Lord Sanat Kumara

Lord Sanat Kumara is an "Advanced Being" at the Ninth level of initiation who is regarded as the 'Lord' or 'Regent' of Earth and of the humanity, and is thought to be the head of the Spiritual Hierarchy of Earth who dwells in Shamballah (also known as 'The City of Enoch').

Shamballah is said by the adherents to the Ascended Master Teachings, to be a floating city manifested on the etheric plane somewhere above the Gobi Desert in the borderlands of Mongolia.

The Great White Brotherhood is a spiritual 'fraternity' of Ascended Beings, including Lord Sanat Kumara, long since dedicated to the eventual Salvation of Mankind and the establishment of Divine Law again in this Three-dimensional reality.

In Sanat Kumara Hinduism

Sanat Kumara appears as a rishi in the Hindu religious text the Chandogya Upanishad. A shrine to Sanat Kumara which attracts and unites people of all religions and faiths is situated in the town of Kataragama, Sri Lanka. In Sanskrit, "Sanat Kumara" is "Eternal Youth" (from Sanat "eternal", Ku "with difficulty" and Mara "mortal").

The Kumar resides in the most sublime center of our planet, Shamballa, the sahasrara of the world. The Kumara has several names, relating to the sahasrara centers of different Systemic Existences: At the Supra-Cosmic plane, he is called Sanatana; at the Cosmic plane, it is Subrahmanya; at the Solar plane, the Kumara is Sanaka; at the Planetary plane, it is Sanandana; and on this planet, it is Sanath Kumara. So Sanath Kumara is an aspect of Kumara that resides in Shamballa.

Scriptures, especially the Mahabharata, say that it is Sanath Kumara who comes down to help the Divine Plan of Creation, when Lord Krishna came to be. He was born to Lord Krishna as his son, and he was named Pradyumna. Sanath Kumara incarnates himself through the Divine Mother Rukmini as Pradyumna. On completion of his work, He again gets back to his original position and takes to the seat in Shambala as Sanath Kumara. These details are given in the last chapters of Mahabharata.

Shamballa or home of The King of the World in Buddhism

Shambhala in Vajrayana Buddhism (the religion of Tibet) is a Sanskrit term meaning "place of peace/tranquility/happiness". Gautama Buddha is said by Vajrayana Buddhists to have taught the Kalachakra tantra on request of King Suchandra of Shambhala; the teachings are also said to be preserved in Shamballa. The Stanzas of Dzyan from which Madame Blavatsky claimed to have gotten the information in The Secret Doctrine are believed by some scholars to have been a mistranslation of words Kalachakra tantra . Shambhala is ruled over by a line of Kings of Shambhala known as Kulika or Kalki Kings, a monarch who upholds the integrity of the Kalachakra tantra. In the teachings of Vajrayana Buddhism, the King of Shamballa is often metaphorically referred to as The King of the World. Shamballa was thought by the Tibetans to be somewhere north of Lake Manasarovar and its adjacent Mount Kailasa, a sacred mountain in Tibet where it is thought that all the dragon currents intersect.

Sanat Kumara in Theosophy

Sanat Kumara was mentioned briefly by the theosophist Helena Blavatsky. She claimed he belonged to a group of beings, the "Lords of the Flame".

Sanat Kumara gained greater prominence when Blavatsky's close-friend and colleague Charles W. Leadbeater wrote that Sanat Kumara was the "King" or Lord of the World, and the head of the Great White Brotherhood of Mahatmas who had revealed the principles of theosophy.

Later authors who draw from Theosophical teachings such as Alice Bailey and Elizabeth Clare Prophet have added to the story with further details. He is usually depicted as having the appearance of a 16-year-old boy, said to be the incarnation of the Will of the Logos, and purportedly possesses an unaging body not born of mortal woman.

The seven Kumaras, including Sanat Kumara, are well known in Hinduism. H.P. Blavatsky speaks of them at length in “The Secret Doctrine” and states that they are one and the same group of Beings as the seven Dhyani Buddhas, the seven Archangels, and the seven Elohim, and that these are just different names for the same Seven. Sanat Kumara is not described as being the chief amongst them but it is indicated that Sanaka is the chief of the four exoteric Kumaras (consisting of Sanaka, Sanat Kumara, Sananda, and Sanatana) and that Sanat Sujata is the chief of the three esoteric Kumaras, the other two of that group being Sana and Kapila.

According to the original teachings of Theosophy, the Kumaras are the divine beings with which humanity is most concerned but none of them are described as dwelling at Shamballa.

There is a Lord of Shamballa but, according to H.P. Blavatsky and the Masters, he is a Great Being “which has to remain nameless.” This Great One is referred to as the Initiator, the Great Sacrifice, the Nameless One, the Wondrous Being, etc., and it is taught that he entered upon our globe in the early period of the Lemurian Root Race – prior to the awakening of individual consciousness in the general mass of humanity, which began to occur around the middle of that Root Race – into a physical body which had been created for him by Kriyashakti, in order to fulfill the most important and highest possible position here.

H.P. Blavatsky made a point of explaining (in Volume 2 of “The Secret Doctrine”) that the Lord of Shamballa she describes is not any of the seven Kumaras but is higher than all of them. He is also not the Planetary Spirit of the Earth, for that Planetary Spirit – also spoken of as the Terrestrial Spirit and the Earth Spirit – is not of a very high grade, according to original Theosophy, and is in fact not a personal individual entity at all but a class or synthesis of “Forces of nature acting under one immutable Law.”

The Wondrous Being who resides at Shamballa is the Supreme Head of the hidden esoteric Brotherhood which guides and watches over the spiritual evolution and advancement of humanity.

However, according to neo-Theosophy or pseudo-Theosophy, the seven Kumaras all live at Shamballa and their chief is Sanat Kumara, who is presented as being not only Lord of Shamballa but also Lord of the World.

It is claimed that he is the physical incarnation and representative on Earth of the “Planetary Logos” (remember that H.P. Blavatsky and the Masters never once speak of a Planetary Logos or use this term at all) and that he came to our Earth from Venus in the middle of the Lemurian Root Race. This was 18 million years ago according to Alice Bailey and 6.5 million years ago according to C.W. Leadbeater. Leadbeater describes Sanat Kumara as descending to Earth in a giant fiery chariot from the actual planet Venus, whereas Bailey states that he actually came from “the Venus globe of our Earth Chain,” which is a concept unique to her.

The Descent of Sanat Kumara and the Lords of the Living Flame from Venus

C.W. Leadbeater and later adherents of Theosophy such as Alice A. Bailey believe that Sanat Kumara descended from the etheric plane of the planet Venus to Earth 18,500,000 years ago (A.E. Powell gives a figure of 16,500,000 years ago; Elizabeth Clare Prophet of Church Universal and Triumphant does not give a specific date but says it was a minimum of 2,500,000 years ago). In Theosophy, the beings that helped Sanat Kumara organize the expedition from Venus are called the "Lords of the Flame". C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant said that Sanat Kumara brought 30 "Lords of the Flame" with him from Venus to help him set up his colony.

In the later version of the story promulgated by Guy Ballard, notable "Lords of the Flame" include Gautama Buddha, and the World Teacher (the being referred to alternately as Maitreya or Christ by Benjamin Creme). Elizabeth Clare Prophet's Church Universal and Triumphant teaches that Sanat Kumara and the Lords of the Flame also brought 144,000 souls with them from Venus. Alice Bailey, on the other hand, gives the number 105 only.

The prior incarnation and only incarnation of Maitreya, the Lord of Consciousness, according to some interpretations (not C.W. Leadbeater's), is Gauthama Siddartha Sakyamuni / Lord Buddha; according to these interpretations, he essentially 'overshadowed' the body of Gautama Siddhartha Buddha with Siddhartha's permission.

Sanat Kumara is regarded as the great guru, saviour of Earth. Believers in him see him in all the major religions, as Skanda/Kartikkeya in Hinduism, Brahma-Sanam Kumar in Buddhism, the Ancient of Days in Judeo-Christian traditions, and identify him as Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism (although the last of these claims is contested from a lack of information on the subject). It is also considered that Sanat Kumara is Al Khdir (green man) known to Sufi Muslims (according to Dakshinamurti).

It is maintained in most of these versions of Theosophy that Venus, the 'Planet of Love', is the most spiritually advanced planet of our solar system. The beings living on the etheric plane of Venus are said to be hundreds of millions of years ahead of us in their spiritual evolution. It is said that the governing council of Venus – the Seven Holy Kumars – sent one of themselves, Sanat Kumara, here to guide us.

According to Theosophy, once Sanat Kumara arrived here, he directed the construction of the city of Shamballa on the etheric plane above the Gobi Desert to serve as his headquarters. Elizabeth Clare Prophet teaches that Shamballa was built physically on the White Island in the Gobi Sea (now the Gobi Desert), and was only later withdrawn from the physical to the etheric plane.

City plan of Shamballa

The main temple of Shamballa is topped with a golden dome and is surrounded by seven smaller temples—one for each of the seven rays. These temples are located on a number of wide boulevards resembling the Champs-Elysees. According to Elizabeth Clare Prophet, George Washington was divinely inspired by the Ascended Masters to choose city planner Pierre L'Enfant to create the city plan of Washington DC which, it is claimed, he unconsciously modeled on the plan of the city of Shamballa.

Appellations (titles) of Sanat Kumara

The most common title attributed to Lord Sanat Kumara in the Theosophical religious tradition is "Lord of the World". C.W. Leadbeater also states that an important duty of Sanat Kumara is to participate in an elaborate ritual every Wesak (the Full Moon of May) led by Gautama Buddha, and also participated in by the Maitreya (the being Theosophists identify as Christ), in which cosmic energy is focused from the "Solar Logos" to Earth in order to keep our planet's cosmic energy in balance. The ritual is said to take place in a ravine in southern Tibet (the Frontispiece of Leadbeater's book The Masters and the Path has a picture of the ritual taking place) and, it is stated by Leadbeater, can be viewed by in the etheric body or in the physical body by those who have etheric sight.

Paradoxically, two other common appellations of Sanat Kumara are two opposite titles: "The Ancient of Days" (because he has been on Earth millions of years) and "The Youth of Sixteen Summers" (because even though he is millions of years old, he still looks like he is 16 years old). Another of his titles is "The One Initiator" because it is said by C. W. Leadbeater in the Masters and the Path that he personally performs the initiation ceremony for anyone who has reached the third level of spiritual initiation. Alice A. Bailey indicates the same in her writings.

In the all organizations subscribing to the "Ascended Master Teachings", Sanat Kumara is presented as an Ascended Master. He is also currently, according to the Ascended Master Teachings, known as the "Regent Lord of the World" in deference to Gautama Buddha having taken the office of "Lord of the World". (1956). With Sananda Buddha taking on more of the day-to-day administrative tasks of governing the planet, this arrangement allows Sanat Kumara more time for the long-range galactic planning and interstellar diplomacy that is necessary for him to prepare Earth for its eventual admission to what Joshua David Stone calls the Galactic Confederation of Planets.

Sanat Kumara's symbol of the authority of his office as Lord of the World is a 2-foot-long (0.61 m), 2-inch-wide (51 mm) magic wand called the Rod of Power made of the metal orichalcum, with cone-shaped diamonds on each end.