of unparalleled beauty that long ago lay in the center of a vast Central Asian sea,
just north of the modern-day Himalayas. A race of godlike people with strange powers lived isolated
on the island, uncommunicating with the outside world except through a number of deep tunnels,
which stretched out in all directions, each hundreds or thousands of miles long,
burrowing underneath whole continents and even oceans.
On this isolated island, society flourished at an extraordinary rate.
Science and the arts developed peacefully, never threatened by wars or epidemics,
remaining purposefully hidden to protect their wealth of knowledge from the calamities
that habitually plagued their brothers and sisters in the outside world.
But a tremendous force was soon to befall the earth, and even this utopia was doomed
to destruction if they stayed their place, perhaps a great flood or an invading force
of epic proportions. The exact reason is not known.
But the story tells that the people of the island escaped by moving their society into those tunnels
and rebuilding their civilization entirely underground,
no longer an island but a subterranean kingdom, leaving no trace on the surface
but the entrances to their tunnels, most caved in over thousands of years.
For the purposes of our investigation, this lost empire will be known as Agartha.
The hidden paths to Agartha that survived are still said to exist in the ancient ruin cities of India,
such as Ellora, Elephanta, and the Ajanta Caverns,
as well as in other countries, such as in the recess of Afghanistan in the Hindu Kush.
This legend of the island is particularly strange because if taken absolutely literally,
obviously there is no ocean north of the Himalayas but instead the Taklamakan and Gobi Deserts.
But if we took a trek into the arid, weather-bleached peaks of Everest, K2, or Kanchenjunga,
you may be advised not to trip over the countless fish bones, coral reef remnants, and fossils of sea lilies littered
across some of the tallest peaks. It’s a lesser-known fact that the mighty Himalayas,
often called the roof of the world, were once underwater, and that was the Tethys Sea,
before the massive geological event known as a continental drift took place,
and India collided into Eurasia, where it remains to this day.
But what about those tunnels that supposedly stretch across the world?
Why do parallel myths of gods or godlike people living in vast underground cities protected
from calamities above appear in traditions and cultures across multiple continents from Africa to America to Asia?
Tracing its roots back to the dawn of civilizations and perpetuated by the men who,
through eyewitness testimony, have claimed to have visited the lost civilization themselves
within the inner earth. I’m Mr. Mythos, and I welcome you to “Truth or Lore.”
Be sure to subscribe if you love the mysteries of history like I do. Every sub is a massive support
to the videos I make on my channel. The concept of Agartha is deceivingly simple,
an inner earth kingdom linked to every continent of the world by means of an extensive network of tunnels.
But our investigation is not an easy one. For such an expansive and archaic topic
that is typically skewed with conspiracy theories, the truth of a genuine inner earth civilization
that may still exist today remains in obscure documents,
the riddles of Buddhist lamas, and the lost teachings of a so-called Cult of Agartha,
all of which we’ll be exploring in this video, and, of course, tunnel mythologies across the globe.
But we may want to begin with a studious Frenchman by the name of Alexandre Saint-Yves
and the rather bizarre circumstances of how he came to be acquainted with the secret world,
accidentally letting it loose into the minds of Westerners, where the land of Agartha continues to be speculated upon
and even searched for to this day.
Alexandre Saint-Yves today is an enigmatic, almost unknown figure, but in the 19th century,
the writings and teachings of this respected philosopher and occultist paved the foundation
of French esoteric tradition, and this was largely due to his unquenchable curiosity
for the mysteries of the world. Having gained much wisdom learning ancient Hebrew
for his breakthrough work “Mission of the Jews,” Saint-Yves was keen to deepen his understanding
of the world and unlock more secrets through the even older language of Sanskrit,
ancestor to all modern Indo-European tongues, and in 1885, he hired a teacher.
Though a mutual connection, Saint-Yves was introduced to a man who called himself Prince Hardjji Scharipf,
an impressive scholar who supposedly left India after the Indian Rebellion of 1857
and set up shop in France as a bird seller and professor of the Oriental languages.
His true origins, however, are hazy. It is long thought that Hardjji was actually Afghan
and perhaps went under a pseudonym. Nonetheless, the surviving manuscripts of their lessons,
preserved in the Library of Sorbonne and written in exquisite script,
prove that he was highly learned in what he taught and likely nobility.
The mystery of Agartha was actually planted in the title of their very first lesson together.
First lesson in the Sanskrit Language to Monsieur Marquis Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, Paris,
this 8th of June 1885, by Teacher and Professor HS Bagwandass
of the Great Agartthian School. Saint-Yves intently asked his teacher,
“What was this Great Agartthian School?” Only to receive vague answers
and continue on with the lesson. But the French occultist didn’t give up easily.
Studying with Hardjji three times a week, several notebooks were compiled, including excerpts
from their informal conversations together written out in Sanskrit, which contained phrases such
as “elements for the Agartthian rite alone for the use of initiates,” “the Holy Land of Agartha,”
and “How was he able to leave Agartha?”
Over the course of their lessons, it becomes clear that Hardjji did talk at length
with Saint-Yves about some Land of Agartha and its mysterious protector, the Master of the Universe,
who was in many ways a spiritually and physically superior being to any other in the world.
Whatever Agartha truly was, this realm was supposed to preserve great wisdom
and ancient knowledge, most notably to Saint-Yves, a secret 22-letter script known as Vattanian,
which Hardjji told him went all the way back to the origins of civilization,
precisely 51,900 BC, the Confusion of the Languages,
and since then had been kept solely within the protected Libraries of Agartha.
If you watched my last video on Enochian, you’ll know that Vattanian is another example
of a proposed primordial or Adamic language. Hardjji could write this strange language
as fluently and beautifully as his French and Sanskrit. For Saint-Yves, who had long obsessed
over the secret and sacred roots of language, Hardjji wrote his student’s name
in Vattanian characters with a side note. “Here, according to your ardent desire, but really,
you are not yet sufficiently prepared for Vattanian. Slowly and surely.”
Very likely without his teacher’s knowledge, Saint-Yves had amassed extremely detailed notes
from his time with Hardjji Scharipf and compiled them into a book entitled “Mission of India in Europe:
Mission of Europe in Asia.” This work is, without a doubt,
the first thorough description of Agartha in the Western World. Pay close attention as these details will be important
when we cross compare with other sources. According to Saint-Yves,
the hidden land of Agartha lies deep below the surface of the earth,
somewhere in the mountain ranges of the Himalayas. This enormous underground complex of cities
and a population of millions is ruled by a sovereign pontiff known as the Brahatma
and his two colleagues, the Mahatma and the Mahanga,
upholding the highest of values in their authority. As protectors of knowledge,
the entire collected wisdom of the ages is enshrined in its massive stone libraries,
engraved in pillars in Vattanian script. He goes on to reveal that the Agartthian civilization
was once above ground but driven under and concealed from the rest of the world
at the onset of the Kali Yuga, the present dark age cycle of Hindu chronology,
around the year 3,200 BC.
Agartha is prophesied to reveal itself to the surface once again but only once the world
above attains spiritual balance in our governance.
Long has this hidden civilization enjoyed advancement of technology at a greater pace than our own,
including gas lighting, railways, and air travel.
And when describing one of their most prominent technologies, Saint-Yves accurately predicts fiberoptics
over one century before their invention. He describes, quote, “electrical pathways,
not made of steel but of flexible glass, which do not imprudently deplete the carbon reserves
of the planet nor saddle it with an iron framework, no less conducive to the spread of some cosmic plagues.”
Though Agarthian society flourishes largely in complete isolation,
they keep careful record of the discoveries of modern man, even from the remotest regions,
by means of a vast network of tunnels that span across Earth.
But despite this, Agarthians have evolved separately from the rest of the world for so many years
that they developed two tongues with which they are able to speak two languages simultaneously,
a detail Saint-Yves was particularly fond of sharing.
As an unwavering literalist, “Mission of India” was not intended
to be read as allegory or fantasy. The French occultist was dead serious
in every word he wrote and presented Agartha as a factual geographic place that
can be found if one knows where to look.
The lessons went on three times a week, and Hardjji would sign each of Saint-Yves’ notebook pages
with his monogram as a mark of approval. But as the pages and lessons continued,
his signature grew sketchier and more abstract with less and less care put into it
until his monogram was no more than a small cross. Finally, his mark disappeared for good,
and it was at this point that their Sanskrit lessons ended for reasons unknown.
At this same time, hundreds of copies of Saint-Yves’ “Mission of India” had been printed
and were ready to be distributed across France when he suddenly withdrew the book
and ordered every copy to be burned. The only remaining was a manuscript
in his personal possession, and this probably would’ve been lost to oblivion, but Saint-Yves, who had no children of his own,
left his belongings to his stepchildren, who then passed it on to the famous French occultist Dr. Gerard Encausse,
better known as Papus. When Papus published “Mission of India” in 1910,
he omitted several parts of the manuscript, which remain lost to this day.
There have been various theories put forward as to why Saint-Yves ordered the destruction
of his precious work. Some sources state that he acted under the orders
of the Great Agarthian School, as the wisdom revealed would not be understood
and publishing it would be like casting pearls before swine while others go as far as to say that he
was threatened with the dagger of the initiates if he were to reveal their secrets of Agartha.
Regardless of the true reason, the public revelation of Agartha was ultimately withheld during Saint-Yves’ life,
but there is evidence that he remained true to his belief in the lost civilization.
For example, he mentions Agartha and its three rulers by name in his epic poem from 1890,
“Joan of Arc Victorious.” In his conversations with psychical researcher Alfred Erny
in 1896, he stated many details of Agartha just as they appear in this book
and again insisted on their existence. Finally, he mentions Agartha in veiled terms
in the major work of his final years, “The Archeometer.”
Why did Alexandre Saint-Yves find this odd and outlandish idea of Agartha so irresistibly fascinating,
but more than that, genuinely believable? We can take a guess that during his previous period
of learning the Hebrew language and studying the Jewish tradition of Kabbalah for his work, “Mission of the Jews,”
he came across the ancient revelation that not only was the Garden of Eden an actual physical utopia located
on Earth but, more accurately, deep within the planet and could be reached by traveling through a cave.
Specifically, this cave is the real life location known as the Cave of the Patriarchs,
branded by Jews as the Cave of Machpelah and to Muslims as the Sanctuary of Abraham,
serving as one of the most holy pilgrimage sites in both religions.
Stated clearly in “The Zohar,” the foundational work of Jewish Kabbalah,
as well as in other ancient sources from the region between Israel and the Dead Sea,
the Garden of Eden should indeed be thought of as an inner earth kingdom.
The timely parallel of Eden and Agartha should not be surprising, though,
as one considers that the belief in another more holy world inside of our planet Earth is easily one
of the most consistent motifs in mythology. I can hardly begin to count the number of ancient cultures
which allude to the inner realms of Earth, if not an entire civilization, that resides there.
Just in North America, for instance, the Navajos believe that their ancestors emerged
from a subterranean world under the Navajo Mountains. The Aztecs feel that they were one of seven tribes
that came out of the caverns of Aztlan. The leaders of the Creek tribes state overtly
that the earth opened up in the West and the Creeks came out.
The Pawnee story of creation tells that all living things came from under the ground.
The Zuni believe that in the old days, all men lived in caves at the center of the earth.
And again with the tunnels, there is an old Apache legend about a long and deep cave in Arizona
which is said to lead to an inner earth kingdom inhabited by a mysterious tribe.
I could go on about the legends found in Central America, South America, and in other continents,
which I will expound upon later in this video, particularly with closer parallels to Agartha,
such as the lost city of Shambhala and especially those legends which describe a network of tunnels.
But for now, I will leave you with this quote from the book “Records of the Past,”
written by the influential Assyriologist Archibald Sayce.
“There is a dwelling which the gods created for the first human beings,
a dwelling in which they became great and increased in numbers and the location
of which is described in words exactly corresponding to those of Iranian, Indian, Chinese,
Eddaic, and Aztecan literature, namely, ‘in the center of the earth.'”
Saint-Yves’ secondhand account of Agartha probably would’ve been forgotten as a wild romp of the imagination
if it weren’t for a Polish scientist named Ferdinand Ossendowski who, in 1922,
published the book “Beasts, Men and Gods,” an account of his escape into Central Asia,
fleeing from the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution.
Dr. Ossendowski stated that during his travels in Mongolia,
there were many times when both men and beasts stopped in their tracks, silent and still,
often crouching, their attention fixated on the ground. He wrote, quote, “Earth and sky ceased breathing.
The wind did not blow and the sun did not move. All living beings in fear were involuntarily thrown
into prayer and waiting for their fate.” Eventually, he asked an old Mongol shepherd
who he had become acquainted with what was happening in these moments.
“Thus it has always been,” the shepherd explained, “whenever the King of the World in his underground palace
prays and searches out the destiny of all peoples on the earth.”
Though the shepherd did not give a name for this place, he stated that there live the “invisible rulers
of all pious people, the King of the World or Brahytma,
who can speak with God as I speak with you, and his two assistants, Mahytma,
knowing the purposes of future events, and Mahynga, ruling the causes of those events.
He knows all the forces in the world and reads all the souls of mankind and the great book of their destiny.”
This story stuck with Dr. Ossendowski throughout his journey, and he would frequently stop
to speak with Buddhist monks and lamas about traditions associated with caves, caverns,
and tunnels in the region. On multiple occasions, a name for the place was given:
the Kingdom of Agharti, which he himself dubbed the mystery of mysteries.
This underground source was said to channel miraculous power to Tibetan monks and the Dalai Lama in particular,
powers that outsiders could scarcely begin to appreciate. But still, there existed an even more powerful man
than the Dalai Lama, this man being the King of the World in Agharti.
His enormous power was such that he could destroy whole areas of the planet at will
if he chose to, and it could be equally harnessed, for instance, as means of propulsion
for vehicles of transport. Modern readers of Ossendowski point out
that his 1922 recounting is a possible prediction of nuclear energy, such as the atomic bomb
and nuclear-powered aircraft, a real technology today which is still considered too dangerous for civilian use.
There are many obvious parallels in Dr. Ossendowski’s account and that of Saint-Yves,
most notably the notion of a hidden subterranean kingdom named Agarthi and its triple spiritual authority known
as the Brahytma, Mahytma, and Mahynga, which are slightly altered spellings or pronunciations
of Saint-Yves’ Agarttha, Brahatma, Mahatma, and Mahanga.
At first glance, we may be inclined to think that Ossendowski simply plagiarized Saint-Yves,
who wrote “Mission of India” 36 years before Ossendowski’s account was published.
This would be the obvious case if not for a few factors. First, Dr. Ossendowski kept a daily journal
and even brought back many items from travels through Mongolia, thus providing evidence
that his journey actually occurred. Second, he was investigated by the French philosopher
and Vedic scholar Rene Guenon, who wrote that, quote, “he has affirmed to us that he had never read Saint-Yves,
whose name even was unknown to him before the French translation of his book,
and for our part, we have no reason to doubt his sincerity.” Guenon, however, was not satisfied with his investigation
and contacted his Eastern colleagues for more information, which he eventually compiled two years later
in his book “The King of the World,” which examined the legend of Agartha specifically.
Compellingly, Guenon stated that, “Independently of the evidence offered by Ossendowski,
we know through other sources that stories of this kind are widely current in Mongolia and throughout Central Asia,
and we can add that there is something similar in the traditions of most peoples.”
And he again affirmed that Dr. Ossendowski’s charge of plagiarism is wholly unfounded.
Over those two years of independent research, Guenon had been informed of a vast underground network
of caverns and tunnels, some running for hundreds of miles, which were thought to eventually lead
to a true center of world governance, a place described very much like the legend of the island,
surviving the ebb and flow of civilizations and catastrophes on earth by remaining hidden deep underground,
an impenetrable vault of all of history’s knowledge and wisdom.
Near the end of his book, Guenon debates the ontological question of whether Agartha is a true to life geographic location
or perhaps a simply metaphorical concept. Here, he brings up a point that is often associated
with Vajrayana Buddhism, which is that their concepts have both an inner and outer meaning.
The inner, of course implies that of deep understanding and spiritual attainment.
The outer, however, plain and simple, is the notion that it actually physically exists, and in this case,
a powerful and ancient kingdom hidden under the surface of the earth.
Even if we decide to discount the writings of Guenon, Ossendowski, and Saint-Yves, believe it or not,
they’re actually three independent sources for Agartha, proving that this concept and name
was not an invention of 19th-century Western occultists.
The first definite independent source is the manuscripts of Prince Hardjji Scharipf,
written before he met Saint-Yves, making them the only concrete evidence
that the term Agarttha comes from an Eastern origin. The second independent source is a book written
by the historian Louis Jacolliot in 1873,
12 years before Saint-Yves began his Sanskrit lessons,
making this the earliest verifiable mention of the subterranean kingdom.
Jacolliot, a magistrate in Chandannagar, South India for many years, had an insatiable thirst
for collecting sacred texts and tales from the East and sharing them with the Western world.
And in 1873, he wrote of a city of the sun known
as Asgartha, which was ruled by successive Brahmatras,
ancient Indian priest kings, until a conquest by an invading force threatened the land 10,000 years ago.
Two years later, in 1875, he expanded on his account of Asgartha,
for the first time implying that it was hidden underground. “This unknown world, of which no human power,
even now when the land above has been crushed under the Mongolian and European invasions,
could force a disclosure, is known as the temple of Asgartha.
Those who dwell there are possessed of great powers and have knowledge of all the world’s affairs.”
The third possible independent mention of Agartha may actually predate Jacolliot.
In 1871, the French philosopher and theologian Ernest Renan described Asgaard,
the city of the gods in Norse mythology, as being located in Central Asia.
This is not a confirmed reference, but it is definitely strange to read of a utopian land
so phonetically and geographically close to that which Jacolliot described just two years later.
These three writings of Hardjji, Jacolliot, and Renan
in tandem are evidence that Agartha itself is not just a Western fantasy but possibly a myth
that goes much further back in the East. And while the oldest myth in this video
may very well be that of the island, our next stop comes in second,
the legendary hidden city of Shambhala.
For millennia, belief in this inner earth utopia was at the core of nearly every Tibetan tradition,
and references to it can be found in various ancient texts, such as the Hindu “Vishnu Purana,”
where Shambhala is predicted to be the birthplace of Kalki, the prophesied tenth avatar of the god Vishnu.
But it’s most notably detailed in the Tibetan Kalachakra, the ancient and foundational Buddhist text
which was allegedly taken from Shambhala itself. Still, the magnitude of this kingdom’s influence only begins
to make itself known when we consider that it actually predates the Tibetan Buddhist religion
and is confirmed to go as far back as the extinct Zhangzhung culture,
as well as referred to in the Bon scriptures by the moniker Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring.
On that note, Shambhala is famously known as the land of a thousand names.
It has been called the Forbidden Land, the Land of White Waters, Radiant Spirits, and Living Fire,
and the Land of the Living Gods. The Chinese called it the Western Paradise of Xiwangmu.
To the old believers of Russia, it is known as Kingdom of Opona.
Hindus called it Aryavartha, The Land of the Worthy Ones,
and perhaps, it is one in the same as Saint-Yves’ Agartha.
According to Saint-Yves, the name Agartha means inaccessible
to violence in Vattanian. Shambhala is a Sanskrit word meaning place of peace.
This is but the first parallel between the two. The lines of distinction blur as we learn
that Shambhala is said to be deep within the Earth itself, a green valley with a beautiful city
where extraordinary people live, isolated from the outside world by their own choosing
and ruled by a benevolent and powerful king. It’s a place where love and wisdom reign
and where people are immune to suffering, want, and old age.
More so, Shambhala is always spoken of as a place which really exists.
The hidden kingdom is supposed to be situated in the mountainous regions of Eurasia,
typically thought of as a vast complex of inhabited caverns underneath the Himalayas.
Some legends say that the entrance to Shambhala is obscured within some abandoned monastery in a remote valley.
It may or may not be important to note that several writers throughout the years have stated
that the word Agartha appears in the 1774 scripture on Shambhala, written by the sixth Panchen Lama.
Unfortunately, this is difficult for me to verify due to the obscurity of the text.
Perhaps the most significant popularizer of the myth of Shambhala in the West
was the controversial Russian occultist and philosopher, Helena Blavatsky, who studied in Tibet under the tutelage
of Buddhist lamas from 1868 until late 1870
and eventually traveled through Asia in search of information about Shambhala and particularly its connection the legend
of the island north of the Himalayas. In notes and journals published after her death,
we find that Blavatsky had investigated a collection of old books preserved in the Chinese province
of modern-day Fujian, which she describes as the chief headquarters of the Chinese aboriginals.
There, many ancient texts regard the region of Tibet as the “great seat of occult learning in the archaic ages,”
inhabited by “teachers of light, sons of wisdom,” and brothers of the sun,” these terms referring
to those versed in the “esoteric doctrine taught by the residents of the sacred island.”
Blavatsky writes quite vividly, as follows: With respect to the traditions concerning this island
and apart from the historical records of it preserved in the Chinese and Tibetan sacred books,
the legend is alive to this day among the people of Tibet. The fair island is no more, but the country
where it once bloomed remains there still, and the spot is well known to some of the great teachers of the snowy mountains,
however much convulsed and changed its topography may have been by the awful cataclysm.
According to the general belief, it is situated in the northwest of Tibet.
Some place it within the unexplored central regions, inaccessible even to the fearless nomadic tribes.
Others hem it in between the range of the Gangdisri Mountains and the northern edge
of the Gobi Desert, south and north, and the more populated regions of Kunduz and Kashmir,
of the Gya-Pheling, British India, and China, west and east,
which affords to the curious mind a pretty large latitude to locate it in.
Others still place it between Namur-Nor and the Kuen-Lun Mountains, but one and all firmly believe
in Shambhala and speak of it as a fertile, fairy-like land,
once an island, now an oasis of incomparable beauty, the place of meeting of the inheritors
of the esoteric wisdom of the godlike inhabitants of the legendary island.”
And such an oasis is purported to remain underground. Thus, many have searched, but never has it been found.
The painter and archeologist Nicholas Roerich famously made a 15,000 mile 5-year trek that cost the lives
of five of his men in search of Shambhala. In his travel diary, Roerich wrote that the closest they
had gotten to the hidden kingdom was in the Altai Mountains in the valley of Uimon, when an old sage led them
to a small abandoned temple and revealed the entrance to a tunnel blockaded by carefully cut stones.
He assured them that Shambhala would reveal itself when the world was ready.
Until that day, humanity may only speculate with grandiose legends of what could be.
Going full circle, from all my research, I can deduce a few things, which I encourage you to debate in the comments,
first, that Agartha is likely another name for Shambhala,
and Shambhala itself is a direct reference to the legend of the island.
Second, based upon millennia of belief and centuries of testimony as well as the presence
of extensive and unexplored caverns in the region, if Agartha really exists, it’s likely located
beneath the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. Many hydrological tests carried out
by spelunking expeditions suggest the existence of large-scale caves below the surface,
but so far, the vast majority have remained inaccessible. And we know that this mountain range
was once the bed of an ocean floor. Third, that it is genuinely very strange
that in every continent of our planet, we find a multitude of legends telling of deep tunnels
that lead to a hidden underground godlike civilization. And with that, it’s now time to travel the world
and investigate a few of my personal favorites, all of which are true mysteries in of themselves.
We return back to the Cave of the Patriarchs, the supposed gateway to the inner earth realm
of the Garden of Eden. In this cave, many artifacts have been recovered
that are thousands of years old, though no one has been able to venture deeper than the first few chambers.
Like the Egyptian pyramids, it’s thought that there are many hidden chambers and passageways
that are yet to be discovered. The chambers that are currently known were found by removing boulders and blockages,
and one room was revealed by removing a specific square stone that marked differently than others near it.
Because of The Cave of the Patriarchs’ religious significance, access to the caves themselves
are almost always barred, even to archeologists, and it’s only been during times of political turmoil,
such as for a brief period after the Six-Day War, that we’ve been able to explore
and gather artifacts from the caves. There are only two known entrances, and both are sealed,
one by a metal grate which is then covered by a dome, and the other is blocked by a large stone.
We really have no idea how deep this cave goes.
In Mayan mythology, there is an underground realm known as Xibalba, the land that the sun goes down into,
which is inhabited by godlike people, their civilization supposedly vanishing
before recorded history. The Maya’s sacred narrative, the “Popol Vuh,”
describes actual structures and locations said to be part of Xibalba and places its entrance in Guatemala.
Today in Guatemala, an astonishing 500 miles of tunnels have been mapped
underneath the Mayan pyramid complex known as Tikal. There remains a mystery of how half a million Mayans
escaped the decimation of their culture, and modern researchers believe the key lies
in these tunnels. In Mexico, 11 subterranean stone temples
and an ancient underground road have been found, and in May of 2020, archeologists
discovered a secret tunnel 10 meters underneath the Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan
using sub-surface imaging technology. No one has been able to enter the tunnel yet
or even find an entrance, and its true extent and purpose remain unknown.
In Egypt, ancient historians made a number of references to a network of passages connecting the major pyramids,
the Sphinx, and other underground locations, in particular, a colossal underground city
of 3,000 chambers lavishly decorated, known in Egyptian legends as the City of the Gods.
In the 5th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote the following:
There I saw 12 palaces regularly disposed, which had communication with each other,
interspersed with terraces and arranged around 12 halls.
It is hard to believe they are the work of man. The walls are covered with carved figures,
and each court is exquisitely built of white marble and surrounded by a colonnade.
Near the corner where the labyrinth ends, there is a pyramid 240 feet in height
with great carved figures of animals on it and an underground passage by which it can be entered.
I was told very credibly that underground chambers and passages connected this pyramid
with the pyramids at Memphis. This claim was backed up 500 years later
with a matching account from the Greek historian Strabo. Yet, this City of the Gods is remains unfound.
It’s a fact that the Giza Plateau has an enormous underground system that is a combination
of manmade tunnels, natural caverns, and subterranean rivers, which have been continuously discovered
and mapped since 1978. And in ancient times, Giza was known as Rostau,
which literally translates to mouth of the passages, a direct reference to the entrance
of the Egyptian mythological underworld. Certainly, this is a strange one
but perhaps not as Agartthian as the next.
Early Indian religions, particularly Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, believed in an underground world known
as Patala, which translates literally to that which is below the feet.
This realm is described as being filled with splendid jewels, beautiful forests and lakes,
and lovely maidens. Sweet fragrances and music fill the air,
and the ground which one walks upon is often coated in gold.
Like Shambhala, Patala is believed to be a real place, a civilization comprised of realms and cities.
In the surface world, caves guarded by spiritual beings known as Asuras are believed to be entrances to Patala.
Perhaps most interestingly, the inhabitants of Patala are the Naga,
a race of semi-divine half-human half-serpent beings that can occasionally take human form.
Rituals devoted to the Naga have occurred throughout South Asia for at least 2,000 years.
They are most often described as wealthy, powerful, and proud beings, strongly associated with water, rivers,
lakes, and seas, and they are said to be guardians of treasure, both physical and intangible.
Beyond India, you will find a strong belief in the Naga in countries such as Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Every one of these cultures associate the Naga with a race of snake-like demigods who live underground,
some going as far as to assert that the Naga are the origins of their people.
We may even be able to argue that the ancient Chinese legends of dragons are references to the Naga as they look suspiciously similar
and are said to be wise and powerful creatures, the mentors of kings, and the creators of kingdoms.
According to Chinese mythology, most dragons live in the sky, but there are actually two races of dragons
that are earthbound, the Fuzanglong, which are underworld dragons who guard treasures,
and the De Long, which are earth dragons who live underground and control the flow of water,
two associations that exactly parallel the Naga. Because of this, we may hypothesize
that these two beings stem from the same mythological root,
and perhaps more profoundly, I think there is a fundamental connection
between Shambhala and the inner earth world of the Naga, Patala, and Agartha by association,
which I haven’t found discussed anywhere else during my extensive research into this subject.
From the most simple standpoint, both are described as immensely beautiful civilizations
which are located underground. In addition, they’re inhabited by a spiritually,
intellectually, and physically advanced race of beings who are guardians of treasure of many kinds,
one of those treasures being lost knowledge. Of course, both are supposedly located
around the same geographic region with access points said to be found in the caves of the Himalayan Mountains.
The legends for both realms, of course, are more ancient than written history can account for,
and their mythology seeps into the canon of both Hinduism and Buddhism,
Patala primarily being a Hindu concept and Shambhala being Buddhist.
It’s also fascinating to note that Saint-Yves, as I mentioned earlier, was fond of the detail
that the people of Agartha have two tongues with which they can speak two languages simultaneously.
When we consider the tongue of a snake, the Naga might actually be Agarthians.
We return to the time of those fateful lessons in Sanskrit, as there is one last mystery yet to ponder.
What I speak of is a twist in the story: the mysterious so-called Second Indian
of the Great Agartthian School that made contact with Alexandre Saint-Yves.
In 1935, Jean Reyor, an influential French esoteric scholar
and close associate of Rene Guenon, asserted that a restrictive sect of Hindus
had been searching for a suitable student of Western origin to imbue long forgotten doctrines
and had specifically chosen Saint-Yves as their ideal vessel.
They sent the Afghan, Prince Hardjji Scharipf, to transfer this knowledge.
Reyor then expanded the details in 1948, writing the following:
Later, at a date which we cannot specify precisely, Saint-Yves was in contact with a Hindu,
far more serious than Hardjji Scharipf, who originated from North India.
The evidence for this second Indian is corroborated in the analytic index to Saint-Yves’ own notebooks.
There, he refers to one of his notebooks as the “secret teaching of the Brahmins,
communicated to me by the Rishi Bagwandas-Raji-Shrin.”
Although the name consists almost entirely of honorifics, this is unquestionably the more serious guru
Jean Reyor wrote of. This specific notebook connects the 22 letters
of the Vattanian alphabet with Hebrew and Sanskrit root words.
Apparently, at some point, the project did not go as planned and the Second Indian determined Saint-Yves to be unworthy.
He and Hardjji halted their teachings and left Saint-Yves with an incomplete understanding of the doctrines
of which he dedicated the rest of his life to figuring out, as seen in the obsessive, speculative nature
of his final work, “The Archeometer.” But in the first place, why was Saint-Yves chosen
as an ideal vessel to introduce the ideas of Agartha to the West?
This is a question that has long been speculated. The leading theory is his breakthrough work,
“Mission of the Jews.” In the preface to the book, Saint-Yves wrote extensively
on a certain letter written by, in his words, “one of the affiliates of the great Fraternity
of the Himalayas.” He then translates the letter into French, calling it “a pure Orient pearl.”
The contents of this letter deal largely with India, science, mysticism, and cycles.
In fact, this letter was one of the now famous Mahatma Letters,
written by the Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and Morya. If we turn back the clock five years,
the occultist Helena Blavatsky, who we briefly discussed before, moved to India
where she met the Tibetan Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and Morya. They asked a favor of her.
The two teachers wanted to perform a seven-year experiment to see if the West would be receptive
of the wisdom the East had to offer. They chose two of Blavatsky’s associates as initiates,
the ornithologist Allan Octavian Hume and the Anglo-Indian newspaper editor Alfred Percy Sinnett.
The letters they wrote to them would become known as the Mahatma Letters.
Hume did not stick around for long, but Sinnett did. Sinnett was particularly valuable to the Mahatmas
as his job and connections as a prominent newspaper editor allowed him to publicize their philosophy.
However, over time, the Mahatmas became disillusioned with how Sinnett’s western prejudices
misconstrued their doctrines, and their correspondence with him ultimately ceased.
This same story may be told for Saint-Yves, as he was likely chosen for his public display
of sympathy toward Oriental doctrines, and his career as a writer and publicist were on the rise.
Thus, it’s unlikely to be pure luck that, in 1885,
a mutual connection introduced him to Prince Hardjji Scharipf, who then encouraged him to learn Sanskrit,
study the Bhagavad Gita, and eventually discover the secrets
of the Vattanian alphabet and Agartha, seemingly on his own.
Unfortunately, from the evidence we have available, it seems Saint-Yves became a little too enthusiastic
and carried away with the concepts. Similar to the newspaper editor Alfred Sinnett,
Alexandre Saint-Yves was ultimately chained to his prejudices.
Although he had the utmost respect for the East, Saint-Yves would write in his book, “Mission of India,”
that the world of Agartha “will be accessible for all mankind when Christianity lives up
to the commandments which were once drafted by Moses and God.”
And in his final work, “The Archeometer,” he stated that it would eventually be necessary for India
to be converted to a “Christian and Catholic Order.”
Jean Reyor stated the problem most clearly. “It seems that Westerners,
even when they manifest traditional tendencies, cannot resign themselves to not being superior
to the rest of the world. One can believe that such an attitude contributed
not a little to the preventing Saint-Yves from profiting fully from the Oriental teachings,
which he had occasion to receive.” It may forever be a mystery what revelations were withheld,
but it’s finally time to follow in the footsteps of the French occultist more than a century later
and draw whatever conclusions are possible in this truly mind-bending puzzle that is Agartha.
The Great Agartthian School of which Hardjji and the Second Indian hailed from
was likely an obscure and restricted group, which I’ve come to refer to as the Cult of Agartha.
We can deduce that they indeed existed but only arose to Western knowledge on two occasions,
that of Louis Jacolliot and Saint-Yves.
As for the strange Vattanian alphabet and language, this was clearly quite developed and not rudimentary
but still tied to secretive initiation practices.
Now for the big question. As to whether an inner earth kingdom such as Agartha,
Shambhala, or Patala actually exists, or perhaps the island that once sat in the ocean
of the Gobi or Taklamakan Desert, there is no hard evidence,
only a strange collection of legends that really make you wonder.
And considering that both deserts as well as the Himalayan Mountains are some of the most extreme
and uncharted places on Earth, there is no doubt that much is left below our feet to discover.
So now I turn the discussion to you. Is there any significance to the connected myths
across the globe? Can certain tunnels and caves truly lead you
to a different world? And does the East really hold secrets
that are beyond Western comprehension? Let your theories be known in the comments below,
and maybe we can solve these mysteries. As for now, thank you all so much for watching.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to my channel, hit the bell icon, and as always friends,
stay tuned for the next episode of “Truth or Lore.”
Special shout out to those who pledged to my Patreon and to my four diamond tier and up patrons,
Catpricorn Studios, Succubus GF, MadMaus, and Joshua Bowden.
