People automatically presume that the word Ganj is derived from Arabic or Farsi, but it is not so . Ganj is Sanskrit. When we discuss Gyanganj we must keep in mind that it far too ancient for us to know its exact History which has been covered by the sands of time. If we manage to brush away the layers of sand, we begin to realise that it is ancient and the name Gyanganj is fairly recent.
Many of Shri Shri Baba’s scholarly devotees spend much time in the Benaras University Library but came up with no known references to the name. But what is so surprising in that fact? Gyanganj is a Sanskrit name and the Tibetans may refer to it as something else.
Let’s look at some sacred tirtha sthanas in Tibet-Manas-sarovar, Ravan Hrid or Rakshash tal, or Kailash; these places have their Tibetan names. Tso Mavang or Tso Mafang is what Manas-sarovar’s referred to, Ravan Hrid is Langak Tso, Gaurikunda is Thuki Jing Boo and Swayambhu himself is called Dem Chhok.
So it is safe to presume that Gyanganj has its very own Tibetan name by which it is popular in that area. In this day of Google mapping, it is probably possible to locate the physical or geographic Gyanganj, but only if we know its Tibetan name. The masters know it but it is not known by the masses.
My grandfather Shri Anath Nath Mukerji had told my father that none of the disciples that he knew had ever questioned Baba Vishuddhananda regarding the Tibetan name of Gyanganj. Maybe Mahamahopadhyay Gopinath Kaviraj had known but he had not made others privy to that information. There are still numerous manuscripts which lie in Benaras, some in Sanskrit, some in Bengali, written by the scholar, gathering dust, waiting for seeking eyes to study and translate them. Maybe this information lies hidden behind clouds of dust somewhere in Varanasi. Who knows?
My father has no knowledge about this. He was told that in all probability Gyanganj has no permanent, physical existence. It has a spiritual morphological field, but on certain occasions, it manifests into the physical for karmic reasons. After the job is done, the physical Gyanganj decimates and it exists only in the etheric and causal worlds.
Let me tell you a story about Col Olcott and Madame Blavatsky. The anecdote I am about to narrate can be found in OLD DAIRY LEAVES, Olcott’s autobiographical work.
Olcott witnessed something extraordinary in Bombay. It was the first time they arrived in the city on the shores of the Arabiaan Sea. One afternoon Madame and he hired a carriage and went to for some important work that she had to look into. They left the crow’s nest and travelled quite a distance and then Olcott was asked to wait as she entered into a picturesque garden. It looked like an ashram. Some gardeners were working in the garden; seeing her delay, Olcott accosted them to enquire after her. They continued working without responding to him, presumably as they did not understand his language. There was nothing much he could do at this point, so he waited. Eventually Madame returned and presented Col Olcott with a garland of heavenly flowers, saying that the head of the ashram gave it to him. When questioned about that place, Madame Blavatsky did not seem keen to elaborate and remained tight-lipped. This mysterious behaviour aroused a certain curiosity in the Colonel.
The next afternoon, Col Olcott decided to investigate about that mysterious place and as luck would have it, he found the same carriage that had taken them there. The driver seemed to remember exactly where they had gone and took the Col. After travelling for approximately the same amount of time; the driver stopped the carriage at a certain spot by the beach. Lo and behold! To the utter amazement of Col Olcott, there was no beautiful garden there, in fact there was nothing!!!! Olcott began questioning the driver who was sure that this was the exact point where they had come yesterday. But what of the garden, asked Olcott. What garden, for years we have known this place exactly as you see it!! There was never any garden or ashram here!!! The Colonel was simply flabbergasted!
Here we have to understand that this ashram and the garden did not really have any physical existence, it appeared from the etheric field DUE TO Blavatsky’s icchashakti and was made visible to the Col. Yes every substance, thing, person, animal- everything has a physical, etheric and causal existence; all things have these three bodies that vibrate at different frequencies and are as real as one another!!!
What is “real” anyway? The things we call real, like all matter we can observe, is made of atoms which themselves are made of 99.999999% SPACE.
If the atom is the size of a of a sports stadium, then the nucleus is the size of a fly in the center and the electrons are tiny tiny gnats circling the stadium.
We are vastly made of and bathing in an infinite field of energy that we call “empty” space even though we have found that space is not empty at all, it is filled with energy vibrating at incredibly high frequency: the quantum foam, the aether, the plenum, vacuum fluctuations, the zero point field, in an infinite holofractographic universe.
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”
― Nikola Tesla
That beauteous garden, that asram definitely did exist in the physical or sthula realm, but we can safely say that its location was not in Bombay, by the Arabian sea shore. It exists, say in Tibet and was made visible in Bombay, so taking these two places and their interim point and the space that lies in between were reduced to a singularity and it appeared in Bombay just because Master Koothumi had wanted to meet Blavatsky at that very point, so again it became visible due to the Master’s kriyashakti.
So this Ashram that Olcott saw was indeed in the sthula realm and so was the garland which was gifted to him. They existed with solid physical attributes. So this kriya of reducing space to nothingness and travelling through great distances in a moment is not unheard of, we have many instances of that.
In fact Ram Thakur, a maha-mahayogi had said that not only can they travel faster than lighting, they can appear in numerous places at the very same time due to kriyashakti.
Most of the times when Shri Shri Baba spoke of Gyanganj, the descriptions were mostly of the sthula version, but think not that these stories were anything short of extraordinary!
Gyanganj is far more awesome than your imagination’s painted picture! We can never grasp its sublime divine beauty as nothing on Earth can quite compare to it. Words fail to describe it; senses, tainted by vices can never hope to experience it. Only through kriya and sadhana can one hope to get an understanding of it.
I have people asking me online that do I know the location of Gyanganj? How can one get there?
Seriously people, do you think it is so easy to get the address of the sidhyashram, it is so easy to just get there???
NO IT IS NOT!!! AND NO I HAVE NO CLUE TO ITS GEOGRAPHICAL EXISTENCE!! I am also just a fellow seeker, not some high level sadhaka.
Shri Sai Kaka is a maha-siddha who in this day and age has travelled to Gyanganj. When I contacted him and went to meet him, it was like coming home.
I had tears flowing down my face as if after a long separation I had met someone very close to me. When he called me Amma, I felt the power of the feminine, and of course emotions in me stirred which had remained hitherto buried in my subconscious.
Anyway, Sai Kaka said that forget reaching Gyanganj, you will never hear of the siddhashram in your lifetime if you do not vibrate at a certain frequency. You will never know of the adepts that reside there, the divine work they do, how they guide humanity- yes my friends you will never know.
So you must have kripa of the masters and you must vibrate at a certain frequency which is why you are here, you are reading this and maybe, just maybe one day, you will be blessed by a master and who knows, you could be making your way to Gyanganj.
I certainly hope for that, but then again only hope will not get us there, we must perform our kriya, and in this ghor kalyug we must light the spiritual candle of our heart and perform tapas. Only then can we get there and it is safe to say that I have a long time before I can get there.
Although Sai Kaka told me, Why do you seek a key when there is no door??? Just walk through it, you do not need a normal key, an electronic key, you do not need to break open the door, because- THE DOOR DOES NOT EXIST, IT IS IN YOUR MIND!!! You do not know the kind of kripa you have, you are blessed by Baba Vishudhananda.
I quietly absorbed all this, felt empowered, but my dense understanding, my lack of awareness did not actually comprehend the immense meaning behind these statements.
Well I can only trust and hope that the kripa will slowly but surely clear the fog and I will be able to see the path, the path that leads me to their lotus feet, to Gyanganj.
I know my Grandfather Shri Anath Nath Mukerji is there and I cannot wait to meet him!!! Dadu I hope to see you someday when I am truly worthy, I hope to sit by you, perform my kriya and learn from the masters and spend my life doing what I am truly here for. All the rest of it is just superfluous, a waste of time.
But time must be wasted, I mean I must live, work and learn in samsara, to be able to transcend it. I must play out the role allotted to me to perfection, of course perfection does not exist. I am as I am and I will do what I can to the best of my ability. Kindness and compassion will be my religion, not hurting a soul will be my task, helping, aiding, soothing, comforting my fellow denizens of this planet and/or any other will be my focal point.
Through arts, through creativity, through my writing, through my images I hope to inspire and change lives, maybe not thousands, I am happy with one person at a time. I am happy to know that I can bring a smile, a tear drop, a thought in people’s minds. If even it be an idea, a seed of an idea that can sprout a beautiful plant of actions, which in turn can provide fruits, flowers, shade to a greater number of people.
So here I am sharing thoughts, maybe ranting bit, but in this repertoire I seek to plant something divine in your minds. You may have your own master, you may have your own religion, you may have your own thought processes, but eventually you too will realize that it’s all about awakening; of becoming the Christos. Your kundalini will arise, your chakras will open and your consciousness will be firmly rooted in the divine; it already is, but this time you will be aware, you will know the true potentiality of your own SELF.
Shri Shri Baba had told his disciples that when he was a boy of mere twelve and was taken to Gyanganj, he had travelled from Jalandar into the Himalayas to a place called Goga which was the last point where normal, but scanty transport was available. After that one had to walk all the way, nothing else is in sight, just snow and huge mountains loom large.
It usually takes a pilgrim about two months to traverse that terrain. In those days no food was available, only puffed rice and curd was given by the few people who lived in those frozen areas.
Snow is everywhere, and one’s feet keeps getting sunken into sludgy cold snow, so one is always wet at the feet. Pilgrims usually travel bare-foot and on the way pick up special slippers to walk on this terrain, they did not wear boots, at least not in those days. My grandfather always travelled everywhere with slippers, I just remembered.
These slippers cost three anas!
Gyanganj at all times is visited by numerous people- there are brahmacharis, sannyasis, yogis who have come for pilgrimages, Paramhamsas who reside there, Bhairavis, Bramhacharinis, and kumaris as well.
Although these people are allowed in, but to stay there is not allowed. You can only be a resident if you are there for a specific purpose.
The two main branches of study are Yoga and Science. Surya vigyan, Chandra vigyan and Vayu vigyan are some of the disciples taught in the area of Science.
So many high level adepts have devoted their lives to Science; numerous instruments and technological advancements are available to them by which they study medicine, they also find cures for incurable diseases. They develop medicine which has saved mankind for centuries.
In fact today we’re jumping joy at the thought of a 3D printer which can print everything, even body parts! But this has already happened in Gyanganj for centuries.
Shri Shri Baba speaks of a leprosy patient who had his limbs recreated in this contraption. Imagine 3D printing existed from when!!!
Amazing stuff, isn’t it???
There is another story of a Marwari gentleman who was Shri Shri Baba’s shishya. He had a sickly young daughter. Due to karmic clearance, this man and his daughter were sent to Gyanganj, where not only did she become well, she also became divinely beautiful, like the Devi Durga!!!
Another fantastic fact which must be told is about the age group of the yogis and yoginis who live there. The Paramhamsas and Bhairavis average age group is in the hundreds, some are 800 years, some 500 years and so on and so forth!!!
What of Bramharishi Mahatapa? Some say he is thousands of years old, no one can definitely know his age!!!
More interestingly, Mahatapababa’s Gurumata, known as Khyapaimai is still alive!!!
She lives in Tibet in a zone called Manohar tirtha and Baba Mahatapa lives close to her. You can imagine how old Khyapaimai is, but she looks like a young virgin of sixteen!!! Her abundant tresses are so plentiful that they cover her whole nubile form, she does not have the need for clothes.
Baba Mahatapa however, has decided to “grow OLD” meaning, he looks very aged, but can still move around. He has a gurubhai who still lives and is probably his age, this mahayogi is a Vaishnav and is called Bhavadev Goswami, who resides somewhere else in Tibet and continues his sadhana.
Baba Mahatapa has numerous disciples who have graduated to being a Paramhamsa. But in all of them, one names shines out like a bright Sun, he is the most powerful and has achieved much success in Yoga and Science, his name is Paramhamsa Bhriguram and he is well over 500 hundred years.
Shri Shri Baba learnt Yogshiksha under Bhriguram Paramhamsa and so he called him Dadagurudeva.
Baba Vishuddhananda learnt the Sciences from Paramhamsa Shyamananda, who was the faculty head of this department and maybe still is!
There is a surreal pathway created by one of the Sciences in Gyanganj which remains illuminated by the moonlight in the deep night; it’s said to be magnificent!!!
There is another name that stands out in these exemplary names and that is of Paramhamsa Abhayananda. He was seen twice by ordinary mortals, once at Bardhwan and the other time by the banks of Ganges in Calcutta, and at some point someone managed to click an image of him; he looks like swayam jatadhari Maheshwar in Samadhi. That image has been published in some books and ordinary folks like us can just gaze in awe at that mahayogi for we cannot hope to fathom more.
Paramhamsa Nimananda Swami and Paramhamsa Umananda Swami, two other great adepts residing at Gyanganj have also been spotted by many of Baba’s disciples.
It was Shri Nimananda Swami who ages ago had cured Baba Vishuddhananda from the agony inflicted by a bite from a rabid dog. Baba was merely twelve years of age when this happened and two years later Swamiji returned to take Shri Shri Baba to Vindyachal and did so from Dhaka in one night!!! Unbelievable, yes, but true!!!
There is another Paramhamsa from Gyanganj and he has a special History, his name is Gyananda or Kutupananda. He is the master of Madame Blavatsky and is called Koothumi baba. This fact has indeed been verified by Shri Shri Paramhamsa Vishuddhananda.