The Tantric flew over to Mt. Kailash-Manasarovar

In 1982, our Kailash-Manasarovar Yatra was reopened and I was the oldest, 52, leading member of the First Team that ventured after the closer of the yatra in 1962. About twenty persons were selected from different regions and from different professions including two MPs, two women, two media men, and two intelligent spies in the guise of school teachers. But the most impressive was a big-belly overgrown Tantrik in the orange robe wearing many kinds of necklaces, and huge diamond rings blessed by Tirupati to ward off evils from unknown forces.

During the first organization meeting at the Foreign Ministry I noticed the outgrown and outshine Tantrik totally misfit and ill-fit to undertake the arduous high mountain journey on foot. Our official coordinator was a young IFS officer Deb Mukherjee who later became New Delhi’s Ambassador in Kathmandu. I pointed out totally hopeless physics of the Tantrik to undertake the journey. All the yatris were required to carry a medical fitness certificate attested by a Magistrate. And the round belly man had all necessary affidavits including doctor’s fitness certificate attested by a First Class Magistrate in Mumbai. That declared him medically fit to take the high mountain Yatra. If we debarred him that would tantamount to insult to the court. So, we must carry the bag….

Up northern most point of the present Uttaranachal, is the last small town Tava Ghat. Upto that place we reached by bus and halted the first night at 10,000’ (?) During the night discussion I pointed out to the Tantric how difficult the trekking terrain would be and enquired if he had any practice in mountain hiking. He assured us of his spiritual powers that with his “mantra-tantric vidya” he could make himself light weight and suppress the gravitational force. In such a state he could gravitate upwards ( a kind of flying in the air) and overcome any high mountain problems by walking on the thin high mountain air.

I tried to asses his intellectual and academic level of knowledge but found that he was simply an illiterate dodo. But in his rich appearance ( orange silk clothes) he posed to perform mysterious “Jantar-Mantar” magical tricks. He had collected good money from rich business men ‘marwaris’ in Bombay with a promise that he would perform some spiritual ‘pujas’ for them and for their loved ones at the foot of Lord Shiva’s abode at Mt. Kailash.

Whereas the most believers in our Yatra group, remained spell bound to his totally nonsensical claims I rejected to them as shibboleth.. He showed his drunken red eyes and boasted: “ so you don’t believe me? I will show you my tantric powers at night. Warn you, you can get hurt…”
“You know, I don’t believe in stupid ‘spiritual powers’ and you have none. If you at night do any mischief – with this stick I would beat you into pulps… You are just stupid fat pretender. You will not be able to reach the first post on foot…” I rebuked the Tantric and reported to our official Deb Mukherji.

Deb was candid that officially we can not stop him. But if he could not walk, progress of the yatra would not be hampered by any person’s inability. We could leave him behind

The next day, as we left the camp after breakfast, within a short distance we received hundreds of local villagers welcoming us with song and garlands. We descent some 300 yards, and then climb began to Narayan Ashram. All of us felt the first breeze of the Himalaya as we moved upwards scaling narrow path of the hillside. I was leading the team and had gone ahead to the high ground of the next camp when a local boy brought the news that the Tantric Maharaj was flat on the ground below –nowhere near any camp facility. We organized a local team to carry a wooden-plank ( charpoy) down and eight men in turn carried the fat Tantrik up to the Ashram camp.
By now, our Border Security Force arrived to help and escort the yatris to the Tibetan border up to the no-men’s land. The next day as we moved on after the breakfast, the Tantric was still in his samadhi- not dead but sleep.

After 25 days, on our return journey, the men of our Border Security Force
told us that the Tantric stayed on at the camp for three days and practicing the tantra-mantra-jap and puja, claiming that he would one morning fly over the Himalayan peaks and land at Mt. Kailash – long before anyone of us. The forth day, however, early morning the great tantric quietly disappeared from the camp.

There is no truth in such claims to “spiritual powers”. At best it is make-believe subjective dysfunctional state of the mind. But the Tantric must have gone to his rich flock of believers claiming that he flew over the cuckoo’s nest and did parikrama of the Kailash-ji, at 18,500’ and flew back before the entire yatra team could say Hi to our beloved Shiva and Parvati. I recall a similar incident in California in 1960s. Those were Hippy-culture years in America. A young white student was turned -on and fell under the spell of an Indian Tantric. After having a lot of sex orgies with the masochistic guru, the boy believed that he had attained the super natural powers to stop a powerful engine. One day to test his belief system, he performed night jagaran, with all the necessary tantric tricks of janar-manar-puja and with shouting “Hum, hum phut” jumped in front of the moving train and attained Nirvanic mukti.