115. Collection of all blog on God

Book three. 97-114

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, myself, have been involved in bench research on cell biology for 6-7 years; therefore, I 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, finally, have to do a randomized clinical trial with at least two almost similar arms in a significant number of humans, in which one arms 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.

What I have described above is the scientific method. Conclusions are reached, based on the facts, wherever facts lead one. One starts with a presumption, but if the experiments prove it wrong, one has to abandon it, and reach a different conclusion, based on the new data.  One does not start with a preconceived conclusion. In contrast, the religion, starts with predetermined conclusions, and finds the facts which support its views, and discards the facts which do not support it. 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 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 God is so little, why do billions of human being (more than half of world population) believe in God. The answer is twofold; faith and the law of inertia. Faith is a fundamental part of all religions, one is told not to question the dictates of religion but accept them on faith. The law of inertia hates and 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 are intellectually lazy people; we tend to follow the religious practices of our parents.

Let us, briefly, state, the case against the existence of God

One has four facts in front of him:

1. Nobody has seen God in, at least, the last two thousand years

2. Nobody has talked to God in, at least, the last two thousand years

3. 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 come in open so that people had seen Him and heard His voice, somebody would have written about it and told it to his children and grand children, who in turn would have passed it on to next generations.

History of the last two thousand years is characterized by wars, famines, hunger, diseases, poverty, and natural catastrophes (floods, hurricanes, epidemics, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc). Furthermore, there is injustice to contend with. Powerful have been oppressing the weak. People do good things and bad things. Cruel or bad persons are not necessarily punished; in fact they may have a great life, and the good are not necessarily rewarded . Where is the omnipotent and justice-loving God? Either there is no God, or He is not all- powerful, or He does not care. Years ago I had read that a thinker had said that only two (any two) of the following three propositions can be correct, not all three:

               God is all good

               God is all powerful

               World is full of suffering.

If first two are correct, then our suffering may not be suffering to the Eternal and Infinite Eye, just as I do not care about the death of dozens of billions of RBC’s every day (blog 95)

              

To be continued

98. God. Part two

               After the creation of universe it is running on its own, by the laws of nature. Everything that happens, happens, because of the law of cause and effect. It is an everyday observation. No Divine force, tangibly, intervenes. 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 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 don’t, because his body is better suited for that sport and he has worked very hard to develop that talent.

               So, you see, there is no evidence, that there is no God. If nobody has seen God or talked to God, that does not mean He does not exist. He simply does not want to talk, and maybe He cannot be seen ; He is faceless.

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

               The third argument, that everything that happens, happens, due to law of cause and effect, there is no Divine intervention at any point. Off course it is so, because God made it so. May be it is some sort of experiment of His; He created the universe, He also formulated  the fundamental laws of nature, and then left it on its own , to see how it develops.

How to prove a negative? All we have is that because such and such thing(s) did not happen, which we think should have happened, were there a God, therefore, 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.

               Copernicus published his work, in 1543, the year he died. Kepler, Galileo, and Newton further developed the Copernican theory. Kepler wrote the three laws of planetary motion, by which the planets move.  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 the human thought before and after Copernican theory

               For thousands of years, human beings saw 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. Everything pointed towards the earth as the center of the universe, and a Creator of this universe, the God. 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, and he was the designated ruler of the world and its creatures, as His assistant. Plants were for him, animals were for his use, sun was provided for light and heat, rain for his harvest. Earth was not very old, may be few thousand years old. This is called geocentric (earth is the center) theory. It was the accepted truth from the time of antiquity to 16^th 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, an animal, a human, or a heavenly body, had thousands upon thousands of components, each 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 entity, alone, was capable of such achievement. Without God, universe could not have come into existence. There was an essential need for the presence of God to explain this puzzle.

              

To be continued

99. God. Part three

               And then came Charles Darwin. 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…………..” laying out the 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 appeared approximately 2 million years ago (one million dollars are ten thousand, hundred dollar bills).

As biologists have observed during the last 50 years or so, spontaneous random mutation in the DNA (genetic code) of cells take place all the time ( off course, Darwin knew nothing about it. DNA was discovered almost a hundred years  later. ). Cells make errors while copying DNA. Billions upon billions of cells multiply every day (see blog 95 for just RBC’s). 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 animal such as a horse, or a rat or a 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.

               To sum up. 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; there is no evidence that God does not exist.

To be continued

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 don’t believe, intellectual honesty demands that you should provide an alternative theory which should explain all the facts. Don’t just say authors lied or had hallucinations (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 (blog 26) this mote and others have outlined. Go to the source, The Divine Current, yourself (blog 38). It is an extremely difficult road (blog 6), and it may take your whole life.

               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 writing this part. 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. 4 percent universe by Richard Panek

The scientific view states that the universe started about 13.8 billion years ago. It started with a big explosion called 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 audience 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 don’t believe everything that you read. Don’t fight with science. Back ground 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)

To be continued

                

101. God. Part Five

If you are wondering 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? In other words what is outside the outermost limits of the universe? Is there more empty space? There is vagueness, silence, irritability, or meaningless plethora of words with no substance in them. As if the questioner was stupid. 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 (first cause) to Spinoza, to Leibniz, to David Albert, in contemporary times. Otherwise we would, forever, be asking the question “ from where did that come from?” for instance universe started from a singularity at Big Bang, which started from random quantum fluctuation in the pre Big Bang world, which we have already seen, contained 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; no quantum fields or particles, no strings, no 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 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 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, he very well knew, or should have known, that nothing can arise from nothing. It is an impossibility

He also knew, that the law of conservation of energy predicted that there should be lot of energy pre Big Bang, so absolute nothingness, 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 Clintonian. 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.

Second, they said, that when they said that there was nothing, they meant that the total energy was zero, but 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 did not and could not overcome the impossibility of anything, what to talk of whole universe, be created from nothing

               Why could there not be a God? Why is the concept of God, rejected outright by physicists and cosmologists. God is, in a way of speaking, pure energy, with a mind. It is not random, senseless, blind energy, like electricity. It is a Force with an immeasurable, unfathomable, limitless , Mind.

               Human mind, the greatest marvel on earth, reached the stage of monkey to man in mere 2 million years. It is made of billions or trillions of cells, which individually are not conscious of their own existence or of 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 arise in 3-4 billion years, why not a greater mind arise, with a similar process of evolution, in an infinite amount of time ( God is outside time. Time stands still at the speed of light )

               We, the believers in God, start with the following conviction; the universe could not be created from sheer nothing. It is an impossibility. Therefore, it follows that there has to be a Creator. Is He capable of creating the universe from nothing. Yes, absolutely

               What about the question that from where did He come from?

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. Although, this mote has attempted to answer it by his two arguments in blog 113.

To be continued

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?

               The reason is that, scientifically speaking, nobody should be able to tell that part of future which cannot be told by any scientific means, because it does not exist... Let me explain. Every day we watch on TV weather channel how the weather would be for the coming week. Similarly if a man boards an airplane going nonstop to Hongkong, we can announce that he will be in Hongkong next day (barring some unforeseen event). That is understandable, but some future events cannot be told in advance, because the future is not made yet, and nobody knows how it will turn out.

               At any given moment, there are trillions of events taking place. On earth, there are 6 billions 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, and 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 2 years from now, it will be really amazing, if it turns out true, because I have no symptoms of brain cancer and last CT scan of brain taken one month ago for an automobile accident was normal. How would anybody know that I am going to die soon?  How could anybody pinpoint the time of 2 years? How could anybody know that I  will die of cancer? How could anybody know that I will die of brain caner?... Here are few examples of prophecies.

               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 days and year (s) went by. The prediction faded from memory. Then came 1947, and the partition of India , along with terrible ethnic cleansing. More than 9 million people suffered from death, rape, and forced migration (largest human migration in history ). My grandfather and one of my uncles were killed. The killers dug a hole under a tree and threw them 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 (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 (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 died in 1969, and told this story many times, the last perhaps in 1967 when he gave a talk to SRF 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. 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 1^st 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

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 (blog 65-6) in the book “ Zikar-a- Shahab”. “There were several volumes of a classic 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 (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 identical words.

               11. For dozens of 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, the 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 piece could be seen protruding. 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, and 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 blog76. 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. (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.

A man was gravely ill. His sufferings, for two months, were intolerable, and he was in such torture that he would lacerate 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) That night he suddenly woke up around three. 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!

Lips 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 writes. “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 (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 writes (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 10^o 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 is, and cannot be, any life after death. All function of body cease after death. Brain disintegrates very soon. There is gradual death, decay and disintegration of all cells. Cells are necessary for any function. Dead cells, chemicals, or DNA may persist. If the dead body is buried, it is eaten up by insects, only bones remain. Chemical 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, and other humans. According to the law of conservation of matter-energy, matter-energy cannot be destroyed, total amount remains the same. Therefore, dead person is transformed in millions of pieces of matter-energy

               To science, it is preposterous to think, 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 one more explanation: Since there are billions of planets, it is entirely possible, that there are other forms of life in some of them. Some of them may have entered in space-age centuries before us. Therefore, what are spirits, are simply visitors from outer space. This argument is hard to refute, except that the spirits which we will discuss here, were once alive here as human beings, on this planet, earth. They are not visitors from other planets, and they are not disembodied inhabitants of this planet who never possessed a body ( jinns, genii. See page 42 of ‘ A seach in secret India’ by Brunton, page 92‘ a search in secret Egypt’ by Brunton ). Here are some examples.

To be continued.

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 nineteen thirties. 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 anyway 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 prophet^pbuh. 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 Bakar^pbuh .  He has a message for you to carry’.  Abu Bakar told him to memorize your name and address and 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 ( 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 ( 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 to his three friends a deeply spiritual song, written by him, with deep emotion. 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 said later, that he also had felt His presence vividly

.

               4. I have already recounted this incident of Data Gunj Bakhash ( 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.

To be continued

109. God Part Thirteen

The section on spirits and life after death continues

               5. A restless spirit. Shahab writes (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 and mischievous. Nothing sinister.

               One night, there was sudden silence and then 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 inform her mother, in some way. 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 all this to happen, with all of his evil powers. He was using all means to scare me, as he had done to all previous tenants, so that I should abandon the house, and his evil deed remains hidden.

               Bimla’s mother was informed. By a government order, on her request, the corner of the room was dug.  Her bones were found. Her body was cremated in the proper Hindu custom, at a burial ghat. The same day all evil happenings ceased in the house. It was no longer haunted.  Peace came.

               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. Nobody has come back in this world, after his death, and told some of his experiences of other world(s), in great detail, or any detail. Nobody has ever come back, except as a spirit. Period.

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 10^o 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 Fatima^pbuh or prophet Muhammad^pbuh. 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, Muhammad^pbuh 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 Fatima^pbuh 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

The End.   

www.afnta-questforallah.blogspot.com

Collection of chants at: mkadk.afnta

 “On a dark night…………without light or guide, save that which burned  

  in my heart”

                                                                                        St. John of the Cross

Email address; mkadk2012@gmail.com