99 Palms: Horn OK Please (18 page)

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

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Roses are red and violets are blue,

Looking though a Stargate is sure a breathtaking view;

Four of them unfolded right in front of my own two eyes,

I tell you a true story, my friend, no lies;

A sight so beautiful, one must be blessed to see,

A sight so rare, I wish you had been there with me;

How can I explain the beauty of an underwater temple?

This application of science was just a sample;

‘Twas a sight that dreams are made of, a sight so rare,

We stared at the Stargates as the whole universe lay bare;

How could I explain that the earth may not be round after all?

Our reality could be an illusion, a weedhead’s rant, that’s all!

There’s logic in everything, a reason behind every thought,

Looking thru’ the eyes of Nine, the answer we sought;

How could water defy gravity, do you call that magic?

Ever wonder what miracles science can achieve, with a click?

The wheels of fortune move, the Ley lines reveal themselves,

These are our secrets, keep them to yourselves;

But if smiles and Imagination make you say ‘Cheese’

Drive on, for that’s the philosophy of Horn OK Please…***

The Sanctum Sanctorum:

We entered a circular room that was like a hemisphere. The dome was humongous and the height of the underwater Stupa must have been 69 feet. The large circular room had four statues of Lord Buddha, encased within gateways sitting in a meditating posture on a lotus. The statues seemed to be encased in an exact replica of the gateways of the Great Sanchi Stupa.  Right between the head of the every Buddha statue and top of the gateway was a
Swastika
.

I felt a sense of perfect calm within me inside the dome. I could feel the energy surge within me. Now I knew how Motormouth’s batteries felt like when they would be charging while we drove.

There was a massive
Swastika
on the floor of the Stupa, the edges of each horizontal line of which touched the hemispherical Stupa. The floor was very smooth, the smoothness that we felt on a fallen Ashoka pillar near the Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh. As I felt the wall of the Stupa, it reminded me of the Dhamek Stupa – same patters, same designs of humans and flowers, same
Swastika
symbols.

“Look at the carvings on these gateways, Dude! These are exact replicas of the Great Sanchi Stupa, the main one!” exclaimed Hound, as he went about inspecting the four gateways that seemed to fascinate him.

“Correction, Hound, the Great Sanchi Stupa 1 is an exact replica of this underwater Stupa, just a bit smaller. This scale is grand”, I said, correcting him as I continued to stare at narrow, solid beam of light that seemed to come from the
harmika
or the top of the Stupa and fell straight into a water jug kept on top of an iron pillar that was about four feet high. The Iron Pillar of Ashok in New Delhi is an enlarged replica of the same.

Near the iron pillar was a wooden pole covered with tens of large-sized diamonds, emeralds, jade and pieces of cloth with holy words written on them. This was the
Tree of life
of the underwater Stupa, for it is an important element found in every Stupa. Apart from this, the Stupa itself was empty except for the central pillar and beam at the center. It symbolized complete perfection of enlightenment.

The only sound that we could hear was the sound of water drops that fell from the top of the Stupa, right through the seemingly solid beam of light. I checked on my watch. It was one drop every 69 seconds. The water jug kept on top of the iron pillar overflowed with the water of life from the Ganges river. As the water overflowed, it seemed to overflow onto the iron pillar. Instead of the water seeping on the floor, the iron pillar seemed to be absorbing it!

I tapped on the iron pillar that supported the water jug. Unlike the Iron Pillar in New Delhi, this sounded hollow. Perhaps, this was the device invented by the Nine Unknown. Perhaps, this was the device that was responsible for generating the mysterious ‘X Factor’ and had been pumping this into the Ganges river.

This was a Stupa of many doors. Again, not a hatch, not any object out of place.

Finding the Stargates:

“Dude, should I pull out the Tibetan Singing Bowl? Where on earth are the Stargates?” whispered Derek, worried if he would be asked to climb to the top of this underwater Stupa which seemed like an impossible task.

“Wait!” I said, as I fished out the notes from 99 Palms that Lind had given me last night.

It read, “
“Between sunset and moonrise, fill your heart with purity. With wisdom in your heart, the enlightened one must reach the heart of the temple, a pillar of light shall make itself known to you. The nectar from heaven must kiss the sacred stone for the doors to open!”

“Dude! This is the pillar of light! The drops of water falling from the top into the water jug through the beam must be nectar, the water of immortality! The fountain of eternal youth!” I exclained.

“I’m thirsty dude, can we drink this stuff?” said Hound, looking at the water jug greedily.

“Don’t! Don’t you dare touch anything around the place, Hound! We’d rather you grow old gracelessly and die of old age the way we’re all supposed to. The water of immortality and stuff here is only for megalomaniacs. We’re just regular, friendly, neighborhood people!” I said, as I grabbed Hound from the back and yanked him away from the water jug. Hound lost his balance and arms spread out trying to break his fall to the ground.

The broken piece of clay flew from Hound’s hands, right through the solid beam of light where it abruptly stopped and started to float. We all stared at it, amazed by yet another miracle of science as it unfolded right in front of our eyes. Hound got up slowly as we all watched the piece of clay floating at the center of the beam of light, barely a foot above the water jug. 69 seconds were about to be over.

“The drop of nectar seems to fall from the
harmika
every 69 seconds, it would be falling from the top any time now… Hit the ground, everybody!” I yelled as we hit the ground and watched what would happen next. I was sure to be the end of the world for us then.

The drop fell straight on the piece of clay, the beam of light stopped at the piece of clay and dispersed in four directions. The beams hit the center of the four swastikas right above the Buddha statues. The
Swastikas
began to glow and we could hear loud rumblings, like the moving of some gigantic machinery underneath the floor of the underground Stupa on which we lay. All gateways started to move to the right, all together in a clockwise direction.

The
Swastika
on the floor of the Stupa glowed at the same time as the four of us lay in the four quadrants.

“Oh Shit! Man! We’re all going to die!” yelled Goose, as fear gripped all of us as the water would gush in and drown us within a fraction of a second. I froze in horror and closed my eyes, sure of death. The rumbling suddenly stopped within seconds as all four gateways came to a grinding halt right at the top of the vertical line of the
Swastika
on the floor.

Then what we saw was a sight we would never forget. Silence engulfed the Stupa. I slowly got back on my feet to see four walls of crystal clear water that wouldn’t come into the Stupa. As all of us went closer to the Southern Gate, I stretched out my right hand to feel the wall of water. It felt like putting my hand inside any river, it felt cool, my hand felt wet. As I pulled back my hand the drops of water flew back from my hand, back into the wall of water.

We had unlocked the Stargates.

We could see through the wall of water. It felt as though we were at the bottom of a large swimming pool for we could see the surface. The sun seemed to shine through the water as we saw strange, mythical fishes playfully swimming in the water. What was striking though was the fact that each of the four Stargates seemed to be connected to the surface with a solid beam of light.

Though not that strong and straight like the one that shone through from the top of the Stupa to the water jug, these four beams were shaky and seemed to be wavering. They resembled large intestines that would probably belong to a very large pig.  Each of these pipes seemed to be 10 feet each in diameter. The surface, however, seemed to be very high above. The distance to the surface was unfathomable as the Hermetic lines mentioned in the ancient scriptures came into my mind and I said out aloud, “As above, so below. So within, so without”

Interconnected, yet disjoint. So near, yet so far. Not symmetry nor asymmetry. Yin and Yang. Truth and Lie. This was chirality. The stuff that our DNA is made of, we’d never be here if chirality wasn’t there. Lind was right. This was the secret behind the number ‘69’….this was chirality.

“The Ley lines. These pipes are the Ley Lines. We are standing at the crossing of four, massive Ley lines so this underwater Stupa is the ridge. The Great Sanchi Stupa 1 is the Nexus Point. Now everything makes so much sense! These four gateways are the four Stargates to Shambala, Dude!” said Derek excitedly as he dipped his hand and splashed water on his face that went back into the wall.

“Holy shit!” whispered Goose as put his head in and immediately pulled out, “Careful!”

“What happened now?” I asked, as we all turned around to look at Goose who seemed shocked as she stared at his palms.

“Dude! I put my head in the water. The force was so strong, it was like I was getting sucked in! It was like putting my head inside a gigantic vacuum cleaner. It just wants to suck you in!” said Goose as he stood there, shaking like a leaf.

“Well, what do you expect, Goose? These are Stargates. The gates to Shambala. The Ley lines aren’t so strong now. Wait for Buddha Purnima. I can bet my life on it that if you were to even merely touch this wall of water, you’d be sucked right in! These shaky membrane-like pipes that are the Ley Lines of our universe? Dude, they will be rock solid the way the beam of light at the center of this Stupa is!” said Hound, putting his hand on Goose’s shoulder, trying to calm him down.

We went about playing with the wall of water, the vertical river that defied gravity. We could drink from it, quench our thirst, but we could not take a dip in it. At least, not yet.

Finding the Stargates:

“I told you guys that I had a feeling that there was something really special about the broken piece of clay I found at Kalinga? Just look at it now, it’s freakin’ key to the Stargates!” said Hound, as he pointed to the piece of clay that seemed to be spinning crazily now, resembling a ball at the center of the four rays of light. The solid beam of light form the top fell on the piece of clay as it dispersed the light in all four directions.

The Stupa looked beautiful right now. It was dark inside spare the bright glow of the rays of light. The spinning piece of clay at the center was a marvel in itself.

“Guess we all owe you an apology, Hound. Big time! Sorry!” I said as the four of us hugged each other as Hound patted us on our backs.

“Anyways, what on earth is this thing?” said Derek, as he moved closer to the beam to look at the ball that was formed by the spinning of the broken piece of clay.

“I suppose it is some kind of meta-material, not clay. We’re dealing with pure science of the Nine Unknown over here, some may call it magic since it’s beyond our comprehension. Lind was right!” said Goose, stretching out his hand to catch the ball.

As he pulled the piece of clay out of the seemingly solid beam of light, there was a rumble. The same kind of rumble we had experienced before. The dispersion of light ceased as the beam of light fell straight into the water jug. The gateways moved back into position as the
Swastikas
on the gateways and the floor stopped glowing. Everything was back to the way it was before.

As we stood in silence and sheer reverence of the pure marvel we saw around us, we bowed our heads in prayer to one of the statues of Lord Buddha. Then we walked away from the underwater Stupa, retracing our steps, knowing fully well that we were not just men of pure science, we were also men of faith. That always brought us together.

Return to Surface:

“We’ve cracked it, Dudes!” said Derek, turning around as he gave a high-five to us all, “Everything that was written in the ancient scriptures of 99 Palms is straight to the point!”

“You bet, dude. This is so cool! We’re about to get rich and famous! We did it!” 1 said, quite pleased with the way the day had unfurled. 

“Like hell, we did! We know the path to Shambala! Funny, I feel so fresh and energized now, what about you all?” said Hound, trying to touch the ceiling of the ancient cave.

“Dude, what time is it?” quipped Goose, trying to figure out how to deal with reality after our experience today.

“It’s past midday now. By the time we’ll get back, it will be close to midnight”, replied Hound, as he tried to tell time from the faint phosphorescent glow from the rocks.

We moved in silence, each one of us bubbling with excitement. The cave was cool, the air was bracing. We must have covered half the distance in no time. Walking under the bed of the Ganges river felt so cool!

The truckloads of pure energy inside the Underwater Stupa made us scamper over the 15 off kilometers, half of it uphill, effortlessly. We reached the door of the Dhamek Stupa from where we had entered. It was exactly midnight.

“May I?” said Hound as he held the hatch that would open the door from inside. We nodded in silence as Hound did the jobs. Fortunately, nobody was around. It was a beautiful, starry night as I crossed over the threshold, back into reality. I was the last one to come out. I closed the door behind me as my friends looked on.

As soon as I pulled the door slammed shut, the Dhamek Stupa made a rumbling noise as the bricks changed positions and the big machine seemed to bring everything back to the way it was before. Nothing was visible to the naked eye.

Bro code:

Jumping over the fencing, we reached the parking lot. Motormouth stood there, waiting for us. The sexy beast always looked after us. As Derek brought the beast back to life, he said, “Chief, are you planning to tell Lind about the secret entrance?”

“I’ll tell her that we found it. I’ll tell her everything that happened in there today. But I won’t tell her where the secret entrance is. It’s bro-code. This shall always remain our secret”, I said as I buckled my seat belt.