THE GREAT PYRAMID
Mataji’s pilgrimage to Egypt
The Great Pyramids
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making a geometrical shape known as a “pyramid”. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or of any polygon shape. A pyramid should have at least three outer triangular surfaces.
The Egyptian pyramids are the ones that are most well-known and were built for religious purposes. The Egyptians were one of the first civilizations to believe in an afterlife. In fact, they were more concerned with the nature of their life after death than with their present life. They believed that a second self, called the Ka lived within every human being. The Ka, like our “atman,” was eternal and did not expire with the death of the physical body. Those fortunate enough to pass the test of the Egyptian god, Osiris, wanted to ensure that they would have maximum comfort in their lives beyond death. Thus, most of the pyramids were simply grand tombs of powerful pharaohs.
Egyptians who ranked high in status often wanted to take their most prized possessions with them in death so their Ka could enjoy them in its next life. Gold, silver, and bronze artifacts were loaded into the interiors of the great tombs. Fine linens and artwork adorned the secret chambers.
In the early days, dead nobles were often interned with their living slaves and animals. Because this practice eventually proved too costly, artists started to depict scenes of human activity on the inside walls. Some pyramids were even equipped with a restroom for the pharaoh.
Great precautions were taken to protect the tombs from looters. Egyptians believed that a defiler of a pharaoh's resting place would be cursed for eternity. The entrance to the inner chambers was carefully hidden. The pharaoh's mummy was placed in a huge coffin called a sarcophagus, which was made of the hardest-known stone blocks. But despite such warnings and precautions, tombs were raided over the years by grave robbers.
Three pyramids were built at Giza, and many smaller pyramids were constructed around the Nile Valley. The Pyramids of Giza, built over 4,000 years ago, still stand atop an otherwise flat, sandy landscape. The Great Pyramid reaches nearly 500 feet into the sky and spans an area greater than 13 acres.
It took thirty years to build and was the tallest building in the world until the beginning of the 20th century. It remains as the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The building of the pyramids defies our present-century attempts at finding out how they were built without any modern equipment like bulldozers, forklifts, and trucks! Why would anyone have spent the time and energy to attempt these herculean tasks!
Only a powerful pharaoh could marshal the necessary resources to build these giant structures. Every year during the rainy season, the Nile would flood and thus replenish the land with her healing waters. During this season, farmers became builders. Huge stone blocks averaging over two tons in weight were mined in quarries and transported to the pyramid site through the Nile from the town of Aswan, which was the only place where this type of granite was found. Egyptologists theorize that the workers used either rollers or slippery clay to drag the blocks from the quarries to their eventual placement on the pyramid. Construction of the larger pyramids took decades.
According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, the Great Pyramid took thirty years to construct and demanded the labor of 100,000 men. This figure is believable given the assumption that these men, who were agricultural laborers, worked on the pyramids only while there was little work to be done in the fields—i.e., when the Nile River was in flood. By the late 20th century, however, archaeologists found evidence that a more limited workforce may have occupied the site on a permanent rather than a seasonal basis. It was suggested that as few as 20,000 workers, with accompanying support personnel (bakers, physicians, priests, etc.), would have been adequate for the task.
The question of how they were built has not received a wholly satisfactory answer. The most plausible one is that the Egyptians employed a sloping and encircling embankment of brick, earth, and sand, which was increased in height and length as the pyramid rose in height; stone blocks were hauled up the ramp by means of sledges, rollers, and levers.
The Great Pyramid was built around 2560 B.C.E. under Khufu, a pharaoh of Egypt’s Old Kingdom. His life and death are shrouded in mystery. The Egyptians believed him to have been very wise, but the Greek historian Herodotus portrays him as an oppressive and cruel ruler.
Khufu’s pyramid is perhaps the most colossal single building ever erected on the planet. Its sides rise at an angle of 51°52′ and are accurately oriented to the four cardinal points of the compass. The Great Pyramid’s core is made of yellowish limestone blocks, the outer casing (now almost completely gone) and the inner passages are of finer light-colored limestone, and the interior burial chamber is built of huge blocks of granite. Approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone were cut, transported, and assembled to create the 5.75-million-ton structure, which is truly a masterpiece of technical skill and engineering ability. The internal walls as well as those few outer-casing stones that still remain in place show fine joints not to be seen in any other construction in ancient Egypt.
The original entrance to the Great Pyramid is on the north side, about 59 feet (18 meters) above ground level. But this has been blocked, and another entrance a little further down is the one that is being used today. A sloping corridor descends from it through the pyramid’s interior masonry, penetrates the rocky soil on which the structure rests, and ends in an unfinished underground chamber. From the descending corridor branches an ascending passageway that leads to a room known as the Queen’s Chamber and to a great slanting gallery that is 46 meters long. At the upper end of this gallery, a long and narrow passage gives access to the burial room proper, usually termed the King’s Chamber. This room is entirely lined and roofed with granite. From the chamber, two narrow shafts run obliquely through the masonry to the exterior of the pyramid; it is not known whether they were designed for a religious purpose or were meant for ventilation. Above the King’s Chamber are five compartments separated by massive horizontal granite slabs; the likely purpose of these slabs was to shield the ceiling of the burial chamber by diverting the immense thrust exerted by the overlying masses of masonry.
Mataji’s Experience
I had the great good fortune to visit Egypt last week on a tour arranged by the Ananda group USA. Since I am quite claustrophobic, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to enter the Great Pyramid. The climb up to the entrance along the narrow external pathway was exhausting, and I decided not to risk going inside. Strangely enough, one of the local guides, probably a Nubian, approached me out of the blue, caught my arm, and pushed me against the wall just before the entrance. The Egyptians are usually small-built and light-skinned, while the Nubians are very tall and dark. This man was tall and dark, wearing a burnous and a turban tied around his head. He guided me through the small opening into the tunnel and kept pushing me up the sloping, uneven path going steadily up. Suddenly, we came upon a ledge in the wall of the pyramid. It was quite narrow and must have been about three feet higher than the path. He gestured that I could sit and meditate there. I really don’t know how I jumped onto the ledge, hauled up my legs, and sat in sukhasana. I must have sat there for about thirty minutes easily. Nischala, the leader of our group, was standing on the floor next to me since she had hurt her ankle and didn’t feel like going up. After a few moments, I was wafted into another realm. I didn’t feel my body at all. I was totally unconscious of where I was sitting or who was next to me. It must have been fully thirty minutes if not more when I slowly became aware of Nischala telling me that the time was up and we should go down. I opened my eyes slowly and was jolted back into reality. The ledge was hard, and my legs were numb. I tried to jump down but found it really hard. It was only then that I started to wonder how I had ever managed to get onto that narrow ledge in the first place and what power had kept me up for so long!
I realized that this was indeed a magical place. The ones who made this must have been great spiritual scientists like our rishis. I also felt that there was a Shiva Lingam down below surrounded by flowing water. I looked around for the man who had shown me this place. He was nowhere to be seen. But another guide came up and scolded me, saying I should not have sat there and I should give him some money, etc. I was truly back in the mundane world where money was God!
Vanamali’s grace had taken me to pilgrim spots of all types of religions. It was indeed His grace that had taken me to this unbelievable place filled with the esoteric secrets of an ancient culture.
The pyramids have stood the test of time. Although their outer limestone layers have long since been stripped or turned to dust, they still stand – stark reminders of a bygone civilization. They are indeed time capsules floating in eternity, waiting to reveal their mysteries to those who are capable of empathizing with their inscrutable view of this incredible universe.
Hari Aum Tat Sat!