Conqueror from Shambhala
City of peace where everyone is enlightened! Does such a place exist?
The Kalachakra system is clearly related to the ancient Vedic tradition in India which existed long before Buddhism appeared.
The Kalachakra refers to many different traditions, for example the Hindu; Saivite, Samkya, Vaishnava, the Vedas, Upanisads and Puranas traditions, but also Jainism.
For example, the Kalachakra mandala includes deities which are equally accepted by Hindus, Jainas and Buddhists.
Kalacakra means “time-wheel” or “time-cycles”. It refers both to a Tantric deity of Vajrayana Buddhism and to the philosophies and meditation practices contained within the Kalachakra Tantra and its many commentaries.
In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala is a mystical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the snowpeaks of the Himalayas.
It is mentioned in various ancient texts, including the Kalachakra and the ancient texts of the Zhang Zhung culture which pre-dated Tibetan Buddhism in western Tibet.
The Bön scriptures speak of a closely-related land called Olmolungring.
Shambhala is a Sanskrit term meaning “place of peace/tranquility/happiness”. Shakyamuni Buddha is said to have taught the Kalachakra tantra on request of King Suchandra of Shambhala; the teachings are also said to be preserved there.
Shambhala is believed to be a society where all the inhabitants are enlightened centered by a capital city called Kalapa.
Shambhala is ruled over by a Kulika King, a benevolent monarch who upholds the integrity of the Kalachakra tantra. Some religious scholars believe that this figure developed out of the myth of the Hindu conqueror Kalki.
The Kalachakra prophesizes that when the world declines into war and greed, and all is lost, the twenty-fifth Kulika king will emerge from Shambhala with a huge army to vanquish the corrupt and usher in a worldwide Golden Age.
Using calculations from the Kalachakra Tantra, most scholars put this date at 2424 AD.
According to the Kalachakra Tantra, King Suchandra of the northeastern Indian Kingdom of Shambhala requested teaching from the Buddha that would allow him to practice the dharma without renouncing his worldly enjoyments and responsibilities.
In response to his request, the Buddha taught the first Kalachakra root tantra in Dhanyakataka (present day Amaravati), a small town in Andhra Pradesh in southeastern India, supposedly bilocating (appearing in two places at once) at the same time as he was also delivering the Prajnaparamita sutras at Vulture Peak Mountain in Bihar..
By practicing the Kalachakra the whole of Shambhala became an enlightened society, with Suchandra as the ruler. He was followed by an additional six Dharmarajas (Truth Kings).
His eighth successor, Manjushrikirti, was the first to be known as the Kulika King, to be followed by 24 more leading up to the present day.After the teachings, suchandra wrote them down and composed the ‘Mula’ or ‘Root Text’ of the Kalachakra tantra, comprising 12,000 verses. However, this text has never reached us.
The 7 Dharmarajas
2) Devendra - Fond of Sentient Beings
3) [Tejasvin]]/Taji - Bearer of the Dharma Wheel and the Auspicious Conch
4) Chandradatta/Somadatta - Lord of Speakers
5) Deveshvara/Sureshvara - Destroyer of the City of Delusion
6) Chitrarupa/Vishvamurti - Conqueror of False Leaders, Holding a Lotus
7) Devesha/Sureshana - Cutter of Delusion, Uprooter of Karma and Klesha
The most recent 25 of the 32 Kings of Shambhala are known as Kulika Kings. [
[Kulika]] means “Holder of the Castes” or “Wisdom Holders.”
1) Manjushrikirti or Manjughoshikirti - He converted a group of non-Buddhist Brahman priests of Shambhala to Buddhism and gave them the Kalachakra initiation, thereby uniting all inhabitants into one “vajra caste,” or family of tantric practitioners.
He said to have predicted the coming of “barbarian Dharma” after 800 years (about 600 CE), which some observers take to be Islam.
The Sanskrit term translated into English as “barbarian” was used to refer to all non-Buddhists.
2) Pundarika - King Pundarika wrote a commentary called “Vimalaprabha” (Skt.) or “Stainless Light.”
This text, together with the Sri Kalachakra, is the source text of the Kalachakra system as it is now practiced. Other practice texts are commentaries on these two.
The Dalai Lamas are said to be incarnations of Pundarika.
3) Bhadra - One who Rules by the Thousand-spoked Wheel
4) Vijaya - Attractor of Wealth, Victorious in War
5) Mitrabhadra Sumitra - Integrator of Method and Wisdom, Victorious over Samsara
6) Ratnapani/Raktapani - Holder of the Blissful Vajra and Bell
7) Vishnugupta - Smiling Holder of the Trident and Rosary
8) Suryakirti/Arkakirti - Annihilator of Wild Demons
9) Subhadra- Holder of the Sword and Shield
10) Samudra Vijaya - Annihilator of all types of Devils
11) Durjaya/Aja - Who binds with Unbreakable Iron Chains
12) Surya/Suryapada - All-Pervading, Radiant Jewel Light
13) Chitrarupa/Vishvarupa - Holder of the Vajra Prod and Noose
14) Shashiprabha - Lord of Secret Mantras, Holder of the Wheel and Conch
15) Ananta, Thaya - Holder of the Mallet that Crushes False Ideas
16) Shripaala or Parthiva- Holder of the Cleaver that Cuts the Bonds of Ignorance
17) Shripala - Annihilator of the Host of Demons
18) Singha- Who Stuns the Elephant with his Vajra
19) Vikranta- Subduer of the Mass of Foes, the Inner and Outer Classes of Devils
20) Mahabala - Tamer of all False Leaders by Means of the Sound of Mantra
21) Aniruddha - Who Draws and Binds the Entire Three Worlds.
Aniruddha, the present Kalika king, was prophesied to rule in a time when Vajrayana Buddhism and the Kalachakra is nearly extinguished.
22) Narasingha - Ruling by the Wheel, Holding the Conch
23) Maheshvara - Victorious over the Armies of Demons
24) Anantavijaya or Anantajaya- Holder of the vajra and Bell
25) Raudra Chakrin, or Rudrin Chakrin - Forceful Wheel Holder.
The Kalika king prophesied to appear to humans all over the world in 2424 to defeat the degenerate world rulers, establishing a planet-wide Golden Age. He is the last king prophesied in the Kalachakra.
“The cakravartin shall come out at the end of the age, from the city the gods fashioned on mount Kailasha.
He shall smite the barbarians in battle with his own four-division army, on the entire surface of the earth. … Raudra Kalki shall smite Krinmati …. then they shall go to the city the gods fashioned on Mount Kailasha where Cakri lives.
At that time, all the families of men on the earth shall be fulfilled with dharma, pleasure and wealth.
Grain shall grow in the wild and the trees shall bow with fruit - these things will occur. “
The Dalai Lamas are said to be incarnations of the second Kulika, Pundarika.
The Second, Seventh and Fourteenth (present) Dalai Lamas are said to have particularly strong affinities to the Kulika kings, and the present Dalai Lama has offered the Kalachakra initiation thirty times thus far in his lifetime.
The Kalachakra tradition revolves around the concept of time and cycles: from the cycles of the planets, to the cycles of human breathing, it teaches the practice of controlling the most subtle energies within one’s body on the path to enlightenment
As with many concepts there are various meanings to kalachakra. one such concept understands Shambhala to exist as a physical place, although only individuals with the appropriate karma can reach it and experience it as such.
The 14th Dalai Lama says that Shambhala is not an ordinary country: “Although those with special affiliation may actually be able to go there through their karmic connection, nevertheless it is not a physical place that we can actually find.
There are various ideas about where this society is located, but it is often placed in central Asia, north or west of Tibet.
The other concept is that Shambhala represents in terms of one’s own body and mind.
The Abridged Kalachakra Tantra warns against a future invasion by a non-Indic people who will follow the line of prophets: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, and Mahdi (the Islamic messiah).
To meet the threat, the king of Shambhala united the Hindus and Buddhists into one caste with the Kalachakra initiation.
As a united society, the people of Shambhala would then be able to defeat the invading forces and establishing a new golden age.
The invaders that Kalachakra warns against, and which the forces of Shambhala will defeat, have historical, physiological, and meditative levels of meaning.
In the Kalachakra call for unity, Buddhism was merely responding in kind to the established Hindu and Muslim policy of including followers of other religions under its umbrella.
The Hindus already asserted Buddha as the ninth avatar of Vishnu, thus rendering all Buddhists good Hindus.
Kalachakra, in turn, now identified the first eight avatars as emanations of the Buddha, thus rendering all Hindus good Buddhists.
According to this concept, the invaders refer to followers of late tenth-century messianic forms of Islam.
Mahdi will unite and rule the Islamic world, restore Islamic purity, and convert the entire world to Islam before the coming of Dajjal (the Muslim version of the Anti-christ), and the end of the world.
Both Hindus and Buddhists accepted Kalki as the messiah predicted to defeat a group of non-Indic invaders and to usher in a new golden age. Therefore, the Buddhist king of Shambhala argued that the Hindus could also join the Buddhists in accepting his successor, twenty-five generations in the future, as the Kalki predicted in their own scriptures to be born in Shambhala as Vishnu’s tenth and final avatar.
In the alternative concept of thought, the invaders represent the forces of unawareness (ignorance), disturbing emotions, destructive behavior, and the negative karmic forces coming from them.
The forces of Shambhala represent the resulting blissful realization of the true nature of reality (voidness) with the clear light mind, which then has the power to overcome the ignorance that threatens to bring suffering to everyone. __________________
Fearlessness means faith in God: faith in His protection, His justice, His wisdom, His mercy, His Love, and His omnipresence… To be fit for Self-realization, man must be fearless.— Paramahansa Yogananda
