November 2007

The beautiful photos of Uttar Kashi—the ‘Valley of the Saints’ in the Himalayan mountains of India, remind us that Uttar Kashi holds precious significance in the history of Maharishi’s worldwide Movement.

It was at Uttar Kashi, Maharishi said, that at a young age his Master Guru Dev, His Divinity Brahmananda Saraswati, Jagad Guru Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, ‘surrendered himself for being initiated into the mysterious realms of the spirit, whose real key practices are attainable not from books and treatises, but only from perfect spiritual Masters’. Maharishi said of Guru Dev: ‘After some time, with the permission and order of his Master, he entered a cave at Uttar Kashi with a resolve not to come out before he had realized the Light Supreme,’ and that: ‘Soon he arrived at the heatless, smokeless, effulgence of the Self and realized the divine truth, Unity Consciousness.’

It was in the solitude of the hidden mountain ranges and valleys of India that the basis of the present revival of Pure Knowledge was laid. The reversal of the trends of time that ushered in the Age of Enlightenment was prepared in the silent sanctuaries of Guru Dev’s daily routine, deep in the forests and caves of India. It was that innocent state of life in pure silence which became the light of Pure Knowledge to guide the world for all time to come.

In 1953 Maharishi retired to the caves of Uttar Kashi. Several years later, the ocean of his silence began to stir with a faint thought. That innocent functioning of Nature moved Maharishi to leave his secluded life in Uttar Kashi and to travel to southern India, with no other thought or plan in his mind than simply to follow the whisper of Nature to go to Rameshvaram. In this silent move—gentle, gradual, and automatic— was contained the blueprint of a new age, a royal and divine civilization—Heaven on Earth for all mankind.

In 2003, in a press conference aired on Maharishi Channel, Maharishi answered questions about the Himalayas from a journalist in Kerala.

Maharishi said: ‘There are about 100 Purusha practising the Transcendental Meditation Programme [in the vicinity of Uttar Kashi], living Purusha life, absolute Brahmacharya Purusha life. They are gaining command over Prakriti. Prakriti is the Daivi Shakti, which functions for the individual as the individual Purusha value inside, witnessing value, self-referral value, Purusha value increases in daily life.

‘Himalayas will always be the guiding light of purity, of affluence, of gaining authority in Nature. Uttar Kashi has been a place where Guru Dev has been, and Guru Dev's Guru Dev has been. It's a fountainhead of Pure Knowledge. One cannot sing the glory of the Himalayas enough.

‘And throughout the ages, Vedic Literature is full of the glory of the Himalayas: Gangotri, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Rishikesh. Beautiful, beautiful fortune of the people takes them on pilgrimage year after year, thousands of the people. They have a glimpse. They go there to breathe a few breaths of peace and happiness and satisfaction. And they rise in Atma Vigyan, in Brahma Vigyan.

‘It's a very fortunate thing to be going to the Himalayas from time to time. It's a different world.

‘One cannot describe in words. Yatho vacho nivartante/Tad dharma parama mama—“That is my abode, says the Lord, from where speech returns.

'Sahasrakshara parame vyoman—Transcendental is that field. Shivam shantam advaitam chaturtam manyante, sa Atma, sa vigyeya—That is the Self, the Atma, which is absolute silence, Shivato, which is the source of all dynamism.

‘It's a very complete culture of life for supreme state of evolution—Chetana, Unity Consciousness.

‘Something that is real to life is housed in the Himalayan heights—peace eternal. And peace eternal is the basis of all possible dynamism in human awareness. That is why the concept is: Yogasthah kurukarmani—Established in Yog, established in Unity Consciousness, perform action.’