern face when
[18:20] Rahana was almost at the top and with
[18:24] Shiva still engrossed in the music
[18:26] Parvati saw this man climbing up towards
[18:30] their seat. Parvati tried to bring Shiva
[18:33] out of his musical rapture and she said
[18:36] this man is coming all the way up but
[18:39] Shiva was too engrossed in the music and
[18:42] poetry [music]
[18:43] then finally Parvati nudged Shiva and
[18:47] managed to bring him out of being
[18:49] enthralled and when Rahana reached the
[18:51] peak Shiva just pushed him off with his
[18:54] feet. Rahana who had used the furrow to
[18:57] climb the southern face of Kalash slid
[19:00] down through the furrow all the way
[19:02] down. Then having ended up at the bottom
[19:07] of the peak.
[19:09] Then he thought
[19:11] why should I come to Kalash and be
[19:13] kicked down like this? Let me take
[19:16] Kailash to Sri Lanka
[19:19] my home. I will take Kalash to my place.
[19:23] So he started lifting using his
[19:26] superhuman strength. He started lifting
[19:30] Mount Kalash. This made Parvati very
[19:33] angry once again. She told Shiva, "It
[19:37] does not matter how dear he is to you.
[19:40] You cannot allow him to shake Kailash
[19:43] like this and his attempt to take it to
[19:46] the south. That is not possible." Shiva
[19:49] also saw this and angry with Rahana's
[19:54] egoistic nature and so he pressed the
[19:57] mountain down trapping Raana's hands
[19:59] beneath Kalash. Rahana struggled in pain
[20:04] but Shiva refused to release him. Then
[20:06] Rahana with his hands stuck beneath the
[20:08] mountain started pouring out [music] his
[20:11] love for Shiva in various beautiful
[20:13] hymns. Shiva released him and said, "You
[20:17] can have a boon. Ask me what you want."
[20:20] Once again, Rahana's negativity
[20:22] manifested itself. He said, "I want your
[20:25] wife."
[20:27] Shiva as he had already promised, "Ask
[20:30] whatever you want." Okay, whatever you
[20:33] want. Parvati, he's having a bath in
[20:36] Manasur over. Okay, you take my wife and
[20:39] go. He's like that because he doesn't
[20:42] possess or hold anything. Rahana came
[20:45] looking for Parvati. Parvati [music]
[20:47] realized what had happened and she took
[20:50] a toad and transformed it into a woman
[20:54] and left her near the lake that is now
[20:56] called Rakshas Dal. The toad woman was
[21:00] having a bath and when Rahana came, she
[21:03] was an extraordinarily beautiful woman.
[21:06] So he picked her up and went back and
[21:08] made her his wife. That is why she's
[21:11] mandari as she was a toad who was
[21:15] transformed into a woman. This whole
[21:18] kissing a frog business in the west
[21:20] originally probably comes from this
[21:22] basis. Shiva is bolinat meaning the
[21:27] innocent one like [laughter] me. No no
[21:30] you won't agree with that. Yes, but I am
[21:34] like that. Just anybody can take me for
[21:37] a ride. Not because I lack the
[21:40] intelligence to know what they're doing.
[21:42] Because today they try to misuse.
[21:45] Tomorrow I will come to use. I know
[21:48] this. Many who came like investigators.
[21:51] Today they're all devotees. Not one or
[21:53] two. Many thousands upon them. Thousands
[21:56] upon thousands have come in a suspicious
[21:59] manner doing all kinds of things. But
[22:02] today they are ardent followers and
[22:04] they're doing fantastic work. See
[22:07] Shiva's bolinat
[22:10] means he's innocent.
[22:12] We must understand there is a
[22:14] significant difference between innocence
[22:17] and ignorance.
[22:19] Ignorance may come with shrewdness many
[22:22] times. But innocence is only possible
[22:26] with the assurance of knowing with the
[22:28] assurance of clarity that you can afford
[22:32] to be vulnerable. Even for me there are
[22:34] a lot of self-appointed advisers around
[22:37] me. I did not appoint them. They
[22:39] appointed themselves because they're
[22:41] volunteering. You know they say sguru
[22:44] people are misusing you. They're just
[22:46] using you in so many ways. Let them use
[22:49] me. That's why I'm here. What's the
[22:52] problem? Let them. Anybody can deceive
[22:55] me. That's the whole thing. Not because
[22:57] I don't have the intelligence to ward
[23:00] off their deception. I can see them
[23:02] through and through. But just about
[23:05] anybody can deceive me because I come
[23:07] with an assurance. Let them deceive me
[23:10] and live well and see. They will never
[23:13] ever do that. Not because I will curse
[23:16] them, because it's like spitting into
[23:18] the sky. You spit into the sky, it will
[23:22] land straight back on your face. No
[23:24] other way. So today, the type of
[23:27] education we have created around the
[23:29] world, which is mostly an import of 19th
[23:32] century western ideas of education, is
[23:36] producing a lot of very capable but
[23:38] imbalanced human beings. You must
[23:41] understand Rahana was an immensely
[23:43] talented, knowledgeable man, a great
[23:47] administrator, a great warrior, a
[23:49] scholar. But his own intelligence,
[23:53] talent and capabilities worked against
[23:55] him because he had no balance. I'm
[23:59] constantly telling everybody you may
[24:01] have intelligence, you may have talent,
[24:04] you may have various qualities but if
[24:07] there is no balance your intelligence
[24:10] will work against you. When I say
[24:12] balance, balance on many different
[24:16] levels, physiological, psychological,
[24:19] emotional, chemical balance, energy
[24:22] balance on all levels we need balance.
[24:25] And talking about balance brings us back
[24:28] to motorcycles again. Last year we rode
[24:31] to Kalash on motorcycles which was a
[24:34] fantastic experience. I think we were
[24:37] one of the first group of people to do
[24:39] the ride to Kyash from India on a
[24:42] motorcycle. Then in early 2024, I banged
[24:45] my head a little bit [laughter]
[24:47] as it's my want to forget my
[24:50] chronological age that led to an
[24:52] emergency brain surgery and
[24:56] again travel and schedule well before
[24:59] fully healed and getting into another
[25:02] situation of banging my head barely and
[25:05] went into another emergency surgery.
[25:07] Doctors were warning me that there can
[25:10] be no third surgery for me as it is
[25:13] miraculous. [music] The second bangup
[25:15] was not fatal in May 2024.
[25:18] as it was. They predicted that there can
[25:21] be cognition losses or faculty losses.
[25:25] But I was clear going to Kyash would be
[25:28] hugely beneficial. Beyond normal logic
[25:31] of course to test the whole theory of
[25:33] this miraculous process of which I had
[25:36] absolute trust in looked like a death
[25:39] wish to the doctors and all those around
[25:42] me when I announced I will ride on a
[25:44] motorcycle into that altitude and
[25:47] terrain. But have I not come out of this
[25:49] whole headbreaking episode well if not
[25:53] better than before at least as good?
[25:57] Well, that is yoga and kailash is a very
[26:00] phenomena of yoga or the source of yoga.
[26:04] Practices like shambhabi, shunya,
[26:07] syyama, anga mardana, silaja, up yoga,
[26:11] these are not imported anywhere else in
[26:14] the world in the form and power as
[26:16] transmitted by us. These are all
[26:19] techniques derived from adi yogis or
[26:21] kailash essence. Some aspects are from
[26:24] Ghanaas rest from Ady Yogi's energetic
[26:27] knowing. Many times I squirm with
[26:31] embarrassment when people acknowledge me
[26:34] for these practices when all I have done
[26:36] is transmit what I embied from that
[26:38] source without distortion. I am
[26:41] incapable of distortion as I am nothing
[26:44] or I have no knowledge of my own. I am
[26:48] an empty space. So I am simply incapable
[26:51] of distorting anything. So last year the
[26:54] ride was so wonderful. I'm back this
[26:57] year again on my fire horse. Of course
[27:01] four wheels are still good for some
[27:03] things. The first time we came to
[27:05] Kailash, I was driving a Land Cruiser
[27:08] and there is a Tibetian guide sitting
[27:10] next to me [music] and in the back seat
[27:12] there are three people. Two of them are
[27:14] ladies. I was driving [music] and of
[27:16] course there are no
[27:19] toilets or restrooms anywhere in Tibet
[27:23] at that time. So these ladies ask if we
[27:26] want to use a lube where do we go? The
[27:29] guide says tree behind. [laughter]
[27:32] So they go tree behind. [music]
[27:34] Then we drive into the Tippetian
[27:36] plateau. As it gets higher absolutely no
[27:39] trees, a treeless terrain. There is not
[27:42] a speck of green anywhere in most of
[27:45] western Tibet. You will not see any
[27:47] trees [music] except around Lassa and in
[27:49] a few other parts. One reason is because
[27:52] of the altitude. Another reason is
[27:55] [music] because it is windswept. If you
[27:59] come in certain seasons, the wind will
[28:01] be on constantly at a very high speed.
[28:04] Only that kind of vegetation which hugs
[28:06] the ground and stays there can survive.
[28:09] There are no trees. These ladies ask the
[28:12] guide. Now what do we do? The guide says
[28:16] rock behind. [laughter]
[28:18] Then they go looking for rocks and
[28:21] behind. Then we drive deeper into the
[28:24] Tibetan plateau where it's like a
[28:26] moonscape. There is no rock. There are
[28:29] no trees and there is not a blade of
[28:32] grass. Nothing. Then they said what do
[28:34] we do? He says car behind. [laughter]
[28:38] So going to kalash. What is the purpose
[28:41] of making this journey despite all the
[28:44] discomforts? There are three different
[28:46] dimensions. One is an overwhelming
[28:49] presence in terms of the sheer energy of
[28:51] it that is easy to access if you go with
[28:54] a little bit of integrity. When I say
[28:57] integrity, it means you're not just
[29:00] waiting to make up something. First
[29:03] moment you see a little something you
[29:05] want to make up something else because
[29:08] you have a whole epic in your mind.
[29:10] Suddenly you start seeing Shiva and
[29:12] Parvati floating in the cloud and of
[29:14] course there will be a bull and all that
[29:16] stuff. You need psychological integrity
[29:20] that you ignore all the thoughts and
[29:23] emotions that come because to create
[29:25] thoughts and emotions you don't have to
[29:27] go to kalash.
[29:29] You can sit at home and do it. You do it
[29:32] pretty well at home, don't you? You You
[29:35] don't have to travel all the way to Kyas
[29:38] just to get emotionally excited about
[29:40] something.
[29:42] So there is an overwhelming presence of
[29:44] powerful energy which nobody can miss
[29:48] whether they are conscious or
[29:49] unconscious in the sense I will tell you
[29:52] something that you are not conscious of
[29:55] but the moment I tell you you will be
[29:58] you are breathing. There is air in this
[30:01] room. It's nourishing you right now. You
[30:04] are not conscious of it, isn't it? But
[30:08] it is still nourishing you. Even if you
[30:11] are not conscious, it is still
[30:13] nourishing you. Similarly, there is an
[30:16] energy there. Even if you are not
[30:18] conscious, it will still nourish you. It
[30:21] is like this. If today's dinner we turn
[30:23] it into a nice broth and with a pipe we
[30:26] will pour it into you, you will still be
[30:29] nourished but you don't get to taste it.
[30:32] It is the same thing with the presence
[30:34] of kalash. If you are conscious you can
[30:38] taste it. You can consume it in a
[30:40] certain way which makes it both
[30:43] nourishing and enriching. If it just
[30:45] enters you just as air is doing right
[30:48] now, it's nourishing but it need not
[30:51] lead to any great joy. The energy
[30:53] permeates everybody. But if you are in a
[30:57] certain level of receptivity, you can
[30:59] taste it which makes a big difference
[31:02] for many people who have come with us.
[31:05] The journey to Kailash is the greatest
[31:07] experience of their lives. Many of them
[31:10] have shared what phenomenal experiences
[31:13] [music] they have been through during
[31:15] this journey.
[31:17] >> Getting that first glimpse of Kalash
[31:20] with Sguru [music] next to you is
[31:27] it it's just unexplainable what happens
[31:29] within you. It's
[31:31] it's
[31:37] just brings [music] tears to my eyes.
[31:39] It was very overwhelming for me. It was
[31:41] [music] extremely overwhelming.
[31:44] Um,
[31:46] my whole mind was blank. There was
[31:48] [music] nothing in my mind.
[31:50] And Sguru's energy was
[31:54] just
[31:58] [sighs]
[32:00] [music] it was taking me to some other
[32:02] place that I just cannot explain.
[32:05] U tears were just flowing down
[32:07] everybody's eyes. It's an express it's
[32:10] an emotion that you just can't [music]
[32:11] express by words. You have to you have
[32:14] to experience it. Me personally,
[32:18] I don't know what I did to deserve his
[32:20] grace.
[32:21] >> And [music]
[32:22] after this first Gail Yetra,
[32:26] definitely [music] my perception of life
[32:29] has changed completely.
[32:34] The second dimension is there is an
[32:37] enormous level of knowing out there.
[32:40] Kalash is a tremendous spiritual
[32:42] library. When we say this is the abboard
[32:46] of Shiva, it does not mean he's still
[32:49] dancing there on the snow. It means
[32:52] everything that he was invested in that
[32:55] place. And because of that many yogis
[32:58] came after him and deposited their
[33:00] knowing in the mountain too. When the
[33:03] first jane tanker rishabdev came to
[33:06] kalash, he came with a mission. He had
[33:09] heard much about it. So he thought he
[33:12] would take all this knowledge and make
[33:15] it available to the world. He was a yogi
[33:18] of immense capability. But after being
[33:21] touched by kalash instead of taking the
[33:23] knowledge he became a part of it. No
[33:26] being who has tasted it to some death
[33:29] will be spared that temptation. When you
[33:32] are in touch with it you begin to think
[33:34] this is it. Why not? Everything else
[33:38] becomes meaningless. All the petty goals
[33:41] that one sets up for themselves to do
[33:44] this and that. When the opportunity to
[33:47] become immortal is thrown at you, there
[33:49] is temptation. When the possibility of
[33:52] becoming a part of such a grand affair
[33:54] is opened, it becomes a temptation hard
[33:58] to resist. For me, the most significant
[34:01] thing is that Augustimony invested
[34:04] everything that he was in the southern
[34:07] face of Kalash. It is a little
[34:09] inappropriate to distinguish or to
[34:12] discriminate between one face of Kailash
[34:15] and the other. But the south face is
[34:18] dear to us because Augustimony merged
[34:21] into the southern face. It is just a
[34:24] south Indian prejudice. Bear with me
[34:26] that we like the south face. I think it
[34:29] is the most beautiful face. In many ways
[34:32] it is the most intense face. But very
[34:35] few people go to the south face. It is
[34:37] far less accessible and involves a more
[34:40] difficult route than the other faces. In
[34:43] many ways, Augusta is the father of
[34:46] South Indian mysticism. Yoga came in a
[34:49] particular format to South India through
[34:52] Augusta.
[34:54] Kalash is the greatest mystical library
[34:57] upon the planet. Everything that you
[35:00] ever wish to know is written into this
[35:02] place. Ask me any question about
[35:05] existence. [music] If you give me enough
[35:07] time, I can glean it out of this
[35:10] mountain. But accessing that library
[35:13] [music] will take a whole lot of
[35:15] preparation which we are not even
[35:18] aspiring with most people. It is like
[35:20] [music] if you do not know how to read,
[35:23] if you do not know the alphabet, we took
[35:25] you into a massive library where there
[35:28] are millions of books. They overwhelm
[35:30] you. It's all stacked up. But when you
[35:34] took a book and opened it, you can't
[35:36] make out anything because you don't know
[35:38] the alphabet. So we are not really
[35:41] expecting anyone to access something.
[35:43] That would take a lot of preparation and
[35:45] a totally different level of involvement
[35:48] and it could be risky for people who are
[35:50] not very stable within themselves. To
[35:53] give you an idea of what is available
[35:55] there in 2007 before my trip to Kalash I
[35:59] was in Los Angeles and I started running
[36:02] temperature but I kept through
[36:05] the schedules. [music] Then I came to a
[36:08] Babaspana program in London running very
[36:11] high temperature. I just popped
[36:14] paracetamols and continued 4 days of
[36:17] bhavasana program. Then I came to India
[36:21] running very high temperature. Within a
[36:23] week's time I went to Singapore and from
[36:26] there I went to Australia. I was running
[36:29] temperature continuously. By now it's
[36:32] already been 4 weeks and I was running
[36:35] temperature well over 103°
[36:38] most of the time. Then I came back to
[36:41] India and we were shooting for this
[36:44] Tamil channel. In one day, we are
[36:47] shooting 12 episodes. So, with all those
[36:50] lights and television cameras, I had to
[36:52] change my clothes every 1 and 1/2 hours
[36:56] because I was just getting so wet with
[36:59] sweat. After shooting one evening, I
[37:03] came home and it felt like my brains
[37:05] were just cooking up. I just checked my
[37:08] temperature. It said 107.
[37:11] I don't know what got into my head. I
[37:13] just went under the cold shower with my
[37:16] turban clothes on and I just stood there
[37:20] for about 15 minutes. Later on when I
[37:23] told the doctors [music] they said that
[37:26] is the smartest thing you have done in
[37:28] your life. Then [laughter]
[37:30] again I traveled to United States. By
[37:33] now I was treated for denu fever, three
[37:36] types of malaria back in California. A
[37:40] tropical medicine doctor who is supposed
[37:42] to be a specialist said this is some
[37:45] strange kind of typhoid. They started
[37:48] treating me for typhoid. So I had an IV
[37:51] port running but I kept my schedules. I
[37:54] was talking in a conference with my IV
[37:56] port on. After that I was speaking at
[37:59] the house of the president of the
[38:01] conference. About 20 minutes I spoke and
[38:04] I was dripping sweat. One man raised his
[38:07] hand. I thought he's going to ask a
[38:09] question. He stood up and said, "You
[38:13] must go to the emergency room right
[38:15] now." I said, "Yes, I know." And they
[38:18] took me to the hospital, but I couldn't
[38:20] stay there. I was just there for the
[38:22] night because the next day I had
[38:25] appointments elsewhere. So, I traveled
[38:27] to Atlanta. Then I was in North Carolina
[38:30] where I almost collapsed around 2:00
[38:33] a.m. Then they took me to the hospital.
[38:37] But the next day I had another event in
[38:39] New York. I went and did that event with
[38:42] IV port on. By then my neck had swollen.
[38:46] The lymph nodes in my neck had swollen.
[38:49] I had 18 blood tests by then and four
[38:52] MRIs. So I was joking with the doctors.
[38:55] If nothing else kills me, I may die of
[38:58] anemia because the amount of blood
[38:59] they're taking for every test. And the
[39:02] doctors in North Carolina said, "This is
[39:04] too esoteric for us and too complex. We
[39:07] don't know what the hell this is." All
[39:10] kinds of reports saying bizarre things.
[39:12] Every time I go through a test, they put
[39:15] me in a New York hospital. By then, my
[39:18] lymph nodes were really swollen up and I
[39:20] was in excruciating pain. They said, "We
[39:23] have to do surgery. Maybe it's
[39:25] malignant." I stayed there overnight in
[39:28] the hospital. Next day morning I'm going
[39:30] for an anesthetic check. They gave me
[39:33] that funny hospital gown that is open on
[39:36] all sides and they asked me to go for an
[39:38] anesthetic check. By then I'm not able
[39:40] to walk by myself. I had to hold on to
[39:42] somebody to walk. Somehow I managed to
[39:45] get into the elevator. As I was going
[39:48] down in another floor just by chance
[39:51] somebody else stopped the elevator and
[39:53] one person got in. The doctor who was
[39:56] with me introduced this person and he
[39:59] said he's the one who is going to do
[40:02] surgery on you. He had not seen me till
[40:06] then. So he just uh checked my neck how
[40:09] it was swollen and my lymph nodes and uh
[40:13] the kind of pain I was in. He said it's
[40:16] very deep inside. You must inform the
[40:18] family. Then I went for the anesthetic
[40:20] check. Then I decided I needed to do
[40:23] something about this. I just sat there,
[40:26] closed my eyes for about 20 minutes.
[40:28] Then I got up and said, "I'm leaving."
[40:30] The doctor said, "No, Sguru, this is
[40:33] risky. You will not make it." I said,
[40:35] "It doesn't matter. I'm leaving." So I
[40:38] left the hospital. There were two people
[40:41] to help me. I stayed in a close by
[40:43] apartment for 4 days. I closed my eyes
[40:47] and was good enough to travel. I came
[40:50] back here to India on the 22nd or the
[40:54] 23rd day. I was in kalash. I tked all
[40:58] the way up. I was weak. I couldn't speak
[41:02] properly. I had lost my muscle mass. My
[41:05] thighs had lost almost 1/4 of the muscle
[41:08] in this 12 weeks. In that condition, I
[41:11] came to Kalash. When I sat there, I saw
[41:14] the tremendous richness of what is
[41:15] there. The knowledge that is stored
[41:17] there. Let us say it is like Shiva's
[41:21] dreadlocks. It is stored in strands. I
[41:25] just took one strand of that. You won't
[41:27] believe in 20 minutes I was a new man.
[41:30] [music]
[41:30] Everybody could see that. I walked up
[41:33] all the way to the base of the mountain
[41:36] trekking and there were at least 300
[41:38] people as witnessed that day. I bounced
[41:41] back like I was almost 10 years younger
[41:44] than what I was and much much more
[41:46] healthy than I was in those [music] last
[41:48] 10 years before that and perfectly fine.
[41:52] This is just one tangible aspect. There
[41:55] are other more profound dimensions to
[41:58] it. It is an incredible space. Everybody
[42:02] may not be able to access [music] what
[42:04] it is but at least allow yourself to be
[42:08] overwhelmed by it. Maybe someday if it
[42:11] lives within you, you can access it
[42:14] hopefully. It's my wish and my blessing.
[42:17] You must allow this to happen to you
[42:20] that the kila should reside within you
[42:24] and you must have access to this
[42:26] tremendous and unimaginable possibility.
[42:30] It is possible for every human being.
[42:32] It's just the willingness of this.
[42:36] Next month on the bada porna or parami
[42:40] we will be exploring further the various
[42:43] mystical aspects of kalash on sguru 360.
[42:48] There are some very significant aspects
[42:50] of kalash. [music]
[42:51] Let me see to what extent we can
[42:53] articulate this in the coming paramy.
[42:56] Namaskarum.
[43:01] [music]