November 7, 2016: O Resident of Kailash! – Diary of a Traveling Monk – Volume 14, Chapter 11
Indradyumna Swami’s fascination with Tibet began in the 1960s. He was fifteen, and the hippie movement, with its unconventional philosophies and ways of life, had just taken hold in America. He often visited alternative bookstores in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, and one day found The Tibetan Book of the Dead in the Eastern Spirituality section. Maharaja read it for years until he found a deeper understanding of spiritual philosophy in Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad Gita As It Is.
Three years ago an opportunity to visit Tibet arose when several devotees invited him to join them on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, the sacred abode of Lord Siva, situated in the remote western part of the country, but their plans ended abruptly when the Chinese government refused their visa applications. Indradyumna Swami’s interest in Tibet was reignited last year when he met a Buddhist monk from Tibet in New Delhi. The monk was traveling to Bodh Gaya, the place of Lord Buddha’s enlightenment in Bihar, India. He had encountered many difficulties in his travels, and Indradyumna Swami did his best to help him. In the short time they were together, a close, almost mystical, bond arose between them, and as they separated the monk told Indradyumna Swami he would leave something of great spiritual value for him in his monastery in Tibet. The Swami wondered, of course, what the monk would leave for him, but he wondered even more how he would ever obtain it. Though he is used to packing his bags on a moment’s notice and traveling to wherever his service takes him, Tibet had never been within his realm.
Then a few months ago, Indradyumna Swami received a call from the group who had planned the original journey to Tibet. The Chinese government was again issuing visas for Mount Kailash. Would he be interested in going? Oh, would he ever! Thirteen of them were granted visas through an official Tibetan travel agency.
Maharaja’s motivations for visiting Tibet went beyond the fascination he had had as a teenager, and even beyond the desire to obtain the gift from the Tibetan monk. His objective, as a devotee of Lord Krsna, was to obtain the blessings of Lord Siva who resides with his consort, Parvati, atop mount Kailash. In Vaisnava teachings devotees learn not to approach the Lord directly, but through His pure devotees.
“My dear Partha,” Lord Krsna says to Arjuna in the Adi Purana, “one who claims to be My devotee is not so. Only a person who claims to be the devotee of My devotee is My devotee.”
And of all devotees of Krsna, Lord Siva is considered the best:
nimna-ganam yatha ganga
devanam acyuto yatha
vaisnavanam yatha sambhuh
purananam idam tatha
“Just as the Ganges is the greatest of all rivers, Lord Acyuta the supreme among deities and Lord Shambhu (Siva) the greatest of Vaisnavas, so Srimad-Bhagavatam is the greatest of all Puranas.” [ Srimad Bhagavatam 12.13.16 ]
Mount Kailash, 22,000 feet (6,705 meters) above sea level, is a special and sacred dhama because it is there that Siva meditates deeply on Lord Krishna and meets with great sages like Narada. It was at Mount Kailash that the Ganges descended with great force from the spiritual world to the material world and was caught by Lord Siva in his matted locks.
“The demigods observed Lord Śiva sitting on the summit of Kailāsa Hill with his wife, Bhavānī, for the auspicious development of the three worlds. He was being worshiped by great saintly persons desiring liberation. The demigods offered him their obeisances and prayers with great respect.” [ Srimad Bhagavatam 8.7.20 ]