In Shree Ramayana, we have several scenes that are suggestive of the existence of inner areas of the Earth’s crust as well as a hollow cavity. For example, after Shrimati Sitadevi had been kidnapped by Ravana, Shree Laksman swore to Rama that he would pursue the rascal even if Lakshman had to chase him to the “dark caverns of the Earth”. In chapter 8 of Kishkindya, Rama proves his ability to Sugriva by discharging an arrow which “pierced through seven palms, a rock, and the INNERMOST region of the Earth and in a minute again came back to the quiver”. to an ocean,??? and then on into the hollow cavity of the planet, translated by Makhanlal Sen as subterranean regions???, following the chariot of Maharaj Bhagirath. Now the first comment by Lakshman is not so revealing, really; we already know that huge caverns and openings exist within the Earth.
Underneath the midwestern United States, there is a huge aquifer, for example, which lies underneath various states. The second comment, too, seems to suggest not solid rock within the Earth but rather a cavern worlds. Finally, the flow of the Ganges into the hollow earth from an ocean smack of the opening which the Brahmanda Purana makes mention of, situated in a Northern ocean, and into which the Sons of Sagara entered with great delight.???
Actually, the Puranas make several comments in relation to the hollow portion of the Earth in various narrations. Another narration tells us that, at the end of Kali Yuga, the Kalki Avatar will be born in the best of Brahmin families of Shambhalla- a city identified in both Puranic as well as Tibetan lore as a city in the hollow Earth– and that He will annihilate the miscreants on the entire surface of the globe. Afterward, the general Puranic version goes that Vedic culture will be re-established on the surface by the civilization within, to begin another cycle of yugas, ages.
Well, there shouldn’t be such a city on the surface of the planet at the end of the age of Kali (432,000 years) which could support brahmin families. The age of Kali is a part of the Puranic cycle of destruction and renovation, and by the end of the Kali age, the world is described as a desolate place. For example, the Puranas describe that a man of 15 years will be considered very old, and that human beings will have practically no memory, no intelligence, be only a few feet tall and that they will wander around in packs like animals. The world is described as barren and desert-like at that time. Given this scenario, where is there any scope for a city by the name of Shambhalla containing brahmin communities?
Again, there is the narration in the Puranas about the sons of Sagara. They were given the task of searching for the sacrificial horse who was stolen by Indra in order to interrupt the sacrifices of Maharaj Prithu. In their search, the Puranas say that they traveled in a Northeastern direction and came to a Northern ocean, which they traveled over, and that they entered into the bowels of the Earth. There, they found the horse at the hermitage of Kapila Rishi.
It is to be understood that, according to these narrations, Vedic culture flourished in the hollow Earth, as none other than Kapila Rishi had his hermitage there, and the Kalki avatar will make His appearance there.
How congruent, then, are the descriptions given by Olaf Jansen, the Norwegian youth who wandered into the opening with his father on their fishing boat in the 1820s. They traveled in their sailboat to Spitzenburg, an island above Greenland. After stopping at the Northern side of this island to take on some supplies, they set sail towards good fishing areas. But the boy’s father was possessed by a disire to head further North, to the warm lands of the Norse legends, and assured the boy that they would be protected by the gods, Thor (Jupiter) and Odin. Then, even though this was a bit of an irresponsible risk to take with one’s boy under tow, off to the North they went!
They soon met with ice packs and had to carefully negotiate their craft among them. Olaf relates that had their boat been any larger, they would not have been able to fit between the icebergs. After about a month of such negotiation, the ice disappeared and marvelously, they found themselves in open water, just a few degrees from the pole! This does not correspond to our typical concept of the Polar areas, which we imagine are covered by a solid ice sheet. But actually, practically all the Polar explorers of yesteryear reported open waters near the Poles, and a whole phenomenon called ” Polar warming.” This phenomenon seems to result when warmer air from the interior of the planet is expelled from openings near the Poles. At any rate, the two continued on in this way, in open waters, for various weeks.
As they worked their way Northwards they kept their eyes on the Sun, which was behind them and low on the horizon, following its Equatorial path. At this time, an unusual sighting was made by them. What the boy and his father actually sighted was a different, inner sun, shining ahead of them! Its disk was smaller, and its color was distinctly more reddish than our own Sun, but there it was. They sailed in the direction of this alternate sun and, as the nose of their craft angled down along the curvature of the doughnut-like polar opening, the alternate sun rose higher, and they kept it in view as they entered the inner Earth.
Conmeasurately, the larger sun visible on the surface disappeared from view and sank permanently from the horizon behind them.
As the father and son worked their way further in they came to the shoreline of a continent and followed it. They noticed huge trees and mammoths twice the size of elephants.
At one point they crossed paths with what the Olaf described as a gigantic ship, bigger than any he had ever imagined. Of course, this was in 1830. It seemed to him to be some type of cruise or excursion ship because the decks were flooded with people singing songs in a jolly mood. The two voyagers were met by occupants of the ship and taken aboard. They found themselves in the company of humans of giant stature, the shortest being over 12 feet tall! They were given a welcome treatment in the hollow Earth; they toured the kingdoms of Shamballa the Lesser and Shamballa the Greater. Their boat was taken from city to city and displayed as an object of curiosity and marvel, a midget craft of the tiny men who had wandered in from the surface.
What exactly about Olaf’s report was suggestive of Vedic culture, as it was before the beginning of Kali Yuga, in the hollow Earth? Well, we already know that Olaf reported giant human beings. Among other things he also reported that they enjoyed a life span of around 800 years, great intelligence, that they spoke Sanskrit or a close derivative, were of a Northern European stock of race, worshipped the inner Sun and a pantheon of gods similar to the Indo-European. He reported that the flowers all had tremendous fragrances, that the fruits were more tasty than on the surface, and that fruits and flowers were giant in size, an apple being the size of a man’s head..
” Vegetation grew in lavish exuberance, and fruit of all kinds possessed the most delicate flavor. Clusters of grapes four and five feet in length, each grape as large as an orange, and apples larger than a man’s head typified the wonderful growth of all things on the ” inside ” of the earth. The great redwood trees of California would be considered mere underbrush compared with the giant forest trees extending for miles and miles in all directions. In many directions along the foothills of the mountains vast herds of cattle were seen during the last day of our travel on the river.”
It suffices to say that to anyone familiar with the puranic descriptions of human beings before the advent of Kali Age, Olaf’s testimony provides a shocking correspondence.
The Puranas tell us that Kali Yuga was ushered in as a result of Kala, time. This word Kala has also been used in the Vedic astrological literature synonymously with the term ” planetary influence.” It seems that the alignments and orbits of the planets changed in order to cause this Yuga, and quite possibly the radiation from the Sun has changed, too, or maybe our planet is closer to it. For example, the Brihat Jataka quotes an alignment between Venus and the Sun, from a previous, extinct Vedic Jyotish literature, which tells of planetary alignments that are no longer possible at this point in the Kali Yuga.
The point being that if planetary influences, such as harmful radiations, are responsible for bringing about the Kali Yuga for those openly subject to them on the surface, it just naturally follows that those who live within the hollow portion of the Earth are protected from such influences, and that their standard of body, mind and intelligence have not degraded, at least not as much as ours on the surface. After all, we are only 5,000 years into the Kali Yuga, not 50,000 nor 100,000 years, and those within are certainly sheltered by the Earth’s crust and various strata.
Could this be the situation? Has a past Vedic connection with our bretheren in the interior been lost to our collective memory? Knowing that there was nothing that they could do, did the inhabitants of the hollow Earth eventually distance themselves from us and only impose a guiding hand from afar?
If we may take stock in Olaf’s testimony, they themselves are not lost, they are very much still there- in the hollow portion of the Earth.