195. Mkadk’s progress

There has been some recent progress. It started on 2-3 of Dec 2015.

There are always ups and down in this journey. Aridity and bliss alternate with each other, till one reaches the final stage, when one becomes connected with God all the time. Then these cycles end, and there is peace and contentment constantly. Now all my sessions are good, full of bliss. In 4/15 and 5/15, I had asked BBJ to pray for me, that I should get my two goals, ‘Green Allah, and a supernatural spiritual event ‘. Those have not occurred. The door to God is still closed as ever. It will open at age 78, or earlier, as promised by QA. BBJ said he cannot help me, nobody can, God wants it that way, but he can pray that my path may be made easier ( 5/15). He asked RQ to raise his hands and pray with him. Both prayed for me.  I think God granted their prayer. My path has become easier

This easing of path, if true, and if it continues, is a great milestone achieved. My path has been made tremendously easy. It is due to the predictability of the bliss during my morning session. Another factor is that I have finally started believing that I will get my goal in less than five years. Although I am terribly impatient and don’t want to wait. I would rather die today without finding God, than to wait for 5 years. But it is still better than never finding God at all. Why this waiting? I think it is unjust. I constantly fight with God about it. I want to understand the reason behind it.

Meditation period has increased. From 4 hours to 5 hours every day. Now I have an evening one hour book reading session

Tears have increased; from one time a day to 2 times a day. Bliss, in the morning session has increased.

SK (the chief disciple of QA) is going to sing my five Urdu poems. He had been a professional wandering singer, so he knows better.  QA also listened to my poems. His remark was that they reminded him of old time when similar verses (of love and separation from God) used to erupt from his heart. Now, off course, he is all the time connected with God.

He must be close to eighty  at this time.

I had written a letter to QA, and put it under the sign of Allah, in my meditation room. I wrote it on 2/15/13. It consisted of 2 questions. I had completely forgotten it. The other day I found the paper and was amazed that both questions have been answered. The two questions were:

When will I find God?

Is it true, or just my imagination, that a receiver has been installed in my head? If any of the great spirits, present in this room want to answer these questions, they are welcome

The second question was answered by Shah Sahib in 2014 or 2013. RQ asked him this question on my behalf. He said “it is true. Receiver has been installed. To further improve it depends upon him”.

The second question was answered by QA in 5/2015 and again in 6/15, once through SK and once by wireless communication directly to RQ. How many persons in the whole world are lucky enough to be told, years in advance, that they are in the notice of God and have been accepted for the greatest honor that a human being can get in this life; an honor granted not by any human being but by God Himself. Just the thought of the Master looking at me fills me with awe and gratitude. I want to share it with the whole world. I want to shout on rooftop “o’ people of this world, I have been selected by God! Me, mkadk. And God approved its disclosure to me through QA. QA would have never told RQ, without God’s permission. He could not have been given this knowledge by God, if God did not want it. Why did God want me to know? To comfort me, what else? Seeing my anguish he took pity on me. He could not grant me the reward now (instead of age 78), because I am not ready. I don’t have the capacity to handle it. Remember, my own poem (blog 61, The Riddle): “Trained according to capacity and need”. This episode clearly shows that God is personal ( as a matter of fact He is both personal and impersonal, as I have previously discussed it in blog 114): unchanging God and His kinetic energy))

It is most amazing that my letter with the two questions has been answered.

What a relief? It also almost guarantees that I will live till that time (2020 or earlier). Although QA was careful to state that I will get my goal only if I live that long. He also said that the desire to live has gone in him (mkadk). However I am certain that God won’t let me die without rewarding me. That is how God works. Effort must be rewarded. His justice absolutely demands it.

Living till 2020 is not a joy for me. I would rather die today, unfulfilled. This is because I don’t want to live away from God for almost five years. Pain and anguish has decreased now, as compared to a year ago.

I also think it is not fair that I have never been given even one bit of spiritual reward for 16 years. No spiritual event. Although others have been like me; Brother Lawrence did not get even a bit of reward for 10 years, Philip John (Searcher from England, see blog 64) for over 25 years. But I am not sure they never saw a spiritual supernatural event in others. Philip John met many Qalandars in the desert of Sindh; he may have seen a spiritual event first hand while he was with them.

Brother Lawrence had written at one place that God liked his talk. If he forgot to talk to Him for any length of time, He gently reminded him and drew his attention( blog 18). Pleasant sensations occurred in him, so pleasant that he was embarrassed to mention them. Now, for the last 3 weeks when in the evening I sit on a sofa to read a spiritual book and get into the spiritual mood, pleasant sensation develop on the face and last till the end of one hour session. This instant reward is something new. I have been given a spark of the fire which raged in Brother Lawrence.

 

If you are curious about the Green Allah, you deserve an explanation.  My wish is that whenever I should close my eyes and think of God, I should be able to see the Green Allah sign , as it is written on a piece of paper and hanging on a wall in my meditation room. I made it myself, and MB and I colored it green and sprinkled glitter on it. The sign should appear on the back of upper eyelids, as in a dream, and not back in brain, as one sees things in imagination. I have never been able to do it, even for one second. All thoughts should be focused on God at that time( to prevent thoughts from wandering, something is required in the field of vision ), and I should forget passage of time. I should be neither asleep nor unconscious.

My second desire, to experience a supernatural spiritual event, is important to me. I want to be touched by this limitless, mysterious, God’s spiritual system. Only then would I believe it. If QA would merely contact me directly, over a distance of thousands of miles, I would be satisfied. He has the power to do so. He has sent instructions to RQ and SK many times by imprinting the words in their brains. I requested him but he denied my request.  Shahab received a letter from Germany. That was an example of a supernatural spiritual event (Blog 65). No doubts are left in an open-minded person’s  mind after such an event.

194. Thoughts of Al-Ghazali. Part three

We were discussing Sufism ( mysticism)

 

 

He knew that piety and restraint from passion is necessary, but it was also required to devote with total ardor to God. This could only be achieved by avoiding fame and fortune and fleeing from attachments. He reflected on his intentions on his public teachings, and saw that it was not directed purely to God, but more towards fame and prestige. He realized that he had to give up his post and leave Bagdad.

An intense period of vacillation ensued. One day he would firmly resolve to leave Bagdad and next day cancel his decision. Worldly desires and path towards God were pulling him in opposite directions. This lasted for six months

God intervened!

A lock was put on his tongue. He could not speak a single world. He also became sad. His appetite and digestion went away. There was great weakening of his powers.

‘In powerlessness I had recourse to God. I was answered by Him’

‘He made it easy for my heart to turn away from fame, family, children and associates’. He announced that he was leaving for Mecca (for Hajj?). Although in actuality he was going to Syria. This was a precaution from schemes of trouble makers.

 

“I departed from Bagdad after I had distributed what wealth I had, laying by only the amount needed for my support and the sustenance of my children…… I resided in Damascus for nearly two years. My only occupation was seclusion, spiritual exercise to purify my soul…..cleansing my heart for the remembrance of God, in the way I had learned from the writing of sufis…..mounting to the minaret of a mosque for the whole day and shutting myself in……Then I travelled from Damascus to Jerusalem, where I would go daily into the Dome of the Rock and shut myself in.”

An inner urge guided him to go to Mecca and Medina and perform Hajj. Which he did.

He had to come back to his native land for certain important matters. But he maintained solitude. He tried to keep his heart empty for remembrance of God. But worldly concerns and needs made it impossible to fully achieve this state. He had blessed ecstasy only intermittently. He remained in this condition for ten years.

Things impossible to enumerate were disclosed to him.

Many Islamic mystics like Shahab ( blog 32,94. Also see note 4 below) have considered mysticism inferior to Shariat. But not Ghazali:

 

“ this much I shall mention, that profit may be derived from it: I know with certainty that the sufis are those that uniquely follow the way to God, their mode of life is the best of all, their way the most direct of ways , and their ethics the purest.”

“…….all their (sufis) motions are learned from the light of the niche of prophecy. And beyond the light of prophecy there is no light on earth from which illumination can be obtained.”

“From the very beginning of the Way revelations and visions start…. so that , even when awake, the sufis see the angels and the spirits of the prophets and hear voices coming from them……eventually to states beyond the narrow range of words”

He wanted to come out of seclusion to reform others. He had found out that the faith of some men was weak. He wanted to guide them aright and to deliver them from peril.

He was on the horns of a dilemma: seclusion and devote all the time to God or to come out of religious retirement and guide others by lectures and books.

God intervened!

Sultan ordered him to return to Nishapur and face the threat of this tepidity in Muslims. Thus the decision was taken out of his hands. In addition to that, certain Godly men had many recurrent dreams attesting that this move of his would be a source of good and a right procedure, and it had been decreed by God ……

He was uniquely qualified for this task due to his encyclopedic knowledge of Islam, and philosophy and being an authentic sufi. He wrote many books.

Avicenna (Ibn Sina, born 980 A.D.) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd, born 1126 A.D.) are the two most famous Muslim Philosophers of Middle Ages. In philosophy, they both followed Aristotle (Pupil of Plato, born in 384 B.C.), and not Plato. Ghazali exposed, what he thought, were the weaknesses in the arguments of both of them, and also that of Al Farabi (born 870? A.D.). He wrote a book called Destruction of the philosophers. Averroes replied by a book Destruction of the Destruction.

 

He followed Shariat and his mysticism was traditional Islamic mysticism. He advocated orthodox religious views. He did not bring anything new.

 

This mote considers him a great man, because when the time for sacrifice came he rose to the occasion and sacrificed, by quitting the world, for God. He realized God without any teacher. Books were his teacher. This mote also has no guide; books have been my guide. But I did not realize God, because I did not possess the courage to leave world.

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

 (1) ‘AL-Ghazali’s path to Sufism, his deliverance from error’. “Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal”. Translated from the Arabic by Mccarthy. Prefaced by Burrell. Introduction by Graham

(2) ‘Kashaful- Mehjoob’ by Daata Gunj Bakhash

 (3) My source in writings about Descartes and Plato is the book, “A history of Western Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell

(1)   From my blog 94:“I am simply amazed that how Mr. Shahab considered it inferior to shariat. The bliss of God’s touch on one’s face is ineffable. Words cannot describe it. One touch is greater than thousand ritualistic prostrations. All great saints, like St Teresa of Avilla, and Sri Ramakrishna have said the same thing.”

 

189. Jesus Christ in the eyes of a non-Christian. Part five

 

We were discussing hearing of voices arising from an unknown source:

In blog 124, I described a yogi, whose son disappeared while climbing from a rope, but the boy’s voice could be heard. Dozens of people watched this event:

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”

 

Forces of evil can also display this power. Voices would come from a haunted house (blog 109):

 

“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”.

 

1.      Jesus appeared to walk on water. His feet may have been in air, inches above the surface of water.  It was a dark windy night. St Teresa of Avila levitated (blog 76). The sadhu in India suspended his daughter in air ( blog 123):

The girl came forwards. She was in a dirty, flimsy dress. Her hair was 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.

2.      Jesus fed five thousand people with small amount of food.  This means that either he created food from air or people felt filled with very small amount of food. Both types of miracles have been performed by mystics. Sri Ramakrishna, the great saint, was in Calcutta with his three companions. They were all hungry. “The Master asked me to buy some sweets from a nearby market…….I bought chanar murki. The Master took the packet of sweets from my hand and joyfully ate them all. The Master knew that three of us were hungry, but without sharing any sweets he had eaten everything. It was amazing though that as soon he showed his satisfaction, our own stomachs felt full. We looked at each other silently. Then the Master smiled …………and later three of us discussed among ourselves what had happened and realized that it was a miracle (1).

Food was created out of thin air by Hazrat, a disembodied entity, controlled by Afzal Khan (blog 127):

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. 

 

Letters from ‘Ninety’ would materialize out of thin air, as narrated by Shahab (blog 66)

Indra Devi transformed sandy soil into sweets (blog 88)

Data Gunj Bakhash wrote (blog 104):

 

To be continued

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(1). ‘Ramakrishna as we saw him’. Edited and translated by Swami Chetananda. Account by Swami Abhedananda, Page 221

164. Prophet Muhammad^pbuh Seen Over The Centuries. Part one

 

 

Here are some visions of Prophet Muhammad^pbuh, over the centuries, all in dreams, narrated by the persons themselves, all except one, in the books written by their own hands. Therefore, the authenticity of the dreams is above board, except, if the writers were lying. The readers have to decide for themselves.

 

1. Readers of my blogs are familiar with Shahab. I have mentioned him in various blogs (9, 64-66). He was a mystic. He wrote his autobiography, ‘Shahabnama’, and the dream is mentioned in the book.

Shahab was a boy of about fourteen when he had this dream. He dreamt that he was in a vast desert. He was running in sand, which was coming to his knees. He could not breathe due to running. When he could not run anymore, he started crawling on his knees. Soon he could not even crawl on his knees. Still he crawled with his trunk. He got very tired and short of breath. There was severe pain in his chest. Suddenly his hands caught a corner of a prayer rug. The rug was spread under a date tree, and on it the Holy Prophet Muhammad^pbuh was sitting. He smiled at him.

At that very moment he woke up. It was the bitterly cold month of February. Despite the cold, his whole body was inundated with perspiration. His throat was dry like a bone and breath was coming in and out like a bellow. There was severe pain in both sides of his chest. The pain in the chest remained for the rest of his life.

He sat in the bed dazed. Then he started weeping. His weeping woke his mother. “Did you have a bad dream, child?”

“Yes, I had a strange dream” he replied.

She took deep breaths to smell the air in the room.

“I have told you so many times not to use fragrant oil in your hair at night, but you don’t listen to me. Off course with fragrant oil one gets bad dreams.”

“I have not used any oil”. And then he quickly told his mother his dream.

Mother also started crying. Both mother and son wept silently, at the profound grace that had fallen on him.

The room was redolent with fragrance.

 

2. The writer of the book, named Ghazi Ahmed, (1) had a dream when he was a fourteen years old Hindu boy, living in a village in rural Pakistan, in 1938. The village had Muslims and Hindu inhabitants. Hindus were only a quarter of the total village population, but owned most of the land and were richer than the Muslims. The school boys used to discuss about the merits of Hinduism and Islam. The author happened to read a book in which Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism was compared. Religious ideas started swirling in his head. His one Muslim friend took him to a pious Muslim scholar. He told the scholar that he had been praying everyday to God and reciting his Hindu rosary. The pious man was very pleased to hear his religious inclinations. He said the God of Hindus and Muslims is the same. “I am not asking you to convert to Islam but I am asking you to pray to God, every night, before going to sleep, the following:  O god! I am an ignorant person, without friend or helper, please show me the right path, etc………….”

He started reciting the prayer every night. Nothing happened for ten to fifteen days. Then one night he had a long and complicated dream. I am only going to narrate the part related to Prophet Muhammad^pbuh.

 

 “………A large moon appeared in the west. It was about fifteen times bigger than the full moon. The light was so powerful that one could see for thousands of miles. We (the author and his friend Sadiq ) started our journey. I felt that we have arrived at Mecca. We reached Kaaba (the holiest site of Islam). Countless sahaba (companions of Prophet Muhammad^pbuh) were sitting in white dress, facing Kaaba. Prophet Muhammad^pbuh was sitting with his back resting on the wall of Kaaba. We recognized him from a distance. I was walking behind Sadiq, because he was a Muslim and I was not, so he had the right to meet the Holy Prophet first. We passed through the sahaba. Sadiq shook hands with the seated Prophet.

When I (Ghazi) extended my hand, the Holy Prophet stood up, and embraced me; this lowly non-Muslim. Every pore of my body got filled with happiness. Holy Prophet sat down with me sitting beside. He asked, ‘Why have you come? ’

‘To become a Muslim’ I replied.

Prophet Muhammad^pbuh took my right hand in his hands and read something. Then he said “now you are a Muslim”

I, Ghazi, was very happy to hear this, because I had been converted to Islam by the Holy Prophet himself.

 

To be continued

 

(1) Mayra Qabool-a-Islam ( My conversion to Islam), by Ghazi Ahmed (this book is in Urdu)

 

 

160. Saint Augustine. Part two; Conversion

 

St Augustine carried on his pursuit for worldly gains and passions till he was 32 years old. He taught the art of public speaking to pupils. He was studying for the law. He was at the top of the school for rhetoric. He was pleased with his superior status and swollen with conceit. He was vain and ambitious and wanted to cut a fine figure in the world. He was eager for fame, wealth and marriage. He consulted imposters, the astrologers (although he refused to consult sorcerers because they sacrificed animals and prayed to spirits). He went to the theatre and watched the spectators enjoy their sadness, by witnessing the tragedy and suffering on the stage (although to his credit, he never liked the gladiatorial shows because of the cruelty).

He described himself: ‘But why do I talk of these things? I lived in misery, like every man whose soul is tethered by the love of things that cannot last and then is agonized to lose them’

 

 He was a slave of lust. He had a mistress and together they had a son. After she left him and went back to Africa, he found another mistress. He describes those days:

 

 “I had prayed to You for chastity and said ‘Give me chastity and continence, but not yet’. For I was afraid that You would answer my prayer at once and cure me too soon for the disease of lust, which I wanted satisfied, not quelled”

 

His dear friend died. He mourned for him. He narrates his grief in eight pages ‘What madness, to love a man as something more than human! What folly to grumble at the lot man has to bear! I lived in a fever, convulsed with tears and sighs that allowed me neither rest nor peace of mind’

 

He wondered about the powers the astronomers possessed; they could foretell eclipses of sun and moon many years before they happened, and whether the eclipse would be total or partial.

 

But he still searched for truth. He read many books, including Aristotle’s ‘Ten Categories’. He talked to many learned men but none could satisfy him. He writes:

 

‘Truth! Truth! How the marrow of my soul within me yearned for it’

 

And finally, he met a man of God; Bishop Ambrose, in Milan (now called St. Ambrose), who was known throughout the world for his goodness. He writes: ‘Unknown to me, it was You who led me to him, so that I might knowingly be led by him to You. This man of God received me like a father…….My heart warmed to him’.

 

Although he could not talk to Ambrose face to face, because the Bishop was always busy, but at least, over a period of time, after listening to the sermons of Ambrose he turned towards Catholic teaching. He writes:

 

‘I was glad too that at last I had been shown how to interpret the Holy Scripture of the law and the prophets in a different light from that which I had previously made them seem absurd’.

 

He narrates a strange incident. It is not clear whether it was day or night, and whether he was asleep or awake.

 

‘I entered the depth of my soul…….I saw the Light……….. What I saw was quite different from any light we know on earth…... It shown above my mind……... It was above me because it was the Light itself that made me, and I was below because I was made by it. All who know that Light, and all who know this Light know eternity’.

‘I heard your voice calling from on high, saying “I am the food of full-grown men. Grow and you shall feed on Me. But you shall not change Me into Your own substance, as you do with the food of your body. Instead you shall be changed into Me’”

 

He now started loving God! But he was amazed that he did not persist in enjoying Him. He began to search the means to gain strength in enjoying God. He found the strength through the mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ.

He derived great joy and comfort in writing of Apostle Paul.

 

This mote has learnt that if one adopts the path of religion to reach God (which unfortunately I could not) then due to certitude the task becomes easier. St Augustine makes this point:

 

‘It is one thing to catch sight of the land of peace……and unable to find the way to it, struggle on through trackless wastes where traitors and runaways, captained by their prince,……lie in wait to attack. It is another thing to follow the high road to that land of peace, the way that is defended by the care of the Commander’.

 

Two mystics (Shahab and the mystic from Bhaun, Pakistan, blogs 65-6,103) have written in their books, that they were never assailed by doubts.

 

Now, the chain of events which led to the most important event of his life; the episode of the garden.

 

To be continued.
mkadk2012@gmail.com

146.  System of the World. Part four 

 

We were discussing that you have to invite God in your life.

 

How do you invite God in your life? By praying to Him. You have to beg God again and again. He may or may not grant your prayer. But if you are earnest in your desire to reach God (and God will look in your heart), this mote is certain, as certain can be, that He will grant you your prayer. He will transform you. Some people are lucky (because they are ready) and get transformed quickly; otherwise, most often it is a gradual process and may take decades (two or three decades in the case of this mote)

God enters your life, often, in an unobtrusive way. Law of cause and effect is not violated, although there are exceptions. For instance, in the case of Shahab, a letter came from Germany, which was a supernatural event, because the spirit of Fatima (daughter of holy prophet) could not have known the prayer of Shahab (blog 65). There are other examples.

 

The principal that is never violated is that the sanctity of the overall experiment is preserved. The rules of the game are not changed. One is not allowed to interfere in God’s system. Let me give you some examples to illustrate this important point.

               Giri Bala did not eat or drink for fifty six years (blogs 79- 80). Therese Neumann did not eat and drink for twelve years (except for a wafer each day). When Sri Yogananda asked Giri Bala that why didn’t she let the public know her secret of living on air, it would eliminate hunger in the world, she was shocked. Her answer was most revealing. She said it would be against God’s plan.

               A seer learnt the seven winning lottery numbers, one day in advance of drawing, by a spiritual technique (blog 135). He was strongly warned by higher powers, never to do it again. God’s laws, such as hiding the future, are for important reasons. To look into future, without God’s permission, is against God’s plans

               Jesus Christ performed miracles left and right. Why didn’t he (or other powerful mystics like Sri Yukteshwar, Data Sahib) disclose the secrets of making electricity, or a fusion nuclear reactor, or disclose the existence of American Continent, etc. Because, that would have interfered with God’s plans. It would violate the sanctity of the experiment.

               I used to wonder in the past (I don’t anymore) that why don’t Data Sahib, the highest saint of Pakistan, help the inhabitants of Lahore in a major way (Blog 62-63). He helps in the form of daily free food for hundreds. Perhaps few dozen are helped, monetarily, each day. In a city of 6-7 million, and in a country of 190 million, these efforts seem to be very insufficient. I used to wonder, why doesn’t he eradicate the basic problem of poverty, and thus help millions. Perhaps he could do that. He could provide the secret of cheap solar energy, or to produce rain on demand, or reveal a cheap way to convert sea water into fresh water. I don’t wonder anymore, because he is not allowed to do so. It would interfere with the basic premise of the experiment, that human beings should progress ( or regress, as in the case of 16 centuries of stagnation in human thought from Greek period to Renaissance ) on their own.

 

Before we proceed any further we must address what is meant by supernatural. Miracles are supernatural events, because they apparently do not obey the existing laws of nature. They may yet obey some other undiscovered laws of nature.

 

 It is clear that there are souls. I have provided ample evidence (107-110). Now how do we explain souls scientifically? We simply cannot. A dead body is no different from an inanimate object like a lump of coal or a cup. Brain disintegrates after death. I suppose if we were to ask this question to Mr Einstein who reportedly did not believe in God, after showing him a soul and convincing him that there is life after death in the form of souls, he might have answered in the following way. “There must be physical laws governing the existence of soul forms, just as there are laws which govern the visible universe. It is just that we have not yet discovered those laws. After those laws are discovered the explanation will be very simple. Think, how our ability to predict solar eclipse to a second, might appear to a man living thousands of years before Christ. Or what would he think of a man walking on the street talking in a few inches long cellular telephone to another person who may be thousands of miles away, and only the recipient, out of 7 billion inhabitants of earth, can hear him. Think of a bird pecking at his own reflection in a mirror, a reflection that looks and moves like real.  Soul may be like a reflection in a mirror, both real and unreal, but obeying the laws of nature.”

 

To be continued

 

 

122. Magicians

Brunton met his first real magician in India. 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 had remained in his fist too.

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 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.

 

105. God part Nine

 

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

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

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

               How did ‘Ninety’ know what Shahab was thinking!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

               “I have,” I said, startled, “it is a hernia”

“I know. Now tell me: didn’t Sri Aurobindo tell you to undergo an operation before you enter the path of yoga?”

               I was dumbfounded, for Sri Aurobindo had written to me identical words.

 

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

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

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

               14. St Teresa of Avila writes about her levitation. (See blog76. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2) “Once when we were together in choir and I was on my knees and about to communicate, my body was raised from the ground. It caused me the greatest distress. It seemed to me the most extraordinary thing, and I thought there would be a great deal of talk about it, so I ordered the nuns not to speak of it.”

               15 and 16. (Blog 78. I am repeating it for people who have not read Part 2)) St Teresa was earnestly begging Jesus to restore vision to a totally blind man. The Lord appeared and talked to her. Then He said that He would always grant her anything she asked, because she won’t ask Him anything which did not tend to His glory. The vision was restored within a week.

A man was gravely ill. His sufferings, for two months, were intolerable, and he was in such torture that he would lacerate his own body. She was moved to such pity for him that she begged earnestly to Jesus to cure him. On the very next day he was free from that pain

 

To be continued