Wednesday, May 21, 2014

133.complete book 3

  

                             MKADK’s  Journey towards Allah

 

                                                Part Three

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                           Collection of Blog at:

                                         www.afnta-questforallah.blogspot.com

                              Collection of chants at: mkadk.afnta

 

 

 

 

 

                                          Author:  MKADK

 

 

                                            

 

 

 

 

 

Price: free

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                        Dedicated  To

                                                         My Mother

 

 

                                                                                                                                                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quotations are allowed

Email address: mkadk2012@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                              Indeed, I know that you do not know”

                                                                                                             (God in Holy Quran)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

List of Books that helped my quest


 


·                  A Search in Secret Egypt by Paul Brunton

·                  A Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton

·                  Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

·                  In Quest of God by Swami Ramdas

·                  Iqbal's poetry

·                  Kashaf ul-Mhjoob by Data Gunj Bakhash

·                  Living with Kundalini by Gopi Krishna

·                  Pilgrim of Stars by Dilip Kumar Roy and Indra Devi

·                  Shahab Nama by Shahab

·                  The Autobiography of St Therese of Lisieux. Translated by John Beevers

·                  The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nikhilananda

·                  The Hunger of the Soul by Nancy Mayorga

·                  The Life of Teresa of Jesus by Teresa of Avila. Translated by Allison Peers

·                  The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.                           Translated by Salvatore Sciurba

·                  The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James

·                  The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross. Translated by Allison Peers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


dictionary of terms


 


·                  Ashram: hermitage

·                  Durvesh:  a Muslim mystic or fakir

·                  Fakir:  a Muslim ascetic mystic. beggar

·                  Fana:  a disintegration. passing away ( in God, in teacher, in holy prophet )

·                  Kundalini:  a serpent power. When awakened it rises progressively from base of spine to                                         the head

·                  Mantra:  a holy word or phrase, to be repeated

·                  Marakba: contemplation, meditation

·                  Maya: a cosmic illusion

·                  Mujahida: a form of Jihad or holy war, but the purpose is God-realization by spiritual                                              means

·                  Namaz: an Islamic prayer;  one of the five pillars of Islam

·                  Qalandar: a high-grade Muslim mystic

·                  Puja:  ceremonial worship

·                  Pujari: a priest that performs Puja

·                  Sadhana: spirtual practices in order to reach God

·                  Sadhu:  a monk or a holy person

·                  Samadhi: a  superonscious state, trance-like state

·                  Shariat:  Islamic religious laws and traditions

·                  Sri:  a title of respect

·                  Swami: a  monk who has taken vows of chastity, obedience and poverty

·                  Tareekat: Islamic mysticism

·                  Tasauwuf:  Islamic mysticism

·                  Tawakkul:  trust in God; a central pillar of Islamic mysticism

·                  Yoga:  a path to reach God in Hindu mysticism

·                  Yogi:  a practitioner of Yoga

·                  Zikar:  repetition of a name ( usually God's) or a phrase

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

List of contents

 

 

Foreword………………………………………………………………….page 7

97.God. part one……………………………………………………………….9

98 God. Part two-----------------------------------------------------10

99. God part three…………………………………………………………….11                                            

100. God. part four…………………………………………………………..13                                       

101. God part five…………………………………………………………….14

102…God part six………………………………………………………………16

103…God part seven…………………………………………………………17

104…God part eight……………………………………………………………19

105…God part nine …………………………………………………………….20

106.God part ten…………………………………………………………………21

107…God part eleven…………………………………………………………..23

108.…God part twelve………………………………………………………….24

109…God part thirteen………………………………………………………….26

110…God part fourteen………………………………………………………….27

111…God part fifteen……………………………………………………………..29

112…God part sixteen…………………………………………………………….30

113…God part seventeen…………………………………………………………31

114…God part eighteen…………………………………………………………..32

115. Data Gunj Bakhash and Islamic mysticism. Part 4…………….34

116 Data Gunj Bakhash. Part 5…………………………………………………35

117. Amma, Mufti Sahib……………………………………………………………36

118…Two unique visions of Swami Yogananda…………………………38

119…Does hell exist?……………………………………………………………….40

120 Brunton, and control over snakes and scorpions………………40

121…Magicians……………………………………………………………………….42

122…Hypnotists………………………………………………………………………44

123…Three Yogic Feats……………………………………………………………45

124…The most famous fakir of Egypt………………………………………47

125. If one lays the life at God’s feet:part one…………………………49

126. If one lays the life ar God’s feet. Part two…………………………50

127…Afzal Khan and Hazrat………………………………………………………51

128…Yogi Krishnaparem…………………………………………………………..52

129. Importance of spiritual sites…………………………………………….54

130…Some updates/Additions…………………………………………………55

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                           Foreword

 

               Mkadk presents Part Three of the book, ‘Mkadk’s Journey towards Allah’. Part two was finished in July 2013. It was also translated in Urdu. Apart from relatives and acquaintances, very few persons have read it. Parts I and II  were donated to some local libraries where some amongst the general public may have read it. The books have received little recognition with one exception of a person from India, who after reading my blogs on Swami Yogananda,  decided to read his autobiography. Highest praise, which some friends gave, was to call the book ‘interesting’. However, the Great Mystic (see blog # 67) has been quoted regarding the book to say:  “Only a person who loved God, could have written this book. Such person is beyond religion”.  These words spoken from such a high authority has given me indescribable joy.   The Great Mystic would not accept a copy of the book and said, “I have passed through this stage and have gone much farther”.

I have pondered over his remark. I have come to the following conclusions:

               1. He recognized my intense love and longing for God which compels me to write

               2. Once, he had the same type of love of God  but now he has gone beyond that stage. If he had not loved Allah dearly, he would not have felt it in my book, because only a kindred spirit could have recognized it.

 

I have made progress in my spiritual quest. I have entered the second stage in the staging system of St. Teresa of Avila ( see blog #75). She compares the soul of a person to a garden.  There are four ways this garden can be watered by:

1. taking the water from a well, and carrying it to the garden, a labor intensive method.

2. water-wheel and buckets, when the water is drawn by a windlass; a less laborious way.

3. a stream or a brook. This is very efficient and less laborious than the first two methods.

4. heavy rain, when God waters it Himself, when the water is needed. No effort of the gardener is needed.

 

               The first stage  of an spiritual quest is the longest and the toughest. Due to the effort of keeping the focus of thoughts on God, meditation is very labor intensive. My meditation has become much easier now. This boon was granted to me in January 2014, after fourteen years of meditation. This stage is also called ‘prayer of the quiet’. Being an older man, will I ever progress to the 3rd stage? Who knows? Everything is in His Hands. At present, my position is like that of moss at the bottom of the streams. The fast water of the world bends the moss, but it is unable to dislodge it from the rock of God.

 

               My life in 1975 was a year of great anxiety and restlessness. I chose to remain unemployed while waiting word on a job application outside my country.  Daily I would check the mail for the letter that would seal my future.  I found myself becoming very despondant due to the absence of any letters. My mother observed my daily disappointment. One day, as I was lying on a cot, restless and dejected, she said to me in Pubjabi: “Once you are satiated with the world, turn to God, and then you will find peace.”

 

               I jumped up from the bed as if I was touched by an electric current. I went to my room and brought my pocket diary. I wrote her words in the diary. I believe I still have that diary. I dedicate this Book III to her.

 

               I turned to God, in earnest on December 13, 1999. I never did get the reward of peace as my mother had promised. I have found my restlessness to be less since January of 2014. The reason for this may be my intense desire currently not to have peace in my life.  I have, without fail, asked God to not give me peace. I have often prayed, “ God! I don’t want peace. Give shanti to those who want it, like my Hindu friend. I want the water in the kettle, always simmering”.

 

               The great saint Ramakrishna once told this story:

“A bird sat absentmindedly on the mast of a ship anchored in Ganges. Slowly the ship sailed into the ocean. When the bird came to its senses, it could find no shore in any direction. It flew towards the north hoping to reach land; it flew very far, and grew very tired but could find no land.

It returned to the mast and sat there.  After a long while, the bird flew again, this time towards the east. It could not find land in that direction either; everywhere he saw nothing but limitless ocean.

Bird flew towards the south and then towards the west. When he could find no land anywhere, it settled down on the mast. It did not leave the mast again.  It no longer felt restless or worried. Because it was free from worry, it made no further effort.

 

               I want to thank my wife MB and my brother RQ for their constant help. Without them,  the journey would have been harder.

 

 

Mkadk

 

April 17, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book three. 97-131

 

 

 

97. God. Part one

 

I have thought about God for several decades. It has been my obsession in life.

 

Do I have the answers to all my questions about God which had perplexed me for all of my adult life?

 

Yes, almost.

 

               Can I convince others, who don’t believe in God, the presence of God? No, I cannot.

You might think that the reason I cannot convince others is because there is no objective evidence. That is not the reason. The reason is that the evidence is anecdotal. You know how scientific community hates anecdotal evidence. I have been involved in research on cell biology for 6-7 years and understand the limitations of preliminary evidence. This type of data by itself is not definitive but becomes the basis for further research. One tries to get experimental evidence by designing experiments in a laboratory which prove or disprove the hypothesis. If it is clinical evidence, one may have to do a randomized clinical trial with at least two almost similar arms in a significant number of humans, in which one arm gets a treatment, while other does not. If the treatment arm derives statistical benefit, then the hypothesis is tentatively right. If multiple observers, away from each other in time and space, repeat the experiment, and have the same results, then science accepts it as a fact. If there is enough circumstantial evidence (facts), one tries to discover the laws of nature which tie the facts. Once one has discovered the laws, one tries to formulate a theory (or hypothesis) which explains the laws.

 This is the scientific method. Conclusions are reached based on the facts. One starts with a presumption that if proven wrong by the experiments then one has to abandon it.  One does not start with a preconceived conclusion.

 

               In contrast, religion can start with predetermined conclusions and finds facts to support its views discarding the unsupported ones.  This ‘pick and choose’ method of data-collecting is completely and utterly unacceptable to science. Anecdotal evidence picks and chooses, selecting only those anecdotes which support a particular point of view, instead of picking using all anecdotes.

The trouble is that with God, you cannot get evidence by designing experiments. The evidence against God is zero; one cannot prove by science or logic that there is no God. The evidence in support of God is miniscule, like the proverbial needle in the haystack, and indirect.

 

               You might ask that if the evidence supporting the existence of God is so little?  Why do billions of human beings believe in God?   The answer is twofold, the existence of faith and the law of inertia. Faith is a fundamental part of all religions. One is expected to not question the dictates of religion but accept them on faith. The law of inertia resists change.  As Newton said, “a body in motion will stay in motion, and a body at rest will stay in rest, for ever, provided a force acts on it”.

               We can be intellectually lazy people. We tend to follow the religious practices of our parents.

One can argue the case against the existence of God with the following four facts.

1. Nobody has every reported seeing God in the last two thousand years.

2. Nobody has talked with God in the last two thousand years.

3. The world is full of miseries and injustice.

4. Every event that occurs is the result of the law of cause and effect.

 

               Let me expound.   I have chosen two thousand years (I could have chosen an earlier date) because we have relatively better recorded history of this period. If God had had appeared so humans could see and hear him, it would have been recorded and passed down in families. The last two thousand year historical period contains wars, famines, hunger, diseases, poverty, and natural catastrophes (floods, hurricanes, epidemics, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc).  History also contains main injustices. The powerful have oppressed the weak. People do good and bad things. Cruel or bad persons may live happy, rewarding lives without being punished for dastardly deeds.  One can ask where the omnipotent and justice-loving God was. One can surmise that God either does not exist is not all-powerful, and/or He is uncaring.

 

               Years ago I read about a thinker who had surmised that only two of the following three propositions can be correct.  God is all good.  God is all powerful.  The world is full of suffering.

If first two propositions are correct, then our suffering may not be due to the Eternal and Infinite Eye.

For further discussion of this topic refer to blog #95.

 

98. God. Part two

 

               The laws of nature have directed the universe after its creation.  Changes can be explained using the law of cause and effect. It is an everyday observation. No divine force intervenes in a tangible manner.  If one wants to buy a loaf of bread, one has to go to a shop and buy it. No angel from heaven will do it for him. If one falls sick from malaria, he must have been bitten by an Anopheles mosquito carrying the plasmodium parasite. If one is hit by a car while walking on a footpath, it must be due to the carelessness of the driver or a faulty vehicle. An Olympic athlete succeeds where others do not, because a body is better suited for that sport and talent better developed.

               There is no evidence that there is no God. If no one has seen or talked to God, that does not mean He does not exist.  God simply does not want to talk; He cannot be seen; and or He is faceless.

               The second argument that the world is full of injustice and misery does not mean there is no God.  He simply chooses to not interfere in human affairs. All the miseries are man-made.

               The third argument change occurs due to the law of cause and effect assumes there is no Divine intervention at any point. Of course it is so, because God made it so. Maybe it is some great divine experiment of His.   He created the universe, formulated the fundamental laws of nature, and then left it on its own for development.  How to prove a negative? We think that changes occur that God would never have permitted to occur.  Therefore, some postulate that there is no God.

               After dealing with the arguments against God, let us discuss the impact of Copernicus and Darwin on human thought. No other two individuals had as much impact on our perception of man’s place in the universe as these two men.

               In 1543, Copernicus’ work was published and he died.  Kepler, Galileo, and Newton further developed the Copernican theory. Kepler wrote the three laws of planetary motion which described planet movement.  Newton discovered his three laws of motion which operate in the whole universe and explain the movement of all bodies. What is the importance of Copernican theory? To understand it,  one must study human thought before and after Copernican theory

               For thousands of years, human beings believed in a flat, stationary earth. Earth stayed in one place, whereas the sky revolved around it. Sun and moon rose in the East and set in the West. Stars filled the sky and even they moved during the night. Man was the most powerful of all the creatures.  Everything moved with clock-like precision, like a nicely crafted watch. Can a watch construct itself without a watch maker? If a watch, a house, cannot develop by itself, there had to be a creator, which made this grand universe. Science at that time accepted the earth as the center of the universe, and as God – the creator of this universe. Religions taught the same thing, with the added twist that the man was the center of the universe. Created by the God in His image, man was the designated ruler of the world and its creatures. Plants and animals were for use.   The sun provided light and heat and rain for his harvest. Earth was only maybe a few thousand years old. This is called geocentric (earth is the center) theory. It was the accepted truth from the time of antiquity to 16th century (with few dissenters, like Aristarchus of Samoa).

               Copernican theory gave a heliocentric (sun is the center) concept. Earth was not stationary but moved, on itself, and around sun. Other planets in the solar system did the same. If one could go far away, the earth would appear as a pinhead of light, hardly visible, amongst thousands of other stars. How could it be the center of the universe? All these millions (in fact, billions) of stars could not have been made for the sake of earth, and for the convenience of its inhabitants (most important was man).

               Whereas Copernican theory diminished the importance of earth and man, it did not diminish the importance of God. Universe could not have emerged by itself, somebody must have made it. Every creation, be it a plant, animal, human, or heavenly body, had thousands upon thousands of components.  Each component working in a precise and prescribed way, as if a higher force, laid down the laws of their governance. Everything, for a thinking man, was a source of joy and wonder. A far, far wiser and powerful singular entity was capable of such achievement. Without God, the universe could not have come into existence. There was an essential need for the presence of God to explain this puzzle.

 

99. God. Part three

                Charles Darwin in the 1800s, advanced the discussion of God and creation.  In 1858, the two separate works of Darwin and Alfred Wallace (who independently arrived at the theory of evolution) were published in the same journal. In 1859, Darwin published his famous book; “On the origin of species by natural selection…………..” giving details of his theory with an immense amount of data. I have relied heavily on the well written Fowler and Kuebler book “the evolution controversy” in writing about evolution, although I have read many books on evolution including Darwin’s own account of his voyage on Beagle, in 1831-36.

               One hundred and fifty years have passed since Darwin’s publication. All the essential elements of his theory have been accepted by large majority of scientists. Most importantly, no evidence in fossil data has been discovered which would demolish his theory.

What are the important components?

               1. All life forms descended from a common ancestor. Potato and monkey had a common ancestor.

               2. Random mutation and natural selection are the two processes by which new species are formed. It is a slow and gradual process of modifications.

               3. Long time spans are required, from microbe to man it took almost 4 billion years (remember one thousand million make a billion, so these are 4000 million years). This directly contradicts the Biblical view of earth, merely 5-10 thousand years old. Our species Homo sapiens appeared approximately 2 million years ago. As biologists have observed during the last 50 years or so, spontaneous random mutation in the DNA (genetic code) of cells takes place all the time (Darwin knew nothing about DNA which was discovered almost a hundred years later). Cells make errors while copying DNA. Billions upon billions of cells multiply every day (see blog #95). Most of the errors are deleted, but some escape destruction. This is the process, the engine - random mutation, through which, in my view, God created all creatures. Therefore Darwin’s theory of evolution is not against God.

               Mutations can also occur from external sources, like radiation and chemicals. The role of natural selection is to filter the mutations. Beneficial changes are preserved and favored. Therefore, the mutation which favors deer to run faster and thus outrun its predator, gives a selective advantage to that deer population. They will live longer. Such changes are passed on to posterity and get established in a population. It is the survival of the fittest.  For a scientist, was supernatural intervention or help needed anytime for the progression to humans from microbe? Most scientists will say NO

Therefore Darwin’s theory is a crushing blow to the need of God to make plants, animals and humans. God could certainly have made them, but it is not incumbent upon us to believe so, it could have happened without God.

               Let us examine the evidence supporting evolution.   One has to familiarize oneself with terms such as radiometric dating, geologic columns and fossils, intelligent design, common DNA triplet, TCA cycle, irreducible complexity, and Cambrian explosion. I will try to keep it simple and brief.

               Radiometric dating is fairly accurate in telling us the age of rocks and fossils (of animals). Isochron method is even better. When one dates a sedimentary rock column, the oldest rocks are at the bottom, and the youngest on top.  When we look at the fossils of animals found in a geologic column, we always find simpler life forms in the oldest rocks. Thus we may find only animal such as jelly fish, comb-jellies, and sponges, in rocks over 550 million years old (pre-Cambrian period).  These animals don’t have shells, or dorsal notochord, or vertebral column, or wings, or gills, or hand, or feet, or mammary glands. Vertebrates (with vertebral column) appear later (birds, reptiles, and amphibian). We don’t find reptiles in rocks dating Silurean period (420 million years old) or older, but we find them in rocks dating 260 million years and younger. We don’t find mammals before 250 millions, birds before 160 millions, apes before 30 million years, and man before 2 million years.

               These bones of animals provide strong evidence of a stepwise progression, from simpler life forms to more complex and advanced (bigger relative size of brain). The complexity is evident in organs, such as eyes, also.  Darwin studied the eye. Eye is a very complex organ. How could such an organ emerge spontaneously? If theory of evolution was correct, it must have progressed from simple to complex. As it turns out there are various types of eyes. Some mollusks have just pigmented spot of photoreceptor cells. Next two improvements are invagination (forming of cup) and restriction in the size of the aperture. These two changes impart better resolution. We find animals with just these changes. Next is formation of lens for better focusing. We have animal with a proto lens. And so on, till we reach the mammalian eye.

               Darwin himself recognized the importance of gradual improvement and presence of intermediate forms. He wrote: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not have formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down”.

               We have never found the fossils of advanced animals such as a horse, rat or tiger in rocks older than 250 million years old. Dinosaurs roamed the earth from approximately 200 million to 65 million years ago. They were wiped from the face of the earth about 65 million years ago, never to come back.

               In summary, the evidence shows that there is no evidence that God exists and there is no need for God to exist. Life could have emerged, on planet Earth, without God.

               Keep in mind what I said before that there is no evidence that God does not exist.

 

100. God. Part four.

 

               Now let us present the evidence supporting the concept of God.  All the evidence is anecdotal and circumstantial. But if you have an open mind, and connect all the dots, you will arrive at the inescapable conclusion that there is a Supreme Being. We see His or His assistants’ handiworks through the examples I provide. Don’t reject them outright. If you don’t believe me, examine the raw data yourself by reading them in the books (whose list is provided) yourself. If you still do not believe, intellectual honesty demands that you should provide an alternative theory which should explain all the facts. Do not accuse authors of being dishonest or hallucinating (see blog #11-12). Did all these writers lie? Is there evidence that they were habitual liars or had a mental disease? If you still don’t believe then investigate yourself by methods (see blog #26) this mote and others have outlined. Go to the source, The Divine Current, yourself (see blog #38). It is an extremely difficult road (see blog #6), and it may take your whole life for full understanding.

               There are five lines of evidence supporting God.  

1. The beginning of the universe

2. Foretelling the future (prophecy)

3. Miracles

4. Spirits

5. Prayers are answered

Let us first start with the beginning of universe.  I have used these four books in developing this discussion.  I want to acknowledge their help with gratitude.

               1. A history of Western philosophy by Bertrand Russell

               2. A Britannica Guide to Particle Physics. Edited by Erik Gregersen

               3. The fabric of universe by Brian Green

               4.  The 4 percent universe by Richard Panek

Science believes that the universe started about 13.8 billion years ago. It started with a big explosion called  the Big Bang. Most scientists believe that all the known universe; you, me, this house, this city, this earth, the solar system, all the galaxies, all the matter including dark matter, all the energy including dark energy, all the empty space including its fields, all the Higg’s particles____________ were compressed in a tiny space which was much smaller than a single atom, as a matter of fact the size of a Planck length. A Planck length is a centimeter divided by 1 followed by 33 zeroes. May be you did not grasp the size, 1000000000000000000000000000000000 of such Planck lengths will fit in a centimeter. For a sense of proportion, remember a million is I followed by 6 zeroes, a billion is 1 followed by nine zeroes, and a trillion is 1 followed by 12 zeroes. Because such an amount was compressed in such a space, the temperature of this singularity was incredibly high. It exploded and underwent great expansion (inflationary period) at greater than the speed of light. It cooled off, from 1032 degrees K to 109 degrees K (one billion degrees) in 100 seconds. Atoms formed about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. The first stars appeared at about 100-200 million years after the Big Bang. Our son and earth are about 5 billion years old. Earth had to cool off sufficiently for life to start. Life started about 3 billion years ago because of the electrons, which have the quality of inter-atomic bonding and chemical bonding. You and I exist because of this capacity of electrons. Our species Homo arrived on the scene about 2 million years ago.

               In 1929, Hubble made a great discovery with his telescope. He showed that the universe was not static but expanding. Furthermore the expansion velocity is proportional to the distance, farther a galaxy is faster is its speed; galaxies that are a 100 million light years from us are moving at about 5.5 million miles per hour, whereas galaxies that are 200 million light years move at about 11 million miles an hour. This is hard to believe. It is as if I throw a ball in the sky and the velocity of the ball, instead of decreasing, as the time elapses, keeps on increasing, and the ball disappears in the sky! Now Hubble and others were able to calculate the speed of the galaxies, from their distance from us, and the distance could be calculated by the shift in color spectrum of their light; distant stars appear red (red shift) and closer stars appear blue (blue shift ). Therefore, this discovery gave an irrefutable argument in support of Big Bang model and the time of its occurrence. If one goes to a site where debris is flying outwards, one can conclude that an explosion took place and one could pinpoint the time it took place by the present location and the speed of the debris and plotting it backwards.

               You may wonder, why so much detail? And why on a spiritual blog? The detail is necessary because my audiences are high school educated persons in Asia or Africa. I want to convince them that the broad principles of science of Big Bang are impeccable. If Scriptures say Earth is 5-10 thousand years old and human beings started from Adam and Eve do not believe everything that you read. Avoid the fight with science. Background microwave radiation, supernovae explosion (which showed that the speed of expansion decreased in first 7 billion years, but increased after that) provided further data supporting Big Bang model. I may not agree with the details. For instance,  the size of the universe at Big Bang may be bigger. I agree that the small size was due to the force of gravity which was pulling everything towards each other and crushing the atoms. I think that initially everything was Energy. Mass and energy are interchangeable by Einstein’s famous equation, E=MC2, where E is the energy, M is the mass, and C is the speed of light per second. The singularity was just huge, phenomenal, amount of energy. Some people equate the singularity to God (this mote doesn’t)

 

101. God. Part Five

               People may ask what is the force pushing the galaxies farther and farther outwards. It is the space itself that is expanding, or to be precise, it is the repelling force of the dark energy (73 % of the matter-energy content of the universe). To borrow an example from Green, “black specks of a poppy seed muffin are dragged apart as the dough rises in baking……the outward motion arises from the relentless outwards swelling of space itself.” As the distance between galaxies increase, due to dark energy, the speed of galaxies increases more and more ( more space, therefore more dark energy, therefore more repelling force ). That is the explanation of the strange observation of Hubble.

If you ask the scientists, where is this extra dark energy coming from, 5.5 million miles per hour for the galaxies which are 100 million light years away, you get vague, unsatisfactory answers.

               If you ask the scientists, what are these galaxies expanding into - outside the outermost limits of the universe? Is there more empty space? The answers will seem either vague, meaningless or couched with silence and irritability.  The law of conservation of energy is a fundamental law of nature and has no exceptions. It states “the total energy of an isolated system cannot change—it is said to be conserved over time. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can change form”.  Therefore the total energy pre-Big Bang ( for this discussion ignore Time. Time started at Big Bang, so truly speaking, there is no before Big Bang ), at Big Bang, 13.8 billion years after Big Bang, and 100 billion years after Big Bang should be the same.      

               If that is the case, there was tremendous amount of energy before Big Bang. But scientists claim that universe started from nothing. According to Guth, universe is the ultimate free lunch. So, what is the truth - tremendous amount of energy or nothing?

               Now, the universe, at some point has to start from absolutely and completely nothing. Philosophers, if not scientists, recognized it long ago, from Aristotle to Spinoza,  Leibniz, and then David Albert in contemporary times. Otherwise we would be forever asking the question from where did that come from?”  For instance, the universe started from a singularity at Big Bang. This started from random quantum fluctuations in the pre Big Bang world containing tremendous amount of energy. Where did that pre Big Bang energy come from? And so on.  At some point we have to start at nothing- neither quantum fields or particles,  strings, nor membranes. Otherwise we have to ask ourselves, where did they come from?

               It is worthwhile to keep in mind that there is no data, absolutely zero, before the Big Bang. Science is silent as to what was there before Big Bang. All is speculation, which puts Krauss and Stephen Hawking, at the same level as this mote. They have started with a supposition (with zero facts) that universe arose from nothing. Can anything be created from absolutely nothing, and not their nothing (their nothing is full of positive energy and an equal amount of negative energy). Why don’t they do some experiments and create some subatomic particles, or atoms, from nothing. Deep in the Soudan Mine of Minnesota where WIMP (weakly interacting massive particles) may have been found, they should put a tube with absolutely nothing (or as much vacuum as is possible on earth) for 100 years and show how many more particles were created. I predict it will be zero.

               Now, Hawking is a brilliant scientist. Why would he believe in such a preposterous idea? The reason is that he arrived at a conclusion first and then he went to find the facts (there are no facts before Big Bang) which will support his conclusion. Religion does this backward practice; scientist should not do such cheating. His pre-conceived conclusion was that there is no Creator. Therefore, it follows; the universe must have emerged spontaneously. As Sherlock Holmes famously said “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”.

               Now, Hawking knew, or should have known, that nothing can arise from nothing. It is impossible. He also knew that the law of conservation of energy predicted that there should be lot of energy pre Big Bang.  So absolute nothingness like a vacuum state did not exist. But logic demands that the universe, at some point, should start from nothing and absolutely nothing. How did he and others overcome these two problems? It was brilliant but dishonest and verbal parsing. First, they changed the definition of nothing. Nothing did not mean absolutely and completely nothing but filled with all sorts of particles, fields and energy.

               Secondly scientists postulated that there was nothing- meaning the total energy was zero.  There was a huge amount of positive ( 1080 particles in the observable universe ) and an equal amount of negative energy, cancelling each other. Nobody had any idea of negative energy, so they made the mutually attractive force of gravity the negative force. Gravity and dark force cancelled each other.

They would not have needed to resort to this intellectual dishonesty, if they had not started with the first supposition that there was no Creator. All their problems arose from that. They could not overcome the impossibility of anything i.e. the whole universe, be created from nothing.

               Why could there not be a God? Why do physicists and cosmologist reject the concept of God? God is pure energy and mindful. It is not a random, senseless, blind energy like electricity.  God is a force with an immeasurable, unfathomable, limitless mind.

               The human mind, the greatest marvel on earth, developed from monkey to man in mere two million years.  Made of billions or trillions of cells, each not conscious of their or other’s existence.  Each cell is made of chemicals derived from daily food. It has the capacity of reasoning and thought. Look at all the progress we have made in the last three hundred years. If human mind can progressively develop in 3-4 billion years, why not consider that a greater mind with a similar process of evolution can also be present.

               The believers in God are convinced that the universe could not be created from nothing. It is impossible. Therefore, it follows that there has to be a Creator. Is He capable of creating the universe from nothing? Yes, absolutely.

               One can question where did God come from? This is unknown. This writer is unable to answer this question due to its complexity.  (see blog #113).
Our answer is that we don’t know. Our small mind is not capable of answering this question, just as a cow cannot learn to read.



 

102. God. Part six

 

2. Prophecy or foretelling the future.  What is so special about prophecy? Why is it an argument in support of God or a Divine system run by His assistants with His sanction?

               No one should be able to tell the part of the future which cannot be told by any scientific means, because it does not exist.  Every day we watch the TV weather channel for the next week’s weather report.  If a man flies nonstop to Hong Kong, we can assume he will be in Hong Kong the next day (barring some unforeseen event). These are reasonable expectations even though future events cannot be told in advance.    

               On the Earth,  there are trillions of events taking place among the six billion humans, trillions of animals and plants, and innumerable inanimate objects capable of movement (like your watch). Every event takes place because something caused it and produced an effect.  First event is the cause, the second event the effect, where the second event is a consequence of the first. Where there are so many intermediate events, between the first cause and final effect, the event cannot be predicted in advance by the known laws of nature. Suppose somebody tells me that I will develop cancer of brain and die two years from now. This will be amazing if it turns out true because I have no symptoms of brain cancer and a normal brain CT scan.  How can someone predict my future death? the correct time period, cause of death?  And yet, I have personally experienced true prophecies in my lifetime.

               1. One day in 1940’s my grandfather, along with his two sons (my uncles), was sitting outside his home. A Fakir (either a common beggar or a mystic) passed by and asked for alms. My grandfather started talking to him. The Fakir said, you and one of your sons will be buried together in the same grave. Both sons, to show their love for their father, expressed their desire to be the one to have this honor. Many years went by and the prediction faded from memory. In 1947, partition of India occurred with terrible ethnic cleansing. More than 9 million people suffered from death, rape, and forced migration (largest human migration in history). Both my grandfather and one uncle were killed. The killers dug a hole under a tree and threw their bodies together in the grave.

               My other uncle, then remembered the prophecy of the Fakir. He lived over forty years after the  partition and told the story to dozens of people, including my mother. I asked my mother to repeat it to me very carefully. Two persons to be buried in the same grave is a highly unusual event. It just never happens in normal times. There is no scientific explanation of Fakir telling it in advance.

               2.  Swami Yogananda (see blog #79-81) writes in his book: ‘During my visit to India and other countries, I was buying gifts for my disciples for the annual Christmas party in USA. As I was walking in Calcutta, I saw a silver cup. I bought it as a gift for one of my disciples, Mr. Dickinson. When I gave him the gift he said “ the silver cup!” he sat down some distance away, apparently in a daze.

               Later in the night, he said “ for forty three years I have been waiting for the silver cup”

He was five years old when he had a near-drowning incident. At the last minute he saw the vision of a saint with tranquil eyes and reassuring smile. There was a dazzling multicolored light which filled all space. He was rescued by his companions. Twelve years later in 1893,he was walking with his mother in Chicago. Again there was a mighty flash of light. Few paces away, a man was walking. He recognized him as the same man he had seen when he was near drowning. He and his mother followed the man to an auditorium. His name was Swami Vivekananda, the chief disciple of Sri Ramakrishna (see Blog #7). He gave a speech. Mr. Dickinson and his mother met him afterwards. He said “ young man, I want you to stay out of water”.

               He hoped that he will be his guru. Yogi read his thoughts, “ No, my son, I am not your guru. Your teacher will come later. He will give you a silver cup”. “One night in 1925,  I prayed deeply that God would send me my guru. A few hours later, I was awakened from sleep by melody. Celestial beings were playing flutes and other instruments. After filling the air with glorious music , they went away.

               The next evening I attended your lecture for the first time, and knew my prayers had been answered.  For eleven years now I have been your disciple. Sometimes I wondered about the silver cup. I had persuaded myself, that silver cup was just a metaphor. When you gave me the gift, for the third time in my life, I saw the same dazzling flash of light. I was gazing at my guru’s gift that Swami Vivekananda had foreseen 43 years earlier___a silver cup!  Mr. Dickenson who died in 1969 told this story many times lastly in 1967 to a group of  SRF (self-realization fellowship) monks.

 

               3. Swami Yogananda writes: A veterinarian visited my guru. Afterwards, my guru said that he will die shortly. He was the father of my friend Santosh. I interceded on my friend’s behalf. My guru, Sri Yukteshwar, outlined the sequence of events that were going to happen.

“ The proud Doctor, picture of health now, will fall ill from diabetes, 2 weeks from now. His death would have occurred 6 weeks from today, but for your intercession, his life has been extended for another 6 months. He will recover from his illness. In order to live he has to fulfill certain conditions. He has to wear an astrological bangle and , after his recovery, not to eat meat

               The doctor won’t do that. After 6 months, he will suddenly drop dead.

               Everything happened as Sri Yukteshwar had predicted.

 

               To be continued

 

103. God part seven

 

               4. Sri Yogananda writes: My Master and I were visiting Kashmir for the first time “ English strawberries for sale!”, an old woman said. Master was curious about this new fruit. He bought some. As soon as I tasted one, I spat out. “Sir, what a sour fruit! I could never like strawberries”

               My Master said, “You will like them. One day, in America, your hostess will serve them with sugar and cream…she will mash them with a fork. You will taste them and say ‘ what delicious strawberries’. Then you will remember this day in Simla”

               Once I was a guest of Alice T. Hasey in West Somerville MA. My hostess mashed some strawberries with a fork, and served them with cream and sugar. “ The fruit is rather tart, you will like it this way” I took a mouthful and exclaimed “ what delicious strawberries”

At once, my Master’s prediction, which had faded from memory, came back to me.   

 

               5.  Swami Yogananda writes: “My sister’s husband was not in the best of health. The thought came to me that he was not going to live long. My sister surmised my thoughts, and said “my husband is sick while I am healthy, but I want you to know that I am to die first. It won’t be long”. My sister died eighteen months after her prediction.

On her last day, she wore her bridal dress.

What is the occasion? Her husband asked.

“This is my last day of service to you on earth” she had a heart attack that day and died.

               6. Swami Yogananda writes. “In 1918, the great yogi Swami Pranabananda (the disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya) visited my Ranchi school. A boy asked him “Sir, shall I be a monk?” The saint replied, “No, a bride is waiting for you.” The boy eventually married.

               7. Swami Yogananda writes. “During the same visit, I accompanied my father to see the great yogi where he was temporarily staying. His prediction, which he had given in 1905, came rushing back to me. “Your life belongs to the path of renunciation and yoga. I shall see you again, with your father, later on.”

               8. Swami Yogananda writes. “One day in my Ranchi school, a boy named Kashi, a brilliant youth of twelve, asked me “Sir, what will be my fate?”

‘You shall soon be dead’. An irresistible power forced the answer from me.

The boy died the same year.

There is a very interesting saga of Kashi. I am not giving the details because they are not necessary for this discussion... You can read them yourselves. Suffice is to say that Kashi was reborn, and Swami Yogananda helped him, in finding, a master.

               9. Field Marshal Ayub Khan was the president of Pakistan, in sixties. He developed a plan of Basic Democracy (in contrast to adult franchise). In order to popularize the plan in the masses, money was allocated for its publicity and praise. A cash prize was announced for the winner of the contest of writing the best book on this subject. A great mystic by the name of Mr. Qudsi lived in Bhaun, Pakistan(1). The great poet Iqbal had visited him and wrote a couplet in his praise. One of his disciples, a teacher, happened to visit Mr. Qudsi. The teacher had a dream that night, that he was putting a garland of flowers around the president’s neck, and the president giving him a check. The dream came months in advance of the announcement of the book and a prize for the winner. The teacher writes in his book about Mr. Qudsi, that when he woke up he thought, that he, a hundred and fifty rupees per month, middle school teacher, putting flowers on the neck of the president!

               Once the contest for the book was announced, he thought of participating. He spent a lot of time in the library. His book won the first prize. One day he was summoned by the divisional commissioner. The commissioner told him that the president was stopping at their division. The teacher was chosen to welcome the president at the dais and garland him, and the president was going to give him the check for the first prize.

               After reading this incident in the book, this mote contacted the author, who was now a professor in an Islamabad university. I wanted to hear it from his own lips. He verified it, and gave some more detail.

               Mr Qudsi was a qalander. This mote once, briefly, met Mr. Qudsi

               10. Dilip Kumar Roy writes. In 1925, I was groping in the dark. I did not know which way to turn. There was no end to my vacillation. A friend suggested to meet a mighty yogi, Baroda Babu. I am not going to tell the details of the meeting here, because I want to pick this incident again, in my next topic of ‘ miracles’.

               He met Baroda Babu by accident, twelve years later, in 1937. He had been in Sri Aurobindo’s ashram for 9 years. He thanked the yogi for giving him the right advice, and how happy and blessed he felt at his guru’s feet in Pondicherry. Mr Babu said “ that is  all as it should be. Only I want to tell you that you won’t realize Krishna in Pondicherry. For that you will have to await the advent of a highly evolved lady. When she will come to assist you as your disciple, then only you will get your heart’s desire”. He accepted her(Indra Devi) as his disciple in 1949.

I have already narrated his first supernatural incident, in 1951, of lighting up the figures of Lord Krishna and Mira( blog 86 ). It boggles the mind, that Baroda Babu could see the events 12 years in advance.

               11.  Dilip Kumar Roy writes. One year ago, a neighbor in Belgaum asked Indra Devi what she thought of the proposal of a Bomber pilot asking the hand of his daughter. Indra told them that she had a vision of the pilot dying in an air crash. The parents, declined the marriage. One year later on 1st June 1959, the young pilot died in an air crash.

               12 Brother Lawrence predicted on Friday, that he will die on Monday (blog 15-7). That is how it happened.

               13. In blog 91, I have narrated the incident of Paul Brunton meeting Chandi Das. Chandi Das , reluctantly, narrated some incidents of Brunton’s future. Some of them came true, by the time book was published. We don’t know about the rest, since Brunton did not mention them in his subsequent books

 

To be continued

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

(1) Qalandar-a-Zaman Shahzada Assad-ul-Rehman Qudsi by Doctor Mehmoud-ul-Rehman

 

104. God. Part eight.

 

3. Miracles. A miracle may be tentatively defined as an event which defies the then known laws of nature. It may still obey, and most probably does, some unknown, yet to be discovered, laws of nature. To me, it is a grandiose event. The supreme God has shown another manifestation of His power, which reason cannot explain, which science cannot maintain. Men of God possess these powers the most, magicians less, and psychics the least( psychics are ordinary people who possess some abnormal power, such as locating a missing object or see things at a distance ).

Here are some examples of miracles

               1.Dilip Kumar Roy writes. (I have narrated it in blog 88). Her guru sang a song which put her in deep smadhi. As soon as she came out of smadhi, she asked the others whether she should get some prasad (consecrated candy, traditionally served at the culmination of a religious ceremony to feed people ). None was available. She walked down the steps and got some sandy earth. She took it in her folded hands and went into smadhi. It turned into granulated prasad. It was distributed to the three persons encircling her. Then she folded her empty hands and went again into smadhi. When she opened her hands there was some more prasad. Dilip put the remaining prasad in an envelope. He also stored the sandy soil, which was originally been given to Indra, in a separate envelope. They went for dinner. After dinner, Indra, told Dilip that the soil has also partially turned into prasad. Dilip rushed to his room. Envelope was opened. Part of the mud was still mud, the rest had turned into Prasad

               Now tell me, which science can transform sandy earth into sweets?

               2.  This mote knows the person who had this experience. He suffered from a chronic illness for years, which affected his daily life. He had surgery, but that did not help. Soon he started vomiting blood. He fell down in streets couple of times and was taken to  hospital. He was diagnosed with cancer ( although that part is not documented). One day he met a durvesh. The durvesh said that in a far flung area a Qalander lives, only he has the ability to cure him. That man took that difficult journey, (considering his sickness). He met the Qalander the following day. The Qalander heard his story. He gave that man some goat milk to drink, and told him, “I have sealed your disease. It won’t progress. You won’t have vomiting any more. All your symptoms will gradually get better, and you will be alright in a month”. That is exactly what happened. Several years have since passed.

              

               3 and 4.. Data Gunj Bakhash writes ( see blog 62-4. I have already written these two episodes, but I will repeat for people who have not read Part 2) One time I had some problem which I could not solve so I went to a mystic in Toos. The sage was alone in a mosque. He stated narrating my problem to a pillar, before I had a chance to tell him the problem. I said , Sir, who you are talking to?  He said God told him to talk to this pillar. Then he gave me the answer to my problem.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             One day my murshad and I were travelling from Bait-ul-jin to Damascus. It was raining. I had trouble walking in mud. I looked at my murshad . His clothes and shoes were dry. When I asked him , he said “From the time I adopted twakal…( complete surrender to the will of God )………………… God has saved me from mud and rain”

                    5.    Data Gunj Bakhash writes. In a village Salang, in Ferghana ( now Uzbekistan ) I went to see a sage. The sage said  “ my son, you have been in my notice from such and such date” when I thought about the date, that was the date and year of my first day on the journey towards God. An old lady, Fatima, lived with him. He said, “ Fatima, bring something to honor this durvesh” she brought a platter of fresh grapes, although this was not the season for grapes. There were also fresh dates in that platter, whereas one did not have dates in Ferghana.

                   6. Data Gunj Bakhash writes. One time two other Durveshes and I went to see a famous saint, Ibn ul allah, who lived in a small village near Mecca ( Saudi Arabia ). Each one of us decided to think of something and see if the mystic can surmise the question in his heart. I, for myself, wanted an explanation of the verses of Hussain Ben Mansoor Halaj ( a famous majzoob saint who was hanged for his blasphemy ). The other durvesh wanted the saint to pray for his recovery from some sickness. The third, wanted to eat an exquisite sweet dish. When we arrived, he had already dictated the explanation of Mansoor’s verses on a piece of paper. He passed his hand on the second durvesh’s belly, and his sickness went away. To the third durvesh he said, “ you want the sweet dish, which worldly people desire, while you are wearing the dress of a durvesh. You should choose between the two.”

To be continued

 

105. God part Nine

 

             7. A writer (Rasheed Amjad ) narrated his encounter with Shahab ( see blog 65-6) in the book

 Zikar-a- Shahab.   There were several class volumes on Iqbal (blog 56). I thought, ‘how nice if I had these volumes’.  After a while Shahab got up and took down those volumes from the shelf and said, “now that you have asked for these books, have them.” I said, but, I never asked for them. A mysterious smile appeared on his face. He said, “Have them anyway”

               8. Shahab writes (see blog 66. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2) that his hidden and invisible guide was ‘Ninety’, whom he never met in person. “I received written instructions from him for almost next 25 years. The instructions would come as letters, which I would sometime find under my pillow, in a shelf, or sometime they would materialize out of thin air, in the room, or outside walking. I had the orders to destroy them as soon as possible. One time I thought of saving a little piece as a holy relic. As soon as I thought of it, a letter came. It stated that in a few minutes lights will go off, and my hands will be tied with live snakes for half an hour. I was terrified. I asked for forgiveness, and said I won’t do it in future. Within minutes reply came. It said “ Ha Ha . So you are afraid of just two snakes. Have you ever thought of countless worms which will be in your grave, etc………….”

               How did ‘Ninety’ know what Shahab was thinking!

               9. I have already narrated the incident of Dilip Kumar Roy and the lamp (blog 86. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2). He had a piece of art in the form of Figures of Lord Krishna and Mira in his prayer room. It had a three pronged plug. The figures would light up when the plug was inserted in the socket on the wall. Every night before going to bed, Dilip would diligently remove the plug.

               As he was praying, he heard a clear voice saying, “go and see, He has lit the bulb”

He at once went to the prayer room. Lord’s figure was alive with light! The plug was back in the wall.

After a while doubts start assailing him again. What if he had not taken out the plug in the first place?

He carefully let the figures stay luminous by keeping the plug in the socket and started praying again for Lord to show him the miracle again by removing the plug.

A voice said; “doubting still; go, the plug has been taken out.”

He went to the prayer room. The plug was out. The figures were in darkness!

               10. Dilip Kumar Roy writes about his meeting with Baroda Babu (blog 97).  Dilip had at that time thought (mistakenly) that Sri Aurobindo did not want him as disciple. The Yogi said he will find out, and went into meditation and smadhi right there. He came out after about half an hour, and told Dilip emphatically that Sri Aurobindo has already accepted him as disciple, and will call him when he (Dilip ) was ready. He said Sri Aurobindo had just told him. Dilip was thoroughly confused.  He thought, he was either day dreaming or this was an elaborate hoax.

               Dilip writes, “The Yogi smiled at my discomfiture”. He said, “You disbelieve me. Have you got a chronic pain in your right abdomen?”

               “I have,” I said, startled, “It is a hernia. “I know. Now tell me- didn’t Sri Aurobindo tell you to undergo an operation before you enter the path of yoga?”   I was dumbfounded for Sri Aurobindo had written to me the identical words.

 

               11.  Many times the fragrance of sandalwood had come from the hand and feet of Indra Devi. Sometimes when she was in God-intoxicated state, whosoever she touched, also started smelling of fragrance.

               12. By mistake a surgeon left a piece of gauze in the abdomen of Indra Devi’s sister. The patient had high fever with rigors. About 2 inches of gauze could be seen protruding from the incision. Indra Devi entered the room and held her sister’s hand for 4 hours. The patient felt peace permeating. The doctor came to examine her prior to surgery. The gauze had vanished. Fever and pain subsided. Strangely, Indra had fever for 3 days.

               13. A highly spiritual devotee that I know was watching a film on the life of Krishna (or Ram). He did not complete the film and went upstairs to his bedroom, to sleep. He had a TV in his bedroom. He made sure the TV was off and tried to go to sleep. He found glow of light in the room. He turned; saw TV on and the same film showing. He at once exclaimed, “Oh this is a miracle”.    

               14. St Teresa of Avila writes about her levitation. (See blog 76 - I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2) “Once when we were together in choir and I was on my knees and about to communicate, my body was raised from the ground. It caused me the greatest distress. It seemed to me the most extraordinary thing, and I thought there would be a great deal of talk about it, so I ordered the nuns not to speak of it.”

               15 and 16. (see Blog 78). I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2)  St. Teresa was earnestly begging Jesus to restore vision to a totally blind man. The Lord appeared and talked to her. Then He said that He would always grant her anything because she would not ask Him anything which did not tend to His glory. The vision was restored within a week. A man was gravely ill. His sufferings, for two months, were intolerable. He was in such torture that he would cut into his own body. She was moved to such pity for him that she begged earnestly to Jesus to cure him. On the very next day,  he was free from that pain.  

 

To be continued

 

106. God Part Ten

 

               17. Paul Brunton writes: (see blog 89. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2) One night he suddenly woke up around three a. m. The atmosphere seemed to be charged. The room was totally dark. Suddenly he became aware of a bright object at the foot of the bed. He saw the face and form of His Holiness Shri Shankara!  A face smiled and seem to say “Be humble and then you shall find what you seek!”

               18. In another book (I forget the name of the book ) Brunton wrote of the face of Maharishee appearing in a British park in daylight. Maharishi was thousands of miles away in India. Maharishee gave a message.

               19. Paul Brunton wrote: “In Banares, I went to meet Swami Vishudananda, a yogi, famous for his miraculous powers. He could create any perfume out of thin air. He had learnt this art after studying under a Tibetan master for twelve years. He took a handkerchief from me and asked me what perfume would I like to have? I asked for white jasmine. Air was filled with white jasmine fragrance.

               What next? This time I chose attar of roses. He evoked the perfume of attar of roses in a corner of handkerchief.

               My next choice was violets. Again he was successful. When I drove home, I showed the handkerchief to three persons. Everybody recognized the three scents, so it was not a hallucination.

               Next day the yogi brought a bird, a strangled sparrow, dead for about an hour, back to a short life.

               20. Swami Yogananda, as a boy, also met Swami Vishudananda ( Gandha Baba ). He asked for two perfumes; one for his palm and other for a scentless white flower in a vase. When he arrived at his home, his sister confirmed the scents, one coming from his palm and the other from a normally scentless flower.

               21. Swami Yogananda writes; “I was deep in meditation, in a store room in Ranchi school, India, when I saw a vision of Western faces. I thought they were American. Some of them, later on, I instantly recognized. I right away understood, that I have been told to go to America. I said goodbye to students and staff, and told them that I am going to America. Few hours after the vision, I was on a train to Calcutta to meet my Master.”

               22. Swami Yogananda writes (see blog 79. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2); Therese Neumann. Sri Yogananda had heard about Therese and was keen to see her. An opportunity presented in 1935. Therese, born in 1898, was from Germany. She was famous because she had not eaten or taken any liquids for twelve years, except a consecrated wafer, paper-thin, and the size of a small coin, each day. She was also famous for the fact  that every Friday, Stigmata, sacred wounds of Jesus, would appear on her corresponding body parts, and she would be experiencing the Passion of Christ.

               Therese became blind and paralyzed, when she was twenty, because of an accident. She miraculously regained her sight through prayers to St Therese of Lisieux ( see blog 13-14) in 1923. She stopped eating and drinking in 1923, and the stigmata started appearing in 1926. Therese only knew ordinary German, but during the trance, she would utter phrases in ancient Aramaic, and at appropriate times she would speak in Greek or Hebrew languages.

               Sri Yogananda and his American companions met her and he was struck by her simplicity and holiness. She was a picture of health with rosy cheeks. She confirmed with her own lips that she does not eat or drink (except the wafer). She also told that she was a helpless onlooker as she watches the ‘Passion of Christ’ from Thursday midnight to Friday afternoon. Her wounds bleed at that time.

They were given permission to watch the saint during the trance. Just before entering the room, Yogananda put himself in communion with her brain, so that he could see what she was seeing. As he entered the chamber he was awestruck at the terrifying spectacle. Therese was lying in bed covered with white sheet. There was a continuous one inch stream of blood coming out of the lower eyelids of her eyes. Blood was also coming out of her chest wound. Cloth around her forehead was covered with blood from the stigmata of the crown of thorns. I could see she was watching Jesus carrying the heavy timbers of the cross. At one point Jesus fell and Therese lifted her head in consternation.

 

To be continued

 

107. God Part eleven

 

              We were discussing miracles.       

               23. Swami Yogananda wrote:  (seen blog 79-81) “When I was 12 years old, I happened to visit Banaras.  My father wanted me to meet his two friends, Kedar Nath Babu, and Swami Pranabananda (see blog 103). Since I did not know Mr. Babu’s address I went to the Swami first. Swami was in meditation in lotus position. Swami said that he will locate Mr. Babu for me. He went into a trance like state.”

               After a while, Yogananda became restless, since the man had not left his seat to provide any help. But the yogi reassured him, not to worry, since Mr. Babu will be there in half an hour.

               Soon somebody was climbing the stairs. That was Mr. Babu.

               “Who told you to come here?” Yogananda asked (since no messenger had been sent).

               “Less than an hour ago, I had just finished my bath in Ganges, when Swami Pranabananda approached me, and told me to accompany him to his place where Bhagbati’s son (Yogananda) was waiting for me….”

               “I was incredulous. I was dumbfounded. Swami Pranabananda had not left my sight for a moment, since I had met him an hour ago!”

               24.  Swami Yogananda writes. “The Master left for Calcutta on an urgent business. Next day he sent me a post card that he was arriving at such and such train, and Dijen (another disciple) and I should meet him at the railway station.

               Next, I received a telepathic message from him that he was not coming at the mentioned train.

I was resting in the room, when the room was filled with a dazzling light. Sri Yukteshwar’s form materialized!

Instinctively, I rose up from the chair, and touched his shoes. I could clearly feel the texture of his dress, the gritty surface of the shoes, and the pressure of his toes, in them. My guru said ‘this is not an apparition, but my flesh and blood form. I have been divinely commanded to give you this experience, rarely known on earth.’

               ‘Meet me at the station, with Dijen, at 10o clock train. I will be wearing the same dress. I will be following a little boy carrying a silver jug.’

               Dijen and I went to the station. The master descended and walked slowly in the wake of a small lad carrying a silver jug!”

               25. Swami Yogananda writes. “ One day Sri Yukteswar told us the story of his childhood friend and fellow disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya, Rama. Rama contracted cholera and was deathly ill. Two doctors were called but they could not save him and left, declaring that he was going to die, soon. Yukteswar rushed to his guru, twice, and was reassured each time that Rama will be alright. Soon Rama died. Yukteswar went to his guru sobbing. His guru told him to control himself and meditate with him. Whole afternoon and night passed. At dawn, the next day, the master said ‘ you are still perturbed…..you want some medicine…..take some castor oil from this lamp and put few drops in your friend’s mouth’. I said, what is the use. He has been dead since yesterday afternoon. But, I obeyed him. I opened the clenched mouth of my dead friend and poured oil drop by drop. At the seventh drop, he shivered violently and sat up. ‘ I saw Lahiri Mahasaya in a blaze of light….wake up!…..come with Yukteswar to see me’ he said.

 

4. Spirits, or proof of life after death. Spirits of people who were once alive is a clear proof of life after death. According to science, or rationalists, there cannot be any life after death. All functions of the body cease after death. Brain disintegrates quickly. There is gradual death, decay and disintegration of all cells. Cells are necessary for any function. Dead cells, chemicals, and/or DNA may persist. When buried the dead body is eaten up by insects, only bones remain. Chemicals go into soil. Nutrients are recycled into plants and animals. Water evaporates. Perhaps, centuries after the death of a person, all atoms and molecules get separated from each other and become part of air, soil, water, animals. According to the law of conservation of matter-energy, matter-energy cannot be destroyed, total amount remains the same. Therefore, a dead person is transformed in millions of pieces of matter-energy.

               Science does not accept that some part of one’s body is preserved. What is preserved? How is it preserved, under what law of nature? Where is it preserved? Why is it preserved? How long is it preserved? Where is the evidence or proof of its existence?

               To scientist, spirits cannot and do not exist. The persons who have seen spirits are either liars, gullible superstitious fools, or suffer from some mental disease. Finally, if everything else fails, there is only one more explanation.  It is possible with all the billions of planets that there are other forms of life. Some of them may have entered in space-age centuries before us. Therefore, spirits maybe visitors from outer space. This argument is hard to refute. Spirits which we discuss in this book were once alive  as humans on planet earth.  Spirits are not visitors from other planets, not disembodied inhabitants of this planet who never possessed a body ( jinns, genii. See page 42 of ‘ A search in secret India’ by Brunton, page 92‘ A search in secret Egypt’ by Brunton). Here are some examples.

 

108. God part twelve

The section on spirits and life after death continues:

          1.  In a village, Miani, Pinddadan –khan , Pakistan, there lived a young Hindu boy in 1930s (1). One night in a dream, he met the spirit of Prophet Muhammad pbuh . He instantly recognized the holy prophet and said Sir, what are you doing so far away? The prophet replied “son, I have come here only for your sake.” prophet asked if there was a mosque nearby? I think, they said the Namaz (I don’t have the author’s book in front of me. I am writing from memory. The essentials are correct).   Prophet took the boy to Kaaba (the center of Islam) and converted him to Islam (the boy, in later life, showed the place to his wife and children. It was exactly as it was in dream).

               The holy prophet said “from now onwards you are a Muslim. You have tough time ahead of you. Great troubles will fall on you.  Remain steadfast.  I will pray to Allah for you.” It is worth noting, the holy prophet did not say I will help you, but I will pray to God to help you.   The boy remained Muslim, despite his parents begging him to stay Hindu. At partition in 1947, all his family left for India, but he stayed in Pakistan. He became highly educated and retired as a Principal of a local college. He wrote his biography  Al-zulmat-a-fin Noor   by Ghazi Ahmed.   

               One day a visitor came to his house. The visitor said he has a message from Prophet Muhammad pbuh and his dearest companion Abu Bakar pbuh. The man had some chronic leg problem.  He had been in pain. Doctors advised amputation.   Just before surgery, he fell asleep.   He had a dream, in which he saw people going in a building. He followed others. There he saw the holy prophetpbuh. The prophet told him that his leg has been cured. Then he pointed to a man by a table and said ‘that is my friend Abu Bakarpbuh .  He has a message for you to carry.  Abu Bakar told him to memorize your name and address and to personally deliver the message to you - Ghazi Ahmed.   That is why he had come.   Here he thought that the visitor had read his book and wanted to meet the author.   He had not even heard of the book.

               2.  I have recounted Swami Ramdas’s vision of Jesus Christ ( see blog 85. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2)  Ramdas was in a cave in Himalayas. He had been fasting (except water) for 5 days, thinking incessantly of God. There was no light in the cave. Suddenly, one night, the cave was filled with a strange light. Ramdas opened his eyes, and found a shining person sitting before him. Something in him at once told him that this was the great prophet Jesus Christ. He was dressed in a long chocolate colored robe. Locks of hair were falling on his shoulders. His face showed utmost sweetness and serenity, glowing with divine radiance. Most prominent were his eyes which glowed like stars. Ramdas was transfixed and went into ecstasies. There was another man with him but Ramdas’s eyes were only on Christ. Christ spoke a few words, but Ramdas could not understand him. This vision lasted for maybe few seconds. Ramdas was lost in ecstasy for the whole night

               3. I have already recounted this incident of vision of Lord Krishna ( see blog 86. - I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2),   In April 1943, he was party to a wonderful event. He was visiting his friend Sri Krishnaprem in Mirtola, India. In the evening he was singing with deep emotion to his three friends a deeply spiritual song that written by him. The song is “ Krishna: the evergreen”. As he reached the last line, he forgot himself and tears started flowing down his cheeks. 

               When the song ended, a deep silence ensued. Some eyes were teary. One of them said, “ You know Ma was standing, listening at the door”.  They were horrified, because Ma ( guru of Krishnaparem) was deathly sick and bedridden. They rushed to her room. She was sitting in her bed oblivious in smadhi.

When she came out of smadhi, she asked them. Did you see Him? “ See who?” “ Krishna was here. First he came for a second in my room……and stepped across the threshold……I could not follow Him that way…….till I reached the verandah……..and saw Him standing beside You (Dilip), listening…….Yes, Baba …..I did see Him, with open eyes….as I often do…….You didn’t see?”

“No, Ma, but I did feel…….”

               But she went on…… “And He was standing…..beside you……..in person……looking so…..so tenderly…..at you……And I….I appealed to Him: “ O Thakur, give him the blessed boon of vision…so ..so he may see You….You Yourself have come down to hear his song….blessed blessed boy”

I bowed down, kissed her feet and wept. Krishnaparem later said that he also had felt His presence vividly.  

.

               4. I have already recounted this incident of Data Gunj Bakhash ( see blog 64.  I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2) In 1918 there was an epidemic of plague in Lahore. Three sons of a rich titled man of Lahore named Rai Bhahadar Saran Das fell victim to the disease. Three top physicians of Lahore, Col Bhola Nath, Col Amir Chand, Col Sutherland (principal of King Edward medical college) treated them but of no avail. Rai Bhahadar was disconsolate. He narrates ” One night while everybody was asleep, I saw a white bearded person wearing a shining dress, with a staff in one hand and a rosary in other, reciting something at the foot of my son, Gopal Das’s, bed. At seeing a stranger I became worried and asked “who are you?”. He did not reply and kept on reciting. Then he went to my other son Roop Ram’s bed and did the same. Then that venerable person came to me and said,” I am your neighbor Gunj Bakhash. I could not stand your sorrow and anguish. So I came to pray. Now don’t worry. Merciful God will cure them”. All three sons recovered.

 

109. God Part Thirteen

 

The section on spirits and life after death continued.

               5. A restless spirit. Shahab writes ( see blog 65-6 ). “I was allotted a house at 18 Civil Lines Cuttack, Odisha, India. It had the reputation of being haunted. Strange events started happening. One night the light went out and then came back automatically. Somebody knocked at the door softly, three times. As I opened the door, there was smell of perfume, rustling of silk dress, and a white ring of smoke. Another night, cigarette case got opened and couple of cigarettes were lying on the bed. One night I could not find my slippers. They were later found, rolled up, in the pillow. Every third or fourth night, faint knock at the door would occur. All the events were pleasant, mischievous, nothing sinister.

               One night, there was sudden silence followed by an explosion. For the next several months, for approximately three and a half hours each night (from about 11pm to 3 am), I was harassed and persecuted. I was not physically harmed. Here are some examples. Almost daily there was rain of stones and bones, which later left awful smell of dead fish, burnt peppers, or gutter. Once, whole day and night, whatever I would eat would have stones or sand in it. I peeled a banana; its center was filled with sand, like a thermometer is filled with mercury. I had a dining room table weighing 150 to 200 pounds, it started rising in the air, till the china on it was hit by the blades of ceiling fan and went smashing. Then, the table came down with a crash. Its’ one leg grazed my right big toe which is numb till today. Sometimes telephone would ring for an hour. One night it was raining heavily, somebody rang a bicycle bell, and yelled ‘postman! Telegram for you’ I opened the door. A uniformed postman was outside. When I extended my hand, instead of the postman there was a human skeleton, laughing, its upper and lower teeth striking each other. I ran inside and closed the door. There was sound of nails scratching the door for few minutes. Sometimes red blood would come from the taps. Sometimes I would hear the sounds of horses running outside.

               All were not illusions and hallucinations, because each morning before my 2 servants would come from their quarters, I would gather all the stones, bricks, and bones, from the room and dump them outside in the pond, so that they should not know what was happening. The stones would be dry, despite heavy rain outside. My obstinate nature prevented me from leaving. I relied on verses of Holy Quran for protection from evil forces. The verses had great power. One night I played my gramophone. Instead of the singer’s voice, screeching, terrifying screams or a woman’s sobbing came out. I wrote a famous verse of Quran, in Arabic, on a piece of paper and put the paper on the record. Screams stopped and singer’s voice came. I removed the paper, and the terrifying screams resumed.

               As a test, I wrote the Urdu translation of the verse on the record. It did not work. I wrote it in Roman numerals, it did not work. It worked only if written in Arabic. Ultimately I found the truth. Eighteen to twenty years ago, a young Hindu woman named Bimla Kumari, a college student, was smothered to death and buried in that house, by her British lover, an officer. She was in advanced pregnancy and the lover killed her to hide the affair. He had since died. The old mother of Bimla was alive and still waiting for her daughter in Allahabad. The spirit of Bimla was trying to communicate with the mother.

               Secondly, she also wanted her bones to be properly taken care of  as per Hindu religious customs. The spirit of her British lover was trying to prevent this because he was evil. He was using all means to scare me as he had done to all previous tenants. He wanted me to abandon the house and keep his evil deeds hidden.

               Bimla’s mother was informed of her death.On her request, the local government had the corner of the room excavated.   Her bones were found. Her body was cremated in the proper Hindu custom with a burial ghat.  The house was no longer haunted, evil stopped, and peace prevailed.

               6.  I have already recounted the spirit of Sri Yukteswar coming back after his death, in a Bombay hotel room, and talking to Yogananda for about 2 hours (blog 80. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2).              Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar.

This is the most amazing, unprecedented story in all of the spiritual or religious literature. I cannot say enough about its uniqueness. Never before has a person returned after his death to tell people of his after death experiences except as a spirit.

               Readers must, by now, be familiar with Sri Yukteswar, the guru of Sri yogananda. About three months after his death, he reappeared in a Bombay hotel room where Sri Yogananda was staying. It happened in afternoon while he was sitting and meditating in bed. The whole room was transformed with light and splendor. Sri Yogananda was filled with ecstasy as he saw Sri Yukteswar. He tightly embraced his master, Sri Yukteswar

“ My son” the master said, tenderly

“ it is really me, in flesh and blood body….from cosmic atoms I created an entirely new body, exactly like that cosmic-dream physical body…….. buried in the sands of Puri”

 He was resurrected in another planet Hiranyaloka (Illumined Astral Planet ). The inhabitants of that planet were highly developed spiritually, but still they had some impurities that required further purification. Sri Yukteswar was assigned, by God, to help them in the purification process.

               7. Swami Yogananda writes. “An aged woman (Ma) was Sri Yukteswar’s disciple. On the evening of March 16, 1936, Ma arrived at the ashram and asked to see her guru.

               ‘Why, Master died a week ago!’

               ‘This morning at 10o clock he passed in his usual walk before my door! I talked to him for several minutes in the bright outdoors.

 

To be continued

 

 

110. God Part Fourteen

 

The section on spirits and life after death continues

 

               8. Sri Daya Mata writes about her guru, Swami Yogananda, in her book ‘ finding the joy within you’.One day (after his death), as she was praying in front of his picture, for some guidance regarding an important matter, his living form emerged from that photo image.” Guruji blessed me and…..”

               9. St Teresa of Avila saw Jesus Christ many times ( blog 77. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2) First, the Lord was pleased to reveal to her only His hands, the beauty of which was indescribable. This was her first vision of Jesus Christ with the eyes of her mind. She never had any vision of Jesus with worldly eyes

A few days later she saw the Divine face

The Lord later granted her the favor of seeing Him wholly, on many occasions.

He showed Himself to her in various forms: in His resurrection body, His wounds, as He was on the Cross, in the Garden, and sometimes He would be carrying the Cross. She was very desirous of seeing the color of His eyes, or His height, but could never do so, the image would disappear altogether.

               For skeptics who might say that she may have imagined that she saw Jesus. Here is an event in which the person she saw was Jesus because a very powerful miracle was performed, which only he could perform (Blog 78. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2). St Teresa was earnestly begging Jesus to restore vision to a totally blind man. The Lord appeared and talked to her. Then He said that He would always grant her anything she asked, because she won’t ask Him anything which did not tend to His glory. The vision was restored within a week.

               10. St Teresa of Avila saw Fray Peter of Alcantara many times ( blog 78. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2). He did severe penances for forty seven years. He slept only for an hour and a half each night for forty years. What sleep he took was sitting down. He could not lie down in his cell which was only four and a half feet long. He never wore a hood or shoes. His only dress was a habit of sackcloth. It was a very common thing for him to take food only once in three days. Sometimes he would go without food for a week. Once he spent three years in a house of his Order, and could not have recognized a single friar, because he never raised his eyes. Since his death she had more discussions with him than when he was alive. He advised her on many subjects. She beheld him in great bliss. He always appeared as a glorified body. He told her that the penances he had done been a happy thing for him, since they had won him such a great reward.

               11. I have already mentioned the pilot who died in an air crash.( blog 103). His spirit came in a vision to Indra Devi. Here is an excerpt from Indra’s letter to the bereaved mother:

“ A. came yesterday afternoon in my vision. He kept alternately opening and closing his fists and looked away while talking…….. He burst into tears and said: “ They ( the airdrome people ) are not telling the truth, Ma. I did what they said. They were sending just the opposite message (i.e, not to bail out)”

               Confirmation of Indra’a vision came in a most unexpected way…..A.’s radio communication with the airport had been overheard by an independent source who reported A. had flown around and around, sending frantic messages to the airport authorities who directed him to save the plane and not bail out.              

               12. I have already written an account of the soul of Mirabai coming repeatedly to Indra Devi, ( blog 88. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2)  Mirabai is one of the most famous saints of India. Her songs of love and yearning for Lord Krishna have been sung by devotees for the last five centuries. Her spirit started communicating with Indra. Indra became a ward of Saint Mira. Mira sang her songs in original Hindi of that time to Indra, who would then dictate them to Dilip, who would then sing them back to Indra. She eventually dictated more than eight hundred of such songs. The songs were in a language that Indra did not even know!( her folks spoke Punjabi and Urdu, although Urdu is similar to Hindi ). Here is an account of her first visit:

“ One morning while Dada was singing in his flat, Indra saw a beautiful lady dressed in Rajasthani dress. She was slim, extremely graceful and had the most lovely eyes. She sat next to Dada, beating time, and seemed to be lost in music. Indra wondered why she was not wearing the white ashram dress of other ladies. “ She must be a visitor or a close friend of Dada.” Indra decided, but when the lady got up to leave with the others, she cast no shadows and her feet did not quite touch the earth.

               13. Finally, no body, in history has, while still alive, become one’s own spirit connected with his motionless body, except Paul Brunton!

I have already narrated the circumstances, which made this unprecedented event happen ( see blog

92) I will narrate only the part when he became the spirit, in the Great Pyramid:

 

‘The other priest made him lie flat on the stone sarcophagus. He did something. Brunton felt an ascending paralysis, which started from his feet and rose to his brain. He was conscious but completely paralyzed. He felt like being going out of a hole and passing out in space.

He was free.

He had changed into a mental being. He felt blissfully free, in this fourth dimension.

Somebody turned him from a horizontal to a standing position. He was both standing and floating simultaneously.

He gazed down upon the deserted body of flesh and bone, which was lying prone and motionless on the stone block.

He noted an umbilical cord like faint silvery string connecting him, the new him, to the motionless body on the stone.

A distinct idea formed in his mind;

“………..now I have proven that I am a soul. I do not need convincing anymore. I can exist apart from my body.”

 

111. God Part Fifteen

 

5. Prayer. There is no more convincing proof of the existence of God than His answering to a strange and unique prayer. Sometimes it is not unique but has the quality of last appeal, “God! In this whole universe, only You can help me”

When such prayers are answered, the strange circumstances make it extremely unlikely that it is a coincidence; the only other possible explanation. But if you are bent upon rejecting it as an intervention of God, you can always fall back on probability, according to which everything is possible; as Brian Green explains, if you throw the 693 double-sided pages of ‘War and Peace’, there is about one in 101878 chance (10 9 make a billion ) that they will fall in exact order. See, it is possible.

I will provide 4 examples of unique prayers answered, due to their uniqueness, or just the will of God. I have already narrated them in other books. I feel guilty to repeat them. I repeat them, mainly not to break the narrative, and also the other books may not be available to the reader (although they are  available, free, at the internet, but people in developing countries don’t have easily available computers and electricity) or he may not take the trouble to get the book (not many people care about God)         

                                                                                                                                                                                                          1. Shahab’s prayer (see blog 65). “Then I prayed to God with utmost sincerity that I don’t know if the story about Bibi Fatimah is correct or not. Oh Allah, I beg you to allow the spirit of Fatimah to ask her exalted father to grant my request. The request is that I want to go on the path of quest of God. I do not have the capability to follow the standard paths. I should be set on Awaisia path, if that path is a reality and not a fiction.

Several weeks passed. I did not mention my prayer to anybody. I myself forgot about it. Then one day I received a strange letter from Germany from my sister-in-law. Here is a verbatim excerpt:

 

“The other night I had the good fortune to see Fatimah, the daughter of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) in my dream. She talked to me most graciously and said ‘tell your brother-in-law Qudrat Ullah Shahab, that I have submitted his request to my exalted father who has very kindly accepted it”

 

  Why did Shahab not get direct confirmation, such as an overwhelming thought in his mind, that his prayer has been answered?  Because, this way, through the sister-in law (who knew nothing about shahab’s prayer), it was made dramatic, immediately believable, and taken out of the realm of chance. Furthermore it was filled with intimate detail. Please note, that Shahab addressed the prayer to God and not Fatimapbuh or prophet Muhammadpbuh. So it is a proof of God.

                                                                                                                                                                                          

      2. Mr. Shevani’s prayer ( see blog 67) He would some times pray to Allah for a very strange wish. He prayed to God to meet the greatest Qalander (high grade Muslim mystic) of this period, and live with him.

One day a bearded well dressed man came to his house. The man said that he has received orders through some secret channels to take him to a recluse mystic in FATA (federally administered tribal area). That man did not know, why?. Actually, the man who was also a mystic, initially thought that he was going to take some sick man to the recluse, because, only people with incurable sicknesses went to the Great Qalander.

As I have already told, Mr Shevani quit his comfortable world, and died 11 months later.

Only God knew his prayer, nobody else. Only God could make its fulfillment possible. Mr. Shevani would not have believed that his prayer had been answered, unless a pious man who had nothing to gain, came to take him. He went with his own free will, three days later. Mr Shevani was given dozens of opportunities to back off.

  3. Giri Bala’s prayer. ( see blog 80 ) This woman saint from India had not eaten or taken liquids for over fifty six years. She said she was twelve when she joined her husband. She had the problem of overeating. Her mother-in-law shamed her relentlessly. One day she was so distraught by the constant taunting that she said that from now onwards she was not going to eat!

She prayed to God incessantly, and begged Him to send a Guru who will teach her to live without food. She fell in a spell like state. She went to the river to take her bath. As she came out of the river, still in wet clothes, in broad daylight, her master materialized before her. He said that her prayer was heard by the God, and He was deeply touched by its extraordinary nature, and he was the Guru she had asked for. From now onwards she will get her nourishment through astral light. The Guru cast around them a protective aura so that nobody could disturb them. Then he taught her secret and sacred mantra and techniques which she had to perform daily for the rest of her life.

 

To be continued

 

 

112. God part sixteen

 

We were discussing prayers. When granted, they are a convincing proof of God

    4. Swami Yogananda prayer (blog 79). Before he started on his journey, like any other normal person, he had cold feet because of the enormity of the task. He became anxious. Would he not get lost in the materialism of the West?

One early morning he started praying to God to hear from Him regarding this mission. He vowed that he would continue praying, till death, unless he gets Divine assurance that he won’t be lost in the utilitarianism of America . Several hours passed. His moaning and sobs continued. His head was reeling. He thought his brain would burst. Finally there was a knock at the door. A young man, whom he recognized as Babaji, was standing. Babaji said that the Divine Father had heard his prayers. Babaji had been sent to reassure him that his mission had the Divine sanction, and that he will be protected.

                          The following three prayers have the quality of last appeal

 

        5. Prayer for debt relief.  I know of a man who was in great financial trouble. He had incurred huge amount of debt. He prayed and prayed to God. He shed so many tears that he developed breakage of skin under his eyes. One day he read in a book a certain vazeefa (a spiritual saying asking for Allah’s help), which had to be performed under strict conditions, for a number of nights. He performed that vazeefa with copious weeping. One day, at the spur of the moment, he brought a prize bond (a sort of Government lottery). His bond won the first prize. The money was still short of his debt. Suddenly, a customer bought a parcel of land from him. Within a week or so of the completion of his prayer, he was completely debt free

        6. Mufti Sahib’s prayer to feed the Guests I have mentioned the late Mufti sahib in the Foreword of book 2.  Mufti sahib lived in poverty. He was once Imam in a mosque in Lahore, drawing meager salary. He would send most of the money to his family who lived in the village. One day a number of guests came to him from his village. They expected lunch (it is an old village custom) and that also of roast chicken. They thought that the well dressed Mufti Sahib will have money, whereas Mufti Sahib had very little money. He felt very embarrassed and humiliated. He went to his room and said a short namaz. After namaz, weeping, he prayed to God to help him.

               As he finished his prayer, there was a knock at the door. The landlord was standing. The landlord said, “My wife told me Mufti Sahib Need’s money. We had been discussing for some time to give you monetary assistance”. With that he gave Mufti Sahib some money that was sufficient for the food expenses.

               7. Mufti Sahib’s prayer to spend Eid with his family. Eid is like Christmas in Western countries. It was eve of Eid. A person who told me this story said that it was his habit to visit various shrines in Lahore on Eid eve and help the needy. As he reached the shrine of Mian Mir, he thought of checking on the Imam, the Mufti Sahib, whom he had never met. He thought, ‘we always give money to the poor, nobody checks on middle class people. Maybe he needs money’. He went in the back to Mufti sahib’s quarters. A man was sleeping outside on a cot. He woke him up. It was Mufti Sahib. Without any preamble he took some money from his pocket and offered it to Mufti Sahib. Mufti Sahib accepted the money and said normally I would not have taken the money, but this money seems to be sent by God.

               “I would have not told this story but you are special, an instrument of God. A while ago I was feeling sad. Tomorrow is Eid. I wanted to spend Eid with my family in the village, but I did not have bus fare. I performed a short  namaz, and with tears, told God, how much I would have liked to spend Eid with my family”

               I fell asleep. Next thing I know, was you , shaking me awake.    

 

113. God. Part seventeen. Mkadk’s challenge

 

There is going to be a summation of all that I have written in the last 16 blog. But I cannot convince you with mere arguments. So here is a challenge. If you have a great desire, pray to God for its fulfillment. God does not like to be tested; therefore, you have to do the following:

               1. Muster all the humility that you can. Consider yourself a lowly, blind, paralyzed, hungry beggar at the door of a king’s palace with multitude of other beggars, begging for a morsel of food. Don’t pray if you are not motivated and not humble.

               2. If your desire gets fulfilled, pledge, that you will never doubt the existence of God.

 

               Here is the prayer. You have to say it in original language, as written.

 

“ Aay  Allah! Piaray Allah!. Marey yeh khahish hay. ( state your wish)  Aghar yeh manzoori kay kabil hay, to isay manzoor furmah. Aay Allah, Piarey Allah”

OR

"Oh God! Dear God! This is my wish.( state your wish). If it is worth Your approval, please grant it. Oh God! Dear God!"

 

There is no guarantee that your wish will be granted, but there will be a fair chance of it being heard.

 

               Let me emphasize the two logical arguments in support of existence of God.

               1. God can be conceptualized as energy, or something even more subtle than energy, with a supermind. You can raise an objection that how can energy have a mind. We already know it can happen. Human brain is an example. It is made, mainly, of nerve cells. These cells have the power to think. Thoughts arise from certain nerve cells in the brain. I can communicate with them and they with me. When I address my brain cells and say “how are you doing?” I am certain that some brain cells have received the message, otherwise I would not be conscious of it. The message had to be received and interpreted by brain cells to come to my consciousness. The cells may reply “we are fine”. Again, to come to my consciousness, some brain cells must have formed the thought and sent it to me. Either the same or some other brain cells interpreted the thought. These cells communicate with each other instantaneously, at the speed of light (we know the speed, because all messages are carried by electrons, which travel at the speed of light). If our brain, a collection of billions of cells, made of atoms, and atoms made of subatomic particles, such as electrons and protons and neutrons, can have thoughts of pain, pleasure, compassion, jealousy, and anger, why not God, a collection of pure energy, have a mind?

               2. You can raise the objection, how can such supermind arise, and that also pre-Big Bang (in order to create the universe it had to be present at that time), out of sheer nothing? The answer is that the same process of evolution, which caused the electrons to combine with each other and make chemicals such as amino acids, which led to the formation of a cell, and then to man, in 3-4 thousand million years( blog 99) could have created God ( I shudder at my own temerity ) in a limitless amount of time. It may not need too much time because the process accelerates as the mind develops, from microbe to man 3-4 billion years, but from monkey to man mere 2 million years. It may have happened with the same two engines of mutation and natural selection. There is no logical or biological reason for evolution to stop at a certain point. If not mutation, then deliberate experimentation, by the supermind, on the leptons and quarks, to continue improvement.

 

               And now the arguments which bring me joy. How can anything arise from sheer nothing? We have discussed that impossibility in blog 101. We noted that the definition of nothing was changed by the scientists.

 

To be continued

 

 

 

 

 

114. God  part eighteen

 

 

Please read blog 113 for continuity

 

 

 

Science has no explanation for prophecies, miracles, spirits, and granting of prayers

 

.

               How can anybody tell the future which has not been made yet? To have my grandfather buried in the same grave with his son, required a colossal event to happen, in which millions suffered. For Swami Vivekananda to see the event of the silver cup 43 years in advance, only a Divine power had to be involved. How did Swami Yukteswar know that the veterinarian will fall ill soon, recover, and die 6 months later? How did he know that Yogananda will be fed strawberries in America? And Kashi did die, as predicted.

               How can one explain the vision of the teacher putting a garland of flowers on the president’s neck and receiving a check; Baroda Babu’s telling Dilip Kumar Roy, 12 years in advance, that he will have to wait for Indra Devi to join him as his disciple for his real progress, and also telling him about what Sri Aurobindo advised him regarding his hernia.

               One does not have any explanation of Indra Devi’s vision of the pilot dying in crash one year in advance and then his spirit coming to Indra.

               As for as miracles are concerned, Indra Devi transformed sandy earth into sweets, Sri Yukteswar appeared in flesh and blood, twice, to Yukteswar, once when he was waiting for him to come by train from Calcutta, and once when he was resurrected from dead. I have narrated Data Gunj Bakhash’s miracles: protection from rain and mud, appearance of dates and out of season grapes, talking to a pillar in the mosque and getting the answer, and the mystic knowing what the three dueveshes had in mind.

               The episode of ‘Ninety’ and appearance of letters from thin air, are miracles. Beyond scientific explanation.

               Finally, Dilip Kumar Roy gets his wish, and the lamp lights up, and then is extinguished.

               Levitation of St Teresa of Avila was a miracle, and so was Christ restoring vision to the blind and taking away the severe pain of the sick man.

               The Yogi created the perfumes out of thin air, both for Paul Brunton and the young Yogananda.

               What powerful miracles of Therese Neumann not eating and drinking for twelve years and Giri Bala for fifty-six years! Do you need any other proof, it shows the power of God

               The great yogi Pranabananda assumed another replicate body and thus had two bodies at the same time, when young Yogananda visited him (I think it was for Yogananda’s education).

               The raising from dead of Rama, by Lahiri Mahasaya, was a powerful miracle (I think it was for Sri Yukteswar’s education)

               The proof of spirits of people who once inhabited earth, is, in the end, a proof of a Divine system, and God. We were made aware of the restless spirit of Bimla Kumari in the haunted house. In blog 108, Prophets Jesus, Muhammadpbuh Krishna, visited the devotees. Data Gunj Bakhash, an eleventh

Century mystic, cured 3 brothers suffering from plague, in twentieth century.

               The resurrected Sri Yukteswar talked not only to Yogananda but also to his disciple, Ma

               The spirit of Yogananda came out of his picture and helped Sri Daya Mata.

               St Teresa of Avila saw the spirit of Jesus and Fray Peter of Alcantara many times.

               The spirit of St Mira came hundreds of times to Indra Devi, and dictated her songs, sometimes in a language which Indra did not know.

               Paul Brunton, became his own spirit, and saw his own motionless body lying on the stone slab in the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

 

As I have said before, nothing convinces me more about the existence of God, than His granting the prayers. I have narrated seven examples. Three prayers were unique, and the other four had the quality of last appeal. Shahab’s prayer to God, to allow the spirit of Fatimapbuh to talk to her father, and getting his permission for Shahab to travel in search of God, through a particular path, was unique. And what a way of confirmation; a letter from Germany! Mr. Shevani’s prayer to meet the greatest Qalndar of this era, and his spending his life with him was also unique. Who would ask for such a thing? Giri Bala’s prayer, wanting not to eat anything, was so unique, that even the guru remarked that God was touched by its extraordinary nature.

               God listened to Mufti Sahib (even Mufti Sahib himself told it to a friend, that God listens to him) and came to his help, twice. This is the same Mufti Sahib (I have mentioned it in Foreword to book two) who did not have the courage to enter Kaaba for several days, and sat outside. He prayed to Allah “make me Yours”

               The prayer of the man for debt relief shows that God has compassion. Not Spinoza’s passionless, inaccessible, remote God.

 

At the end, let me answer the question: is God personal or impersonal? Let me explain, by personal God, it is meant that God is approachable. He listens to you, and helps you, if He deems it fit. A friend once said, “I tell God, even if my shoe lace breaks, and ask Him to give me one”. On the other hand,  impersonal God is not approachable. He does not have human feelings like joy, anger, compassion.

               The answer, according to this mote’s understanding, is, Both.     Part of God is remote and inaccessible and part of it is personal and approachable

 

 

 

 

115. Data Gunj Bakhash and Islamic Mysticism. Part Four

 

There is very little in the literature about the methods employed by sufis/sheikhs (name of mystics in Islam) in pursuit of God-realization. Shahab has mentioned some details of his training with ‘ninety’ in his book, but not of the actual methods. A person who wants to embark on this journey needs to know, what should be the posture? Where the gaze should be pointing at? Should the eyes be open or closed? Should the room be in complete darkness or lighted? Where should the aspirant focus his thoughts on? How to control the wandering thoughts? What should one be saying? Should one recite some Quranic verses, and if so, what verses? Should one be busy in supplications to God? How long should the marakba (meditation) be everyday, and at what time? Should one forget about marakba and just say optional prayers (nuffels) whole day? Should one quit the world and go in isolation? Should one abstain from sex with one’s wife? Does one need a teacher ( murshed). Should one be completely quiet or make audible sounds, such as chants? Should one synchronize one’s repetitions with breathing? Should one take the path of service to other human beings, instead of marakba?

       I have not followed this path so cannot add anything

      The only place where some details are given is in the book Kushaful-mahjoob, by Data Sahib, in his chapter, “training of the mureed (disciple)”. The book is difficult to understand because of the unfamiliar language and terms (it was written in 11th century). I will try.

      He writes:

 When a seeker quits the world and comes to an accomplished mystic for training the trainer adopts the following 3 years, stepwise method, to make the disciple obedient (respectful) and habituated. If he stays steadfast and strong during this period, well and good, otherwise he is told to leave because he is deemed not suitable for this path. First year is spent on service to humanity; second year is devoted to serve God in the form of austerities and asceticism, and the third year in protecting and strengthening the heart.

Service of humanity means that he should consider himself servant of everybody and everybody his superior. In other words, without exception, he should consider everybody better than himself. It is incumbent upon him, that he should not consider himself a superior person because he is serving and helping others; that is the way of kings and rich.

Similarly, service to God can only be correct, if the person forgets the rewards of this world and the next world. He should be oblivious to all other concerns, and continue his worship and prayers, single-mindedly. Whenever someone worships God for something else, then he is worshipping himself and not God.

One can only protect his heart if one strengthens the heart by making himself above joys and sorrows, so that at the time of worship, he can devote himself wholeheartedly to God.        

When the disciples develops these three qualities, he is allowed to wear the gudri (robe)

When the teacher is ready to award his disciple the gudri, he should make sure that the disciple has passed both the ups and downs of this path, with perseverance and steadfastness. Has he enjoyed the joys of bliss during marakba, and the bitter pangs of despair during aridity? Furthermore, the teacher should ascertain the level to which the disciple is likely to rise. Would he be the one of those who regress, or those who rise to mediocrity, or will he become one of the accomplished? If he is likely to regress, then he should not make him his disciple right from the start. If he is likely to be caught in the middle, then he should make efforts to advance him by further training. If he is not ready after three years, the guide may have to delay the permission to wear gudri, till he becomes ready to wear it after further training.

               Wearing a gudri is somewhat similar to wearing a coffin. Just as a corpse wearing a coffin has given up all the joys of life, similarly a person wearing a gudri, vows to spend all his life in performance of duties demanded by God. He is there only to serve God. He has to abstain from all worldly desires.

               Prophet Muhammadpbuh said; a sheikh (mystic) is to his people, what a prophet is to his ummat

 (Diaspora, followers)

              

                 All that I wrote above are Data Gung Bakhash’s own words. I just want to stress the importance to certain injunctions of tareekat, which he has mentioned, and seem to be opposite to the view of shariat, such as:

               1. Quitting the world

            2. Abstaining from worldly desires, such as sexual intercourse, acquiring wealth or power, devotion to one’s family, etc.  Mystics are special persons, travelling on a path, which is like no other path. They have different standards. Perhaps they understand, why God, in Quran said," Your possessions and your children are but a trial( fitna) for you"

 

Maybe all these strict conditions are only during the training period. Almost all mystics return to the world, at some time. They devote that time in teaching others and helping the sick and the poor. Data Gunj Bakhash himself was in a married state for one year. He writes “I became infatuated with a beautiful woman, and was a completely captive of this state for a year. I was near to loosing even my religion but then God had mercy on me, and emancipated me” 

 

I have discussed the mysticism, in depth, and its difference from religion, in my blog 93-95.

 

There are three standard paths of mysticism (blog 26), the path of love, the path of wisdom, and the path of action. In this mote’s opinion, Islamic mysticism should be considered, the path of obedience (to Allah).

 

116. Data Gunj Bakhash. Part Five

 

1.      One time this mote was puzzled by something Data sahib did. He (Data sahib) had some problem. He went to the tomb of Ba-Yazid Bistami’s, a highly advanced mystic. There he stayed for 3 months and did great austerities. He would take bath 3 times a day and do his ablutions 30 times a day. I have narrated this incident in blog 62

This mote could not figure out the purpose of these baths and ablutions. Surely, cleansing of the body won’t solve the riddle. I asked a spiritual person. His answer did not satisfy me. This riddle gnawed on his mind, too. One day, he saw a saintly person doing multiple ablutions in the tomb of Data sahib. He kept this practice for several days. The spiritual person thought that the saintly person might be sick because ablutions are required after going to bathroom. He said to him “Sir, are you sick? Should I get you some medicine?”

The saintly person smiled and replied “no, I am not sick. As you probably know, for most spiritual practices, you are required to do an initial ablution, even though, one may not need it”

               They were sitting hardly 10 yards from Data Sahib’s tomb. My spiritual friend instantly knew that Data sahib provided him the answer through that saintly person.

 

2.       One day, last year, an advanced disciple of Data sahib went to Data Darbar. There was a strong police presence at the tomb, for fear of bombers. Police removed people who were trying to sit on a nice, tiled, corridor. The disciple saw a 90-5 year old man being forcibly removed from that area by 2 policemen. Few hours later, he once again saw the same old man being removed by the police. Next day, he saw the same incident being repeated. He enquired from the policemen, who said that they have removed this Baba( old man) 3-4 times but he reappears. God knows how he comes back (climbs the wall?). As the disciple was leaving, the old man said, “You moorakh (foolish person in Hindi), what kind of host are you? Ask him to call me. I do not have enough time”. As  the disciple left, in a flash, he received Data Sahib’s message. “Bring him in and look after him”. He  told the old man that Data Sahib is calling him. He also entrusted somebody else to look after him (tea, food, etc). The old man had a sheet. He covered himself in that sheet and stayed like that for about 48 hours, near the railing of the tomb. The attendant was worried that the Baba might have died, but there was some movement under the sheet.

               As the Baba finished, the disciple asked him whether he would like to go to Mian Mir? Baba said, yes, take me to Miray. He prayed on Mian Mir tomb, in a Hindu fashion. Then the Baba said, take me to the old lady’s grave, whom you buried. The disciple took him to amma’s grave (hardly anybody knew who amma was and where was she buried ). Then he asked for water. The disciple brought water from the same tap, he had brought for amma, couple of years ago. The old man drank some water and poured the rest on the grave. Then he asked to be taken to Bhati Gate. Over there, he said “Son! Your duty is over. Whenever we go to a place, we pay homage to certain people, sites” he patted the disciple on the back, lovingly. The disciple asked, “Where are you from? He said we have no country or religion. When I was 25-28 years old I came here and was benefitted from this place (Data Darbar)

 

3.  . Many Sikhs from India come to attend the annual urs (religious festival) of Mian Mir, because Sikhs have special attachment to Mian Mir, a Sufi saint of Muslims, because the foundation of golden temple in Amritsar (the holiest site of Sikh religion) was laid by Mian Mir. Last month, at urs, many Sikhs came. One night at about 2 AM, one Sikh came to a disciple of Data sahib, who happened to be there. He said, “ Before coming I sought permission from my guru. He told me to seek you at the tomb. He gave your description and said “ he will be wearing a woolen white shawl and will have a scar on right eyebrow”. The disciple  asked to meet him at Data Durbar at a certain time that day.

The man was present at Data Durbar at the appointed time. The disciple took him to the window which gives a view of the tomb. The man threw some things (petals?) on the holy tomb.  The disciple asked him if there was something else that he wanted. The man said, he wanted some Faiz( gift). The disciple  got him consecrated tabbarrak (white powder ) from the Durbar and took him to the cellar, where both prayed to Data Sahib.

This incident proves that the disciple was a special mureed (disciple) of Data Sahib, whose duties included helping and guiding special persons, because it was his description which was given to the Sikh pilgrim.

 

 

 

117. Amma, Mufti Sahib 

 

I have mentioned Amma (literally, means mother) in blog 3, when a seeker dreamt about her. He was in great distress at that time. She consoled and guided him in that dream to a centuries old room. She had died sometimes earlier.

               One day the seeker saw, in the graveyard adjacent to the tomb of Mian Mir, a mad woman sitting under a tree. Nobody would go near her because she would throw stones on anybody who tried to come near her. Something in her struck the seeker. The seeker was endowed with the gift of recognizing holy persons, and holy persons recognized something in the seeker and allowed him to have their company. Her clothes were clean, an oddity in a mad person. He tried to approach her, but had to retreat, in the face of stones and volley of angry words. He tried to go near her another day. The woman said, “It is you again” and threw a stone. The seeker sat down behind a grave, far from the reach of stones. The woman said “so you are afraid of stones, alright, you can come near, I won’t hit you”. After that the seeker would visit her every 1-2 weeks. He noticed that during sitting or sleeping, she would always keep her face towards Mecca, where Kaaba, the holiest site of Islam, is located.

               She had meager belongings. It included a kaffan (burial cloth) for herself. She told the seeker that it had been washed with aab-a-zamzam (water of zamzam well, located in Kaaba, Saudi Arabia)

               One day it was very hot. The seeker asked her whether he should bring water for her. She said, “Yes, bring it from the faucet”.  The seeker brought a glass of water. She drank some water, and then gave the glass to the seeker and said; “you drink too”.  The seeker also drank. In mysticism, it is considered a great gift, if a saint offers you something to eat, or his own clothes or shoes

               One day, after amma’s death, the Qalander who trained the seeker, sarcastically said to the seeker, “even amma’s water failed to transform you”. How did he know the incident? The seeker had not told him. This is a proof that amma was a spiritually exalted person and not a mere mad woman

               One day the seeker found her deathly sick. It was very cold. She was lying under the tree without any cover. The seeker went home and brought a blanket. Amma refused to use it, saying “God will provide her”. The seeker brought a packet of biscuits. She threw the packet away, saying something like, “My Allah will give me biscuits, if He wants to”. The seeker informed the Mufti Sahib (mentioned below) that the amma was dying. Later that night Mufti Sahib had a dream in which he was told to bury her under the same tree where she lived, and wrap her in the kaffan, she had carried on her head for many a miles. Her grave is located under that tree.

               A man kept vigil the night she was dying. The seeker asked him how he was related to the mother. The man said that some years ago, as a boy, he got paralyzed. Amma during her wandering happened to visit his village. His elder brother carried him to the mother. Amma told his brother to leave the boy, overnight, with her. She gave him gur (brown sugar candy). The strength in his legs came back gradually, and in a few weeks they came close to normal. After that incident he lost interest in the world, and with her permission, followed mother in her wanderings. He was not allowed to stay with her at night or where she camped. Eventually amma arrived in Lahore. She liked the tomb of the famous saint, Mian Mir. There was running water in the faucets for pilgrims. Free food was distributed, and there was a hundreds of year old graveyard, where there was solitude and shade. He would visit mother every day or two. Mother would give him money to buy her food and other provisions.

               I have mentioned in blog 64 of a person who had been wandering for 25 years in his spiritual quest. His guide brought him to the mother’s grave and told him the story of mother. The wanderer expressed the desire to do meditation at the grave. As I remember, he meditated over there for 2-3 days. The guide asked him what was happening. He replied amma’s asthan (a Hindi word for site) is showing him worlds.

               The proof of mother’s greatness is evident by these incidents: her helping the seeker as recited in blog 3, Qalander acknowledging her spirituality in the leftover water incident, Mufti Sahib having a dream directing him what to do with her dead body, her curing the paralysis of the boy, the experience of the 25 years wanderer when he meditated on her asthan , and finally the old man’s (mentioned in blog 116) desire to visit her grave.

 

Mufti Sahib.  I have mentioned Mufti sahib, above, in my foreword to book 2, (blog 53), and in blog 112. He was posted, by government, as the mufti (religious scholar) at the shrine of Mian Mir, the famous sufi saint. As such, he led the Friday prayers.

Mufti sahib was a simple, humble man. He was a poor man. The government salary barely met his, and his family’s, needs. I have narrated in blog 112, the two incidents, when his tearful prayer to feed the guests, and to visit his family at Eid, were instantly answered by God. Mufti sahib himself used to say that God listened to him. When, for the first time, he visited Kaaba (the holiest site in Islam) he did not find in him the courage to enter the holy building (house of Allah), and sat outside for a week or two. He prayed to God “make me Yours”

When I asked Mufti sahib, through an intermediary, to look into my affairs and see what the reason for my lack of spiritual progress was. He gave the answer, “everybody, eventually, gets it, some early and others late. He is doing alright”. At another time, I conveyed to him, that I am not getting the Lms (touch of God). I thought, that Mufti sahib may find it blasphemous (in orthodox Islam it is an evil thought, because God and man cannot come physically close). But no, according to the intermediary, the Mufti sahib went into an almost ecstasy, and exclaimed, Lms! Lms!

 

 He had the power to alleviate common sufferings like headache, scorpion bite, etc, by performing dum on the sick person. The dum, is an Islamic spiritual process, bestowed to an authorized person, by his murshed. Certain Quranic verses are recited. The relief of sickness is temporary. A person cannot perform a dum on himself. Mufti sahib would make his daily round of the sick and needy, and do dum, if needed. He did it for free.

               As an example of the healing power, here is an account by Brunton, in his book, ‘a   search in secret Egypt’: Among the other activities of……..was the practice of healing. One day I watched a demonstration. A man came to him with rheumatic pains in the left thigh. He gently stroked the latter for a minute, recited a prayer from the Quran, for another minute, and told his patient that the pain would soon go………..There was certainly a diminution of the pain, although it was difficult for me to ascertain whether this was a permanent relief or a temporary one”. Sheikh Abu Shrump bestowed two powers to Brunton, one over evil genii, and the other a healing power. The Sheikh got these powers from his ancestors, and traced it back to the holy prophet Muhammad pbuh. Another Sheikh ( Moussa) gave Brunton power over snakes and scorpions ( he used this power many times)  

               Mufti sahib’s superior, a petty Govt. official, ordered Mufti sahib to charge people for dum, and to share the money with him. Mufti sahib refused. He said, “I will not make Quran a source of income”. The officer was not mollified. Mufti Sahib was transferred to another shrine at Pakputtan.

               An influential person asked Mufti sahib that should he approach some officials to get the transfer order cancelled. Mufti sahib said “No, my days in Lahore, are now complete”

 

118.  Two Unique visions of Swami Yogananda

 

I should have added these visions of Swami Yogananda in my account of him in blog 79-81; I am rectifying that mistake, because the two visions are profound and unique.

 

Cosmic consciousness. His Master struck him lightly on the chest and he had the vision of cosmic consciousness. I am giving an abbreviated version; complete description is in his autobiography (see the list). His body became motionless and still. His breath was drawn out as if by a huge magnet. People in distant streets were visible and moving. His ordinary vision was changed to spherical, he could see on the sides and the back of his head. He saw a white cow that was leisurely approaching. As she passed behind a brick wall, he could still see her. Master, his body, the pillared courtyard, the furniture and floor, the trees and the sunshine, occasionally violently vibrated. All objects in his vision tumbled and vibrated. Everything in his vision finally became a luminescent sea.

               He experienced an oceanic joy. He realized that the Spirit of God was an exhaustless bliss. A swelling glory in him enveloped towns, countries, continents, the earth, stars and galaxies, and floating universes. The whole cosmos was gently luminous, and resembled a lighted city at night, seen from a distance. On the farthest edges, was an undiminished mellow radiance. It was indescribably subtle, unlike the gross light which made the planetary picture.

               The divine dispersion of rays was from an Eternal Source blazing into galaxies, transfigured with ineffable auras. He saw the creative beams condense into constellations, then resolve into sheets of flame. Irradiating splendor issued from his heart (nucleus) to every part of the universal structure.

               Suddenly, he came to his senses. His guru ( Sri Yukteswar ) was standing motionless before him. “Don’t get over drunk with ecstasy. Let us sweep the floor”. He got hold of a broom and started sweeping the floor. He realized that his master was teaching him balanced living.

               The guru told him later, that it was the Spirit of God that sustained the universe. He is transcendent and aloof in the uncreated void. Those who attain Self-realization in this world live in similar twofold existence: conscientiously  performing their duties in the world, and yet immersed in an inner beatitude.

 

               This Divine experience comes with a natural inevitability when the seeker is ready. His intense craving begins to pull at God, with an irresistible force. The magnetic ardor pulls the cosmic vision in the seeker’s range of consciousness.

               Sri Yukteswar taught him how to summon the blessed  experience at will, and also how to transmit it to others, when their intuitive channels were ready. He also told him that one may control the whole universe, but find the God elusive still. Spiritual advancement is not to be measured by one’s display of outward powers, but solely by the depth of his bliss during meditation.

               Ever-new joy is God. He is inexhaustible

 

A lesson, that he learnt, was that without controlling the breath and the wandering thoughts, the Infinite as One Light cannot be perceived. These two, are like storms, that lash the oceans of light into waves of material forms, such as houses, trees, humans, and animals. As often as he quieted these two natural impulses, he could visualize all the forms melting into one luminous sea.

 

 

Body made of light. One day, after writing a chapter of his autobiography, as he was sitting on the bed in a lotus position, he looked at the ceiling. He saw that the ceiling was dotted with mustard colored lights, scintillating and quivering. Innumerable pencils of light merged into a shaft and fell on him.

               His physical body lost its grossness. He felt as if he was floating on the bed, barely touching the bed. The body became weightless and moved to and fro. His surrounding, the walls and furniture were as before, but the lights on the ceiling had multiplied, and they hid the ceiling. He looked at his arms. He could move them, but they were weightless.

               A voice spoke to him, as if it was coming from within the light. “This is the cosmic motion picture mechanism, shedding its beams on the white screen of your bed sheets; it creates a picture of your body. Behold your body is nothing but light.” He understood that the divine reproduction of his body was similar to the picture produced on a cinema screen, coming from a booth.

               This vision lasted for a long time. He saw his body in the faintly lit bedroom. Though he had many visions in his life, but none was ever more singular.

               He spoke entreatingly, “Divine light, please withdraw this humble body into Thyself; even as Elijah was drawn up to heavens, in a chariot of flame”.

               His supplication was evidently startling. The beam disappeared. His body came back to its original shape.

 

 

119. Does hell exist?

 

Years ago (probably twenty-five), somebody casually remarked, “There is no hell, just heaven. God is kind and merciful; therefore, there cannot be a hell”. That remark gnawed on my mind for years. The more I thought, the more I was convinced that there cannot be hell.

Few years ago, I came across the book; ‘Finding the joy within you, by  Sri Daya Mata’ and found this story:

Master (Swami Yogananda) was once talking to a very dogmatic man. He said to the Master, “Do you not belief in hellfire and damnation?”

Guruji replied, “No, except that man creates a Hades right in here and now. He makes out of this world and his own life a heaven or a hell, depending upon his behavior…..”

The man was not convinced and kept on arguing. Master changed the topic.

“Isn’t it true that you have a son who is causing you great suffering because he drinks and………”

The man’s jaw dropped “How did you know? Yes, this has been the greatest sorrow of my life”

“Then may I make a suggestion”

“Yes”. The man was eager for a solution.

“All right take him out for a walk in the hills, and have two trusted friends waiting there for you. They should pounce upon him and bind him. Then let them build a huge roaring fire. Let them throw your son in the fire”

The man was flabbergasted. “Are you mad to make such a suggestion?”

“Exactly so! Yet you ascribe such behavior to God, who created you and instilled in you that love for your child. How dare you attribute to Him feelings so callous and punitive that He will take all of His children that have done wrong and cast them in eternal flames?”  

               Swami Ramdas (blog 82-85) writes:

“In one place, a school master came for discussion. The schoolmaster was in favor of Shuddhi movement (reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism) while Ramdas was against it, as Ramdas opposed every effort on the part of anybody to create differences in religious faiths. That all faiths lead to the same goal is a most beautiful and convincing truth. At the end the friend exceeded the limits of decent talk.

Next day at the same time, the friend came again. He could scarcely talk, he could only whisper. His throat was choked up.

‘O Maharaj’, he exclaimed, falling at the feet of Ramdas, “God has punished your slave for using such rough words to you yesterday…..”

‘O friend, Ramdas is really sorry to hear this, but be assured of this; God never punishes. God is love and is always kind…………the so called evil is of our own making.’

At once, pulling Ramdas’s right hand the friend rubbed the palm on his throat, and strange to say, his throat cleared and he began to talk more clearly and in a few minutes he was alright!

‘Behold Maharaj, how powerful you are!”

‘You make a mistake, dear friend; Ramdas is a poor slave of Ram, possessing no powers at all. Your faith alone has cured you, and nothing else.  

 

120. Brunton, and control over snakes and scorpions

 

 

During his travels in Egypt (1), Paul Brunton met Sheikh Moussa, who had power over snakes and scorpions. Sheikh Moussa could smell a hidden snake or scorpion. He could then command them to come out of their hiding places. He would pick them, and make them docile. They would not bite him. The snakes could not bite him with their poisonous fangs, but would, sometime, bite him superficially on the skin. One species of scorpion (and some snakes) were immune to his power.

Sheikh Moussa had multiple layers of protection against these creatures. First, he had a mystic power, transmitted from master to disciple at initiation. Second, a public and secret invocation, which consisted of certain phrases from Quran and magical incantations, uttered forcefully, with adjurations. It was the main power, which was given to the pupil by his teacher that forced these creatures to submit. Thirdly, he had a talisman which he wore around his upper arm. The talisman had a piece of paper which had certain Quranic verses and some magical spells written on it.

Sheikh Moussa told him that he belonged to an old Dervish order, which specialized in handling poisonous snakes and scorpions.

Sheikh Moussa gave a demonstration of his power. He offered to catch a snake. To obviate the possibility that the Sheikh had secretly hidden a snake in some area, the area was selected by Brunton. They (thirty or so villagers) all marched to that area. To show that he was not carrying a snake on his person, Sheikh Moussa removed all his clothes, except the shirt and socks. He stopped at a stone and said there was a scorpion underneath that stone.

He started loudly and continuously, a magical incantation, which also had Quranic verses in it. He emphatically ordered the scorpion to come out. None came. He started the incantation and adjurations, again, in a louder voice. Finally a big scorpion came out. He picked it in his unprotected hands. Brunton examined it. Its sting was intact. Several times it will move its sting, as if by a force of habit, but stopped, as if by a barrier, and did not complete its motion of stinging. To further demonstrate his control over the creature, he put the scorpion on the ground. He started walking towards the debris as if to escape, when Sheikh Moussa ordered him to stop, and it stopped at once.

Next, Sheikh Moussa declared that there was a snake under the roots of a tree. He started again his magical incantation and exhortations. After some minutes, no snake emerged. Sheikh Moussa got frustrated. He declared that there really was a snake there. Finally, he kneeled, by the roots of the tree, and still reciting his spells, thrust his hand in a hole, and brought out a five foot long squirming cobra. After some tussle, he completed tamed the snake. Then he released him in the dust and pointing his forefinger at him, ordered him to lay his head in the palm of his hand.

The cobra stopped its hissing and laid his head in his palm, like a child might rest its tired head upon its mother’s lap!

It was a sight Brunton had never witnessed before. Not even in India where he had seen plenty of snakes and snake charmers

Brunton obtained a large table spoon and thrust it in the serpent’s mouth. After repeated bites, he obtained a quantity of poison in the spoon, one or two drops of which would have been sufficient to kill a man.

Soon, Brunton became the first European pupil (and second ever pupil) of Sheikh Moussa. After a week of fasting and prayers, he was given the “Word of power” (which was to be used mentally), and the magical incantation. He was also given the talisman. After receiving all three, he had immunity, against these creatures for two years.

Both master and pupil went over several field trips in the desert and handled snakes and scorpions. Gradually, over weeks, Brunton became quite proficient. He could grasp a poisonous snake and will it to go to sleep, by giving it a mental command of “go to sleep”. He would also hold the talisman in one hand at that time.

Brunton handled deadly cobras and poisonous vipers several times, and even put them around his neck, yet they never once attacked him.

 

Once, in the old temple of Edfu, Brunton was crawling along an extremely narrow, pitch dark tunnel, which had undisturbed dust of many centuries. Suddenly, a monstrous yellow scorpion emerged from a crevice and moved towards him. There was not enough room for Brunton to maneuver. He pointed his forefinger towards the creature, and uttered the word of power, loudly, and peremptorily ordered him to stop, with the utmost mental concentration and strength he could muster.

The scorpion stopped dead still.

It remained in the same spot, transfixed, till Brunton crawled back to safety with the light of his electric torch. For all he could tell, the unfortunate scorpion may still be on the same spot, awaiting the command of release.

The magical incantation is given in the book.

 

Despite all the powers, the immunity against snakes is not absolute. Sheikh Moussa’s first pupil was his son. He died of a snake bite, on his first solo field trip. His grandfather, died by a viper bite, after a life time of immunity against snakes.

 

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 (1) A search in secret Egypt  by Paul Brunton

 

 

 

121. Magicians

 

Brunton met his first real magician in India (1,2). His name was Mahmoud Bey, and he was from Egypt. Brunton asked him to demonstrate his powers, which the magician agreed. He asked Brunton to write a question on a piece of paper and fold the paper as small as possible.  Meanwhile, Mahmoud withdrew away and half turned his back to him.

Brunton wrote the following question, “Where did I live four years ago?” and folded the paper, as instructed.

Mahmoud came back, and told Brunton to hold the paper and the pencil tightly in his clenched fist. The magician closed his eyes and went into what looked like a profound concentration.  He opened his eyes and said quietly, “ The question you asked was ‘Where did I live four years ago ?’” Brunton was astonished.

This was a case of mind reading, extraordinary!

Next, the Egyptian, ordered Brunton to unfold the paper and examine it.

The paper revealed, under the question, the name of the town where Brunton lived four years ago! Some unknown hand had written the answer in pencil.

Brunton was amazed beyond measure, because mind-reading could not provide the name of the town, and write it too, on the tightly clenched paper in his fist. His pencil and paper had remained in his fist throughout this period.

He asked the magician to repeat it. The Egyptian agreed.

This time Brunton wrote “What journal did I edit 4 years ago”

Mahmoud closed his eyes, and concentrated. He gave the correct answer.

He told Brunton to unfold the paper.

The name of the journal he edited four years ago was clumsily written with a pencil.

For a third time he requested the magician to repeat his demonstration. Mahmoud succeeded again.

Brunton was baffled beyond measure. He thought of three possible explanations for the supernatural performance: mind-reading, hypnotism, and conjuring. He rejected all three.

It could not be conjuring because the pencil and paper came from Brunton, the paper never left his hands, and questions were randomly selected by him, without any premeditation.

It could not be hypnotism because Brunton knew the subject and would have recognized if somebody was trying to influence him, and furthermore the questions and answers were still there on the paper. Brunton finally came to the conclusion that the magician had read his mind, and with some inexplicable magic written the answers

Brunton felt the presence of invisible and eerie forces in the room (Brunton was a psychic).

“Can anybody in England do this?” The Egyptian asked

He was compelled to admit that nobody could do it under those test conditions.

 

Brunton requested him to explain his methods, knowing full well that magicians and conjurers never reveal their secrets. The magician declined

Brunton asked him to just tell the broad outline of his feats, the theoretical side only.

Mahmoud mused over his query for a while.

“I am willing to do that”

They met the next day. The explanation was neither of the three that Brunton had considered and rejected. Mahmoud told Brunton that he had invisible spirits under his control, and he was also a thought reader. He spent several years to make the spirits obedient to him. He had thirty spirits at his command which did his bidding. One of the spirits was of his dead brother, who helped him. Most of the others were Jinns, native inhabitants of spirit world, who never took a human body.

These spirits were proficient in one task only. For instance the jinns, who produced the pencil-written words on the paper, would have been quite unable to ascertain his questions. Mahmoud tried to employ only good jinns, and not the evil ones, used by African sorcerers. Because the evil ones were dangerous servants who would sometimes turn on their master and kill him.

One had to know each spirit’s name. The Egyptian could summon a spirit by concentrating on him, or writing his name in Arabic on a paper. They would come instantaneously.

 

Brunton met his second magician in Egypt. His name was kept secret by Brunton as was his wish. He was the most famous magician of Egypt, or at least, Cairo. He lived in a large house in ancient quarters. Brunton went to his house and met the magician who was around sixty. The magician was very suspicious of Brunton. After several visits he became less reserved. He was also an astrologer, and made a horoscope of Brunton (which Brunton did not want)

One day he told Brunton to bring a white, healthy, fowl, and he will put a jinn-spirit at Brunton’s disposal! Brunton did not want it but the old man insisted.

 Brunton returned three days later with a plump white bird tucked under his arm.

The magician asked to release the bird in the middle of the room. He then instructed Brunton to step over an incense brazier, three times.

He drew a small square on a piece of paper and subdivided it into nine small squares. He next wrote either an Arabic letter or a kabbalistic sign, in each of the nine squares in the diagram. Then he started muttering a magical incantation with eyes fixed on the fowl. Sometimes he would extend his hand and point a finger, as if he was giving an order.

Brunton noticed that the fowl started trembling.

The magician asked him to step over the brazier three times, again. When he returned to the divan, he noticed that the fowl was not looking at the magician any more, but had turned his eyes on Brunton. He fixed his eyes at Brunton, and never changed.

Brunton observed a strange change in the fowl, his breathing became labored. His beak opened with air-hunger. Finally he collapsed and died.

The magician was happy at the outcome. He said that it meant that the spirit had accepted his sacrifice. He explained, that sometimes the fowl does not die, which means that the spirit had not accepted that person.

Henceforth, the genie that destroyed the life of that bird as a sign that he was ready to serve Brunton, will work for his benefit.

Brunton was told to throw the dead fowl, at the hour of midnight, in the Nile River, and as he threw the bird he was supposed to make a wish. One day the genie will cause his wish to come true.

The magician acknowledged that the supremacy lies with Allah. The magicians use their art, but only Allah knows everything. Final word lies with God.

The magician also said that the secret is passed from teacher to pupil, and the pupil or master is not allowed to reveal the secret to anybody else. The apprenticeship was hard and dangerous. He had not accepted a single pupil. Eventually he was bound by the laws that governed his fraternity to accept and teach somebody before his death, but since he knew the exact date and year of his death, there was still time left.

I have narrated the two cases of black magic in blog 87 and 109. A practitioner of black magic tried to poison and kill Indra Devi, and Shahab lived in a haunted house which was frequented by the spirits of a woman and her murderer. I will write about another entity, Hazrat, in another blog.

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(1) A search in secret India by Paul Brunton.

(2) a search in secret Egypt by Paul Brunton

 

 

 

122. Hypnotists

 

Brunton was well versed with hypnotism, as the following incident illustrates. During his journalistic investigations on cults, he became aware of an ex-clergyman, who had a forceful personality and possessed strong hypnotic powers. He was using his powers for nefarious ends. One evening, by chance, he met a woman on the street, who was a friend’s wife. She told him that she was on her way to the hypnotist’s house, to spend a night with him. Brunton examined her and found that she was completely under strong hypnotic influence. Brunton felt it was his duty to de-hypnotize her and send her home, which he did.

He consulted an Indian friend. He told him the incident, as well as, his investigations about the ex-clergyman’s activities.

The Indian was outraged, and said that he would put a heavy curse on the man. Brunton did not want to go that far, and asked to let him first give an ultimatum to the man to leave the area immediately. The Indian said that the ultimatum was fine, but he would also lay a curse on him. Which he did.

At the conclusion of the rite (for curse) Brunton left and went to the pseudo-prophet’s house.

He found him in a small hall, with a large body of his disciples.

There was a scene of indescribable confusion.

The hall was plunged in complete darkness. All the bulbs in the house had suddenly exploded with the force of bombs. This occurred at precisely the same time, when my Indian friend’s rite of cursing reached its end point!

People were rushing to get out. Above all the din, harsh voice of their master could be heard, a voice laden with fear and despair.

“The devil is here. This is the devil’s work”

He was lying prone on the platform floor. His followers had heard him fall heavily on the platform.

Brunton gave him the ultimatum.

The man left. He died within one year in an obscure country village.

 

In Cairo, there lived a French couple, Monsieur Ades and his wife Madame Margueritte. He was gifted with hypnotic power. His wife was a good hypnotic subject. Brunton investigated them and could find no trickery. Here is a narration by Brunton about the demonstration. As a precaution Brunton had also invited a British officer’s wife. All four sat around a table. There were certain preliminary feats. Then came the final experiment. She was put in second degree of hypnotic trance by her husband.

Madame Margueritte’s eyes were closely taped. The tape also included her eyebrows, eyelids and cheeks. As a further safeguard a thick red velvet bandage was tied around her face and head. She could not see through the eyes.

Ades asked us to select at random any passage from any book.

We marked a paragraph from a French book and laid the book open for her.

Ades said in a firm voice:

“Now find the paragraph. Read it, and transcribe what you read on a paper beside you”

Madame Margueritte started writing the passage, word for word. She would write few words, and then turn her gaze at the book. She kept on going alternately from the book to the page. It was clear that she could read the page despite the heavy bandages! Brunton asked her husband to command her to underline the second word of the second line and the third word of the third line. She underlined both words correctly.

She was commanded to write with her left hand. Although not ambidextrous, she performed the task with ease.

The visitor took the hand of the Madame Margueritte in her hand and concentrated strongly upon the mental image of her husband. After a short time Madame Margueritte described the character, capacities, temperament, and even the physical appearance of the visitor’s husband! Most extraordinary was her statement that he was a Government official.

Ades stuck a needle in her hand. The other end of the needle was visible on the other side. Madame Margueritte did not feel any pain.

When the needle was withdrawn there was not a single drop of blood visible on the skin or the needle.

 

Brunton requested Monsieur Ades to explain the strange feats of hypnotism. He replied that our brain has enormous unharnessed potential. There is a subconscious aspect of our mind. If one puts the conscious state in suspension, by hypnotism, in certain subjects, the subconscious state takes over. It can see or hear, without the aid of normal eyes or ears. He (Ades) had put his wife in deep hypnotic trance, so her conscious mind was suspended. One needs somebody with hypnotic power to put a suggestible subject into a trance. Monsieur Ades had trained his magnetic influence after several years of practice. In a similar vein, one needs a subject who is naturally receptive to this magnetic force. One cannot hypnotize a person who does not want to be hypnotized.

 

 

123. Three Yogic Feats

 

Indra Devi ( blog 87-8) witnessed three amazing yogic feats(1). One day a man and his two children, aged about ten came to the gate of her father’s house. The man was dressed in ochre-colored robes. The children were possibly twins. He offered to show three yogic feats, for a price:

 

The Sadhu said that he will be buried underground for twenty four hours. They could cement it at the top and drive their car over it. He would show the rope trick. The third trick consisted of levitation. A price was agreed.

 A pit was dug in their garden. It was nine feet by four feet, and nine feet deep. The sadhu uttered some mantra and descended in the pit. He put some cloth in his ears and closed his eyes and nostrils with his fingers. He recited a mantra in Sanskrit eleven times. His breathing became slower and slower till it was hardly perceptible. The pit was filled with sand and earth. The top was cemented

Next day, the pit was opened and the earth removed. Sadhu was lying there like a dead person, with a thin cloth covering his face. The two children put drops of some green oil in his ears, nostrils and eyes, and also rubbed his body with the oil.

After a few minutes the sadhu opened his eyes. He was helped out of the pit. He looked a little bit tired but otherwise none the worse. He drank some milk and appeared to recover almost completely. He left after promising to perform the other two tasks the next day.

The sadhu returned the next evening with his two children. He was a dark thin man. He took out a thick rope about thirty feet long from his dirty cloth bag. He curled one end of the rope into a ball and threw it into the sky. The rope swayed a little bit and then became stiff as if it was hanging by a hook! The upper end of the rope was clearly visible. He then asked his little boy to climb up the rope. The boy did it as if he was climbing a palm tree. Suddenly his clothes started falling on the ground. He could still be seen holding the rope by his hands and feet.

Sadhu shouted: “Ram, are you alright?”

The boy answered, “Yes, father I am alright.”

“Do you want to come back?”

“No, I plan to go higher”

Right before the spectator’s eyes the boy started vanishing. Soon he disappeared. Now there was only the rope!

“Ram, where are you”

From a distance the child answered “Back to earth”

The sadhu started pulling down and winding the rope

The boy’s voice came from close, “Let me help you”

There were about fifty people watching, while the poor sadhu with tattered clothes performed in the garden. No stage, no lights, no special effects.

The girl came forwards. She was in a dirty, flimsy dress. Her hair were tied up in a rag. She was no more than ten feet from the audience. He took out a stick, about ten feet long, and let it stand behind her. He passed his hand over her body and pressed her forehead with her fingers, all the time reciting some mantras.

After about ten minutes, he touched the middle of her back with the end of the stick, while he swept her up with the other hand. She lay on the point of the stick about five feet above the ground!

He recited some more mantras and then abruptly removed the stick from underneath the girl. The girl was now suspended in the air without any support!

Indra’s husband passed his hand under her to make sure that there was no support. Two other persons also investigated without touching the girl, but there was no trickery.

After seven minutes he picked up the girl and laid her down tenderly on the grass. She looked utterly exhausted and dazed. The sadhu gave her some milk to drink and took his leave.

He was never seen again. It was said that he was a primitive man______   a bhil from the forest___who probably went back to his jungle hut.

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(1). Pilgrim of stars by Dilip Kumar Roy and Indra Devi

 

124. The Most Famous Fakir Of Egypt

 

 

The name of the most famous fakir of Egypt was Tahra Bey(1). He had piercing eyes. He had a medical degree and could speak many languages. He had been received by many kings and Signor Benito Mussolini. He was well known for stabbing his body with arrows and knives, and be buried alive. Once he permitted himself to be buried for twenty eight days. He was comfortable, both, in European or Arab dress. Many scientists and doctors had investigated his claims and found them to be genuine. Here is what Brunton had to say about him:

I, who have seen several of his feats done by half a dozen fakirs in different parts of India and Africa, find no difficulty in believing them possible; whereas knowing the man, I know also, that he actually does possess the powers which he claims

Brunton gathered a small group of doctors and other professionals to watch his performance.

On the floor were various articles to be used in his demonstrations. Every article was carefully examined by the group.

Tahra Bey touched and pressed certain parts of his temple and the nape of his neck. He seemed to suck air in his mouth. In a minute he was entranced. At the same time he uttered a peculiar sudden cry. He went into cataplexy.  His body became rigid like a board. He would have fallen to the floor, like a dead man, if his assistants had not caught him.

His body was placed on scythe-like blades. A doctor checked his pulse, it was 130.

A large block of stone weighing 90 kilograms (approximately 198 pounds) was placed on his bare stomach. The assistant showered blows upon the block with a hammer. Tahra Bey’s body remained rigid and taut, never yielding an inch, as if he was made of iron. Eventually the stone broke.

Tahra was then lifted up into a standing position, still apparently unconscious. The doctors examined his body and did not find the slightest mark from the scythe-like blades. He was then placed on a plank studded with sharp nails. An assistant jumped over his body. When reexamined there was no mark on his skin by the spikes!

Tahra Bey slowly came back to life. His eyes were fixed. He inhaled air violently. He opened his mouth so wide that one could see his tongue curled backwards. He brought the tongue forward with his hand.

Next, Tahra Bey allowed his cheeks to be pierced by hat pins. They also ran thick skewers through his jaws. Tahra Bey was fully awake, and did not elicit any sign of painfulness.

A doctor was allowed to plunge a large dagger into his throat in front of the larynx.

Some of the doctors, who were skeptical, repeatedly checked his pupils, in order to note whether they contracted or dilated. It was thus possible to determine whether he had taken any drug which made him insensible to pain. His eyes were quite normal.

When all these weapons were withdrawn there was not a single drop of blood on his skin!

Doctors were so astonished that they jabbed more needles and arrows in his face, shoulders and chest.

 

Tahra Bey then showed another power that he possessed. He allowed to be stuck by a sharp knife in the chest. When knife was withdrawn there was no blood. A doctor expressed a wish to see the blood flow to assure himself that the fakir was really wounded. Tahra Bey then allowed the blood to flow. It inundated his chest. When the doctor was satisfied, Tahra Bey stopped all flow of blood by mere will power!

 An assistant passed a flaming torch along the entire length of the fakir’s leg. The audience heard crackling of skin, but Tahra Bey’s face remained calm and composed!

The fakir announced, that this insensitivity to pain lasts for twenty-five minutes

 

He also showed his power over a hen and a rabbit. He touched some nerves and they became paralyzed, yet conscious. He then reversed the condition to normal

 

The most important test of the evening came next. Resurrection.

The test conditions were such that there was no chance of fraud.

Tahra Bey announced that he would be buried alive for exactly one and a half hours.

A coffin was brought. It was carefully examined. The floor of the apartment was checked for trap-doors. Still a rug was placed as a precaution.

Tahra Bey induced auto-cataplexy in him, just as he had done before.

He was examined by doctors. No breathing, no heartbeat!. He was like a dead man. There were no signs of life. It would have been hard to tell the difference between him and a dead body!

His assistants covered him completely with soft red sand.

After the allotted time, the sand was removed. He was put in a chair. Slowly, he became normal.

He had no memory of what happened to him during the time he was in the coffin.

 

What was the explanation of these amazing demonstrations?

 

Tricks, illusion and conjuring?

 

Magic? Just like the Egyptian who had thirty disembodied spirits under his command, or the old magician of Egypt who made the white fowl be killed by genii (blog 122)? Also the bombardment of the haunted house by bones and stones by spirits.(blog 109)

 

Hypnotism. Like the French woman who could read while her eyes were heavily taped (blog123) and did not show pain when stuck by a needle. The wound was bloodless

 

Yoga? Like the three tricks performed by the Indian sadhu; being buried alive, rope trick, and levitation. (Blog 124)

 

Miracles? There are twenty five miracles (supernatural events) described in blog 104-7, performed by men and women of God.

 

The answer is none of the above!

 

Tahra Bey claimed himself to be a man of science. There was nothing supernatural. He knew of certain laws of nature by which he could perform these feats. They were little known psychic laws, but nonetheless, laws. He had command over two secrets which enabled him to perform all his feats:

               1. Pressure on certain nerve centers of the body

               2. Ability to enter into cataleptic coma

When one is in cataleptic coma, heart and breathing, both, stop. There is no flow of blood. Body becomes insensitive to pain (similar to a modern operation under general anesthesia). To accelerate the healing of wounds he did two things: he temporarily accelerated the blood flow and he raised the temperature of the blood (which killed the microorganisms).

If a reader wants more details he can read it in the book .

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(1) A search in secret Egypt by Paul Brunton)

 

125. If One lays The Life At God’s Feet: Part One

 

There are over 7 billion inhabitants of planet Earth. Then there are close to 1022 star systems (one followed by 22 zeroes. A billion is one followed by nine zeroes). The estimate by Kepler spacecraft’s 2013 data was that:

“22 percent of Sun-like stars have Earth-like planets”

What I wanted to point out by the numbers mentioned above is that there are lots and lots of planets, and even if intelligent life (like us) may be present only in one in a billion Earth-like planets, there are still quadrillions of intelligent life forms.

There is only one Creator (God)

Now, consider for a second, that you want to attract the attention of God. Now you may ask, that why should one attract the attention of God. Business of living continues without us calling God. That

is true, but some of us have this desire.

Some years ago, I asked a saint (through an intermediary) that I want jazzab (oblivion to time and space while all thoughts are focused on God). The saint said that jazzab was good, but it was not the most important thing in the path towards God-realization. The most important and difficult thing was to come in the notice of God.

God could, if He wanted to, be aware of all of the quadrillions of us, but it will probably be un-necessary. Therefore, it is more than likely that He does not know any of us, individually, just as I do not know any of the 25 trillion red blood cells in my body.

 

It is this mote’s opinion that there is one sure way to attract  God’s  attention, and that is to lay one’s  life at God’s feet. If you try to sacrifice your life, for the sake of God, and only God (not religion or a cause), and nothing else, two things happen with unexceptional certainty:

He won’t let you die!

He will take notice of you. Who is this strange person?

 

A man, this mote intimately knows, was on the path of God. Almost ten years passed and there was no progress. This man was in utter despair. He was also very depressed. Matters came to a point where life without God was a burden. Separation from God was tearing him apart. Longing for God was such, that he would shed tears every day. He would call God to just acknowledge him___ his existence___ but there would never be a reply. Finally he decided to kill himself. Just before the attempt to kill himself, he asked himself “ Be honest. You are going to die in a few hours and may meet God face to face, just tell why you are ending your life?”  He gave the following answer, in all the near-death truthfulness. “ The reason is that I cannot bear separation from God any more. I don’t want to be separate from Him anymore. If there is a God (which he believed without doubt, but he said it for the sake of argument), after death I will meet Him, and thus get my desire, and be extremely happy. If there is no God, then there will just be oblivion; nothingness, no thinking capacity, which won’t be a loss, because the drama of life with its present pain and anguish, will be over”.

 

He pushed the plunger of the syringe, saying, “ Here I come, God!”. The syringe was filled with a powerful blood pressure lowering drug, Labatalol. He injected approximately hundred times the normal dose. ( He had crushed into white powder one hundred 300mg tablets, a total of 30,000mg, and dissolved them in water. Normal dose is 100-300 mg). The syringe had to be filled multiple times because there was too much liquid. He chose injection and not swallowing, because he did not want to take the risk of the powder just sitting in the stomach, and not being absorbed due to low blood pressure.

As he was injecting himself, he was thinking, God will answer him now. He was emotionally blackmailing God! He was like the proverbial kid who threatens to jump in the well, if mother does not accede to his wish.

The mother replies “ go ahead”. The kid does not jump.

But in this case the man was jumping in the valley of death by pushing the piston, again and again. He was also thinking, that one cannot blackmail God. That will be His defeat. But will the God let a true devotee die?

Maybe, God wanted to see, whether the man is empty talk, or will he actually carry out the act? Will he falter at the penultimate moment?

The man had imagined many scenarios, but in his wildest dreams he had not thought that he would survive such a massive dose.

The man laid alone, on a couch, for about fifty, fifty-five hours, before help arrived. His blood pressure fell to very low levels. He would go in and out of consciousness and unconsciousness/sleep.

He remained sick for about two months. Due to low blood pressure his kidneys stopped functioning. He had to be hemodialysed for a couple of weeks. Repeated infections with C.diff complicated the course.

He recovered completely.

God did not answer him.

God did not let him die.

After some more years, he did feel progress in his path towards God.

He earnestly feels that it was this act, laying his life at God’s feet, which caused him to succeed. After all, such an act must be extremely rare. Even the Creator takes notice.

 

To be continued.

 

 

126. If One lays The Life At God’s Feet: part two

 

I came across five examples of acts similar to the one narrated in the previous blog, I.e., willing to die unless one hears from God or His representatives. Three of them have been previously described. However, they will be very briefly narrated again.

 

1. Yogananda’s need to hear from God prior to his going to America. (Blog 79). When he was ordered to go to America, Sri Yogananda got worried that he will be lost in the materialism of the West. He started meditating, with the vow that he will continue praying till death, unless he hears from God. After several hours of his lamentation, Babaji (the founder of his sect and reputed to be several hundred years old) came to him, and assured him that his mission had Divine sanction.

 

2. Sri Ramakrishna was in utter despair (blog 20). Life was not worth living. He was sitting in the temple. His eyes fell on the sword hanging on the wall. He thought of ending his life. Like a mad man he grasped the sword and ran outside to end his life.  The blessed Mother chose to reveal Herself at that moment. He fell down unconscious, and was engulfed in a sea of light.

 

3. Giri Bala. (Blog 80). This holy woman was overweight when she was a girl. Her mother-in-law constantly criticized her habit of overeating. One day stung by her mother-in-law’s remarks, she vowed not to eat anything at all! She prayed to God for help. Help came in the form of her Guru, who taught her some secret mantras, by which she could live without eating and drinking!

 

4. Robert Bogucki, a 33 year old man from Alaska went into Australian desert to find some spiritual answers. In his own words, “I just wanted to spend a while on my own, just nobody else around, just make peace with God”. He was rescued after 43 days. He drank muddy water, and ate flowers and wild plants. He was without food for about 6 weeks and without water for about 12 days. Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert is one of the harshest places in the world. God did not let him die, because he had gone there for the sake of God

 

5. Brunton met the leader of a spiritual movement called Radha Soamis that had originated in 19th century (the fraternity exists to this day) India. His name was Sahibji Maharaj. The leader thought that to travel on spiritual path, a master was absolutely essential. He told Brunton the story of his own search for the master.

I was desperate to find a master. I asked the trees, the grass, and the sky to enlighten me if truth existed. I sobbed my heart out like a child.

One day I resolved to give up eating and starve to death, unless and until the divine power saw fit to grant me some illumination.

The next night I had a vivid dream, wherein a master appeared to me and revealed himself as such.

I asked his address. His answer was ‘Allahabad ’

I told the dream to a friend, who brought a group photograph, and asked me if I could recognize the master of my dream. I at once recognized him.

 

God did not let him starve to death!

 

 

 

127. Afzal Khan and Hazrat.

 

 

Swami Yogananda wrote in his book about Afzal khan who had an invisible disembodied entity whom he called Hazrat(1). Hazrat would instantly do whatever Afzal asked him to do. Sri Yukteswar (blog 80) told their story to Yogananda.

Afzal was not a man of God. He had been given this gift by a saint for a good deed. Afzal was told to use this gift in an honest way. Afzal used the gift of Hazrat honestly for about twenty year. Then he became dishonest and greedy. If he managed to touch any precious object, soon the object would disappear and come to Afzal’s possession. He would go to jewellery shops and pretend to buy expensive jewellery or watches. The jewellery he had touched would soon disappear. He gathered lot of followers. Soon his fame spread in Bengal. He would touch a bunch of train tickets at the railway station and then return the tickets. The tickets would come to him to be used by his disciples.

Sri Yukteswar, when he was a youth, happened to see four of his feats:

 About twenty people had gathered to watch Afzal’s performance

Afzal asked Sri Yukteswar to bring a stone. When the stone was brought, he asked Yukteswar to write his name on it with chalk. He did. Then he ordered Yukteswar to throw the stone in the Ganges, as far as he could. Yukteswar complied. He then told him to put a pot of Ganges water in front of the house.

Then Afzal asked Hazrat to put the stone in the pot. The stone reappeared in the pot of water at once! Yukteswar examined it. The stone had his signature on it.

Next Afzal saw an heavy, expensive antique gold watch and chain on a man’s wrist. He asked the man to show him the watch. The man gave him the watch . Afzal examined and admired the watch and then returned it to the owner. Soon the watch was missing!

The man begged Afzal to give him his watch. Afzal said you have five hundred rupees in your safe at home. Give me that money and then I will tell you how to get the watch. The man went home and returned with the cash.

“ Go to the little bridge near your house. Call Hazrat to give you the watch and the chain”

The man rushed home. He returned with relief. He told that when he called Hazrat, his watch came tumbling down the air in his right hand!

Next, Afzal asked for everybody to order any drink. The agitated owner of the watch ordered whisky, while everybody else ordered a soft drink. Hazrat soon made all the drinks materialize out of thin air in sealed containers!

Afzal offered to provide sumptuous lunch for everybody.

Soon gold plates with delicious dishes of food appeared.

After everybody had eaten, the guests started leaving. Behind, they heard tremendous noise of dishes being taken away. Soon all food and platters were gone. 

The story of Afzal and Hazrat had a strange ending. The saint came to know of the misdeeds of Afzal. He accosted Afzal and after finding him guilty took Hazrat away from him. But since Afzal had spent his earlier years honestly, the saint made one concession. He told Afzal that Hazrat will still provide him with food and clothes for his own self.

The confession of Afzal appeared in a paper, written by him with remorse and contrition, recounting his greed and misdeeds, and asking for forgiveness from God.

 Yogananda asked his guru, that why did Afzal take the money and gold of others, when he could easily procure it, himself, from some astral plane.

His master replied, “The things made from astral atoms do not have stability. They disintegrate. That is why Afzal was forced to take it from people and shops”


 

 

(1). Autobiography of a Yogi by Swami Yogananda

 

128. Yogi Krishnaprem

 

The original name of Krishnaprem was Professor Ronald Nixon (1). He was an Englishman, a graduate of Cambridge, who taught English literature at Universities of Lucknow and Banaras. He had been a pilot in First World War.

He became a disciple of Sri Yashoda Mae, a highly advanced spiritual lady. I have mentioned her, in blog 86, when she and others were visited by Lord Krishna in Mirtola, India. Nixon converted to Hinduism, and took the name of Krishnaprem (lover of Lord Krishna). He did not believe in half-measures, so he quit the world (sanyas) in 1928. He travelled the path of God till his death in 1965. His long time friend Dilip Kumar Roy (blog 86) writes of his earlier days, when he was a lecturer. One day a rationalist professor argued against miracles, and dubbed them as mere superstitions. Nixon genially replied:

As you know I was a pilot in World War……..One day as I was going to steer to the right, where I saw half a dozen planes whirring and zooming, thinking they were ours___that is RAF planes. Just then some force simply caught hold of my wrist, and made me turn to the left. I was quite bewildered, the more so as the force was too incredible to doubt. Later on, as I returned to the base, I came to know that they were enemy planes…….I had a miraculous escape. I am as certain as certain can be that it was a miracle

 

 

Dilip Kumar Roy writes, “What horrified me most was that Krishnaprem was actually begging alms in the streets and sleeping on a bare blanket on the cold heights of the Himalayas, 7500 feet above sea level”.

By virtue of his total renunciation and pure devotion Krishnaprem’s whole body was set on fire with the love of God (written By Haridas Chaudhuri)

While living at Mirtola, with his Guru, two other Britishers lived with them. They were also renunciants.

One was Haridas, an old friend from Cambridge, who gave up a highly successful medical practice, and tended to the sick villagers. The other was Madhava Ashish, a ground engineer posted to an air base in 2nd World War. After the war, he came up on one brief holiday to the Himalayas, somehow heard of Krishnaprem, walked over one day to see him, and never left.

Now after this brief introduction, let me narrate two profound experiences of Krishnaprem. He told them to Dilip. He had a wonderful vision of Lord Krishna and Radharani, in the famous Srirangam temple.


As soon as I prostrated myself in the shrine before the Lord’s image, I lost my outer consciousness. I saw a vast ocean made of liquid light. Time had stood still till a breath of Love started a ripple in the hushed ocean of Light, when countless white lotuses appeared on the blue waves………..on each flower stood a lovely Krishna with Radha­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____ She smiling and He playing His magic flute……..But O Dilip what beauty, what music, and what bliss……

He shivered as his voice trailed.

The other experience was when he visited Maharishi Ramana, the guru of Paul Brunton (blog 91). In his own words:

“In the evening, I entered the hall where the Maharishi reclines daily on his couch, to meditate at his feet. As soon as I sat down I heard a voice questioning me repeatedly: ‘Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?’ I tried hard to ignore it, but could not. So, in the end I just had to formulate an answer; ‘I am Krishna’s servant’. At once a new question came ‘Who is Krishna?’ I answered ‘Nanda’s son’. No use: The question was repeated pauselessly. I gave other answers, but it was of no use. The question persisted. I gave up. I left the hall, deeply disturbed. I came back, to meditate, but I had no peace. The voice returned.

I asked Radharani for help. She asked me what answers had I given. I told Her the answers. She revealed to me the correct answer.

Next morning, when I sat down again at his blessed feet, the Maharishi suddenly gave me a lightning glance and smiled. I knew at once that he was the author of it all and he also knew that I had guessed his part correctly.

Then, a deep peace entered me like a block of ice___an exquisite bliss.

As I meditated___I suddenly took it into my head to return the compliment and put a question to him in silence: ‘And who are you? May I humbly ask? ’. It so happened that the next moment I had to open my eyes involuntarily, when____ lo I found his couch empty!’

……….I closed my eyes once more and looked again____ and there he was, tranquil……… A momentary smile flickered on his lips as he gave me a meaningful glance and then looked away.

You understand the point of the miracle, Dilip.

‘That he was beyond nama-rupa( name and face )’.

“That is right” he answered.

I end this narration with the following addition:

Dilip writes; “I met my dear and esteemed friend S. Duraiswami, who told me; “ After Krishnaparem had left, I visited Maharishi…….He told me that I should have met him, a bhakta (one who practices bhakti or devotion ) and jnani ( one who follows the path of knowledge ) in one, a rare combination”. Such an encomium from such an exalted person, as the Maharishi.


 

 

(1). Yogi Sri Krishnaprem by Dilip Kumar Roy

 

129.Importance of spiritual sites

 

 

When my brother asked the Great Qalandar that why my Hindu friend was given the gift of closeness to God, when he was so rich, had never performed any penances and austerities, and had never quit the world (tiag). The great mystic gave the surprising answer, “These things do not matter. He got it because of some spiritual site (which he visited). There are sites in the world where you get grace (of God). Consider Jerusalem, holy to three religions”. Although in this mote’s opinion he got the grace of God (from the site) because he loved God, perhaps, as good as anybody else.

 

The Yogi Krishnaparem mentioned two such sites. One was the Srirangam temple at Trichinopoly, India, where he had the vision of Lord Krishna and Radharani (blog). The other was at Maharishi’s hall. In his own words:

 “As I meditated, it was borne home to me through the mystic silence that though the peace descends from the Lord Himself____does’nt he say in the Gita that He is the primal source of all experience___the peace in this instance was transmitted through His beloved agent: the Maharishi. I have previously mentioned that Brunton had experienced and said the same thing regarding Maharishee (blog 91)

Therefore these sites are not only the broadcasting sites to God, but also the receiving sites.

 

My Hindu friend once visited the room near Clacutta, where Sri Ramakrishna had spent the last years of his life. My friend was at that time in his early youth and had visited the place, unintentionally, with a bunch of loud, happy friends. None of them had any thought of God or spirituality and were just enjoying the gardens and the boat-ride. When he entered the room, he felt a shiver go through his body. There was something in the air. He became quiet. He realized that his friends had also become quiet. The experience left a mark on him because he never forgot it in the next fifty or more years.

 

Sri Daya Mata mentions in her book (1), how she had great mystic experiences at the following places: cave of Mahavatar Babaji, in Himalayas; in front of a huge statue of Lord Buddha in Nara, Japan; in Tarakeswar temple in India; in sacred Jagannath temple in Puri, India (also see blog 5).

 

St Therese of Lisieux had an indescribable experience in the church of Our Ladies of Victories in Paris, France(blog 14).

 

There are many spiritual experiences described by various persons, that I have described at the Holy site of Data Gunj Bakhash in Lahore, Pakistan (blogs 62-4, and 67).  The law of secrecy prohibits me to disclose more.

.


 

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

(1). Finding The Joy Within You  by  Sri Daya Mata

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

130. Some Updates/Additions.

 

                                 Locutionist in Medjugorje, Totapuri’s lesson, Drama at Mr. Shevani’s grave,

                                 Reading thoughts, seeing from afar, beyond religion,. How to control

                                              Wandering thoughts. Pawhari Baba. great Qalandar

 

 

Here are some updates/ additions to the episodes narrated in earlier blogs:

 

In blog 68, I mentioned that the spiritual sites serve as broadcasting stations to God or His assistants. They are also the receivers through which God’s grace descends.

Holy Mary appeared to six children in 1981 in Medjugorje, Bosnia. The village has become a spiritual site. In order for a site to succeed in attracting pilgrims, there has to be a spiritual presence there, just as the spirit of Data Gunj Bakhash is present at Data Durbar in Lahore Pakistan.

Do I have any proof of it being the case at Medjugorje?

Yes, as the following episode proves it. It has been taken from a book by Eric Weiner (1). The author interviewed the in-charge of a homeless shelter in South Bronx, New York. His name was Father Louis and he was a Franciscan monk. The monk told him the story of his conversion:

Father Louis, when young, led a life devoted to body building and womanizing. One day his mother asked him to go to a holy site in Bosnia. Louis loved his mother. To please her, he agreed to go on this pilgrimage, although he had no interest in religion.

Louis was bored by the second day in Medjugorje. He started idly thinking, that if Holy Mary was his and Jesus Christ’s mother and God the father of both of them, then he and Jesus should be brothers. He spent about 6 seconds on this thought.

Later, the same day, as he was climbing up a hill with other pilgrims, he heard that in their group there was a locutionist. This locutionist, a young girl, supposedly, received messages telepathically. At precisely 5.40 pm, they all kneeled and meditated for few minutes.

Afterwards, the girl told him that while meditating, she received a message from Jesus for him.

Louis thought that this must be a generic message, such as, go to church, be holy, etc. You cannot go wrong with such messages.

The girl said, “Jesus told her, that, yes, He was your brother and He wanted to anoint your hands”

I cannot improve on Weiner’s words; therefore, I am going to quote verbatim:

Louis was floored. She had given him the answer to the question she couldn’t possibly have known.

“And in that moment, I was infused with such love for Christ, knowing that He was in my head, He was in my brain, He was in my heart. I knew He was real. I knew this was the man I needed to follow the rest of my life.”

What was the spirit of such mighty and exalted prophet doing at Medjugorje?

 

2.  In blog 22, I mentioned that the guru of Sri Ramakrishna, Totapuri, was taught a profound lesson by God. At that time, for fear of digression, I did not narrate the new truth that he had found. Here is the incident:

 

Totapuri developed dysentery. It was so severe that he could not concentrate during meditation. He was used to mastery over his body, but now he had become a slave of his body. Body meant nothing to him; he decided to drown his body in river Ganges. He walked in the water of the river on one bank. To his surprise, he ended up on the other bank! (In another version, he ended on a sand-bank in the middle of the river).  In his amazement he looked at the other bank. In one dazzling moment he saw Divine Mother on all sides. She was in everything. She was in the water, She was in the land, She was in the body……She was everything that one sees, hears, or imagines.

She was the Transcendental Absolute. She was the Brahman, which Totapuri had worshipped all his life.

In the morning, he went with Ramakrishna, to the Kali temple, and for the first time prostrated himself before the image of the Mother.

Ramakrishna, later, told his disciples, the meaning of the vision of Totapuri

When I think of the Supreme____ as inactive; neither creating, nor maintaining, nor destroying___ I call him Brahman or Purusha, the impersonal God. When I think of Him as active___ I call Him as Sakti, or Maya, or Prakriti, the Personal God. The Personal and the Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness…The Divine Mother and Brahman is one

According to Hindu mysticism, God can be with Form, or without Form. To realize God with Form is much easier than to realize God without Form, because one can make a mental image of God with Form (such as Christ on Cross, idol of Divine Mother as Kali).

In this mote’s opinion, it is much easier to attract the attention of lesser gods and prophets than the Supreme God

 

 

3. There is a recent update on Mr. Shevani. (Blog67-8). The area where Mr Shevani is buried is surrounded by Wahabi Muslim villagers. They are a fundamentalist, extremist sect. These people had opposed the building of a tomb on his grave, and had injured a disciple of the great Qalandar. Three or four person plotted a scheme. They went to Mr. Shevani’s grave  in the middle of a dark night. They were equipped with an electric lamp and digging tools. There scheme was to steal Mr. Shevani’s dead body.

 

As the first shovel struck the ground there was a loud, blood chilling roar which came from somewhere. It did not sound human to them. It was blood curdling and terrifying. These men lost their senses, and ran helter-skelter, leaving the digging tools behind.

 

Two of the miscreants, including their leader, became delirious, talking nonsense, and had to be admitted to a hospital. Both died, one within a week, the other after several weeks.

 

Sometimes, God or His assistants interfere in human affairs.

 

4. Many persons attain the ability to read thoughts. A sufi person I know told me that he could not actually read one’s thoughts ( and is prohibited to do so by his order ) unless somebody came to him as a supplicant( for help). When such a person comes to him he comes to know why that person has come to him before the needy say a word.

The magician, Mahmoud, in blog122, whom Brunton met in India told Brunton that he was a thought reader.

Sri Daya Mata wrote in her book that her guru swami Yogananda had the power to read the mind of others, but he never intruded on anyone’s mental privacy unless invited (blog12)

The best description is that of Indra Devi: she could sometime read the thoughts of others. She was almost ashamed of it. However if she deliberately tried to read the thoughts of somebody, she could not (2).

5. Yogaparem told Dilip, “ It sometime happens that as soon as you are initiated into Yoga you begin to see things far away.”

I have narrated the story of the blind Russian beggar who saw the church fire and belfry falling when they were many versts away from the city (blog 52)

Swami Ramdas also wrote in one of his books that he could see people coming towards him while they were still far away.

Data Gang Bakhash wrote in his book (blog 104) that he went to meet a sage in Salang. The sage said, “My son you are in my notice from such and such date.” He also wrote that his murshed could read thoughts (blog62)

 

6. Problem of wandering thoughts. “As soon as I sit down to meditate my mind begins to wander. I can neither relax nor concentrate on the Lord”(2). That is the complaint Indra so often hears from people. How can it be otherwise, she tells them, when they make no attempt to keep up their contact with Him during the rest of the day? One should think of God as often as possible. In this way the mind eventually becomes accustomed to the heights and meditation is made possible. Think of God for one minute every half-hour…….

 

7. Miracle of Pawhari Baba. Yashoda Mai, the guru of Krishnaparem, once met the great saint Pawhari Baba when she was a fifteen year old girl (3). He lived in a cave. Once, it was announced that he was going to give bhandara (feeding, distribution of a vessel of foodstuff, and clothes to the sadhus ) ,the next day.  An intrigued Mai, disguised herself as a boy, and stood in the line of sadhus. Everybody was getting a vessel of food and a dhoti ( garment covering the lower half of the body). When her turn came, she just plunged head-on in the cave.

“ Believe it or not, Baba,” she said, “ I saw something absolutely incredible: It was just a tiny cave with no other exit. And there were neither vessels nor any dhotis___not a vestige! The narrow space inside the cave was quite empty!”    

Pawhari Baba and Sri Ramakrishna were contemporaries, and knew each other. Pawhari Baba kept a picture of Ramakrishna in his cave and thought highly of him

 

8. I have mentioned in the Foreword of this book what the great Qalandar said about my book “ …..Such person is beyond religion”

The Yogi who always wore dark glasses ( blog 64) said the same thing. When asked by the saintly person that what was his religion? .  He laughed and said that he was beyond religion and anybody who reaches God is beyond religion. However, one still follows the religion through which one has reached God, and since he reached God through Hinduism, he calls himself a Hindu.

 

Since I just mentioned the great Qalandar, let me record some more of his sayings. He said “ This path has no end ( similar to what Shahab’s guide told him). There are rest areas and milestones. At first rest area one gets something. In the second rest area one gets sweets (reward).  People start eating the candy. Many more years pass. Then you get a ceremonial robe or a hat of honor. Such people become very proud of their gifts and accomplishment. They walk proudly, full of self-importance. God asks them to serve humanity. In other words, they are diverted from their original aim (path). But I did not deviate, and others do not, either.”

“Allah plays games. First he gave you the sickness, then sent you to me to cure. Who am I to cure? It is He Himself who cures.”

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

(1). Man seeks God  by Eric Weiner

(2). Pilgrims of stars By Dilip Kumar Roy and Indra Devi

(3) Yogi Krishnaparem by Dilip Kumar Roy