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

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). One of his disciples, a teacher, happened to visit Mr. Qudsi. The teacher had a dream that night, that he was putting a garland of flowers around the president’s neck, and the president giving him a check. The dream came months in advance of the announcement of the book and a prize for the winner. The teacher writes in his book about Mr. Qudsi, that when he woke up he thought, that he, a hundred and fifty rupees per month, middle school teacher, putting flowers on the neck of the president!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

               13. In blog 91, I have narrated the incident of Paul Brunton meeting Chandi Das. Chandi Das , reluctantly, narrated some incidents of Brunton’s future. Some of them came true, by the time book was published. We don’t know about the rest, since Brunton did not mention them in his subsequent books
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(1) Qalandar-a-Zaman Shahzada Assad-ul-Rehman Qudsi by Doctor Mehmoud-ul-Rehman

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