The Underground Kingdom (F. Ossendowski, "Beasts, Men, Gods")

(Taken from FA Ossendowski, «Beasts, Men, Gods: the mystery of the King of the World", Postal Code. XLVI)

Mongolia, with its bare and terrible mountains, its boundless plains scattered with the lost bones of the ancestors, gave birth to the Mystery. His people, frightened by the stormy passions of Nature or lulled by his death-like peace, feel the mystery of him. His "Red" and "Yellow" Lamas they preserve and make its mystery poetic. The Popes of Lhasa and Urga know it and possess it. I met the "Mystery of Mysteries" for the first time while traveling through Central Asia, and I cannot give it any other name. At first I did not give it much attention and I did not give it the importance that I subsequently realized it deserved, I only realized it after I had analyzed and compared many sporadic, vague and often contradictory clues. The elders on the bank of the Amyl River told me an ancient legend according to which a certain Mongolian tribe in their escape from the pretensions of Genghis Khan had hidden in an underground country. Later a Soyot who came from near the lake of Nogan Kul showed me the smoking door which serves as the entrance to the "Kingdom of Agharti". Through this door a hunter in the past had entered the Kingdom and, after his return, began to tell what he had seen there. The Lamas cut off his tongue to prevent him from telling the Mystery of Mysteries. Reaching old age, he returned to the entrance of this cave and disappeared into the underground kingdom, the memory of which had adorned and illuminated his nomadic heart. I received more realistic information on this from Hutuktu Jelyb Djamsrap in Narabanchi Kure. He told me the story of the semi-realistic arrival of the mighty King of the World from the underworld, of his appearance, his miracles and his prophecies; and only then did I begin to understand that in that legend, hypnosis or mass vision, whatever it was, hides not only the mystery but a realistic and powerful force capable of influencing the course of political life in Asia. Since that time I have started to carry out some investigations. Prince Chultun Beyli's favorite Gelong Lama and the prince himself gave me an account of the underground kingdom.

“Everything in the world,” said the Gelong, “is constantly in a state of change and transition: peoples, science, religions, laws and customs. How many great empires and splendid cultures have perished! What remains unchanged is only Evil, the instrument of the Evil Spirits. More than 60 years ago, a Saint disappeared with a whole tribe of people underground and never reappeared again on the surface of the earth. Many people, however, have since visited this kingdom, Sakkia Mouni, Undur Gheghen, Paspa, Khan Baber, and others. Nobody knows where this place is. Some say in Afghanistan, others in India. All the people there are protected against Evil and the crimes do not lie within its borders. The science in that place has been developed with peace of mind and nothing is threatened by destruction. The underground people have reached the heights of knowledge. Today it is a great kingdom, with millions of people with the King of the World as their ruler. He knows all the forces of the world and reads all the souls of mankind and the great book of their destiny. Invisibly he rules eight hundred million men on the surface of the earth and they will carry out every order of him ».

Prince Chultun Beyli added: “This kingdom is Agharti. It develops through a planetary network of underground tunnels. I have heard an educated China Lama report to Bogdo Khan that all of America's underground caves are inhabited by ancient people who have disappeared underground. Traces of them are still found on the surface of the earth. These people and subterranean regions are ruled by rulers obedient to the King of the World. There is nothing astonishing in all of this. You know that in the two largest oceans of the East and the West there were previously two continents. They disappeared under the waters, but the peoples who inhabited them moved to the underground kingdom. In the underground caves there is a particular light that allows the growth of cereals and vegetables and a long life without disease for people. There are many different peoples and many different tribes. An old Buddhist Brahman in Nepal was carrying out the will of the Gods in visiting the ancient realm of Genghis Khan - Siam - where he met a fisherman who ordered him to take his place in his boat and sail with him on the sea. On the third day they reached an island where they met a people with two languages ​​who could speak separately in different languages. They showed him strange and peculiar animals, turtles with sixteen legs and one eye, huge snakes with very tasty flesh and toothed birds that caught fish for their masters in the sea. These people told him he came from the underground realm and described certain parts of the world underground to him. '

Lama Turgut traveling with me from Urga to Peking gave me further details. “The capital of Agharti is surrounded by cities of high priests and scientists. Remember Lhasa, where the Dalai Lama's palace, the Potala, is the top of a mountain covered with monasteries and temples. The throne of the King of the World is surrounded by millions of Gods incarnate: they are the sacred Panditas. The palace itself is surrounded by the palaces of Goro, which possesses all the visible and invisible forces of earth, hell and heaven and which can do everything for the life and death of man. If our insane humanity were to wage a war against them, they would be able to blow up the entire surface of our planet and turn it into a desert. They can drain the seas, turn lands into oceans, and reduce mountains to the sand of deserts. By order of them trees, grasses and bushes can be made to grow; old and weak men can become young and courageous; and the dead can be resurrected. In strange machines unknown to us they race through the narrow crevices within our planet. Some Indian Brahmans and Tibetan Dalai Lamas, during their strenuous ascents to the peaks of mountains that no other human foot had ever trod, found there inscriptions engraved on the rocks, footprints in the snow and traces of wheels. Blessed Sakkia Mouni found on the top of a mountain some stone tablets with inscribed words that he understood only in his old age and later entered the Kingdom of Agharti, from which he brought back crumbs of the sacred teaching preserved in his memory of him. There in marvelous crystal palaces live the invisible rulers of all pious people, the King of the World or Brahytma, who can speak to God as I speak to you, and his two assistants, Mahytma, who knows the purpose of future events, and Mahynga, who governs the causes of these events ».

«The holy Panditas study the world and all its forces. Sometimes the wisest among them gather and send envoys to that place where human eyes have never penetrated. This is described by the Tashi Lama who lived 850 years ago. The higher Panditas place their hands on the eyes and at the base of the brains of the youngest and force them into a deep sleep, wash their bodies with an infusion of herbs and make them immune to pain and harder than stones, envelop them in magical cloths, they tie them and then pray to the Great God. The petrified youths lie with their eyes and ears open and alert, they see, hear and remember everything. Then a Goro approaches and keeps his gaze fixed on them for a long time. Very slowly the bodies themselves rise from the ground and disappear. The Goro sits down and stares with motionless eyes towards the place where he sent them. Invisible threads unite them to his will. Some of them turn among the stars, observe their manifestations, their unknown peoples, their life and their laws; they listen to their speeches, they read their books, they understand their fortunes and misfortunes, their holiness and sins, their piety and evil. Some mingle with the flame and see the fiery creature, swift and ferocious, eternally fighting, melting and hammering metals in the depths of the planets, boiling water for geysers and springs, melting rocks and erupting molten lava on the surface of the earth through openings in the mountains. Others run together with the ever elusive, infinitely small, transparent creatures of the air and penetrate into the mysteries of their existence and into the finality of their life. Others glide into the depths of the seas and observe the kingdom of the wise creatures of water, which transport and spread the right heat over the whole earth, ruling the winds, waves and storms ... In Erdeni Dzu once lived a Pandita Hutuktu, who he had come from Agharti. On his deathbed, he recounted the time when he lived according to the will of the Goro on a red star in the East, floated in the ice-covered ocean and flew among the stormy fires in the depths of the earth. "

These are the tales I heard in the yurts of the Mongol princes and in the Lamaite monasteries. These stories were all told in a solemn tone that forbade all discussion and doubt.