MKADK’s Journey towards Allah
Part Three
Collection
of Blog at:
Collection of
chants at: mkadk.afnta
Author: MKADK
Price: free
Dedicated
To
My Mother
Quotations are allowed
Email address: mkadk2012@gmail.com
“ Indeed, I know that you do not know”
(God in Holy Quran)
List of Books that helped my quest
·
A Search
in Secret Egypt by Paul Brunton
·
A Search
in Secret India by Paul Brunton
·
Autobiography
of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
·
In
Quest of God by Swami Ramdas
·
Iqbal's
poetry
·
Kashaf
ul-Mhjoob by Data Gunj Bakhash
·
Living
with Kundalini by Gopi Krishna
·
Pilgrim
of Stars by Dilip Kumar Roy and Indra Devi
·
Shahab
Nama by Shahab
·
The
Autobiography of St Therese of Lisieux. Translated by John Beevers
·
The
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nikhilananda
·
The
Hunger of the Soul by Nancy Mayorga
·
The
Life of Teresa of Jesus by Teresa of Avila. Translated by Allison Peers
·
The
Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. Translated
by Salvatore Sciurba
·
The
Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
·
The
Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross. Translated by Allison Peers
dictionary
of terms
·
Ashram:
hermitage
·
Durvesh: a Muslim mystic or fakir
·
Fakir: a Muslim ascetic mystic. beggar
·
Fana: a disintegration. passing away ( in God, in
teacher, in holy prophet )
·
Kundalini: a serpent power. When awakened it rises
progressively from base of spine to the
head
·
Mantra:
a holy word or phrase, to be repeated
·
Marakba:
contemplation, meditation
·
Maya:
a cosmic illusion
·
Mujahida:
a form of Jihad or holy war, but the purpose is God-realization by spiritual means
·
Namaz:
an Islamic prayer; one of the five
pillars of Islam
·
Qalandar:
a high-grade Muslim mystic
·
Puja:
ceremonial worship
·
Pujari:
a priest that performs Puja
·
Sadhana:
spirtual practices in order to reach God
·
Sadhu:
a monk or a holy person
·
Samadhi:
a superonscious state, trance-like state
·
Shariat:
Islamic religious laws and traditions
·
Sri:
a title of respect
·
Swami:
a monk who has taken vows of chastity,
obedience and poverty
·
Tareekat:
Islamic mysticism
·
Tasauwuf:
Islamic mysticism
·
Tawakkul: trust in God; a central pillar of Islamic
mysticism
·
Yoga: a path to reach God in Hindu mysticism
·
Yogi:
a practitioner of Yoga
·
Zikar:
repetition of a name ( usually God's) or
a phrase
List of contents
Foreword………………………………………………………………….page 7
97.God. part one……………………………………………………………….9
98 God. Part two-----------------------------------------------------10
99. God part three…………………………………………………………….11
100. God. part four…………………………………………………………..13
101. God part five…………………………………………………………….14
102…God part six………………………………………………………………16
103…God part seven…………………………………………………………17
104…God part eight……………………………………………………………19
105…God part nine …………………………………………………………….20
106.God part ten…………………………………………………………………21
107…God part eleven…………………………………………………………..23
108.…God part twelve………………………………………………………….24
109…God part thirteen………………………………………………………….26
110…God part fourteen………………………………………………………….27
111…God part fifteen……………………………………………………………..29
112…God part sixteen…………………………………………………………….30
113…God part seventeen…………………………………………………………31
114…God part eighteen…………………………………………………………..32
115. Data Gunj Bakhash and Islamic mysticism. Part 4…………….34
116 Data Gunj Bakhash. Part 5…………………………………………………35
117. Amma, Mufti Sahib……………………………………………………………36
118…Two unique visions of Swami Yogananda…………………………38
119…Does hell exist?……………………………………………………………….40
120 Brunton, and control over snakes and scorpions………………40
121…Magicians……………………………………………………………………….42
122…Hypnotists………………………………………………………………………44
123…Three Yogic Feats……………………………………………………………45
124…The most famous fakir of Egypt………………………………………47
125. If one lays the life at God’s
feet:part one…………………………49
126. If one lays the life ar God’s feet. Part two…………………………50
127…Afzal Khan and Hazrat………………………………………………………51
128…Yogi Krishnaparem…………………………………………………………..52
129. Importance of spiritual sites…………………………………………….54
130…Some updates/Additions…………………………………………………55
Foreword
Mkadk presents Part
Three of the book, ‘Mkadk’s Journey towards Allah’. Part two was finished in
July 2013. It was also translated in Urdu. Apart from relatives and
acquaintances, very few persons have read it. Parts I and II were donated to some local libraries where some
amongst the general public may have read it. The books have received little
recognition with one exception of a person from India, who after reading my
blogs on Swami Yogananda, decided to
read his autobiography. Highest praise, which some friends gave, was to call
the book ‘interesting’. However, the Great Mystic (see blog # 67) has been
quoted regarding the book to say: “Only
a person who loved God, could have written this book. Such person is beyond
religion”. These words spoken from such
a high authority has given me indescribable joy. The Great Mystic would not accept a copy of
the book and said, “I have passed through this stage and have gone much
farther”.
I have pondered over his remark. I have come to the following
conclusions:
1. He recognized my
intense love and longing for God which compels me to write
2. Once, he had the
same type of love of God but now he has
gone beyond that stage. If he had not loved Allah dearly, he would not have
felt it in my book, because only a kindred spirit could have recognized it.
I have made progress in my spiritual quest. I have entered the second
stage in the staging system of St. Teresa of Avila ( see blog #75). She
compares the soul of a person to a garden.
There are four ways this
garden can be watered by:
1. taking the water from
a well, and carrying it to the garden, a labor intensive method.
2. water-wheel and
buckets, when the water is drawn by a windlass; a less laborious way.
3. a stream or a brook.
This is very efficient and less laborious than the first two methods.
4. heavy rain, when God
waters it Himself, when the water is needed. No effort of the gardener is
needed.
The first stage of an spiritual quest is the longest and the
toughest. Due to the effort of keeping the focus of thoughts on God, meditation
is very labor intensive. My meditation has become much easier now. This boon
was granted to me in January 2014, after fourteen years of meditation. This
stage is also called ‘prayer of the quiet’. Being an older man, will I ever
progress to the 3rd stage? Who knows? Everything is in His Hands. At
present, my position is like that of moss at the bottom of the streams. The
fast water of the world bends the moss, but it is unable to dislodge it from
the rock of God.
My life in 1975 was a year of great anxiety and
restlessness. I chose to remain unemployed while waiting word on a job
application outside my country. Daily I
would check the mail for the letter that would seal my future. I found myself becoming very despondant due
to the absence of any letters. My mother observed my daily disappointment. One
day, as I was lying on a cot, restless and dejected, she said to me in Pubjabi:
“Once you are satiated with the world, turn to God, and then you will find
peace.”
I jumped up from the bed as if I was touched by an
electric current. I went to my room and brought my pocket diary. I wrote her
words in the diary. I believe I still have that diary. I dedicate this Book III
to her.
I turned to God, in earnest on December 13, 1999. I
never did get the reward of peace as my mother had promised. I have found my restlessness
to be less since January of 2014. The reason for this may be my intense desire currently
not to have peace in my life. I have,
without fail, asked God to not give me peace. I have often prayed, “ God! I
don’t want peace. Give shanti to
those who want it, like my Hindu friend. I want the water in the kettle, always
simmering”.
The great saint Ramakrishna once told this story:
“A bird sat
absentmindedly on the mast of a ship anchored in Ganges. Slowly the ship sailed
into the ocean. When the bird came to its senses, it could find no shore in any
direction. It flew towards the north hoping to reach land; it flew very far,
and grew very tired but could find no land.
It returned to the mast
and sat there. After a long while, the
bird flew again, this time towards the east. It could not find land in that
direction either; everywhere he saw nothing but limitless ocean.
Bird flew towards the
south and then towards the west. When he could find no land anywhere, it
settled down on the mast. It did not leave the mast again. It no longer felt restless or worried.
Because it was free from worry, it made no further effort.
I want to thank my wife MB and my brother RQ for their
constant help. Without them, the journey
would have been harder.
Mkadk
April 17, 2014
97. God. Part one
I have thought about God for several decades. It has been my obsession
in life.
Do I have the answers to all my questions about God which had perplexed
me for all of my adult life?
Yes, almost.
Can I convince
others, who don’t believe in God, the presence of God? No, I cannot.
You might think that the reason I cannot convince others is because
there is no objective evidence. That is not the reason. The reason is that the
evidence is anecdotal. You know how scientific community hates anecdotal
evidence. I have been involved in research on cell biology for 6-7 years and
understand the limitations of preliminary evidence. This type of data by itself
is not definitive but becomes the basis for further research. One tries to get
experimental evidence by designing experiments in a laboratory which prove or
disprove the hypothesis. If it is clinical evidence, one may have to do a
randomized clinical trial with at least two almost similar arms in a
significant number of humans, in which one arm gets a treatment, while other
does not. If the treatment arm derives statistical benefit, then the hypothesis
is tentatively right. If multiple
observers, away from each other in time and space, repeat the experiment, and
have the same results, then science accepts it as a fact. If there is enough
circumstantial evidence (facts), one tries to discover the laws of nature which
tie the facts. Once one has discovered the laws, one tries to formulate a
theory (or hypothesis) which explains the laws.
This is the scientific method.
Conclusions are reached based on the facts. One starts with a presumption that
if proven wrong by the experiments then one has to abandon it. One does not start with a preconceived
conclusion.
In contrast,
religion can start with predetermined conclusions and finds facts to support
its views discarding the unsupported ones. This ‘pick and choose’ method of
data-collecting is completely and utterly unacceptable to science. Anecdotal
evidence picks and chooses, selecting only those anecdotes which support a
particular point of view, instead of picking using all anecdotes.
The trouble is that with God, you cannot get evidence by designing
experiments. The evidence against God is zero; one cannot prove by science or
logic that there is no God. The evidence in support of God is miniscule, like
the proverbial needle in the haystack, and indirect.
You might ask that
if the evidence supporting the existence of God is so little? Why do billions of human beings believe in
God? The answer is twofold, the
existence of faith and the law of inertia. Faith is a fundamental part of all
religions. One is expected to not question the dictates of religion but accept
them on faith. The law of inertia resists change. As Newton said, “a body in motion will stay
in motion, and a body at rest will stay in rest, for ever, provided a force
acts on it”.
We can be
intellectually lazy people. We tend to follow the religious practices of our
parents.
One can argue the case against the existence of God with the following
four facts.
1. Nobody has every reported seeing God in the last two thousand years.
2. Nobody has talked with God in the last two thousand years.
3. The world is full of miseries and injustice.
4. Every event that occurs is the result of the law of cause and effect.
Let me
expound. I have chosen two thousand years (I could have
chosen an earlier date) because we have relatively better recorded history of
this period. If God had had appeared so humans could see and hear him, it would
have been recorded and passed down in families. The last two thousand year
historical period contains wars, famines, hunger, diseases, poverty, and
natural catastrophes (floods, hurricanes, epidemics, earthquakes, tsunamis,
etc). History also contains main
injustices. The powerful have oppressed the weak. People do good and bad things. Cruel or bad persons may live happy,
rewarding lives without being punished for dastardly deeds. One can ask where the omnipotent and
justice-loving God was. One can surmise that God either does not exist is not
all-powerful, and/or He is uncaring.
Years
ago I read about a thinker who had surmised that only two of the following
three propositions can be correct. God
is all good. God is all powerful. The world is full of suffering.
If first two propositions are correct, then our suffering may not be due
to the Eternal and Infinite Eye.
For further discussion of this topic refer to blog #95.
98. God. Part two
The laws of nature
have directed the universe after its creation. Changes can be explained using the law of
cause and effect. It is an everyday observation. No divine force intervenes in
a tangible manner. If one wants to buy a
loaf of bread, one has to go to a shop and buy it. No angel from heaven will do
it for him. If one falls sick from malaria, he must have been bitten by an
Anopheles mosquito carrying the plasmodium parasite. If one is hit by a car
while walking on a footpath, it must be due to the carelessness of the driver
or a faulty vehicle. An Olympic athlete succeeds where others do not, because a
body is better suited for that sport and talent better developed.
There is no
evidence that there is no God. If no one has seen or talked to God, that does
not mean He does not exist. God simply
does not want to talk; He cannot be seen; and or He is faceless.
The second argument
that the world is full of injustice and misery does not mean there is no God. He simply chooses to not interfere in human
affairs. All the miseries are man-made.
The third argument
change occurs due to the law of cause and effect assumes there is no Divine
intervention at any point. Of course it is so, because God made it so. Maybe it
is some great divine experiment of His. He created the universe, formulated the
fundamental laws of nature, and then left it on its own for development. How to prove a negative? We think that
changes occur that God would never have permitted to occur. Therefore, some postulate that there is no
God.
After dealing with
the arguments against God, let us discuss the impact of Copernicus and Darwin
on human thought. No other two individuals had as much impact on our perception
of man’s place in the universe as these two men.
In 1543, Copernicus’
work was published and he died. Kepler,
Galileo, and Newton further developed the Copernican theory. Kepler wrote the
three laws of planetary motion which described planet movement. Newton discovered his three laws of motion
which operate in the whole universe and explain the movement of all bodies.
What is the importance of Copernican theory? To understand it, one must study human thought before and after
Copernican theory
For thousands of
years, human beings believed in a flat, stationary earth. Earth stayed in one
place, whereas the sky revolved around it. Sun and moon rose in the East and
set in the West. Stars filled the sky and even they moved during the night. Man
was the most powerful of all the creatures.
Everything moved with clock-like precision, like a nicely crafted watch.
Can a watch construct itself without a watch maker? If a watch, a house, cannot
develop by itself, there had to be a creator, which made this grand universe. Science
at that time accepted the earth as the center of the universe, and as God – the
creator of this universe. Religions taught the same thing, with the added twist
that the man was the center of the universe. Created by the God in His image, man
was the designated ruler of the world and its creatures. Plants and animals
were for use. The sun provided light
and heat and rain for his harvest. Earth was only maybe a few thousand years
old. This is called geocentric (earth is the center) theory. It was the
accepted truth from the time of antiquity to 16th century (with few
dissenters, like Aristarchus of Samoa).
Copernican theory
gave a heliocentric (sun is the center) concept. Earth was not stationary but
moved, on itself, and around sun. Other planets in the solar system did the
same. If one could go far away, the earth would appear as a pinhead of light,
hardly visible, amongst thousands of other stars. How could it be the center of
the universe? All these millions (in fact, billions) of stars could not have
been made for the sake of earth, and for the convenience of its inhabitants
(most important was man).
Whereas Copernican
theory diminished the importance of earth and man, it did not diminish the
importance of God. Universe could not have emerged by itself, somebody must
have made it. Every creation, be it a plant, animal, human, or heavenly body,
had thousands upon thousands of components.
Each component working in a precise and prescribed way, as if a higher
force, laid down the laws of their governance. Everything, for a thinking man,
was a source of joy and wonder. A far, far wiser and powerful singular entity
was capable of such achievement. Without God, the universe could not have come
into existence. There was an essential need for the presence of God to explain
this puzzle.
99. God. Part three
Charles Darwin in the 1800s, advanced the
discussion of God and creation. In 1858,
the two separate works of Darwin and Alfred Wallace (who independently arrived
at the theory of evolution) were published in the same journal. In 1859, Darwin
published his famous book; “On the origin of species by natural selection…………..”
giving details of his theory with an immense amount of data. I have relied
heavily on the well written Fowler and Kuebler book “the evolution controversy”
in writing about evolution, although I have read many books on evolution
including Darwin’s own account of his voyage on Beagle, in 1831-36.
One hundred and
fifty years have passed since Darwin’s publication. All the essential elements
of his theory have been accepted by large majority of scientists. Most
importantly, no evidence in fossil data has been discovered which would
demolish his theory.
What are the important components?
1. All life forms
descended from a common ancestor. Potato and monkey had a common ancestor.
2. Random mutation
and natural selection are the two processes by which new species are formed. It
is a slow and gradual process of modifications.
3. Long time spans
are required, from microbe to man it took almost 4 billion years (remember one
thousand million make a billion, so these are 4000 million years). This
directly contradicts the Biblical view of earth, merely 5-10 thousand years
old. Our species Homo sapiens appeared
approximately 2 million years ago. As biologists have observed during the last
50 years or so, spontaneous random mutation in the DNA (genetic code) of cells
takes place all the time (Darwin knew nothing about DNA which was discovered
almost a hundred years later). Cells make errors while copying DNA. Billions
upon billions of cells multiply every day (see blog #95). Most of the errors
are deleted, but some escape destruction. This is the process, the engine - random mutation, through which, in
my view, God created all creatures. Therefore Darwin’s theory of evolution is
not against God.
Mutations can also
occur from external sources, like radiation and chemicals. The role of natural
selection is to filter the mutations. Beneficial changes are preserved and
favored. Therefore, the mutation which favors deer to run faster and thus
outrun its predator, gives a selective advantage to that deer population. They
will live longer. Such changes are passed on to posterity and get established
in a population. It is the survival of the fittest. For a scientist, was supernatural
intervention or help needed anytime for the progression to humans from microbe?
Most scientists will say NO
Therefore Darwin’s theory is a crushing blow to the need of God to make plants, animals and humans. God could
certainly have made them, but it is not incumbent upon us to believe so, it
could have happened without God.
Let us examine the
evidence supporting evolution. One has
to familiarize oneself with terms such as radiometric dating, geologic columns
and fossils, intelligent design, common DNA triplet, TCA cycle, irreducible
complexity, and Cambrian explosion. I will try to keep it simple and brief.
Radiometric dating
is fairly accurate in telling us the age of rocks and fossils (of animals).
Isochron method is even better. When one dates a sedimentary rock column, the
oldest rocks are at the bottom, and the youngest on top. When we look at the fossils of animals found
in a geologic column, we always find simpler life forms in the oldest rocks.
Thus we may find only animal such as jelly fish, comb-jellies, and sponges, in
rocks over 550 million years old (pre-Cambrian period). These animals don’t have shells, or dorsal
notochord, or vertebral column, or wings, or gills, or hand, or feet, or
mammary glands. Vertebrates (with vertebral column) appear later (birds,
reptiles, and amphibian). We don’t find reptiles in rocks dating Silurean
period (420 million years old) or older, but we find them in rocks dating 260
million years and younger. We don’t find mammals before 250 millions, birds
before 160 millions, apes before 30 million years, and man before 2 million
years.
These bones of
animals provide strong evidence of a stepwise progression, from simpler life
forms to more complex and advanced (bigger relative size of brain). The
complexity is evident in organs, such as eyes, also. Darwin studied the eye. Eye is a very complex
organ. How could such an organ emerge spontaneously? If theory of evolution was
correct, it must have progressed from simple to complex. As it turns out there
are various types of eyes. Some mollusks have just pigmented spot of
photoreceptor cells. Next two improvements are invagination (forming of cup) and
restriction in the size of the aperture. These two changes impart better
resolution. We find animals with just these changes. Next is formation of lens
for better focusing. We have animal with a proto lens. And so on, till we reach
the mammalian eye.
Darwin himself
recognized the importance of gradual improvement and presence of intermediate
forms. He wrote: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed
which could not have formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my
theory would absolutely break down”.
We have never found
the fossils of advanced animals such as a horse, rat or tiger in rocks older
than 250 million years old. Dinosaurs roamed the earth from approximately 200
million to 65 million years ago. They were wiped from the face of the earth
about 65 million years ago, never to come back.
In summary, the
evidence shows that there is no evidence that God exists and there is no need for God to exist. Life could
have emerged, on planet Earth, without God.
Keep in mind what I
said before that there is no evidence
that God does not exist.
100. God. Part four.
Now let us present
the evidence supporting the concept of God.
All the evidence is anecdotal and circumstantial. But if you have an
open mind, and connect all the dots, you will arrive at the inescapable
conclusion that there is a Supreme Being. We see His or His assistants’
handiworks through the examples I provide. Don’t reject them outright. If you
don’t believe me, examine the raw data yourself by reading them in the books
(whose list is provided) yourself. If you still do not believe, intellectual
honesty demands that you should provide an alternative theory which should
explain all the facts. Do not accuse authors of being dishonest or hallucinating
(see blog #11-12). Did all these writers lie? Is there evidence that they were
habitual liars or had a mental disease? If you still don’t believe then
investigate yourself by methods (see blog #26) this mote and others have
outlined. Go to the source, The Divine Current, yourself (see blog #38). It is
an extremely difficult road (see blog #6), and it may take your whole life for
full understanding.
There are five
lines of evidence supporting God.
1. The beginning of the universe
2. Foretelling the future (prophecy)
3. Miracles
4. Spirits
5. Prayers are answered
Let us first start with the beginning of universe. I have used these four books in developing
this discussion. I want to acknowledge
their help with gratitude.
1. A history of
Western philosophy by Bertrand Russell
2. A Britannica
Guide to Particle Physics. Edited by Erik Gregersen
3. The fabric of
universe by Brian Green
4. The 4 percent universe by Richard Panek
Science believes that the universe started about 13.8 billion years
ago. It started with a big explosion called the Big Bang. Most scientists believe that all
the known universe; you, me, this house, this city, this earth, the solar
system, all the galaxies, all the matter including dark matter, all the energy
including dark energy, all the empty space including its fields, all the Higg’s particles____________ were compressed in a
tiny space which was much smaller than a single atom, as a matter of fact the
size of a Planck length. A Planck length is a centimeter divided by 1 followed
by 33 zeroes. May be you did not grasp the size,
1000000000000000000000000000000000 of such Planck lengths will fit in a
centimeter. For a sense of proportion, remember a million is I followed by 6
zeroes, a billion is 1 followed by nine zeroes, and a trillion is 1 followed by
12 zeroes. Because such an amount was compressed in such a space, the
temperature of this singularity was incredibly high. It exploded and underwent
great expansion (inflationary period) at greater than the speed of light. It
cooled off, from 1032 degrees K to 109 degrees K (one
billion degrees) in 100 seconds. Atoms formed about 380,000 years after the Big
Bang. The first stars appeared at about 100-200 million years after the Big
Bang. Our son and earth are about 5 billion years old. Earth had to cool off
sufficiently for life to start. Life started about 3 billion years ago because
of the electrons, which have the quality of inter-atomic bonding and chemical
bonding. You and I exist because of this capacity of electrons. Our species Homo arrived on the scene about 2
million years ago.
In 1929, Hubble
made a great discovery with his telescope. He showed that the universe was not
static but expanding. Furthermore the expansion velocity is proportional to the
distance, farther a galaxy is faster is its speed; galaxies that are a 100
million light years from us are moving at about 5.5 million miles per hour,
whereas galaxies that are 200 million light years move at about 11 million
miles an hour. This is hard to believe. It is as if I throw a ball in the sky
and the velocity of the ball, instead of decreasing, as the time elapses, keeps
on increasing, and the ball disappears in the sky! Now Hubble and others were
able to calculate the speed of the galaxies, from their distance from us, and
the distance could be calculated by the shift in color spectrum of their light;
distant stars appear red (red shift) and closer stars appear blue (blue shift
). Therefore, this discovery gave an irrefutable argument in support of Big
Bang model and the time of its occurrence. If one goes to a site where debris
is flying outwards, one can conclude that an explosion took place and one could
pinpoint the time it took place by the present location and the speed of the
debris and plotting it backwards.
You may wonder, why
so much detail? And why on a spiritual blog? The detail is necessary because my
audiences are high school educated persons in Asia or Africa. I want to
convince them that the broad principles of science of Big Bang are impeccable.
If Scriptures say Earth is 5-10 thousand years old and human beings started
from Adam and Eve do not believe everything that you read. Avoid the fight with
science. Background microwave radiation, supernovae explosion (which showed
that the speed of expansion decreased in first 7 billion years, but increased
after that) provided further data supporting Big Bang model. I may not agree
with the details. For instance, the size
of the universe at Big Bang may be bigger. I agree that the small size was due
to the force of gravity which was pulling everything towards each other and
crushing the atoms. I think that initially everything was Energy. Mass and
energy are interchangeable by Einstein’s famous equation, E=MC2,
where E is the energy, M is the mass, and C is the speed of light per second.
The singularity was just huge, phenomenal, amount of energy. Some people equate
the singularity to God (this mote doesn’t)
101. God. Part Five
People may ask what
is the force pushing the galaxies farther and farther outwards. It is the space
itself that is expanding, or to be precise, it is the repelling force of the
dark energy (73 % of the matter-energy content of the universe). To borrow an
example from Green, “black specks of a poppy seed muffin are dragged apart as
the dough rises in baking……the outward motion arises from the relentless
outwards swelling of space itself.” As the distance between galaxies increase,
due to dark energy, the speed of galaxies increases more and more ( more space,
therefore more dark energy, therefore more repelling force ). That is the
explanation of the strange observation of Hubble.
If you ask the scientists, where is this extra dark energy coming from,
5.5 million miles per hour for the galaxies which are 100 million light years
away, you get vague, unsatisfactory answers.
If you ask the
scientists, what are these galaxies expanding into - outside the outermost
limits of the universe? Is there more empty space? The answers will seem either
vague, meaningless or couched with silence and irritability. The law of conservation of energy is a
fundamental law of nature and has no exceptions. It states “the total energy of
an isolated system cannot change—it is said to be conserved over time. Energy
cannot be created or destroyed, but can change form”. Therefore the total energy pre-Big Bang ( for
this discussion ignore Time. Time started at Big Bang, so truly speaking, there
is no before Big Bang ), at Big Bang, 13.8 billion years after Big Bang, and
100 billion years after Big Bang should be the same.
If that is the
case, there was tremendous amount of energy before Big Bang. But scientists
claim that universe started from nothing.
According to Guth, universe is the ultimate free lunch. So, what is the
truth - tremendous amount of energy or nothing?
Now, the universe,
at some point has to start from absolutely and completely nothing.
Philosophers, if not scientists, recognized it long ago, from Aristotle to
Spinoza, Leibniz, and then David Albert
in contemporary times. Otherwise we would be forever asking the question from where did that come from?” For instance, the universe started from a
singularity at Big Bang. This started from random quantum fluctuations in the
pre Big Bang world containing tremendous amount of energy. Where did that pre
Big Bang energy come from? And so on. At
some point we have to start at nothing- neither quantum fields or particles, strings, nor membranes. Otherwise we have to
ask ourselves, where did they come from?
It is worthwhile to
keep in mind that there is no data, absolutely zero, before the Big Bang.
Science is silent as to what was there before Big Bang. All is speculation,
which puts Krauss and Stephen Hawking, at the same level as this mote. They
have started with a supposition (with zero facts) that universe arose from
nothing. Can anything be created from absolutely nothing, and not their nothing
(their nothing is full of positive energy and an equal amount of negative
energy). Why don’t they do some experiments and create some subatomic
particles, or atoms, from nothing. Deep in the Soudan Mine of Minnesota where
WIMP (weakly interacting massive particles) may have been found, they should
put a tube with absolutely nothing (or as much vacuum as is possible on earth)
for 100 years and show how many more particles were created. I predict it will
be zero.
Now, Hawking is a
brilliant scientist. Why would he believe in such a preposterous idea? The
reason is that he arrived at a conclusion first and then he went to find the
facts (there are no facts before Big Bang) which will support his conclusion.
Religion does this backward practice; scientist should not do such cheating. His pre-conceived conclusion was that there
is no Creator. Therefore, it follows; the universe must have emerged
spontaneously. As Sherlock Holmes famously said “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”.
Now, Hawking knew,
or should have known, that nothing can arise from nothing. It is impossible. He
also knew that the law of conservation of energy predicted that there should be
lot of energy pre Big Bang. So absolute
nothingness like a vacuum state did not exist. But logic demands that the
universe, at some point, should start from nothing and absolutely nothing. How
did he and others overcome these two problems? It was brilliant but dishonest
and verbal parsing. First, they changed the definition of nothing. Nothing did
not mean absolutely and completely nothing but filled with all sorts of
particles, fields and energy.
Secondly scientists
postulated that there was nothing- meaning the total energy was zero. There
was a huge amount of positive ( 1080 particles in the observable
universe ) and an equal amount of negative energy, cancelling each other.
Nobody had any idea of negative energy, so they made the mutually attractive
force of gravity the negative force. Gravity and dark force cancelled each
other.
They would not have needed to resort to this intellectual dishonesty,
if they had not started with the first supposition that there was no Creator.
All their problems arose from that. They could not overcome the impossibility
of anything i.e. the whole universe, be created from nothing.
Why could there not
be a God? Why do physicists and cosmologist reject the concept of God? God is
pure energy and mindful. It is not a random, senseless, blind energy like
electricity. God is a force with an
immeasurable, unfathomable, limitless mind.
The human mind, the
greatest marvel on earth, developed from monkey to man in mere two million
years. Made of billions or trillions of
cells, each not conscious of their or other’s existence. Each cell is made of chemicals derived from
daily food. It has the capacity of reasoning and thought. Look at all the
progress we have made in the last three hundred years. If human mind can
progressively develop in 3-4 billion years, why not consider that a greater
mind with a similar process of evolution can also be present.
The believers in
God are convinced that the universe could not be created from nothing. It is
impossible. Therefore, it follows that there has to be a Creator. Is He capable
of creating the universe from nothing? Yes, absolutely.
One can question
where did God come from? This is unknown. This writer is unable to answer this
question due to its complexity. (see blog
#113).
Our answer is that we don’t know.
Our small mind is not capable of answering this question, just as a cow cannot
learn to read.
102. God. Part six
2. Prophecy or foretelling
the future. What is so special about
prophecy? Why is it an argument in support of God or a Divine system run by His
assistants with His sanction?
No one should be
able to tell the part of the future which cannot be told by any scientific means,
because it does not exist. Every day we
watch the TV weather channel for the next week’s weather report. If a man flies nonstop to Hong Kong, we can assume
he will be in Hong Kong the next day (barring some unforeseen event). These are
reasonable expectations even though future events cannot be told in
advance.
On the Earth, there are trillions of events taking place
among the six billion humans, trillions of animals and plants, and innumerable
inanimate objects capable of movement (like your watch). Every event takes
place because something caused it and produced an effect. First event is the cause, the second
event the effect, where the second
event is a consequence of the first. Where
there are so many intermediate events, between the first cause and final
effect, the event cannot be predicted in advance by the known laws of nature.
Suppose somebody tells me that I will develop cancer of brain and die two years
from now. This will be amazing if it turns out true because I have no symptoms
of brain cancer and a normal brain CT scan.
How can someone predict my future death? the correct time period, cause of
death? And yet, I have personally
experienced true prophecies in my lifetime.
1. One day in 1940’s my grandfather, along with
his two sons (my uncles), was sitting outside his home. A Fakir (either a common beggar or a mystic) passed by and asked for alms. My grandfather started talking to
him. The Fakir said, you and one of
your sons will be buried together in the same grave. Both sons, to show their
love for their father, expressed their desire to be the one to have this honor.
Many years went by and the prediction faded from memory. In 1947, partition of
India occurred with terrible ethnic cleansing. More than 9 million people
suffered from death, rape, and forced migration (largest human migration in history).
Both my grandfather and one uncle were killed. The killers dug a hole under a
tree and threw their bodies together in the grave.
My
other uncle, then remembered the prophecy of the Fakir. He lived over forty years after the partition and told the story to dozens of
people, including my mother. I asked my mother to repeat it to me very
carefully. Two persons to be buried in the same grave is a highly unusual
event. It just never happens in normal times. There is no scientific
explanation of Fakir telling it in
advance.
2. Swami
Yogananda (see blog #79-81) writes in his book: ‘During my visit to India and
other countries, I was buying gifts for my disciples for the annual Christmas
party in USA. As I was walking in Calcutta, I saw a silver cup. I bought it as
a gift for one of my disciples, Mr. Dickinson. When I gave him the gift he said
“ the silver cup!” he sat down some distance away, apparently in a daze.
Later
in the night, he said “ for forty three years I have been waiting for the
silver cup”
He was five years old when he
had a near-drowning incident. At the last minute he saw the vision of a saint
with tranquil eyes and reassuring smile. There was a dazzling multicolored
light which filled all space. He was rescued by his companions. Twelve years
later in 1893,he was walking with his mother in Chicago. Again there was a
mighty flash of light. Few paces away, a man was walking. He recognized him as
the same man he had seen when he was near drowning. He and his mother followed
the man to an auditorium. His name was Swami Vivekananda, the chief disciple of
Sri Ramakrishna (see Blog #7). He gave a speech. Mr. Dickinson and his mother
met him afterwards. He said “ young man, I want you to stay out of water”.
He
hoped that he will be his guru. Yogi read his thoughts, “ No, my son, I am not
your guru. Your teacher will come later. He will give you a silver cup”. “One
night in 1925, I prayed deeply that God
would send me my guru. A few hours later, I was awakened from sleep by melody.
Celestial beings were playing flutes and other instruments. After filling the
air with glorious music , they went away.
The
next evening I attended your lecture for the first time, and knew my prayers
had been answered. For eleven years now
I have been your disciple. Sometimes I wondered about the silver cup. I had
persuaded myself, that silver cup was just a metaphor. When you gave me the
gift, for the third time in my life, I saw the same dazzling flash of light. I
was gazing at my guru’s gift that Swami Vivekananda had foreseen 43 years
earlier___a silver cup! Mr.
Dickenson who died in 1969 told this story many times lastly in 1967 to a group
of SRF (self-realization fellowship) monks.
3. Swami Yogananda writes: A veterinarian visited my
guru. Afterwards, my guru said that he will die shortly. He was the father of
my friend Santosh. I interceded on my friend’s behalf. My guru, Sri Yukteshwar,
outlined the sequence of events that were going to happen.
“ The proud Doctor, picture of
health now, will fall ill from diabetes, 2 weeks from now. His death would have
occurred 6 weeks from today, but for your intercession, his life has been
extended for another 6 months. He will recover from his illness. In order to
live he has to fulfill certain conditions. He has to wear an astrological
bangle and , after his recovery, not to eat meat
The
doctor won’t do that. After 6 months, he will suddenly drop dead.
Everything
happened as Sri Yukteshwar had predicted.
To
be continued
103. God part seven
4. Sri Yogananda writes: My Master and I were
visiting Kashmir for the first time “ English strawberries for sale!”, an old woman
said. Master was curious about this new fruit. He bought some. As soon as I
tasted one, I spat out. “Sir, what a sour fruit! I could never like
strawberries”
My
Master said, “You will like them. One day, in America, your hostess will serve
them with sugar and cream…she will mash them with a fork. You will taste them
and say ‘ what delicious strawberries’. Then you will remember this day in
Simla”
Once
I was a guest of Alice T. Hasey in West Somerville MA. My hostess mashed some
strawberries with a fork, and served them with cream and sugar. “ The fruit is
rather tart, you will like it this way” I took a mouthful and exclaimed “ what
delicious strawberries”
At once, my Master’s prediction,
which had faded from memory, came back to me.
5. Swami
Yogananda writes: “My sister’s husband was not in the best of health. The
thought came to me that he was not going to live long. My sister surmised my
thoughts, and said “my husband is sick while I am healthy, but I want you to
know that I am to die first. It won’t be long”. My sister died eighteen months
after her prediction.
On her last day, she wore her
bridal dress.
What is the occasion? Her
husband asked.
“This is my last day of service
to you on earth” she had a heart attack that day and died.
6. Swami Yogananda writes. “In 1918, the great
yogi Swami Pranabananda (the disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya) visited my Ranchi
school. A boy asked him “Sir, shall I be a monk?” The saint replied, “No, a
bride is waiting for you.” The boy eventually married.
7. Swami Yogananda writes. “During the same
visit, I accompanied my father to see the great yogi where he was temporarily
staying. His prediction, which he had given in 1905, came rushing back to me.
“Your life belongs to the path of renunciation and yoga. I shall see you again,
with your father, later on.”
8. Swami Yogananda writes. “One day in my Ranchi
school, a boy named Kashi, a brilliant youth of twelve, asked me “Sir, what
will be my fate?”
‘You shall soon be dead’. An
irresistible power forced the answer from me.
The boy died the same year.
There is a very interesting saga
of Kashi. I am not giving the details because they are not necessary for this
discussion... You can read them yourselves. Suffice is to say that Kashi was
reborn, and Swami Yogananda helped him, in finding, a master.
9. Field Marshal Ayub Khan was the president of
Pakistan, in sixties. He developed a plan of Basic Democracy (in contrast to
adult franchise). In order to popularize the plan in the masses, money was
allocated for its publicity and praise. A cash prize was announced for the
winner of the contest of writing the best book on this subject. A great mystic
by the name of Mr. Qudsi lived in Bhaun, Pakistan(1). The great
poet Iqbal had visited him and wrote a couplet in his praise. One of his disciples, a teacher, happened to
visit Mr. Qudsi. The teacher had a dream that night, that he was putting a
garland of flowers around the president’s neck, and the president giving him a
check. The dream came months in advance of the announcement of the book and a
prize for the winner. The teacher writes in his book about Mr. Qudsi, that when
he woke up he thought, that he, a hundred and fifty rupees per month, middle
school teacher, putting flowers on the neck of the president!
Once
the contest for the book was announced, he thought of participating. He spent a
lot of time in the library. His book won the first prize. One day he was
summoned by the divisional commissioner. The commissioner told him that the
president was stopping at their division. The teacher was chosen to welcome the
president at the dais and garland him, and the president was going to give him
the check for the first prize.
After
reading this incident in the book, this mote contacted the author, who was now
a professor in an Islamabad university. I wanted to hear it from his own lips.
He verified it, and gave some more detail.
Mr
Qudsi was a qalander. This mote once,
briefly, met Mr. Qudsi
10.
Dilip Kumar Roy writes. In 1925, I was groping in the dark. I did not know which
way to turn. There was no end to my vacillation. A friend suggested to meet a
mighty yogi, Baroda Babu. I am not going to tell the details of the meeting
here, because I want to pick this incident again, in my next topic of ‘
miracles’.
He
met Baroda Babu by accident, twelve years later, in 1937. He had been in Sri
Aurobindo’s ashram for 9 years. He thanked the yogi for giving him the right
advice, and how happy and blessed he felt at his guru’s feet in Pondicherry. Mr
Babu said “ that is all as it should be.
Only I want to tell you that you won’t realize Krishna in Pondicherry. For that
you will have to await the advent of a highly evolved lady. When she will come
to assist you as your disciple, then only you will get your heart’s desire”. He
accepted her(Indra Devi) as his disciple in 1949.
I have already narrated his
first supernatural incident, in 1951, of lighting up the figures of Lord
Krishna and Mira( blog 86 ). It boggles the mind, that Baroda Babu could see
the events 12 years in advance.
11. Dilip Kumar Roy writes. One year ago, a
neighbor in Belgaum asked Indra Devi what she thought of the proposal of a
Bomber pilot asking the hand of his daughter. Indra told them that she had a
vision of the pilot dying in an air crash. The parents, declined the marriage.
One year later on 1st June 1959, the young pilot died in an air
crash.
12
Brother Lawrence predicted on Friday, that he will die on Monday (blog 15-7).
That is how it happened.
13.
In blog 91, I have narrated the incident of Paul Brunton meeting Chandi Das.
Chandi Das , reluctantly, narrated some incidents of Brunton’s future. Some of
them came true, by the time book was published. We don’t know about the rest,
since Brunton did not mention them in his subsequent books
To be continued
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
(1) Qalandar-a-Zaman Shahzada
Assad-ul-Rehman Qudsi by Doctor Mehmoud-ul-Rehman
104. God. Part eight.
3. Miracles. A miracle may
be tentatively defined as an event which defies the then known laws of nature.
It may still obey, and most probably does, some unknown, yet to be discovered,
laws of nature. To me, it is a
grandiose event. The supreme God has shown another manifestation of His power,
which reason cannot explain, which science cannot maintain. Men of God possess
these powers the most, magicians less, and psychics the least( psychics are
ordinary people who possess some abnormal power, such as locating a missing
object or see things at a distance ).
Here are some examples of miracles
1.Dilip Kumar Roy
writes. (I have narrated it in blog 88). Her guru sang a song which put her in deep smadhi. As soon as she came out of smadhi, she asked the others whether she should get some prasad (consecrated candy, traditionally
served at the culmination of a religious ceremony to feed people ). None was
available. She walked down the steps and got some sandy earth. She took it in
her folded hands and went into smadhi.
It turned into granulated prasad. It
was distributed to the three persons encircling her. Then she folded her empty
hands and went again into smadhi.
When she opened her hands there was some more prasad. Dilip put the remaining prasad
in an envelope. He also stored the sandy soil, which was originally been given
to Indra, in a separate envelope. They went for dinner. After dinner, Indra,
told Dilip that the soil has also partially turned into prasad. Dilip rushed to his room. Envelope was opened. Part of the
mud was still mud, the rest had turned into Prasad
Now tell me,
which science can transform sandy earth into sweets?
2. This mote knows the person who had this
experience. He suffered from a chronic illness for years, which affected his
daily life. He had surgery, but that did not help. Soon he started vomiting
blood. He fell down in streets couple of times and was taken to hospital. He was diagnosed with cancer (
although that part is not documented). One day he met a durvesh. The durvesh said
that in a far flung area a Qalander lives, only he has the ability to cure him.
That man took that difficult journey, (considering his sickness). He met the
Qalander the following day. The Qalander heard his story. He gave that man some
goat milk to drink, and told him, “I have sealed your disease. It won’t
progress. You won’t have vomiting any more. All your symptoms will gradually get
better, and you will be alright in a month”. That is exactly what happened.
Several years have since passed.
3 and 4.. Data Gunj Bakhash writes ( see blog 62-4. I have already
written these two episodes, but I will repeat for people who have not read Part
2) One time I had some problem which I could not solve so I went to a mystic in
Toos. The sage was alone in a mosque. He stated narrating my problem to a
pillar, before I had a chance to tell him the problem. I said , Sir, who you
are talking to? He said God told him to
talk to this pillar. Then he gave me the answer to my problem.
One day my murshad
and I were travelling from Bait-ul-jin to Damascus. It was raining. I had
trouble walking in mud. I looked at my murshad
. His clothes and shoes were dry. When I asked him , he said “From the time I
adopted twakal…( complete surrender
to the will of God )………………… God has saved me from mud and rain”
5. Data Gunj Bakhash writes. In a village
Salang, in Ferghana ( now Uzbekistan ) I went to see a sage. The sage said “ my son, you have been in my notice from
such and such date” when I thought about the date, that was the date and year
of my first day on the journey towards God. An old lady, Fatima, lived with
him. He said, “ Fatima, bring something to honor this durvesh” she brought a platter of fresh grapes, although this was
not the season for grapes. There were also fresh dates in that platter, whereas
one did not have dates in Ferghana.
6. Data Gunj Bakhash writes.
One time two other Durveshes and I went to see a famous saint, Ibn ul allah,
who lived in a small village near Mecca ( Saudi Arabia ). Each one of us
decided to think of something and see if the mystic can surmise the question in
his heart. I, for myself, wanted an explanation of the verses of Hussain Ben
Mansoor Halaj ( a famous majzoob
saint who was hanged for his blasphemy ). The other durvesh wanted the saint to pray for his recovery from some
sickness. The third, wanted to eat an exquisite sweet dish. When we arrived, he
had already dictated the explanation of Mansoor’s verses on a piece of paper.
He passed his hand on the second durvesh’s
belly, and his sickness went away. To the third durvesh he said, “ you want the sweet dish, which worldly people
desire, while you are wearing the dress of a durvesh. You should choose between the two.”
To be continued
105. God part Nine
7. A writer (Rasheed
Amjad ) narrated his encounter with Shahab ( see blog 65-6) in the book
Zikar-a- Shahab. There were several class volumes on Iqbal
(blog 56). I thought, ‘how nice if I had these volumes’. After a while Shahab got up and took down
those volumes from the shelf and said, “now that you have asked for these
books, have them.” I said, but, I never asked for them. A mysterious smile
appeared on his face. He said, “Have them anyway”
8. Shahab writes (see
blog 66. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2) that his hidden
and invisible guide was ‘Ninety’, whom he never met in person. “I received written instructions from him for almost next 25
years. The instructions would come as letters, which I would sometime find
under my pillow, in a shelf, or sometime they would materialize out of thin
air, in the room, or outside walking. I had the orders to destroy them as soon
as possible. One time I thought of saving a little piece as a holy relic. As
soon as I thought of it, a letter came. It stated that in a few minutes lights
will go off, and my hands will be tied with live snakes for half an hour. I was
terrified. I asked for forgiveness, and said I won’t do it in future. Within
minutes reply came. It said “ Ha Ha . So you are afraid of just two snakes.
Have you ever thought of countless worms which will be in your grave, etc………….”
How did ‘Ninety’ know what Shahab was thinking!
9. I have already narrated the incident of Dilip Kumar
Roy and the lamp (blog 86. I am repeating it for people who have not
read Part 2). He had a piece of art in
the form of Figures of Lord Krishna and Mira in his prayer room. It had a three
pronged plug. The figures would light up when the plug was inserted in the
socket on the wall. Every night before going to bed, Dilip would diligently
remove the plug.
As he was praying, he heard a clear voice saying, “go
and see, He has lit the bulb”
He at once went to the
prayer room. Lord’s figure was alive with light! The plug was back in the wall.
After a while doubts
start assailing him again. What if he had not taken out the plug in the first
place?
He carefully let the
figures stay luminous by keeping the plug in the socket and started praying
again for Lord to show him the miracle again by removing the plug.
A voice said; “doubting
still; go, the plug has been taken out.”
He went to the prayer
room. The plug was out. The figures were in darkness!
10.
Dilip Kumar Roy writes about his meeting with Baroda Babu (blog 97). Dilip had at that time thought (mistakenly)
that Sri Aurobindo did not want him as disciple. The Yogi said he will find
out, and went into meditation and smadhi right there. He came out after about
half an hour, and told Dilip emphatically that Sri Aurobindo has already
accepted him as disciple, and will call him when he (Dilip ) was ready. He said
Sri Aurobindo had just told him. Dilip was thoroughly confused. He thought, he was either day dreaming or
this was an elaborate hoax.
Dilip
writes, “The Yogi smiled at my discomfiture”. He said, “You disbelieve me. Have
you got a chronic pain in your right abdomen?”
“I
have,” I said, startled, “It is a hernia. “I know. Now tell me- didn’t Sri
Aurobindo tell you to undergo an operation before you enter the path of yoga?” I was dumbfounded for Sri Aurobindo had
written to me the identical words.
11. Many times the fragrance of sandalwood had
come from the hand and feet of Indra Devi. Sometimes when she was in
God-intoxicated state, whosoever she touched, also started smelling of
fragrance.
12.
By mistake a surgeon left a piece of gauze in the abdomen of Indra Devi’s
sister. The patient had high fever with rigors. About 2 inches of gauze could
be seen protruding from the incision. Indra Devi entered the room and held her
sister’s hand for 4 hours. The patient felt peace permeating. The doctor came
to examine her prior to surgery. The gauze had vanished. Fever and pain
subsided. Strangely, Indra had fever for 3 days.
13.
A highly spiritual devotee that I know was watching a film on the life of
Krishna (or Ram). He did not complete the film and went upstairs to his
bedroom, to sleep. He had a TV in his bedroom. He made sure the TV was off and
tried to go to sleep. He found glow of light in the room. He turned; saw
TV on and the same film showing. He at once exclaimed, “Oh this is a miracle”.
14. St Teresa of
Avila writes about her levitation. (See blog 76 - I am repeating it for people who have not
read Part 2) “Once when we were
together in choir and I was on my knees and about to communicate, my body was
raised from the ground. It caused me the greatest distress. It seemed to me the
most extraordinary thing, and I thought there would be a great deal of talk
about it, so I ordered the nuns not to speak of it.”
15 and 16. (see Blog
78). I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2) St. Teresa was earnestly begging Jesus to restore vision to a totally
blind man. The Lord appeared and talked to her. Then He said that He would always
grant her anything because she would not ask Him anything which did not tend to
His glory. The vision was restored within a week. A man was gravely ill. His
sufferings, for two months, were intolerable. He was in such torture that he
would cut into his own body. She was moved to such pity for him that she begged
earnestly to Jesus to cure him. On the very next day, he was free from that pain.
To be continued
106. God Part Ten
17. Paul Brunton
writes: (see blog 89. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2) One night he suddenly woke up around three a. m. The atmosphere
seemed to be charged. The room was totally dark. Suddenly he became aware of a
bright object at the foot of the bed. He saw the face and form of His Holiness
Shri Shankara! A face smiled and seem to
say “Be humble and then you shall find what you seek!”
18. In another book (I forget the name of the book )
Brunton wrote of the face of Maharishee appearing in a British park in
daylight. Maharishi was thousands of miles away in India. Maharishee gave a
message.
19. Paul Brunton wrote: “In Banares, I went to meet
Swami Vishudananda, a yogi, famous for his miraculous powers. He could create
any perfume out of thin air. He had learnt this art after studying under a
Tibetan master for twelve years. He took a handkerchief from me and asked me
what perfume would I like to have? I asked for white jasmine. Air was filled
with white jasmine fragrance.
What next? This time I chose attar of roses. He evoked
the perfume of attar of roses in a corner of handkerchief.
My next choice was violets. Again he was successful.
When I drove home, I showed the handkerchief to three persons. Everybody
recognized the three scents, so it was not a hallucination.
Next day the yogi brought a bird, a strangled sparrow,
dead for about an hour, back to a short life.
20. Swami Yogananda, as a boy, also met Swami Vishudananda
( Gandha Baba ). He asked for two perfumes; one for his palm and other for a
scentless white flower in a vase. When he arrived at his home, his sister
confirmed the scents, one coming from his palm and the other from a normally
scentless flower.
21. Swami Yogananda writes; “I was deep in meditation,
in a store room in Ranchi school, India, when I saw a vision of Western faces.
I thought they were American. Some of them, later on, I instantly recognized. I
right away understood, that I have been told to go to America. I said goodbye
to students and staff, and told them that I am going to America. Few hours
after the vision, I was on a train to Calcutta to meet my Master.”
22. Swami Yogananda writes (see blog 79. I am
repeating it for people who have not read Part 2); Therese Neumann. Sri Yogananda had heard about Therese and was keen to see her.
An opportunity presented in 1935. Therese, born in 1898, was from Germany. She
was famous because she had not eaten or taken any liquids for twelve years, except
a consecrated wafer, paper-thin, and the size of a small coin, each day. She
was also famous for the fact that every
Friday, Stigmata, sacred wounds of Jesus, would appear on her corresponding
body parts, and she would be experiencing the Passion of Christ.
Therese became blind and paralyzed, when she was
twenty, because of an accident. She miraculously regained her sight through
prayers to St Therese of Lisieux ( see blog 13-14) in 1923. She stopped eating
and drinking in 1923, and the stigmata started appearing in 1926. Therese only
knew ordinary German, but during the trance, she would utter phrases in ancient
Aramaic, and at appropriate times she would speak in Greek or Hebrew languages.
Sri Yogananda and his American companions met her and
he was struck by her simplicity and holiness. She was a picture of health with
rosy cheeks. She confirmed with her own lips that she does not eat or drink
(except the wafer). She also told that she was a helpless onlooker as she
watches the ‘Passion of Christ’ from Thursday midnight to Friday afternoon. Her
wounds bleed at that time.
They were given
permission to watch the saint during the trance. Just before entering the room,
Yogananda put himself in communion with her brain, so that he could see what
she was seeing. As he entered the chamber he was awestruck at the terrifying
spectacle. Therese was lying in bed covered with white sheet. There was a
continuous one inch stream of blood coming out of the lower eyelids of her
eyes. Blood was also coming out of her chest wound. Cloth around her forehead
was covered with blood from the stigmata of the crown of thorns. I could see
she was watching Jesus carrying the heavy timbers of the cross. At one point
Jesus fell and Therese lifted her head in consternation.
To be continued
107. God Part eleven
We were discussing miracles.
23.
Swami Yogananda wrote: (seen blog 79-81)
“When I was 12 years old, I happened to visit Banaras. My father wanted me to meet his two friends,
Kedar Nath Babu, and Swami Pranabananda (see blog 103). Since I did not know
Mr. Babu’s address I went to the Swami first. Swami was in meditation in lotus
position. Swami said that he will locate Mr. Babu for me. He went into a trance
like state.”
After
a while, Yogananda became restless, since the man had not left his seat to
provide any help. But the yogi reassured him, not to worry, since Mr. Babu will
be there in half an hour.
Soon
somebody was climbing the stairs. That was Mr. Babu.
“Who
told you to come here?” Yogananda asked (since no messenger had been sent).
“Less
than an hour ago, I had just finished my bath in Ganges, when Swami
Pranabananda approached me, and told me to accompany him to his place where
Bhagbati’s son (Yogananda) was waiting for me….”
“I
was incredulous. I was dumbfounded. Swami Pranabananda had not left my sight
for a moment, since I had met him an hour ago!”
24. Swami Yogananda writes. “The Master left for
Calcutta on an urgent business. Next day he sent me a post card that he was
arriving at such and such train, and Dijen (another disciple) and I should meet
him at the railway station.
Next,
I received a telepathic message from him that he was not coming at the
mentioned train.
I was resting in the room, when
the room was filled with a dazzling light. Sri Yukteshwar’s form materialized!
Instinctively, I rose up from
the chair, and touched his shoes. I could clearly feel the texture of his
dress, the gritty surface of the shoes, and the pressure of his toes, in them.
My guru said ‘this is not an apparition,
but my flesh and blood form. I have been divinely commanded to give you this
experience, rarely known on earth.’
‘Meet me at the
station, with Dijen, at 10o clock train. I will be wearing the same
dress. I will be following a little boy carrying a silver jug.’
Dijen and I went to
the station. The master descended and walked slowly in the wake of a small lad
carrying a silver jug!”
25. Swami Yogananda
writes. “ One day Sri Yukteswar told us the story of his childhood friend and
fellow disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya, Rama. Rama contracted cholera and was
deathly ill. Two doctors were called but they could not save him and left,
declaring that he was going to die, soon. Yukteswar rushed to his guru, twice,
and was reassured each time that Rama will be alright. Soon Rama died.
Yukteswar went to his guru sobbing. His guru told him to control himself and
meditate with him. Whole afternoon and night passed. At dawn, the next day, the
master said ‘ you are still perturbed…..you want some medicine…..take some
castor oil from this lamp and put few drops in your friend’s mouth’. I said,
what is the use. He has been dead since yesterday afternoon. But, I obeyed him.
I opened the clenched mouth of my dead friend and poured oil drop by drop. At
the seventh drop, he shivered violently and sat up. ‘ I saw Lahiri Mahasaya in
a blaze of light….wake up!…..come with Yukteswar to see me’ he said.
4. Spirits, or proof of life
after death. Spirits of people who were once alive is a clear proof of life
after death. According to science, or rationalists, there cannot be any life
after death. All functions of the body cease after death. Brain disintegrates
quickly. There is gradual death, decay and disintegration of all cells. Cells
are necessary for any function. Dead cells, chemicals, and/or DNA may persist. When
buried the dead body is eaten up by insects, only bones remain. Chemicals go
into soil. Nutrients are recycled into plants and animals. Water evaporates.
Perhaps, centuries after the death of a person, all atoms and molecules get
separated from each other and become part of air, soil, water, animals.
According to the law of conservation of matter-energy, matter-energy cannot be
destroyed, total amount remains the same. Therefore, a dead person is
transformed in millions of pieces of matter-energy.
Science does not
accept that some part of one’s body is preserved. What is preserved? How is it
preserved, under what law of nature? Where is it preserved? Why is it
preserved? How long is it preserved? Where is the evidence or proof of its
existence?
To scientist,
spirits cannot and do not exist. The persons who have seen spirits are either
liars, gullible superstitious fools, or suffer from some mental disease.
Finally, if everything else fails, there is only one more explanation. It is possible with all the billions of
planets that there are other forms of life. Some of them may have entered in
space-age centuries before us. Therefore, spirits maybe visitors from outer
space. This argument is hard to refute. Spirits which we discuss in this book were
once alive as humans on planet
earth. Spirits are not visitors from
other planets, not disembodied inhabitants of this planet who never possessed a
body ( jinns, genii. See page 42 of ‘
A search in secret India’ by Brunton, page 92‘ A search in secret
Egypt’ by Brunton). Here are some examples.
108. God part twelve
The section on spirits and life after death continues:
1. In a village, Miani, Pinddadan –khan ,
Pakistan, there lived a young Hindu boy in 1930s (1). One night in a dream, he
met the spirit of Prophet Muhammad pbuh . He instantly recognized
the holy prophet and said Sir, what are you doing so far away? The prophet
replied “son, I have come here only for your sake.” prophet asked if there was
a mosque nearby? I think, they said the Namaz
(I don’t have the author’s book in front of me. I am writing from memory. The
essentials are correct). Prophet took
the boy to Kaaba (the center of
Islam) and converted him to Islam (the boy, in later life, showed the place to
his wife and children. It was exactly as it was in dream).
The holy prophet said “from now
onwards you are a Muslim. You have tough time ahead of you. Great troubles will
fall on you. Remain steadfast. I will pray to Allah for you.” It is worth
noting, the holy prophet did not say I will help you, but I will pray to God to
help you. The boy remained Muslim, despite his parents
begging him to stay Hindu. At partition in 1947, all his family left for India,
but he stayed in Pakistan. He became highly educated and retired as a Principal
of a local college. He wrote his biography
Al-zulmat-a-fin Noor by
Ghazi Ahmed.
One day a visitor came to his
house. The visitor said he has a message from Prophet Muhammad pbuh
and his dearest companion Abu Bakar pbuh. The man had some chronic
leg problem. He had been in pain.
Doctors advised amputation. Just before
surgery, he fell asleep. He had a
dream, in which he saw people going in a building. He followed others. There he
saw the holy prophetpbuh. The prophet told him that his leg has been
cured. Then he pointed to a man by a table and said ‘that is my friend Abu
Bakarpbuh . He has a message
for you to carry. Abu Bakar told him to
memorize your name and address and to personally deliver the message to you -
Ghazi Ahmed. That is why he had come. Here he thought that the visitor had read his
book and wanted to meet the author. He
had not even heard of the book.
2. I have recounted Swami Ramdas’s vision of
Jesus Christ ( see blog 85. I am repeating it for people who have not
read Part 2) Ramdas was in a cave in
Himalayas. He had been fasting (except water) for 5 days, thinking incessantly
of God. There was no light in the cave. Suddenly, one night, the cave was
filled with a strange light. Ramdas opened his eyes, and found a shining person
sitting before him. Something in him at once told him that this was the great
prophet Jesus Christ. He was dressed in a long chocolate colored robe. Locks of
hair were falling on his shoulders. His face showed utmost sweetness and
serenity, glowing with divine radiance. Most prominent were his eyes which
glowed like stars. Ramdas was transfixed and went into ecstasies. There was
another man with him but Ramdas’s eyes were only on Christ. Christ spoke a few
words, but Ramdas could not understand him. This vision lasted for maybe few
seconds. Ramdas was lost in ecstasy for the whole night
3. I have already recounted this incident of vision of Lord Krishna ( see blog
86. - I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2), In April 1943, he was party to a wonderful event. He was
visiting his friend Sri Krishnaprem in Mirtola, India. In the evening he was
singing with deep emotion to his three friends a deeply spiritual song that
written by him. The song is “ Krishna: the evergreen”. As he reached the last
line, he forgot himself and tears started flowing down his cheeks.
When the song ended, a deep silence ensued. Some eyes
were teary. One of them said, “ You know Ma was standing, listening at the
door”. They were horrified, because Ma (
guru of Krishnaparem) was deathly sick and bedridden. They rushed to her room.
She was sitting in her bed oblivious in smadhi.
When she came out of smadhi, she asked them. Did you see Him?
“ See who?” “ Krishna was here. First he came for a second in my room……and
stepped across the threshold……I could not follow Him that way…….till I reached
the verandah……..and saw Him standing beside You (Dilip), listening…….Yes, Baba
…..I did see Him, with open eyes….as I often do…….You didn’t see?”
“No, Ma, but I did
feel…….”
But she went on…… “And He was standing…..beside
you……..in person……looking so…..so tenderly…..at you……And I….I appealed to Him:
“ O Thakur, give him the blessed boon
of vision…so ..so he may see You….You
Yourself have come down to hear his song….blessed blessed boy”
I bowed down, kissed her
feet and wept. Krishnaparem later said that he also had felt His presence
vividly.
.
4. I have already recounted this
incident of Data Gunj Bakhash ( see blog 64.
I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2) In 1918 there was an epidemic of plague in Lahore. Three sons of
a rich titled man of Lahore named Rai Bhahadar Saran Das fell victim to the
disease. Three top physicians of Lahore, Col Bhola Nath, Col Amir Chand, Col
Sutherland (principal of King Edward medical college) treated them but of no
avail. Rai Bhahadar was disconsolate. He narrates ” One night while everybody
was asleep, I saw a white bearded person wearing a shining dress, with a staff
in one hand and a rosary in other, reciting something at the foot of my son,
Gopal Das’s, bed. At seeing a stranger I became worried and asked “who are you?”.
He did not reply and kept on reciting. Then he went to my other son Roop Ram’s
bed and did the same. Then that venerable person came to me and said,” I am
your neighbor Gunj Bakhash. I could not stand your sorrow and anguish. So I
came to pray. Now don’t worry. Merciful God will cure them”. All three sons
recovered.
109. God Part Thirteen
The section on spirits and life after death continued.
5. A restless spirit. Shahab writes ( see blog
65-6 ). “I was allotted a house at 18 Civil Lines Cuttack, Odisha, India. It
had the reputation of being haunted. Strange events started happening. One
night the light went out and then came back automatically. Somebody knocked at
the door softly, three times. As I opened the door, there was smell of perfume,
rustling of silk dress, and a white ring of smoke. Another night, cigarette
case got opened and couple of cigarettes were lying on the bed. One night I
could not find my slippers. They were later found, rolled up, in the pillow.
Every third or fourth night, faint knock at the door would occur. All the
events were pleasant, mischievous, nothing sinister.
One night, there
was sudden silence followed by an explosion. For the next several months, for
approximately three and a half hours each night (from about 11pm to 3 am), I
was harassed and persecuted. I was not physically harmed. Here are some
examples. Almost daily there was rain of stones and bones, which later left
awful smell of dead fish, burnt peppers, or gutter. Once, whole day and night,
whatever I would eat would have stones or sand in it. I peeled a banana; its
center was filled with sand, like a thermometer is filled with mercury. I had a
dining room table weighing 150 to 200 pounds, it started rising in the air,
till the china on it was hit by the blades of ceiling fan and went smashing.
Then, the table came down with a crash. Its’ one leg grazed my right big toe
which is numb till today. Sometimes telephone would ring for an hour. One night
it was raining heavily, somebody rang a bicycle bell, and yelled ‘postman!
Telegram for you’ I opened the door. A uniformed postman was outside. When I
extended my hand, instead of the postman there was a human skeleton, laughing,
its upper and lower teeth striking each other. I ran inside and closed the
door. There was sound of nails scratching the door for few minutes. Sometimes
red blood would come from the taps. Sometimes I would hear the sounds of horses
running outside.
All were not
illusions and hallucinations, because each morning before my 2 servants would come
from their quarters, I would gather all the stones, bricks, and bones, from the
room and dump them outside in the pond, so that they should not know what was
happening. The stones would be dry, despite heavy rain outside. My obstinate
nature prevented me from leaving. I relied on verses of Holy Quran for
protection from evil forces. The verses had great power. One night I played my
gramophone. Instead of the singer’s voice, screeching, terrifying screams or a
woman’s sobbing came out. I wrote a famous verse of Quran, in Arabic, on a
piece of paper and put the paper on the record. Screams stopped and singer’s
voice came. I removed the paper, and the terrifying screams resumed.
As a test, I wrote
the Urdu translation of the verse on the record. It did not work. I wrote it in
Roman numerals, it did not work. It worked only if written in Arabic.
Ultimately I found the truth. Eighteen to twenty years ago, a young Hindu woman
named Bimla Kumari, a college student, was smothered to death and buried in
that house, by her British lover, an officer. She was in advanced pregnancy and
the lover killed her to hide the affair. He had since died. The old mother of
Bimla was alive and still waiting for her daughter in Allahabad. The spirit of
Bimla was trying to communicate with the mother.
Secondly, she also
wanted her bones to be properly taken care of as per Hindu religious customs. The spirit of
her British lover was trying to prevent this because he was evil. He was using
all means to scare me as he had done to all previous tenants. He wanted me to
abandon the house and keep his evil deeds hidden.
Bimla’s mother was
informed of her death.On her request, the local government had the corner of
the room excavated. Her bones were
found. Her body was cremated in the proper Hindu custom with a burial ghat. The house was no longer haunted, evil stopped,
and peace prevailed.
6. I have already recounted the spirit of Sri
Yukteswar coming back after his death, in a Bombay hotel room, and talking to
Yogananda for about 2 hours (blog 80. I am repeating it for people who have not
read Part 2). Resurrection of Sri
Yukteswar.
This is the most amazing,
unprecedented story in all of the spiritual or religious literature. I cannot
say enough about its uniqueness. Never before has a person returned after his
death to tell people of his after death experiences except as a spirit.
Readers must, by now, be familiar with Sri Yukteswar,
the guru of Sri yogananda. About three months after his death, he reappeared in
a Bombay hotel room where Sri Yogananda was staying. It happened in afternoon
while he was sitting and meditating in bed. The whole room was transformed with
light and splendor. Sri Yogananda was filled with ecstasy as he saw Sri
Yukteswar. He tightly embraced his master, Sri Yukteswar
“ My son” the master
said, tenderly
“ it is really me, in
flesh and blood body….from cosmic atoms I created an entirely new body, exactly
like that cosmic-dream physical body…….. buried in the sands of Puri”
He was resurrected in another planet
Hiranyaloka (Illumined Astral Planet ). The inhabitants of that planet were
highly developed spiritually, but still they had some impurities that required
further purification. Sri Yukteswar was assigned, by God, to help them in the purification
process.
7. Swami Yogananda writes. “An aged woman (Ma) was Sri
Yukteswar’s disciple. On the evening of March 16, 1936, Ma arrived at the
ashram and asked to see her guru.
‘Why, Master died a week ago!’
‘This morning at 10o clock he passed in his
usual walk before my door! I talked to him for several minutes in the bright
outdoors.
To be continued
110. God Part Fourteen
The section on spirits and life after death continues
8. Sri Daya Mata writes about her guru, Swami
Yogananda, in her book ‘ finding the joy within you’. “One day (after his
death), as she was praying in front of his picture, for some guidance regarding
an important matter, his living form emerged from that photo image.” Guruji
blessed me and…..”
9. St Teresa of Avila saw
Jesus Christ many times ( blog 77. I am repeating it for people who have not
read Part 2) First, the Lord was
pleased to reveal to her only His hands, the beauty of which was indescribable.
This was her first vision of Jesus Christ with the eyes of her mind. She never
had any vision of Jesus with worldly eyes
A few days later she saw
the Divine face
The Lord later granted
her the favor of seeing Him wholly, on many occasions.
He showed Himself to her
in various forms: in His resurrection body, His wounds, as He was on the Cross,
in the Garden, and sometimes He would be carrying the Cross. She was very
desirous of seeing the color of His eyes, or His height, but could never do so,
the image would disappear altogether.
For skeptics who might say that she may have imagined
that she saw Jesus. Here is an event in which the person she saw was Jesus
because a very powerful miracle was performed, which only he could perform (Blog
78. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2). St Teresa was earnestly begging Jesus to restore vision to a totally
blind man. The Lord appeared and talked to her. Then He said that He would
always grant her anything she asked, because she won’t ask Him anything which
did not tend to His glory. The vision was restored within a week.
10. St Teresa of Avila saw Fray Peter of
Alcantara many times ( blog 78. I am repeating it for people who have not read
Part 2). He did severe penances
for forty seven years. He slept only for an hour and a half each night for
forty years. What sleep he took was sitting down. He could not lie down in his
cell which was only four and a half feet long. He never wore a hood or shoes.
His only dress was a habit of sackcloth. It was a very common thing for him to
take food only once in three days. Sometimes he would go without food for a
week. Once he spent three years in a house of his Order, and could not have
recognized a single friar, because he never raised his eyes. Since his death
she had more discussions with him than when he was alive. He advised her on
many subjects. She beheld him in great bliss. He always appeared as a glorified
body. He told her that the penances he had done been a happy thing for him,
since they had won him such a great reward.
11. I have already mentioned the pilot who died in an
air crash.( blog 103). His spirit came in a vision to Indra Devi. Here is an
excerpt from Indra’s letter to the bereaved mother:
“ A. came yesterday
afternoon in my vision. He kept alternately opening and closing his fists and
looked away while talking…….. He burst into tears and said: “ They ( the
airdrome people ) are not telling the truth, Ma. I did what they said. They
were sending just the opposite message (i.e, not to bail out)”
Confirmation of Indra’a vision came in a most
unexpected way…..A.’s radio communication with the airport had been overheard
by an independent source who reported A. had flown around and around, sending
frantic messages to the airport authorities who directed him to save the plane
and not bail out.
12. I have already written an account of the soul of
Mirabai coming repeatedly to Indra Devi, ( blog 88. I am repeating it
for people who have not read Part 2) Mirabai is one of the most famous saints of India. Her songs of
love and yearning for Lord Krishna have been sung by devotees for the last five
centuries. Her spirit started communicating with Indra. Indra became a ward of
Saint Mira. Mira sang her songs in original Hindi of that time to Indra, who
would then dictate them to Dilip, who would then sing them back to Indra. She
eventually dictated more than eight hundred of such songs. The songs were in a
language that Indra did not even know!( her folks spoke Punjabi and Urdu,
although Urdu is similar to Hindi ). Here is an account of her first visit:
“ One morning while Dada
was singing in his flat, Indra saw a beautiful lady dressed in Rajasthani
dress. She was slim, extremely graceful and had the most lovely eyes. She sat
next to Dada, beating time, and seemed to be lost in music. Indra wondered why
she was not wearing the white ashram dress of other ladies. “ She must be a
visitor or a close friend of Dada.” Indra decided, but when the lady got up to
leave with the others, she cast no shadows and her feet did not quite touch the
earth.
13. Finally, no body, in history has, while still
alive, become one’s own spirit connected with his motionless body, except Paul
Brunton!
I have already narrated
the circumstances, which made this unprecedented event happen ( see blog
92) I will narrate only
the part when he became the spirit, in the Great Pyramid:
‘The other priest made
him lie flat on the stone sarcophagus. He did something. Brunton felt an
ascending paralysis, which started from his feet and rose to his brain. He was
conscious but completely paralyzed. He felt like being going out of a hole and
passing out in space.
He was free.
He had changed into a
mental being. He felt blissfully free, in this fourth dimension.
Somebody turned him from
a horizontal to a standing position. He was both standing and floating
simultaneously.
He gazed down upon the
deserted body of flesh and bone, which was lying prone and motionless on the
stone block.
He noted an umbilical cord
like faint silvery string connecting him, the new him, to the motionless body on the stone.
A distinct idea formed in
his mind;
“………..now I have proven
that I am a soul. I do not need convincing anymore. I can exist apart from my
body.”
111. God Part Fifteen
5. Prayer.
There is no more convincing proof of the existence of God than His answering to
a strange and unique prayer. Sometimes it is not unique but has the quality of last appeal, “God! In this whole universe, only You can help me”
When such prayers are answered,
the strange circumstances make it extremely unlikely that it is a coincidence;
the only other possible explanation.
But if you are bent upon rejecting it as an intervention of God, you can always
fall back on probability, according
to which everything is possible; as Brian Green explains, if you throw the 693
double-sided pages of ‘War and Peace’, there is about one in 101878
chance (10 9 make a billion ) that they will fall in exact order.
See, it is possible.
I will provide 4 examples of
unique prayers answered, due to their uniqueness, or just the will of God. I
have already narrated them in other books. I feel guilty to repeat them. I
repeat them, mainly not to break the narrative, and also the other books may
not be available to the reader (although they are available, free, at the internet, but people
in developing countries don’t have easily available computers and electricity)
or he may not take the trouble to get the book (not many people care about God)
1. Shahab’s
prayer (see blog 65). “Then I prayed to God with utmost sincerity that I don’t know
if the story about Bibi Fatimah is correct or not. Oh Allah, I beg you to allow
the spirit of Fatimah to ask her exalted father to grant my request. The request
is that I want to go on the path of quest of God. I do not have the capability
to follow the standard paths. I should be set on Awaisia path, if that path is
a reality and not a fiction.
Several weeks passed. I
did not mention my prayer to anybody. I myself forgot about it. Then one day I
received a strange letter from Germany from my sister-in-law. Here is a
verbatim excerpt:
“The other night I had
the good fortune to see Fatimah, the daughter of the Holy Prophet (peace be
upon him) in my dream. She talked to me most graciously and said ‘tell your
brother-in-law Qudrat Ullah Shahab, that I have submitted his request to my
exalted father who has very kindly accepted it”
Why did Shahab not get direct confirmation,
such as an overwhelming thought in his mind, that his prayer has been
answered? Because, this way, through the
sister-in law (who knew nothing about shahab’s prayer), it was made dramatic,
immediately believable, and taken out of the realm of chance. Furthermore it
was filled with intimate detail. Please note, that Shahab addressed the prayer to God and not Fatimapbuh
or prophet Muhammadpbuh. So it is a proof of God.
2. Mr. Shevani’s
prayer ( see blog 67) He would
some times pray to Allah for a very strange wish. He prayed to God to meet the greatest Qalander (high grade Muslim
mystic) of this period, and live with him.
One day a bearded well
dressed man came to his house. The man said that he has received orders through
some secret channels to take him to a recluse mystic in FATA (federally
administered tribal area). That man did not know, why?. Actually, the man who
was also a mystic, initially thought that he was going to take some sick man to
the recluse, because, only people with incurable sicknesses went to the Great
Qalander.
As I have already told,
Mr Shevani quit his comfortable world, and died 11 months later.
Only God knew his prayer,
nobody else. Only God could make its fulfillment possible. Mr. Shevani would
not have believed that his prayer had been answered, unless a pious man who had
nothing to gain, came to take him. He went with his own free will, three days
later. Mr Shevani was given dozens of opportunities to back off.
3.
Giri Bala’s prayer. ( see blog 80 ) This
woman saint from India had not eaten or taken liquids for over fifty six years.
She said she was twelve when she joined her husband. She had the problem of
overeating. Her mother-in-law shamed her relentlessly. One day she was so
distraught by the constant taunting that she said that from now onwards she was
not going to eat!
She prayed to God incessantly, and begged Him to send a Guru who will teach her
to live without food. She fell in a spell like state. She went to the river to
take her bath. As she came out of the river, still in wet clothes, in broad
daylight, her master materialized before her. He said that her prayer was heard by the God, and He was deeply
touched by its extraordinary nature, and he was the Guru she had asked for.
From now onwards she will get her nourishment through astral light. The Guru
cast around them a protective aura so that nobody could disturb them. Then he
taught her secret and sacred mantra and techniques which she had to perform
daily for the rest of her life.
To be continued
112. God part sixteen
We were discussing
prayers. When granted, they are a convincing proof of God
4. Swami Yogananda
prayer (blog 79). Before he
started on his journey, like any other normal person, he had cold feet because
of the enormity of the task. He became anxious. Would he not get lost in the
materialism of the West?
One early morning he
started praying to God to hear from
Him regarding this mission. He vowed that he would continue praying, till
death, unless he gets Divine assurance that he won’t be lost in the utilitarianism
of America . Several hours passed. His moaning and sobs continued. His head was
reeling. He thought his brain would burst. Finally there was a knock at the
door. A young man, whom he recognized as Babaji, was standing. Babaji said that
the Divine Father had heard his
prayers. Babaji had been sent to reassure him that his mission had the Divine
sanction, and that he will be protected.
The following three
prayers have the quality of last appeal
5. Prayer for debt
relief. I know of a man who was
in great financial trouble. He had incurred huge amount of debt. He prayed and prayed to God. He shed so many tears
that he developed breakage of skin under his eyes. One day he read in a book a
certain vazeefa (a spiritual saying
asking for Allah’s help), which had to be performed under strict conditions,
for a number of nights. He performed that vazeefa
with copious weeping. One day, at the spur of the moment, he brought a
prize bond (a sort of Government lottery). His bond won the first prize. The
money was still short of his debt. Suddenly, a customer bought a parcel of land
from him. Within a week or so of the completion of his prayer, he was
completely debt free
6. Mufti Sahib’s prayer to feed the Guests I have mentioned the
late Mufti sahib in the Foreword of book 2.
Mufti sahib lived in poverty. He was once Imam in a mosque in Lahore,
drawing meager salary. He would send most of the money to his family who lived in
the village. One day a number of guests came to him from his village. They
expected lunch (it is an old village custom) and that also of roast chicken.
They thought that the well dressed Mufti Sahib will have money, whereas Mufti
Sahib had very little money. He felt very embarrassed and humiliated. He went
to his room and said a short namaz.
After namaz, weeping, he prayed to God to help him.
As he finished his
prayer, there was a knock at the door. The landlord was standing. The landlord
said, “My wife told me Mufti Sahib Need’s money. We had been discussing for
some time to give you monetary assistance”. With that he gave Mufti Sahib some
money that was sufficient for the food expenses.
7. Mufti Sahib’s prayer to spend Eid
with his family. Eid is like Christmas in Western countries. It was eve of Eid.
A person who told me this story said that it was his habit to visit various
shrines in Lahore on Eid eve and help the needy. As he reached the shrine of Mian Mir, he thought of checking on the
Imam, the Mufti Sahib, whom he had never met. He thought, ‘we always give money
to the poor, nobody checks on middle class people. Maybe he needs money’. He
went in the back to Mufti sahib’s quarters. A man was sleeping outside on a
cot. He woke him up. It was Mufti Sahib. Without any preamble he took some
money from his pocket and offered it to Mufti Sahib. Mufti Sahib accepted the
money and said normally I would not have taken the money, but this money seems
to be sent by God.
“I would have not
told this story but you are special, an instrument of God. A while ago I was
feeling sad. Tomorrow is Eid. I wanted to spend Eid with my family in the
village, but I did not have bus fare. I performed a short namaz,
and with tears, told God, how much I
would have liked to spend Eid with my family”
I fell asleep. Next
thing I know, was you , shaking me awake.
113. God. Part seventeen. Mkadk’s challenge
There is going to be a summation of all that I have written in the last
16 blog. But I cannot convince you with mere arguments. So here is a challenge.
If you have a great desire, pray to God for its fulfillment. God does not like
to be tested; therefore, you have to do the following:
1. Muster all the
humility that you can. Consider yourself a lowly, blind, paralyzed, hungry
beggar at the door of a king’s palace with multitude of other beggars, begging
for a morsel of food. Don’t pray if you are not motivated and not humble.
2. If your desire
gets fulfilled, pledge, that you will never doubt the existence of God.
Here is the prayer.
You have to say it in original language, as written.
“ Aay Allah! Piaray Allah!.
Marey yeh khahish hay. ( state
your wish) Aghar yeh
manzoori kay kabil hay, to isay manzoor furmah. Aay Allah, Piarey Allah”
OR
"Oh God! Dear God! This is my wish.( state your wish). If it is worth Your approval, please grant it. Oh God! Dear God!"
There is no guarantee that your wish will be granted, but there will be
a fair chance of it being heard.
Let me emphasize
the two logical arguments in support of existence of God.
1. God can be
conceptualized as energy, or something even more subtle than energy, with a
supermind. You can raise an objection that how can energy have a mind. We
already know it can happen. Human brain is an example. It is made, mainly, of
nerve cells. These cells have the power to think. Thoughts arise from certain
nerve cells in the brain. I can communicate with them and they with me. When I
address my brain cells and say “how are you doing?” I am certain that some
brain cells have received the message, otherwise I would not be conscious of
it. The message had to be received and interpreted by brain cells to come to my
consciousness. The cells may reply “we are fine”. Again, to come to my
consciousness, some brain cells must have formed the thought and sent it to me.
Either the same or some other brain cells interpreted the thought. These cells
communicate with each other instantaneously, at the speed of light (we know the
speed, because all messages are carried by electrons, which travel at the speed
of light). If our brain, a collection of billions of cells, made of atoms, and
atoms made of subatomic particles, such as electrons and protons and neutrons,
can have thoughts of pain, pleasure, compassion, jealousy, and anger, why not
God, a collection of pure energy, have a mind?
2. You can raise
the objection, how can such supermind arise, and that also pre-Big Bang (in
order to create the universe it had to be present at that time), out of sheer
nothing? The answer is that the same process of evolution, which caused the
electrons to combine with each other and make chemicals such as amino acids,
which led to the formation of a cell, and then to man, in 3-4 thousand million
years( blog 99) could have created God ( I shudder at my own temerity ) in a
limitless amount of time. It may not need too much time because the process
accelerates as the mind develops, from microbe to man 3-4 billion years, but
from monkey to man mere 2 million years. It may have happened with the same two
engines of mutation and natural selection. There is no logical or biological
reason for evolution to stop at a certain point. If not mutation, then
deliberate experimentation, by the supermind, on the leptons and quarks, to
continue improvement.
And now the
arguments which bring me joy. How can anything arise from sheer nothing? We
have discussed that impossibility in blog 101. We noted that the definition of
nothing was changed by the scientists.
To be continued
114. God part
eighteen
Please read blog 113 for continuity
Science has no explanation for
prophecies, miracles, spirits, and granting of prayers
.
How can anybody
tell the future which has not been made yet? To have my grandfather buried in
the same grave with his son, required a colossal event to happen, in which
millions suffered. For Swami Vivekananda to see the event of the silver cup 43
years in advance, only a Divine power had to be involved. How did Swami
Yukteswar know that the veterinarian will fall ill soon, recover, and die 6
months later? How did he know that Yogananda will be fed strawberries in
America? And Kashi did die, as predicted.
How can one explain
the vision of the teacher putting a garland of flowers on the president’s neck
and receiving a check; Baroda Babu’s telling Dilip Kumar Roy, 12 years in advance,
that he will have to wait for Indra Devi to join him as his disciple for his
real progress, and also telling him about what Sri Aurobindo advised him
regarding his hernia.
One does not have
any explanation of Indra Devi’s vision of the pilot dying in crash one year in
advance and then his spirit coming to Indra.
As for as miracles
are concerned, Indra Devi transformed sandy earth into sweets, Sri Yukteswar
appeared in flesh and blood, twice, to Yukteswar, once when he was waiting for
him to come by train from Calcutta, and once when he was resurrected from dead.
I have narrated Data Gunj Bakhash’s miracles: protection from rain and mud,
appearance of dates and out of season grapes, talking to a pillar in the mosque
and getting the answer, and the mystic knowing what the three dueveshes had in mind.
The episode of
‘Ninety’ and appearance of letters from thin air, are miracles. Beyond
scientific explanation.
Finally, Dilip
Kumar Roy gets his wish, and the lamp lights up, and then is extinguished.
Levitation of St
Teresa of Avila was a miracle, and so was Christ restoring vision to the blind
and taking away the severe pain of the sick man.
The Yogi created
the perfumes out of thin air, both for Paul Brunton and the young Yogananda.
What powerful miracles
of Therese Neumann not eating and drinking for twelve years and Giri Bala for
fifty-six years! Do you need any other
proof, it shows the power of God
The great yogi
Pranabananda assumed another replicate body and thus had two bodies at the same
time, when young Yogananda visited him (I think it was for Yogananda’s
education).
The raising from
dead of Rama, by Lahiri Mahasaya, was a powerful miracle (I think it was for
Sri Yukteswar’s education)
The proof of
spirits of people who once inhabited earth, is, in the end, a proof of a Divine
system, and God. We were made aware of the restless spirit of Bimla Kumari in
the haunted house. In blog 108, Prophets Jesus, Muhammadpbuh Krishna,
visited the devotees. Data Gunj Bakhash, an eleventh
Century mystic, cured 3 brothers
suffering from plague, in twentieth century.
The
resurrected Sri Yukteswar talked not only to Yogananda but also to his
disciple, Ma
The
spirit of Yogananda came out of his picture and helped Sri Daya Mata.
St
Teresa of Avila saw the spirit of Jesus and Fray Peter of Alcantara many times.
The
spirit of St Mira came hundreds of times to Indra Devi, and dictated her songs,
sometimes in a language which Indra did not know.
Paul
Brunton, became his own spirit, and saw his own motionless body lying on the
stone slab in the Great Pyramid of Egypt.
As I have said before, nothing
convinces me more about the existence of God, than His granting the prayers. I
have narrated seven examples. Three prayers were unique, and the other four had
the quality of last appeal. Shahab’s prayer to God, to allow the spirit of
Fatimapbuh to talk to her father, and getting his permission for
Shahab to travel in search of God, through a particular path, was unique. And
what a way of confirmation; a letter from Germany! Mr. Shevani’s prayer to meet
the greatest Qalndar of this era, and his spending his life with him was also
unique. Who would ask for such a thing? Giri Bala’s prayer, wanting not to eat
anything, was so unique, that even the guru remarked that God was touched by
its extraordinary nature.
God
listened to Mufti Sahib (even Mufti Sahib himself told it to a friend, that God
listens to him) and came to his help, twice. This is the same Mufti Sahib (I
have mentioned it in Foreword to book two) who did not have the courage to
enter Kaaba for several days, and sat
outside. He prayed to Allah “make me Yours”
The
prayer of the man for debt relief shows that God has compassion. Not Spinoza’s
passionless, inaccessible, remote God.
At the end, let me answer the
question: is God personal or impersonal? Let me explain, by personal God, it is
meant that God is approachable. He listens to you, and helps you, if He deems
it fit. A friend once said, “I tell God, even if my shoe lace breaks, and ask
Him to give me one”. On the other hand,
impersonal God is not approachable. He does not have human feelings like
joy, anger, compassion.
The
answer, according to this mote’s understanding, is, Both. Part of God is
remote and inaccessible and part of it is personal and approachable
115. Data Gunj Bakhash and Islamic Mysticism. Part
Four
There is very little in the literature about the methods employed by sufis/sheikhs (name of mystics in Islam)
in pursuit of God-realization. Shahab has mentioned some details of his
training with ‘ninety’ in his book,
but not of the actual methods. A person who wants to embark on this journey
needs to know, what should be the posture? Where the gaze should be pointing
at? Should the eyes be open or closed? Should the room be in complete darkness
or lighted? Where should the aspirant focus his thoughts on? How to control the
wandering thoughts? What should one be saying? Should one recite some Quranic
verses, and if so, what verses? Should one be busy in supplications to God? How
long should the marakba (meditation)
be everyday, and at what time? Should one forget about marakba and just say optional prayers (nuffels) whole day? Should one quit the world and go in isolation?
Should one abstain from sex with one’s wife? Does one need a teacher ( murshed). Should one be completely quiet
or make audible sounds, such as chants? Should one synchronize one’s
repetitions with breathing? Should one take the path of service to other human
beings, instead of marakba?
I have not followed this
path so cannot add anything
The only place where some
details are given is in the book Kushaful-mahjoob,
by Data Sahib, in his chapter, “training of the mureed (disciple)”. The book is difficult to understand because of
the unfamiliar language and terms (it was written in 11th century).
I will try.
He writes:
“When
a seeker quits the world and comes
to an accomplished mystic for training the trainer adopts the following 3
years, stepwise method, to make the disciple obedient (respectful) and
habituated. If he stays steadfast and strong during this period, well and good,
otherwise he is told to leave because he is deemed not suitable for this path.
First year is spent on service to humanity; second year is devoted to serve God
in the form of austerities and asceticism, and the third year in protecting and
strengthening the heart.
Service of humanity means that he should consider himself servant of
everybody and everybody his superior. In other words, without exception, he
should consider everybody better than himself. It is incumbent upon him, that
he should not consider himself a superior person because he is serving and
helping others; that is the way of kings and rich.
Similarly, service to God can only be correct, if the person forgets
the rewards of this world and the next world. He should be oblivious to all
other concerns, and continue his worship and prayers, single-mindedly. Whenever
someone worships God for something else, then he is worshipping himself and not
God.
One can only protect his heart if one strengthens the heart by making
himself above joys and sorrows, so that at the time of worship, he can devote
himself wholeheartedly to God.
When the disciples develops these three qualities, he is allowed to
wear the gudri (robe)
When the teacher is ready to award his disciple the gudri, he should make sure that the
disciple has passed both the ups and downs of this path, with perseverance and
steadfastness. Has he enjoyed the joys of bliss during marakba, and the bitter pangs of despair during aridity?
Furthermore, the teacher should ascertain the level to which the disciple is
likely to rise. Would he be the one of those who regress, or those who rise to
mediocrity, or will he become one of the accomplished? If he is likely to
regress, then he should not make him his disciple right from the start. If he
is likely to be caught in the middle, then he should make efforts to advance
him by further training. If he is not ready after three years, the guide may
have to delay the permission to wear gudri,
till he becomes ready to wear it after further training.
Wearing a gudri is somewhat similar to wearing a
coffin. Just as a corpse wearing a coffin has given up all the joys of life,
similarly a person wearing a gudri,
vows to spend all his life in performance of duties demanded by God. He is
there only to serve God. He has to abstain
from all worldly desires.
Prophet
Muhammadpbuh said; a sheikh (mystic)
is to his people, what a prophet is to his ummat
(Diaspora, followers)”
All that I wrote
above are Data Gung Bakhash’s own words. I just want to stress the importance
to certain injunctions of tareekat,
which he has mentioned, and seem to be opposite to the view of shariat, such as:
1. Quitting the
world
2. Abstaining from worldly desires, such as sexual intercourse, acquiring wealth or power, devotion to one’s family, etc. Mystics are special persons, travelling on a path, which is like no other path. They have different standards. Perhaps they understand, why God, in Quran said," Your possessions and your children are but a trial( fitna) for you"
Maybe all these strict conditions are only during the training period.
Almost all mystics return to the world, at some time. They devote that time in
teaching others and helping the sick and the poor. Data Gunj Bakhash himself
was in a married state for one year. He writes “I became infatuated with a
beautiful woman, and was a completely captive of this state for a year. I was
near to loosing even my religion but then God had mercy on me, and emancipated
me”
I have discussed the mysticism, in depth, and its
difference from religion, in my blog 93-95.
There are three standard paths of mysticism (blog 26),
the path of love, the path of wisdom, and the path of action. In this mote’s
opinion, Islamic mysticism should be considered, the path of obedience (to
Allah).
116. Data Gunj Bakhash. Part
Five
1. One time this mote was
puzzled by something Data sahib did. He (Data sahib) had some problem. He went
to the tomb of Ba-Yazid Bistami’s, a highly advanced mystic. There he stayed
for 3 months and did great austerities. He would take bath 3 times a day and do
his ablutions 30 times a day. I have narrated this incident in blog 62
This mote could not figure out the purpose of these baths and
ablutions. Surely, cleansing of the body won’t solve the riddle. I asked a
spiritual person. His answer did not satisfy me. This riddle gnawed on his
mind, too. One day, he saw a saintly person doing multiple ablutions in the tomb
of Data sahib. He kept this practice for several days. The spiritual person
thought that the saintly person might be sick because ablutions are required
after going to bathroom. He said to him “Sir, are you sick? Should I get you
some medicine?”
The saintly person smiled and replied “no, I am not sick. As you
probably know, for most spiritual practices, you are required to do an initial
ablution, even though, one may not need it”
They were sitting
hardly 10 yards from Data Sahib’s tomb. My spiritual friend instantly knew that
Data sahib provided him the answer through that saintly person.
2. One day, last year, an
advanced disciple of Data sahib went to Data Darbar. There was a strong police
presence at the tomb, for fear of bombers. Police removed people who were
trying to sit on a nice, tiled, corridor. The disciple saw a 90-5 year old man
being forcibly removed from that area by 2 policemen. Few hours later, he once
again saw the same old man being removed by the police. Next day, he saw the same
incident being repeated. He enquired from the policemen, who said that they
have removed this Baba( old man) 3-4 times but he reappears. God knows how he
comes back (climbs the wall?). As the disciple was leaving, the old man said,
“You moorakh (foolish person in Hindi), what kind of host are you? Ask
him to call me. I do not have enough time”. As
the disciple left, in a flash, he received Data Sahib’s message. “Bring
him in and look after him”. He told the
old man that Data Sahib is calling him. He also entrusted somebody else to look
after him (tea, food, etc). The old man had a sheet. He covered himself in that
sheet and stayed like that for about 48 hours, near the railing of the tomb.
The attendant was worried that the Baba might have died, but there was some
movement under the sheet.
As the Baba
finished, the disciple asked him whether he would like to go to Mian Mir? Baba
said, yes, take me to Miray. He prayed on Mian Mir tomb, in a Hindu fashion.
Then the Baba said, take me to the old lady’s grave, whom you buried. The
disciple took him to amma’s grave
(hardly anybody knew who amma was and
where was she buried ). Then he asked for water. The disciple brought water
from the same tap, he had brought for amma,
couple of years ago. The old man drank some water and poured the rest on
the grave. Then he asked to be taken to Bhati Gate. Over there, he said “Son!
Your duty is over. Whenever we go to a place, we pay homage to certain people,
sites” he patted the disciple on the back, lovingly. The disciple asked, “Where
are you from? He said we have no country or religion. When I was 25-28 years
old I came here and was benefitted from this place (Data Darbar)
3. . Many Sikhs from India come
to attend the annual urs (religious
festival) of Mian Mir, because Sikhs have special attachment to Mian Mir, a
Sufi saint of Muslims, because the foundation of golden temple in Amritsar (the
holiest site of Sikh religion) was laid by Mian Mir. Last month, at urs, many Sikhs came. One night at about
2 AM, one Sikh came to a disciple of Data sahib, who happened to be there. He
said, “ Before coming I sought permission from my guru. He told me to seek you
at the tomb. He gave your description and said “ he will be wearing a woolen
white shawl and will have a scar on right eyebrow”. The disciple asked to meet him at Data Durbar at a certain
time that day.
The man was present at Data Durbar at the appointed time. The disciple
took him to the window which gives a view of the tomb. The man threw some
things (petals?) on the holy tomb. The
disciple asked him if there was something else that he wanted. The man said, he
wanted some Faiz( gift). The
disciple got him consecrated tabbarrak (white powder ) from the
Durbar and took him to the cellar, where both prayed to Data Sahib.
This incident proves that the disciple was a special mureed (disciple) of Data Sahib, whose
duties included helping and guiding special persons, because it was his
description which was given to the Sikh pilgrim.
117. Amma,
Mufti Sahib
I have mentioned Amma
(literally, means mother) in blog 3, when a seeker dreamt about her. He was in
great distress at that time. She consoled and guided him in that dream to a
centuries old room. She had died sometimes earlier.
One day the seeker
saw, in the graveyard adjacent to the tomb of Mian Mir, a mad woman sitting
under a tree. Nobody would go near her because she would throw stones on
anybody who tried to come near her. Something in her struck the seeker. The
seeker was endowed with the gift of recognizing holy persons, and holy persons
recognized something in the seeker and allowed him to have their company. Her
clothes were clean, an oddity in a mad person. He tried to approach her, but
had to retreat, in the face of stones and volley of angry words. He tried to go
near her another day. The woman said, “It is you again” and threw a stone. The
seeker sat down behind a grave, far from the reach of stones. The woman said
“so you are afraid of stones, alright, you can come near, I won’t hit you”. After
that the seeker would visit her every 1-2 weeks. He noticed that during sitting
or sleeping, she would always keep her face towards Mecca, where Kaaba, the holiest site of Islam, is
located.
She had meager
belongings. It included a kaffan
(burial cloth) for herself. She told the seeker that it had been washed with aab-a-zamzam (water of zamzam well, located in Kaaba, Saudi Arabia)
One day it was very
hot. The seeker asked her whether he should bring water for her. She said,
“Yes, bring it from the faucet”. The
seeker brought a glass of water. She drank some water, and then gave the glass
to the seeker and said; “you drink too”.
The seeker also drank. In mysticism, it is considered a great gift, if a
saint offers you something to eat, or his own clothes or shoes
One day, after amma’s death, the Qalander who trained
the seeker, sarcastically said to the seeker, “even amma’s water failed to transform you”. How did he know the
incident? The seeker had not told him. This is a proof that amma was a spiritually exalted person
and not a mere mad woman
One day the seeker
found her deathly sick. It was very cold. She was lying under the tree without
any cover. The seeker went home and brought a blanket. Amma refused to use it,
saying “God will provide her”. The seeker brought a packet of biscuits. She
threw the packet away, saying something like, “My Allah will give me biscuits,
if He wants to”. The seeker informed the Mufti Sahib (mentioned below) that the
amma was dying. Later that night
Mufti Sahib had a dream in which he was told to bury her under the same tree
where she lived, and wrap her in the kaffan,
she had carried on her head for many a miles. Her grave is located under
that tree.
A man kept vigil
the night she was dying. The seeker asked him how he was related to the mother.
The man said that some years ago, as a boy, he got paralyzed. Amma during her
wandering happened to visit his village. His elder brother carried him to the
mother. Amma told his brother to leave the boy, overnight, with her. She gave
him gur (brown sugar candy). The
strength in his legs came back gradually, and in a few weeks they came close to
normal. After that incident he lost interest in the world, and with her
permission, followed mother in her wanderings. He was not allowed to stay with
her at night or where she camped. Eventually amma arrived in Lahore. She liked the tomb of the famous saint,
Mian Mir. There was running water in the faucets for pilgrims. Free food was
distributed, and there was a hundreds of year old graveyard, where there was
solitude and shade. He would visit mother every day or two. Mother would give
him money to buy her food and other provisions.
I have mentioned in
blog 64 of a person who had been wandering for 25 years in his spiritual quest.
His guide brought him to the mother’s grave and told him the story of mother.
The wanderer expressed the desire to do meditation at the grave. As I remember,
he meditated over there for 2-3 days. The guide asked him what was happening.
He replied amma’s asthan (a Hindi
word for site) is showing him worlds.
The proof of
mother’s greatness is evident by these incidents: her helping the seeker as
recited in blog 3, Qalander acknowledging her spirituality in the leftover
water incident, Mufti Sahib having a dream directing him what to do with her
dead body, her curing the paralysis of the boy, the experience of the 25 years
wanderer when he meditated on her asthan
, and finally the old man’s (mentioned in blog 116) desire to visit her grave.
Mufti Sahib. I have mentioned Mufti sahib, above, in
my foreword to book 2, (blog 53), and in blog 112. He was posted, by
government, as the mufti (religious scholar) at the shrine of Mian Mir, the
famous sufi saint. As such, he led
the Friday prayers.
Mufti sahib was a simple, humble man. He was a poor man. The government
salary barely met his, and his family’s, needs. I have narrated in blog 112,
the two incidents, when his tearful prayer to feed the guests, and to visit his
family at Eid, were instantly answered by God. Mufti sahib himself used to say
that God listened to him. When, for the first time, he visited Kaaba (the holiest site in Islam) he did
not find in him the courage to enter the holy building (house of Allah), and
sat outside for a week or two. He prayed to God “make me Yours”
When I asked Mufti sahib, through an intermediary, to look into my
affairs and see what the reason for my lack of spiritual progress was. He gave
the answer, “everybody, eventually, gets it, some early and others late. He is
doing alright”. At another time, I conveyed to him, that I am not getting the Lms (touch of God). I thought, that
Mufti sahib may find it blasphemous (in orthodox Islam it is an evil thought,
because God and man cannot come physically close). But no, according to the
intermediary, the Mufti sahib went into an almost ecstasy, and exclaimed, Lms! Lms!
He had the power to alleviate
common sufferings like headache, scorpion bite, etc, by performing dum on the sick person. The dum, is an Islamic spiritual process,
bestowed to an authorized person, by his murshed.
Certain Quranic verses are recited. The relief of sickness is temporary. A
person cannot perform a dum on
himself. Mufti sahib would make his daily round of the sick and needy, and do dum, if needed. He did it for free.
As an example of
the healing power, here is an account by Brunton, in his book, ‘a search in secret Egypt’: “Among the other activities of……..was the practice of
healing. One day I watched a demonstration. A man came to him with rheumatic
pains in the left thigh. He gently stroked the latter for a minute, recited a
prayer from the Quran, for another minute, and told his patient that the pain
would soon go………..There was certainly a diminution of the pain, although it was
difficult for me to ascertain whether this was a permanent relief or a
temporary one”. Sheikh Abu Shrump bestowed two
powers to Brunton, one over evil genii, and the other a healing power. The
Sheikh got these powers from his ancestors, and traced it back to the holy
prophet Muhammad pbuh. Another Sheikh ( Moussa) gave Brunton power
over snakes and scorpions ( he used this power many times)
Mufti sahib’s
superior, a petty Govt. official, ordered Mufti sahib to charge people for dum, and to share the money with him.
Mufti sahib refused. He said, “I will not make Quran a source of income”. The
officer was not mollified. Mufti Sahib was transferred to another shrine at
Pakputtan.
An influential
person asked Mufti sahib that should he approach some officials to get the transfer
order cancelled. Mufti sahib said “No, my days in Lahore, are now complete”
118. Two
Unique visions of Swami Yogananda
I should have added these visions of Swami Yogananda in my account of
him in blog 79-81; I am rectifying that mistake, because the two visions are
profound and unique.
Cosmic consciousness. His Master struck
him lightly on the chest and he had the vision of cosmic consciousness. I am
giving an abbreviated version; complete description is in his autobiography
(see the list). His body became motionless and still. His breath was drawn out
as if by a huge magnet. People in distant streets were visible and moving. His
ordinary vision was changed to spherical, he could see on the sides and the
back of his head. He saw a white cow that was leisurely approaching. As she
passed behind a brick wall, he could still see her. Master, his body, the
pillared courtyard, the furniture and floor, the trees and the sunshine,
occasionally violently vibrated. All objects in his vision tumbled and
vibrated. Everything in his vision finally became a luminescent sea.
He experienced an
oceanic joy. He realized that the Spirit of God was an exhaustless bliss. A
swelling glory in him enveloped towns, countries, continents, the earth, stars
and galaxies, and floating universes. The whole cosmos was gently luminous, and
resembled a lighted city at night, seen from a distance. On the farthest edges,
was an undiminished mellow radiance. It was indescribably subtle, unlike the
gross light which made the planetary picture.
The divine
dispersion of rays was from an Eternal Source blazing into galaxies,
transfigured with ineffable auras. He saw the creative beams condense into
constellations, then resolve into sheets of flame. Irradiating splendor issued
from his heart (nucleus) to every part of the universal structure.
Suddenly, he came
to his senses. His guru ( Sri Yukteswar ) was standing motionless before him.
“Don’t get over drunk with ecstasy. Let us sweep the floor”. He got hold of a
broom and started sweeping the floor. He realized that his master was teaching
him balanced living.
The guru told him
later, that it was the Spirit of God that sustained the universe. He is
transcendent and aloof in the uncreated void. Those who attain Self-realization
in this world live in similar twofold existence: conscientiously performing their duties in the world, and yet
immersed in an inner beatitude.
This Divine
experience comes with a natural inevitability when the seeker is ready. His
intense craving begins to pull at God, with an irresistible force. The magnetic
ardor pulls the cosmic vision in the seeker’s range of consciousness.
Sri Yukteswar
taught him how to summon the blessed
experience at will, and also how to transmit it to others, when their
intuitive channels were ready. He also told him that one may control the whole
universe, but find the God elusive still. Spiritual advancement is not to be
measured by one’s display of outward powers, but solely by the depth of his
bliss during meditation.
Ever-new joy is
God. He is inexhaustible
A lesson, that he learnt, was that without controlling the breath and
the wandering thoughts, the Infinite as One Light cannot be perceived. These
two, are like storms, that lash the oceans of light into waves of material
forms, such as houses, trees, humans, and animals. As often as he quieted these
two natural impulses, he could visualize all the forms melting into one
luminous sea.
Body made of light. One day, after
writing a chapter of his autobiography, as he was sitting on the bed in a lotus
position, he looked at the ceiling. He saw that the ceiling was dotted with
mustard colored lights, scintillating and quivering. Innumerable pencils of
light merged into a shaft and fell on him.
His physical body
lost its grossness. He felt as if he was floating on the bed, barely touching
the bed. The body became weightless and moved to and fro. His surrounding, the
walls and furniture were as before, but the lights on the ceiling had
multiplied, and they hid the ceiling. He looked at his arms. He could move
them, but they were weightless.
A
voice spoke to him, as if it was coming from within the light. “This is the
cosmic motion picture mechanism, shedding its beams on the white screen of your
bed sheets; it creates a picture of your body. Behold your body is nothing but light.” He understood that the
divine reproduction of his body was similar to the picture produced on a cinema
screen, coming from a booth.
This vision lasted
for a long time. He saw his body in the faintly lit bedroom. Though he had many
visions in his life, but none was ever more singular.
He spoke
entreatingly, “Divine light, please withdraw this humble body into Thyself;
even as Elijah was drawn up to heavens, in a chariot of flame”.
His supplication
was evidently startling. The beam disappeared. His body came back to its
original shape.
119. Does hell exist?
Years ago (probably twenty-five), somebody casually remarked, “There is
no hell, just heaven. God is kind and merciful; therefore, there cannot be a
hell”. That remark gnawed on my mind for years. The more I thought, the more I
was convinced that there cannot be hell.
Few years ago, I came across the book; ‘Finding the joy within you,
by Sri Daya Mata’ and found this story:
“Master (Swami Yogananda)
was once talking to a very dogmatic man. He said to the Master, “Do you not
belief in hellfire and damnation?”
Guruji replied, “No, except that man creates a Hades right in here and
now. He makes out of this world and his own life a heaven or a hell, depending
upon his behavior…..”
The man was not convinced and kept on arguing. Master changed the
topic.
“Isn’t it true that you have a son who is causing you great suffering
because he drinks and………”
The man’s jaw dropped “How did you know? Yes, this has been the
greatest sorrow of my life”
“Then may I make a suggestion”
“Yes”. The man was eager for a solution.
“All right take him out for a walk in the hills, and have two trusted
friends waiting there for you. They should pounce upon him and bind him. Then
let them build a huge roaring fire. Let them throw your son in the fire”
The man was flabbergasted. “Are you mad to make such a suggestion?”
“Exactly so! Yet you ascribe such behavior to God, who created you and
instilled in you that love for your child. How dare you attribute to Him
feelings so callous and punitive that He will take all of His children that
have done wrong and cast them in eternal flames?”
Swami Ramdas (blog
82-85) writes:
“In one
place, a school master came for discussion. The schoolmaster was in favor of Shuddhi movement (reconversion of
Muslims and Christians to Hinduism) while Ramdas was against it, as Ramdas
opposed every effort on the part of anybody to create differences in religious
faiths. That all faiths lead to the same goal is a most beautiful and
convincing truth. At the end the friend exceeded the limits of decent talk.
Next day at the same time, the friend came again. He could scarcely
talk, he could only whisper. His throat was choked up.
‘O Maharaj’, he exclaimed, falling at the feet of Ramdas, “God has
punished your slave for using such rough words to you yesterday…..”
‘O friend, Ramdas is really sorry to hear this, but be assured of this;
God never punishes. God is love and
is always kind…………the so called evil is of our own making.’
At once, pulling Ramdas’s right hand the friend rubbed the palm on his
throat, and strange to say, his throat cleared and he began to talk more
clearly and in a few minutes he was alright!
‘Behold Maharaj, how powerful you are!”
‘You make a mistake, dear friend; Ramdas is a poor slave of Ram,
possessing no powers at all. Your faith alone has cured you, and nothing else.”
120. Brunton, and control over snakes and scorpions
During his travels in Egypt (1), Paul Brunton met Sheikh Moussa, who
had power over snakes and scorpions. Sheikh Moussa could smell a hidden snake
or scorpion. He could then command them to come out of their hiding places. He
would pick them, and make them docile. They would not bite him. The snakes
could not bite him with their poisonous fangs, but would, sometime, bite him
superficially on the skin. One species of scorpion (and some snakes) were
immune to his power.
Sheikh Moussa had multiple layers of protection against these
creatures. First, he had a mystic power, transmitted from master to disciple at
initiation. Second, a public and secret invocation, which consisted of certain
phrases from Quran and magical incantations, uttered forcefully, with adjurations.
It was the main power, which was given to the pupil by his teacher that forced
these creatures to submit. Thirdly, he had a talisman which he wore around his
upper arm. The talisman had a piece of paper which had certain Quranic verses
and some magical spells written on it.
Sheikh Moussa told him that he belonged to an old Dervish order, which
specialized in handling poisonous snakes and scorpions.
Sheikh Moussa gave a demonstration of his power. He offered to catch a
snake. To obviate the possibility that the Sheikh had secretly hidden a snake
in some area, the area was selected by Brunton. They (thirty or so villagers)
all marched to that area. To show that he was not carrying a snake on his
person, Sheikh Moussa removed all his clothes, except the shirt and socks. He
stopped at a stone and said there was a scorpion underneath that stone.
He started loudly and continuously, a magical incantation, which also
had Quranic verses in it. He emphatically ordered the scorpion to come out.
None came. He started the incantation and adjurations, again, in a louder
voice. Finally a big scorpion came out. He picked it in his unprotected hands.
Brunton examined it. Its sting was intact. Several times it will move its
sting, as if by a force of habit, but stopped, as if by a barrier, and did not
complete its motion of stinging. To further demonstrate his control over the
creature, he put the scorpion on the ground. He started walking towards the
debris as if to escape, when Sheikh Moussa ordered him to stop, and it stopped
at once.
Next, Sheikh Moussa declared that there was a snake under the roots of
a tree. He started again his magical incantation and exhortations. After some
minutes, no snake emerged. Sheikh Moussa got frustrated. He declared that there
really was a snake there. Finally, he kneeled, by the roots of the tree, and
still reciting his spells, thrust his hand in a hole, and brought out a five
foot long squirming cobra. After some tussle, he completed tamed the snake.
Then he released him in the dust and pointing his forefinger at him, ordered
him to lay his head in the palm of his hand.
The cobra stopped its hissing and laid his head in his palm, like a
child might rest its tired head upon its mother’s lap!
It was a sight Brunton had never witnessed before. Not even in India
where he had seen plenty of snakes and snake charmers
Brunton obtained a large table spoon and thrust it in the serpent’s
mouth. After repeated bites, he obtained a quantity of poison in the spoon, one
or two drops of which would have been sufficient to kill a man.
Soon, Brunton became the first European pupil (and second ever pupil)
of Sheikh Moussa. After a week of fasting and prayers, he was given the “Word
of power” (which was to be used mentally), and the magical incantation. He was
also given the talisman. After receiving all three, he had immunity, against
these creatures for two years.
Both master and pupil went over several field trips in the desert and
handled snakes and scorpions. Gradually, over weeks, Brunton became quite proficient.
He could grasp a poisonous snake and will it to go to sleep, by giving it a
mental command of “go to sleep”. He would also hold the talisman in one hand at
that time.
Brunton handled deadly cobras and poisonous vipers several times, and
even put them around his neck, yet they never once attacked him.
Once, in the old temple of Edfu, Brunton was crawling along an
extremely narrow, pitch dark tunnel, which had undisturbed dust of many
centuries. Suddenly, a monstrous yellow scorpion emerged from a crevice and
moved towards him. There was not enough room for Brunton to maneuver. He
pointed his forefinger towards the creature, and uttered the word of power,
loudly, and peremptorily ordered him to stop, with the utmost mental
concentration and strength he could muster.
The scorpion stopped dead still.
It remained in the same spot, transfixed, till Brunton crawled back to
safety with the light of his electric torch. For all he could tell, the
unfortunate scorpion may still be on the same spot, awaiting the command of
release.
The magical incantation is given in the book.
Despite all the powers, the immunity against snakes is not absolute.
Sheikh Moussa’s first pupil was his son. He died of a snake bite, on his first
solo field trip. His grandfather, died by a viper bite, after a life time of
immunity against snakes.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
(1) A search in secret
Egypt by Paul Brunton
121. Magicians
Brunton met his first real magician in India (1,2). His name was
Mahmoud Bey, and he was from Egypt. Brunton asked him to demonstrate his
powers, which the magician agreed. He asked Brunton to write a question on a
piece of paper and fold the paper as small as possible. Meanwhile, Mahmoud withdrew away and half
turned his back to him.
Brunton wrote the following question, “Where did I live four years
ago?” and folded the paper, as instructed.
Mahmoud came back, and told Brunton to hold the paper and the pencil
tightly in his clenched fist. The magician closed his eyes and went into what
looked like a profound concentration. He
opened his eyes and said quietly, “ The question you asked was ‘Where did I
live four years ago ?’” Brunton was astonished.
This was a case of mind reading, extraordinary!
Next, the Egyptian, ordered Brunton to unfold the paper and examine it.
The paper revealed, under the question, the name of the town where
Brunton lived four years ago! Some unknown hand had written the answer in
pencil.
Brunton was amazed beyond measure, because mind-reading could not
provide the name of the town, and write it too, on the tightly clenched paper
in his fist. His pencil and paper had remained in his fist throughout this
period.
He asked the magician to repeat it. The Egyptian agreed.
This time Brunton wrote “What journal did I edit 4 years ago”
Mahmoud closed his eyes, and concentrated. He gave the correct answer.
He told Brunton to unfold the paper.
The name of the journal he edited four years ago was clumsily written
with a pencil.
For a third time he requested the magician to repeat his demonstration.
Mahmoud succeeded again.
Brunton was baffled beyond measure. He thought of three possible
explanations for the supernatural performance: mind-reading, hypnotism, and
conjuring. He rejected all three.
It could not be conjuring because the pencil and paper came from
Brunton, the paper never left his hands, and questions were randomly selected
by him, without any premeditation.
It could not be hypnotism because Brunton knew the subject and would
have recognized if somebody was trying to influence him, and furthermore the
questions and answers were still there on the paper. Brunton finally came to
the conclusion that the magician had read his mind, and with some inexplicable
magic written the answers
Brunton felt the presence of invisible and eerie forces in the room
(Brunton was a psychic).
“Can anybody in England do this?” The Egyptian asked
He was compelled to admit that nobody could do it under those test
conditions.
Brunton requested him to explain his methods, knowing full well that
magicians and conjurers never reveal their secrets. The magician declined
Brunton asked him to just tell the broad outline of his feats, the
theoretical side only.
Mahmoud mused over his query for a while.
“I am willing to do that”
They met the next day. The explanation was neither of the three that
Brunton had considered and rejected. Mahmoud told Brunton that he had invisible
spirits under his control, and he was also a thought reader. He spent several
years to make the spirits obedient to him. He had thirty spirits at his command
which did his bidding. One of the spirits was of his dead brother, who helped
him. Most of the others were Jinns,
native inhabitants of spirit world, who never took a human body.
These spirits were proficient in one task only. For instance the jinns, who produced the pencil-written
words on the paper, would have been quite unable to ascertain his questions.
Mahmoud tried to employ only good jinns,
and not the evil ones, used by African sorcerers. Because the evil ones were
dangerous servants who would sometimes turn on their master and kill him.
One had to know each spirit’s name. The Egyptian could summon a spirit
by concentrating on him, or writing his name in Arabic on a paper. They would
come instantaneously.
Brunton met his second magician in Egypt. His name was kept secret by Brunton
as was his wish. He was the most famous magician of Egypt, or at least, Cairo.
He lived in a large house in ancient quarters. Brunton went to his house and
met the magician who was around sixty. The magician was very suspicious of
Brunton. After several visits he became less reserved. He was also an
astrologer, and made a horoscope of Brunton (which Brunton did not want)
One day he told Brunton to bring a white, healthy, fowl, and he will
put a jinn-spirit at Brunton’s
disposal! Brunton did not want it but the old man insisted.
Brunton returned three days
later with a plump white bird tucked under his arm.
The magician asked to release the bird in the middle of the room. He then
instructed Brunton to step over an incense brazier, three times.
He drew a small square on a piece of paper and subdivided it into nine
small squares. He next wrote either an Arabic letter or a kabbalistic sign, in
each of the nine squares in the diagram. Then he started muttering a magical
incantation with eyes fixed on the fowl. Sometimes he would extend his hand and
point a finger, as if he was giving an order.
Brunton noticed that the fowl started trembling.
The magician asked him to step over the brazier three times, again.
When he returned to the divan, he noticed that the fowl was not looking at the
magician any more, but had turned his eyes on Brunton. He fixed his eyes at Brunton,
and never changed.
Brunton observed a strange change in the fowl, his breathing became
labored. His beak opened with air-hunger. Finally he collapsed and died.
The magician was happy at the outcome. He said that it meant that the
spirit had accepted his sacrifice. He explained, that sometimes the fowl does
not die, which means that the spirit had not accepted that person.
Henceforth, the genie that destroyed the life of that bird as a sign
that he was ready to serve Brunton, will work for his benefit.
Brunton was told to throw the dead fowl, at the hour of midnight, in the
Nile River, and as he threw the bird he was supposed to make a wish. One day
the genie will cause his wish to come true.
The magician acknowledged that the supremacy lies with Allah. The
magicians use their art, but only Allah knows everything. Final word lies with
God.
The magician also said that the secret is passed from teacher to pupil,
and the pupil or master is not allowed to reveal the secret to anybody else.
The apprenticeship was hard and dangerous. He had not accepted a single pupil.
Eventually he was bound by the laws that governed his fraternity to accept and
teach somebody before his death, but since he knew the exact date and year of
his death, there was still time left.
I have narrated the two cases of black magic in blog 87 and 109. A practitioner
of black magic tried to poison and kill Indra Devi, and Shahab lived in a
haunted house which was frequented by the spirits of a woman and her murderer.
I will write about another entity, Hazrat, in another blog.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
(1) A search in secret India by Paul Brunton.
(2) a search in secret Egypt by Paul Brunton
122. Hypnotists
Brunton was well versed with hypnotism, as the following incident
illustrates. During his journalistic investigations on cults, he became aware
of an ex-clergyman, who had a forceful personality and possessed strong
hypnotic powers. He was using his powers for nefarious ends. One evening, by
chance, he met a woman on the street, who was a friend’s wife. She told him that
she was on her way to the hypnotist’s house, to spend a night with him. Brunton
examined her and found that she was completely under strong hypnotic influence.
Brunton felt it was his duty to de-hypnotize her and send her home, which he
did.
He consulted an Indian friend. He told him the incident, as well as,
his investigations about the ex-clergyman’s activities.
The Indian was outraged, and said that he would put a heavy curse on
the man. Brunton did not want to go that far, and asked to let him first give
an ultimatum to the man to leave the area immediately. The Indian said that the
ultimatum was fine, but he would also lay a curse on him. Which he did.
At the conclusion of the rite (for curse) Brunton left and went to the
pseudo-prophet’s house.
He found him in a small hall, with a large body of his disciples.
There was a scene of indescribable confusion.
The hall was plunged in complete darkness. All the bulbs in the house
had suddenly exploded with the force of bombs. This occurred at precisely the
same time, when my Indian friend’s rite of cursing reached its end point!
People were rushing to get out. Above all the din, harsh voice of their
master could be heard, a voice laden with fear and despair.
“The devil is here. This is the devil’s work”
He was lying prone on the platform floor. His followers had heard him
fall heavily on the platform.
Brunton gave him the ultimatum.
The man left. He died within one year in an obscure country village.
In Cairo, there lived a French couple, Monsieur Ades and his wife
Madame Margueritte. He was gifted with hypnotic power. His wife was a good
hypnotic subject. Brunton investigated them and could find no trickery. Here is
a narration by Brunton about the demonstration. As a precaution Brunton had
also invited a British officer’s wife. All four sat around a table. There were
certain preliminary feats. Then came the final experiment. She was put in
second degree of hypnotic trance by her husband.
Madame Margueritte’s eyes were closely taped. The tape also included her
eyebrows, eyelids and cheeks. As a further safeguard a thick red velvet bandage
was tied around her face and head. She could not see through the eyes.
Ades asked us to select at random any passage from any book.
We marked a paragraph from a French book and laid the book open for
her.
Ades said in a firm voice:
“Now find the paragraph. Read it, and transcribe what you read on a
paper beside you”
Madame Margueritte started writing the passage, word for word. She
would write few words, and then turn her gaze at the book. She kept on going
alternately from the book to the page. It was clear that she could read the
page despite the heavy bandages! Brunton asked her husband to command her to
underline the second word of the second line and the third word of the third
line. She underlined both words correctly.
She was commanded to write with her left hand. Although not
ambidextrous, she performed the task with ease.
The visitor took the hand of the Madame Margueritte in her hand and
concentrated strongly upon the mental image of her husband. After a short time
Madame Margueritte described the character, capacities, temperament, and even
the physical appearance of the visitor’s husband! Most extraordinary was her
statement that he was a Government official.
Ades stuck a needle in her hand. The other end of the needle was
visible on the other side. Madame Margueritte did not feel any pain.
When the needle was withdrawn there was not a single drop of blood
visible on the skin or the needle.
Brunton requested Monsieur Ades to explain the strange feats of
hypnotism. He replied that our brain has enormous unharnessed potential. There
is a subconscious aspect of our mind. If one puts the conscious state in
suspension, by hypnotism, in certain subjects, the subconscious state takes
over. It can see or hear, without the aid of normal eyes or ears. He (Ades) had
put his wife in deep hypnotic trance, so her conscious mind was suspended. One
needs somebody with hypnotic power to put a suggestible subject into a trance.
Monsieur Ades had trained his magnetic influence after several years of
practice. In a similar vein, one needs a subject who is naturally receptive to
this magnetic force. One cannot hypnotize a person who does not want to be
hypnotized.
123. Three Yogic Feats
Indra Devi ( blog 87-8) witnessed three amazing yogic feats(1). One day
a man and his two children, aged about ten came to the gate of her father’s
house. The man was dressed in ochre-colored robes. The children were possibly
twins. He offered to show three yogic feats, for a price:
The Sadhu said that he will be buried underground for twenty four
hours. They could cement it at the top and drive their car over it. He would
show the rope trick. The third trick consisted of levitation. A price was
agreed.
A pit was dug in their garden.
It was nine feet by four feet, and nine feet deep. The sadhu uttered some
mantra and descended in the pit. He put some cloth in his ears and closed his
eyes and nostrils with his fingers. He recited a mantra in Sanskrit eleven
times. His breathing became slower and slower till it was hardly perceptible.
The pit was filled with sand and earth. The top was cemented
Next day, the pit was opened and the earth removed. Sadhu was lying
there like a dead person, with a thin cloth covering his face. The two children
put drops of some green oil in his ears, nostrils and eyes, and also rubbed his
body with the oil.
After a few minutes the sadhu opened his eyes. He was helped out of the
pit. He looked a little bit tired but otherwise none the worse. He drank some
milk and appeared to recover almost completely. He left after promising to
perform the other two tasks the next day.
The sadhu returned the next evening with his two children. He was a
dark thin man. He took out a thick rope about thirty feet long from his dirty
cloth bag. He curled one end of the rope into a ball and threw it into the sky.
The rope swayed a little bit and then became stiff as if it was hanging by a
hook! The upper end of the rope was clearly visible. He then asked his little
boy to climb up the rope. The boy did it as if he was climbing a palm tree.
Suddenly his clothes started falling on the ground. He could still be seen
holding the rope by his hands and feet.
Sadhu shouted: “Ram, are you alright?”
The boy answered, “Yes, father I am alright.”
“Do you want to come back?”
“No, I plan to go higher”
Right before the spectator’s eyes the boy started vanishing. Soon he
disappeared. Now there was only the rope!
“Ram, where are you”
From a distance the child answered “Back to earth”
The sadhu started pulling down and winding the rope
The boy’s voice came from close, “Let me help you”
There were about fifty people watching, while the poor sadhu with
tattered clothes performed in the garden. No stage, no lights, no special
effects.
The girl came forwards. She was in a dirty, flimsy dress. Her hair were
tied up in a rag. She was no more than ten feet from the audience. He took out
a stick, about ten feet long, and let it stand behind her. He passed his hand
over her body and pressed her forehead with her fingers, all the time reciting
some mantras.
After about ten minutes, he touched the middle of her back with the end
of the stick, while he swept her up with the other hand. She lay on the point
of the stick about five feet above the ground!
He recited some more mantras and then abruptly removed the stick from
underneath the girl. The girl was now suspended in the air without any support!
Indra’s husband passed his hand under her to make sure that there was
no support. Two other persons also investigated without touching the girl, but
there was no trickery.
After seven minutes he picked up the girl and laid her down tenderly on
the grass. She looked utterly exhausted and dazed. The sadhu gave her some milk
to drink and took his leave.
He was never seen again. It was said that he was a primitive man______ a bhil
from the forest___who
probably went back to his jungle hut.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
(1). Pilgrim of stars by Dilip Kumar Roy and Indra Devi
124. The Most Famous Fakir Of Egypt
The name of the most famous fakir of Egypt was Tahra Bey(1). He had
piercing eyes. He had a medical degree and could speak many languages. He had
been received by many kings and Signor Benito Mussolini. He was well known for
stabbing his body with arrows and knives, and be buried alive. Once he
permitted himself to be buried for twenty eight days. He was comfortable, both,
in European or Arab dress. Many scientists and doctors had investigated his
claims and found them to be genuine. Here is what Brunton had to say about him:
“I, who have seen
several of his feats done by half a dozen fakirs in different parts of India
and Africa, find no difficulty in believing them possible; whereas knowing the
man, I know also, that he actually does possess the powers which he claims”
Brunton gathered a small group
of doctors and other professionals to watch his performance.
On the floor were various
articles to be used in his demonstrations. Every article was carefully examined
by the group.
Tahra Bey touched and pressed certain parts of his temple and the nape
of his neck. He seemed to suck air in his mouth. In a minute he was entranced.
At the same time he uttered a peculiar sudden cry. He went into cataplexy. His body became rigid like a board. He would
have fallen to the floor, like a dead man, if his assistants had not caught
him.
His body was placed on scythe-like blades. A doctor checked his pulse,
it was 130.
A large block of stone weighing 90 kilograms (approximately 198 pounds)
was placed on his bare stomach. The assistant showered blows upon the block
with a hammer. Tahra Bey’s body remained rigid and taut, never yielding an
inch, as if he was made of iron. Eventually the stone broke.
Tahra was then lifted up into a standing position, still apparently
unconscious. The doctors examined his body and did not find the slightest mark
from the scythe-like blades. He was then placed on a plank studded with sharp
nails. An assistant jumped over his body. When reexamined there was no mark on
his skin by the spikes!
Tahra Bey slowly came back to life. His eyes were fixed. He inhaled air
violently. He opened his mouth so wide that one could see his tongue curled
backwards. He brought the tongue forward with his hand.
Next, Tahra Bey allowed his cheeks to be pierced by hat pins. They also
ran thick skewers through his jaws. Tahra Bey was fully awake, and did not
elicit any sign of painfulness.
A doctor was allowed to plunge a large dagger into his throat in front
of the larynx.
Some of the doctors, who were skeptical, repeatedly checked his pupils,
in order to note whether they contracted or dilated. It was thus possible to
determine whether he had taken any drug which made him insensible to pain. His
eyes were quite normal.
When all these weapons were withdrawn there was not a single drop of
blood on his skin!
Doctors were so astonished that they jabbed more needles and arrows in
his face, shoulders and chest.
Tahra Bey then showed another power that he possessed. He allowed to be
stuck by a sharp knife in the chest. When knife was withdrawn there was no
blood. A doctor expressed a wish to see the blood flow to assure himself that
the fakir was really wounded. Tahra Bey then allowed the blood to flow. It
inundated his chest. When the doctor was satisfied, Tahra Bey stopped all flow
of blood by mere will power!
An assistant passed a flaming
torch along the entire length of the fakir’s leg. The audience heard crackling
of skin, but Tahra Bey’s face remained calm and composed!
The fakir announced, that this insensitivity to pain lasts for
twenty-five minutes
He also showed his power over a hen and a rabbit. He touched some
nerves and they became paralyzed, yet conscious. He then reversed the condition
to normal
The most important test of the evening came next. Resurrection.
The test conditions were such that there was no chance of fraud.
Tahra Bey announced that he would be buried alive for exactly one and a
half hours.
A coffin was brought. It was carefully examined. The floor of the
apartment was checked for trap-doors. Still a rug was placed as a precaution.
Tahra Bey induced auto-cataplexy in him, just as he had done before.
He was examined by doctors. No
breathing, no heartbeat!. He was like a dead man. There were no signs of
life. It would have been hard to tell the difference between him and a dead
body!
His assistants covered him completely with soft red sand.
After the allotted time, the sand was removed. He was put in a chair.
Slowly, he became normal.
He had no memory of what happened to him during the time he was in the
coffin.
What was the explanation of these amazing demonstrations?
Tricks, illusion and conjuring?
Magic? Just like the Egyptian who had thirty disembodied spirits under
his command, or the old magician of Egypt who made the white fowl be killed by
genii (blog 122)? Also the bombardment of the haunted house by bones and stones
by spirits.(blog 109)
Hypnotism. Like the French woman who could read while her eyes were
heavily taped (blog123) and did not show pain when stuck by a needle. The wound
was bloodless
Yoga? Like the three tricks performed by the Indian sadhu; being buried
alive, rope trick, and levitation. (Blog 124)
Miracles? There are twenty five miracles (supernatural events)
described in blog 104-7, performed by men and women of God.
The answer is none of the above!
Tahra Bey claimed himself to be a man of science. There was nothing
supernatural. He knew of certain laws of nature by which he could perform these
feats. They were little known psychic laws, but nonetheless, laws. He had
command over two secrets which enabled him to perform all his feats:
1. Pressure on
certain nerve centers of the body
2. Ability to enter
into cataleptic coma
When one is in cataleptic coma, heart and breathing, both, stop. There
is no flow of blood. Body becomes insensitive to pain (similar to a modern
operation under general anesthesia). To accelerate the healing of wounds he did
two things: he temporarily accelerated the blood flow and he raised the
temperature of the blood (which killed the microorganisms).
If a reader wants more details he can read it in the book .
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
(1) A search in secret Egypt by Paul Brunton)
125. If One lays The Life At God’s Feet: Part One
There are over 7 billion inhabitants of planet Earth. Then there are
close to 1022 star systems (one followed by 22 zeroes. A billion is
one followed by nine zeroes). The estimate by Kepler spacecraft’s 2013 data was
that:
“22 percent of Sun-like stars have Earth-like planets”
What I wanted to point out by the numbers mentioned above is that there
are lots and lots of planets, and even if intelligent life (like us) may be
present only in one in a billion Earth-like planets, there are still
quadrillions of intelligent life forms.
There is only one Creator (God)
Now, consider for a second, that you want to attract the attention of
God. Now you may ask, that why should one attract the attention of God.
Business of living continues without us calling God. That
is true, but some of us have this desire.
Some years ago, I asked a saint (through an intermediary) that I want jazzab (oblivion to time and space while
all thoughts are focused on God). The saint said that jazzab was good, but it was not the most important thing in the
path towards God-realization. The most important and difficult thing was to
come in the notice of God.
God could, if He wanted to, be aware of all of the quadrillions of us,
but it will probably be un-necessary. Therefore, it is more than likely that He
does not know any of us, individually, just as I do not know any of the 25
trillion red blood cells in my body.
It is this mote’s opinion that there is one sure way to attract God’s
attention, and that is to lay one’s
life at God’s feet. If you try to sacrifice your life, for the sake of
God, and only God (not religion or a cause), and nothing else, two things
happen with unexceptional certainty:
He won’t let you die!
He will take notice of you. Who is this strange person?
A man, this mote intimately knows, was on the path of God. Almost ten
years passed and there was no progress. This man was in utter despair. He was
also very depressed. Matters came to a point where life without God was a
burden. Separation from God was tearing him apart. Longing for God was such,
that he would shed tears every day. He would call God to just acknowledge him___
his existence___ but there would never be a reply. Finally he
decided to kill himself. Just before the attempt to kill himself, he asked
himself “ Be honest. You are going to die in a few hours and may meet God face
to face, just tell why you are ending your life?” He gave the following answer, in all the near-death
truthfulness. “ The reason is that I cannot bear separation from God any more.
I don’t want to be separate from Him anymore. If there is a God (which he
believed without doubt, but he said it for the sake of argument), after death I
will meet Him, and thus get my desire, and be extremely happy. If there is no
God, then there will just be oblivion; nothingness, no thinking capacity, which
won’t be a loss, because the drama of life with its present pain and anguish,
will be over”.
He pushed the plunger of the syringe, saying, “ Here I come, God!”. The
syringe was filled with a powerful blood pressure lowering drug, Labatalol. He
injected approximately hundred times the normal dose. ( He had crushed into
white powder one hundred 300mg tablets, a total of 30,000mg, and dissolved them
in water. Normal dose is 100-300 mg). The syringe had to be filled multiple
times because there was too much liquid. He chose injection and not swallowing,
because he did not want to take the risk of the powder just sitting in the
stomach, and not being absorbed due to low blood pressure.
As he was injecting himself, he was thinking, God will answer him now.
He was emotionally blackmailing God! He was like the proverbial kid who
threatens to jump in the well, if mother does not accede to his wish.
The mother replies “ go ahead”. The kid does not jump.
But in this case the man was jumping in the valley of death by pushing
the piston, again and again. He was also thinking, that one cannot blackmail
God. That will be His defeat. But will the God let a true devotee die?
Maybe, God wanted to see, whether the man is empty talk, or will he
actually carry out the act? Will he falter at the penultimate moment?
The man had imagined many scenarios, but in his wildest dreams he had not
thought that he would survive such a massive dose.
The man laid alone, on a couch, for about fifty, fifty-five hours,
before help arrived. His blood pressure fell to very low levels. He would go in
and out of consciousness and unconsciousness/sleep.
He remained sick for about two months. Due to low blood pressure his
kidneys stopped functioning. He had to be hemodialysed for a couple of weeks.
Repeated infections with C.diff
complicated the course.
He recovered completely.
God did not answer him.
God did not let him die.
After some more years, he did feel progress in his path towards God.
He earnestly feels that it was this act, laying his life at God’s feet,
which caused him to succeed. After all, such an act must be extremely rare.
Even the Creator takes notice.
To be continued.
126. If One lays The Life At God’s Feet: part two
I came across five examples of acts similar to the one narrated in the
previous blog, I.e., willing to die unless one hears from God or His
representatives. Three of them have been previously described. However, they
will be very briefly narrated again.
1. Yogananda’s need to hear from God prior to his going to America.
(Blog 79). When he was ordered to go to America, Sri Yogananda got worried that
he will be lost in the materialism of the West. He started meditating, with the
vow that he will continue praying till death, unless he hears from God. After
several hours of his lamentation, Babaji (the founder of his sect and reputed
to be several hundred years old) came to him, and assured him that his mission
had Divine sanction.
2. Sri Ramakrishna was in utter despair (blog 20). Life was not worth
living. He was sitting in the temple. His eyes fell on the sword hanging on the
wall. He thought of ending his life. Like a mad man he grasped the sword and
ran outside to end his life. The blessed
Mother chose to reveal Herself at that moment. He fell down unconscious, and
was engulfed in a sea of light.
3. Giri Bala. (Blog 80). This holy woman was overweight when she was a
girl. Her mother-in-law constantly criticized her habit of overeating. One day
stung by her mother-in-law’s remarks, she vowed not to eat anything at all! She
prayed to God for help. Help came in the form of her Guru, who taught her some
secret mantras, by which she could live without eating and drinking!
4. Robert
Bogucki, a 33 year old man from Alaska went into Australian desert to find some
spiritual answers. In his own words, “I just wanted to spend a while on my own,
just nobody else around, just make peace with God”. He was rescued after 43
days. He drank muddy water, and ate flowers and wild plants. He was without
food for about 6 weeks and without water for about 12 days. Western Australia’s
Great Sandy Desert is one of the harshest places in the world. God did not let
him die, because he had gone there for the sake of God
5. Brunton met the leader of a spiritual movement called Radha Soamis
that had originated in 19th century (the fraternity exists to this
day) India. His name was Sahibji Maharaj. The leader thought that to
travel on spiritual path, a master was absolutely essential. He told Brunton
the story of his own search for the master.
“I was desperate to find a
master. I asked the trees, the grass, and the sky to enlighten me if truth
existed. I sobbed my heart out like a child.
One day I resolved to give up eating and starve to death, unless and
until the divine power saw fit to grant me some illumination.
The next night I had a vivid dream, wherein a master appeared to me and
revealed himself as such.
I asked his address. His answer was ‘Allahabad ’
I told the dream to a friend, who brought a group photograph, and asked
me if I could recognize the master of my dream. I at once recognized him.”
God did not let him starve to death!
127. Afzal Khan and Hazrat.
Swami Yogananda wrote in his book about Afzal khan who had an invisible
disembodied entity whom he called Hazrat(1). Hazrat would instantly do whatever
Afzal asked him to do. Sri Yukteswar (blog 80) told their story to Yogananda.
Afzal was not a man of God. He had been given this gift by a saint for
a good deed. Afzal was told to use this gift in an honest way. Afzal used the
gift of Hazrat honestly for about twenty year. Then he became dishonest and
greedy. If he managed to touch any precious object, soon the object would
disappear and come to Afzal’s possession. He would go to jewellery shops and
pretend to buy expensive jewellery or watches. The jewellery he had touched
would soon disappear. He gathered lot of followers. Soon his fame spread in
Bengal. He would touch a bunch of train tickets at the railway station and then
return the tickets. The tickets would come to him to be used by his disciples.
Sri Yukteswar, when he was a youth, happened to see four of his feats:
About twenty people had gathered
to watch Afzal’s performance
Afzal asked Sri Yukteswar to bring a stone. When the stone was brought,
he asked Yukteswar to write his name on it with chalk. He did. Then he ordered
Yukteswar to throw the stone in the Ganges, as far as he could. Yukteswar
complied. He then told him to put a pot of Ganges water in front of the house.
Then Afzal asked Hazrat to put the stone in the pot. The stone
reappeared in the pot of water at once! Yukteswar examined it. The stone had
his signature on it.
Next Afzal saw an heavy, expensive antique gold watch and chain on a
man’s wrist. He asked the man to show him the watch. The man gave him the watch
. Afzal examined and admired the watch and then returned it to the owner. Soon
the watch was missing!
The man begged Afzal to give him his watch. Afzal said you have five
hundred rupees in your safe at home. Give me that money and then I will tell
you how to get the watch. The man went home and returned with the cash.
“ Go to the little bridge near your house. Call Hazrat to give you the
watch and the chain”
The man rushed home. He returned with relief. He told that when he
called Hazrat, his watch came tumbling down the air in his right hand!
Next, Afzal asked for everybody to order any drink. The agitated owner
of the watch ordered whisky, while everybody else ordered a soft drink. Hazrat
soon made all the drinks materialize out of thin air in sealed containers!
Afzal offered to provide sumptuous lunch for everybody.
Soon gold plates with delicious dishes of food appeared.
After everybody had eaten, the guests started leaving. Behind, they
heard tremendous noise of dishes being taken away. Soon all food and platters
were gone.
The story of Afzal and Hazrat had a strange ending. The saint came to
know of the misdeeds of Afzal. He accosted Afzal and after finding him guilty
took Hazrat away from him. But since Afzal had spent his earlier years
honestly, the saint made one concession. He told Afzal that Hazrat will still
provide him with food and clothes for his own self.
The confession of Afzal appeared in a paper, written by him with
remorse and contrition, recounting his greed and misdeeds, and asking for
forgiveness from God.
Yogananda asked his guru, that
why did Afzal take the money and gold of others, when he could easily procure
it, himself, from some astral plane.
His master replied, “The things made from astral atoms do not have
stability. They disintegrate. That is why Afzal was forced to take it from
people and shops”
(1). Autobiography of a Yogi by Swami Yogananda
128. Yogi Krishnaprem
The original name of Krishnaprem was Professor Ronald Nixon (1). He was
an Englishman, a graduate of Cambridge, who taught English literature at
Universities of Lucknow and Banaras. He had been a pilot in First World War.
He became a disciple of Sri Yashoda Mae, a highly advanced spiritual
lady. I have mentioned her, in blog 86, when she and others were visited by
Lord Krishna in Mirtola, India. Nixon converted to Hinduism, and took the name
of Krishnaprem (lover of Lord Krishna). He did not believe in half-measures, so
he quit the world (sanyas) in 1928.
He travelled the path of God till his death in 1965. His long time friend Dilip
Kumar Roy (blog 86) writes of his earlier days, when he was a lecturer. One day
a rationalist professor argued against miracles, and dubbed them as mere
superstitions. Nixon genially replied:
“ As you know I was a pilot
in World War……..One day as I was going to steer to the right, where I saw half
a dozen planes whirring and zooming, thinking they were ours___that
is RAF planes. Just then some force simply caught hold of my wrist, and made me
turn to the left. I was quite bewildered, the more so as the force was too
incredible to doubt. Later on, as I returned to the base, I came to know that
they were enemy planes…….I had a miraculous escape. I am as certain as certain
can be that it was a miracle”
Dilip Kumar Roy writes, “What
horrified me most was that Krishnaprem was actually begging alms in the
streets and sleeping on a bare blanket on the cold heights of the Himalayas,
7500 feet above sea level”.
By virtue of his total renunciation and pure devotion Krishnaprem’s
whole body was set on fire with the love of God (written By Haridas Chaudhuri)
While living at Mirtola, with his Guru, two other Britishers lived with
them. They were also renunciants.
One was Haridas, an old friend from Cambridge, who gave up a highly
successful medical practice, and tended to the sick villagers. The other was
Madhava Ashish, a ground engineer posted to an air base in 2nd World
War. After the war, he came up on one brief holiday to the Himalayas, somehow
heard of Krishnaprem, walked over one day to see him, and never left.
Now after this brief introduction, let me narrate two profound
experiences of Krishnaprem. He told them to Dilip. He had a wonderful vision of
Lord Krishna and Radharani, in the famous Srirangam temple.
“As soon as I prostrated myself in the shrine before the Lord’s image, I lost my outer consciousness. I saw a vast ocean made of liquid light. Time had stood still till a breath of Love started a ripple in the hushed ocean of Light, when countless white lotuses appeared on the blue waves………..on each flower stood a lovely Krishna with Radha____ She smiling and He playing His magic flute……..But O Dilip what beauty, what music, and what bliss……”
He shivered as his voice
trailed.
The other experience was when he
visited Maharishi Ramana, the guru of Paul Brunton (blog 91). In his own words:
“In the evening, I
entered the hall where the Maharishi reclines daily on his couch, to meditate
at his feet. As soon as I sat down I heard a voice questioning me repeatedly:
‘Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?’ I tried hard to ignore it, but could
not. So, in the end I just had to formulate an answer; ‘I am Krishna’s
servant’. At once a new question came ‘Who is Krishna?’ I answered ‘Nanda’s
son’. No use: The question was repeated pauselessly. I gave other answers, but
it was of no use. The question persisted. I gave up. I left the hall, deeply
disturbed. I came back, to meditate, but I had no peace. The voice returned.
I asked Radharani for help. She
asked me what answers had I given. I told Her the answers. She revealed to me
the correct answer.
Next morning, when I sat down
again at his blessed feet, the Maharishi suddenly gave me a lightning glance
and smiled. I knew at once that he was the author of it all and he also knew
that I had guessed his part correctly.
Then, a deep peace entered me
like a block of ice___an exquisite bliss.
As I meditated___I
suddenly took it into my head to return the compliment and put a question to
him in silence: ‘And who are you? May
I humbly ask? ’. It so happened that the next moment I had to open my eyes
involuntarily, when____ lo I found his couch empty!’
……….I closed my eyes once more
and looked again____ and there he was, tranquil……… A momentary smile
flickered on his lips as he gave me a meaningful glance and then looked away.
You understand the point of the
miracle, Dilip.”
‘That he was beyond nama-rupa( name and face )’.
“That is right” he answered.
I end this narration with the
following addition:
Dilip writes; “I met my dear and
esteemed friend S. Duraiswami, who told me; “ After Krishnaparem had left, I
visited Maharishi…….He told me that I should have met him, a bhakta (one who practices bhakti or devotion ) and jnani ( one who follows the path of
knowledge ) in one, a rare combination”. Such an encomium from such an exalted
person, as the Maharishi.
(1). Yogi Sri Krishnaprem by
Dilip Kumar Roy
129.Importance of spiritual sites
When my brother asked the Great Qalandar that why my Hindu friend was
given the gift of closeness to God, when he was so rich, had never performed
any penances and austerities, and had never quit the world (tiag). The great mystic gave the
surprising answer, “These things do not matter. He got it because of some
spiritual site (which he visited). There are sites in the world where you get
grace (of God). Consider Jerusalem, holy to three religions”. Although in this
mote’s opinion he got the grace of God (from the site) because he loved God,
perhaps, as good as anybody else.
The Yogi Krishnaparem mentioned two such sites. One was the Srirangam
temple at Trichinopoly, India, where he had the vision of Lord Krishna and
Radharani (blog). The other was at Maharishi’s hall. In his own words:
“As I meditated, it was borne
home to me through the mystic silence that though the peace descends from the
Lord Himself____does’nt he say in the Gita that He is the primal
source of all experience___the peace in this instance was
transmitted through His beloved agent: the Maharishi. I have previously
mentioned that Brunton had experienced and said the same thing regarding
Maharishee (blog 91)
Therefore these sites are not only the broadcasting sites to God, but
also the receiving sites.
My Hindu friend once visited the room near Clacutta, where Sri
Ramakrishna had spent the last years of his life. My friend was at that time in
his early youth and had visited the place, unintentionally, with a bunch of
loud, happy friends. None of them had any thought of God or spirituality and
were just enjoying the gardens and the boat-ride. When he entered the room, he
felt a shiver go through his body. There was something in the air. He became
quiet. He realized that his friends had also become quiet. The experience left
a mark on him because he never forgot it in the next fifty or more years.
Sri Daya Mata mentions in her book (1), how she had great mystic
experiences at the following places: cave of Mahavatar Babaji, in Himalayas; in
front of a huge statue of Lord Buddha in Nara, Japan; in Tarakeswar temple in
India; in sacred Jagannath temple in Puri, India (also see blog 5).
St Therese of Lisieux had an indescribable experience in the church of
Our Ladies of Victories in Paris, France(blog 14).
There are many spiritual experiences described by various persons, that
I have described at the Holy site of Data Gunj Bakhash in Lahore, Pakistan
(blogs 62-4, and 67). The law of secrecy
prohibits me to disclose more.
.
(1). Finding The Joy Within You
by Sri Daya Mata
130. Some Updates/Additions.
Locutionist in Medjugorje, Totapuri’s
lesson, Drama at Mr. Shevani’s grave,
Reading thoughts, seeing from
afar, beyond religion,. How to control
Wandering thoughts. Pawhari Baba. great Qalandar
Here are some updates/ additions to the episodes narrated in earlier
blogs:
In blog 68, I mentioned that the spiritual sites serve as broadcasting
stations to God or His assistants. They are also the receivers through which
God’s grace descends.
Holy Mary appeared to six children in 1981 in Medjugorje, Bosnia. The
village has become a spiritual site. In order for a site to succeed in
attracting pilgrims, there has to be a spiritual presence there, just as the
spirit of Data Gunj Bakhash is present at Data Durbar in Lahore Pakistan.
Do I have any proof of it being the case at Medjugorje?
Yes, as the following episode proves it. It has been taken from a book
by Eric Weiner (1). The author interviewed the in-charge of a homeless shelter
in South Bronx, New York. His name was Father Louis and he was a Franciscan
monk. The monk told him the story of his conversion:
Father Louis, when young, led a life devoted to body building and
womanizing. One day his mother asked him to go to a holy site in Bosnia. Louis
loved his mother. To please her, he agreed to go on this pilgrimage, although
he had no interest in religion.
Louis was bored by the second day in Medjugorje. He started idly
thinking, that if Holy Mary was his and Jesus Christ’s mother and God the
father of both of them, then he and Jesus should be brothers. He spent about 6
seconds on this thought.
Later, the same day, as he was climbing up a hill with other pilgrims,
he heard that in their group there was a locutionist. This locutionist, a young
girl, supposedly, received messages telepathically. At precisely 5.40 pm, they
all kneeled and meditated for few minutes.
Afterwards, the girl told him that while meditating, she received a
message from Jesus for him.
Louis thought that this must be a generic message, such as, go to
church, be holy, etc. You cannot go wrong with such messages.
The girl said, “Jesus told her, that, yes, He was your brother and He
wanted to anoint your hands”
I cannot improve on Weiner’s words; therefore, I am going to quote
verbatim:
Louis was floored. She had given him the answer to the question she
couldn’t possibly have known.
“And in that moment, I was infused with such love for Christ, knowing
that He was in my head, He was in my brain, He was in my heart. I knew He was
real. I knew this was the man I needed to follow the rest of my life.”
What was the spirit of such mighty and exalted prophet doing at
Medjugorje?
2. In blog 22, I mentioned that
the guru of Sri Ramakrishna, Totapuri, was taught a profound lesson by God. At
that time, for fear of digression, I did not narrate the new truth that he had
found. Here is the incident:
Totapuri developed dysentery. It was so severe that he could not
concentrate during meditation. He was used to mastery over his body, but now he
had become a slave of his body. Body meant nothing to him; he decided to drown
his body in river Ganges. He walked in the water of the river on one bank. To
his surprise, he ended up on the other bank! (In another version, he ended on a
sand-bank in the middle of the river).
In his amazement he looked at the other bank. In one dazzling moment he
saw Divine Mother on all sides. She was in everything. She was in the water, She
was in the land, She was in the body……She was everything that one sees, hears,
or imagines.
She was the Transcendental Absolute. She was the Brahman, which
Totapuri had worshipped all his life.
In the morning, he went with Ramakrishna, to the Kali temple, and for
the first time prostrated himself before the image of the Mother.
Ramakrishna, later, told his disciples, the meaning of the vision of
Totapuri
“When I think of the Supreme____
as inactive; neither creating, nor maintaining, nor destroying___ I
call him Brahman or Purusha, the impersonal God. When I think of Him as active___
I call Him as Sakti, or Maya, or Prakriti, the Personal God. The Personal and
the Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness…The Divine
Mother and Brahman is one”
According to Hindu mysticism, God can be with Form, or without Form. To
realize God with Form is much easier than to realize God without Form, because
one can make a mental image of God with Form (such as Christ on Cross, idol of
Divine Mother as Kali).
In this mote’s opinion, it is much easier to attract the attention of
lesser gods and prophets than the Supreme God
3. There is a recent update on Mr. Shevani. (Blog67-8). The area where
Mr Shevani is buried is surrounded by Wahabi Muslim villagers. They are a
fundamentalist, extremist sect. These people had opposed the building of a tomb
on his grave, and had injured a disciple of the great Qalandar. Three or four
person plotted a scheme. They went to Mr. Shevani’s grave in the middle of a dark night. They were
equipped with an electric lamp and digging tools. There scheme was to steal Mr.
Shevani’s dead body.
As the first shovel struck the ground there was a loud, blood chilling
roar which came from somewhere. It did not sound human to them. It was blood
curdling and terrifying. These men lost their senses, and ran helter-skelter,
leaving the digging tools behind.
Two of the miscreants, including their leader, became delirious,
talking nonsense, and had to be admitted to a hospital. Both died, one within a
week, the other after several weeks.
Sometimes, God or His assistants interfere in human affairs.
4. Many persons attain the ability to read thoughts. A sufi person I know told me that he could
not actually read one’s thoughts ( and is prohibited to do so by his order )
unless somebody came to him as a supplicant( for help). When such a person
comes to him he comes to know why that person has come to him before the needy
say a word.
The magician, Mahmoud, in blog122, whom Brunton met in India told
Brunton that he was a thought reader.
Sri Daya Mata wrote in her book that her guru swami Yogananda had the
power to read the mind of others, but he never intruded on anyone’s mental
privacy unless invited (blog12)
The best description is that of Indra Devi: she could sometime read the
thoughts of others. She was almost ashamed of it. However if she deliberately
tried to read the thoughts of somebody, she could not (2).
5. Yogaparem told Dilip, “ It sometime happens that as soon as you are
initiated into Yoga you begin to see things far away.”
I have narrated the story of the blind Russian beggar who saw the
church fire and belfry falling when they were many versts away from the city
(blog 52)
Swami Ramdas also wrote in one of his books that he could see people
coming towards him while they were still far away.
Data Gang Bakhash wrote in his book (blog 104) that he went to meet a
sage in Salang. The sage said, “My son you are in my notice from such and such
date.” He also wrote that his murshed could
read thoughts (blog62)
6. Problem of wandering thoughts. “As soon as I sit down to meditate my
mind begins to wander. I can neither relax nor concentrate on the Lord”(2).
That is the complaint Indra so often hears from people. How can it be
otherwise, she tells them, when they make no attempt to keep up their contact
with Him during the rest of the day? One should think of God as often as possible.
In this way the mind eventually becomes accustomed to the heights and
meditation is made possible. Think of God for one minute every half-hour…….
7. Miracle of Pawhari Baba. Yashoda Mai, the guru of Krishnaparem, once
met the great saint Pawhari Baba when she was a fifteen year old girl (3). He
lived in a cave. Once, it was announced that he was going to give bhandara (feeding, distribution of a
vessel of foodstuff, and clothes to the sadhus
) ,the next day. An intrigued Mai,
disguised herself as a boy, and stood in the line of sadhus. Everybody was getting a vessel of food and a dhoti ( garment covering the lower half
of the body). When her turn came, she just plunged head-on in the cave.
“ Believe it or not, Baba,” she said, “ I saw something absolutely
incredible: It was just a tiny cave with no other exit. And there were neither
vessels nor any dhotis___not
a vestige! The narrow space inside the cave was quite empty!”
Pawhari Baba and Sri Ramakrishna were contemporaries, and knew each other.
Pawhari Baba kept a picture of Ramakrishna in his cave and thought highly of
him
8. I have mentioned in the Foreword of this book what the great
Qalandar said about my book “ …..Such person is beyond religion”
The Yogi who always wore dark glasses ( blog 64) said the same thing.
When asked by the saintly person that what was his religion? . He laughed and said that he was beyond
religion and anybody who reaches God is beyond religion. However, one still
follows the religion through which one has reached God, and since he reached
God through Hinduism, he calls himself a Hindu.
Since I just mentioned the great Qalandar, let me record some more of
his sayings. He said “ This path has no end ( similar to what Shahab’s guide
told him). There are rest areas and milestones. At first rest area one gets
something. In the second rest area one gets sweets (reward). People start eating the candy. Many more
years pass. Then you get a ceremonial robe or a hat of honor. Such people
become very proud of their gifts and accomplishment. They walk proudly, full of
self-importance. God asks them to serve humanity. In other words, they are
diverted from their original aim (path). But I did not deviate, and others do
not, either.”
“Allah plays games. First he gave you the sickness, then sent you to me
to cure. Who am I to cure? It is He Himself who cures.”
(1). Man seeks God by Eric
Weiner
(2). Pilgrims of stars By Dilip Kumar Roy and Indra Devi
(3) Yogi Krishnaparem by Dilip Kumar Roy
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