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

187. Jesus Christ in the eyes of a non-Christian. Part three

 

We were discussing the miracles performed by Jesus Christ                                                                                                                                                                      

1. One of the most spectacular events was his transfiguration. His appearance changed and his clothes became dazzling white. He talked with mighty prophets like Moses and Elijah, and a voice was heard from the cloud. All this happened in front of three witnesses, Peter, James and John. Here is the account:                                                                                                        “After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. ³ His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. ⁴ And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus” (9:2-4).                            Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

This event is described in all three synoptic Gospels and in a letter by Peter:                                ¹⁷ He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”^{[a] 18} We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.(2. Peter: 17-18 )

When a modern reader like yourself, reads all that which I have written above, if he or she is not an unquestioning devout Christian, one of following reactions arise in him/her:

1. It is not true. Such things don’t happen. Bible should not be taken literally. Why don’t these miracles happen now? Not one miracle has been recorded in recent times.
2. There may be some truth in these tales; rest is all exaggeration, carried out by an army of authors, over two thousand years.

You don’t want to appear gullible and superstitious, so you deny the miracles. In a discussion with your scientific-minded friends, you are apologetic about miracles recorded in Bible..     

There is no need to be apologetic. It is they who are close-minded.            They fail to appreciate that Divine power can cause miracles by using as yet undiscovered laws of nature. The known laws are not suspended but other undiscovered laws are brought into action which make it appear supernatural.

But what about the argument that why don’t miracles happen now?

The answer is that miracles happen now also. The same Source from which prophets derived their power still exists. Men of God (mystics) appear in all times and go to the same Source where prophets had gone and got powers, though not in the same order of magnitude as prophets possessed. We see glimpses of such powers. Here are some examples:

Jesus cured sicknesses. My brother suffered from incurable sickness. He went to the Great Mystic of Khyber Pass, who sealed his disease (see blog 104 ).

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 dervish. The dervish 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

St Augustine narrated the miracle of restoration of vision of a blind man (blog 163). Let me repeat it for the sake of continuity:

1. “While the bodies were being carried, on the way, several people who were tormented by evil spirits were cured. There was also a man who had been blind for many years, a well known figure in the city. He asked why the crowd was running wild with joy, and when they told him the reason, he leaped to his feet and begged his guide to lead him where the bodies lay. When he reached the place, he asked to be allowed to touch the bier with his handkerchief.  No sooner had he done this and put the handkerchief to his eyes, his eyesight was restored. The news spread”.
   St. Augustine was there in the city of Milan. He would not have recounted it unless it was authentic. He may even have witnessed it. Augustine was a highly rational man, as is clear from his struggle to understand time, astrology, and how prophets could see future. He was not likely to suffer from what Hume called ‘superstitious delusion’.
   St Teresa of Avilla narrates in her book, how she prayed for vision (blog 78). Here is the account from my blog:
                  “Once she 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.”

To be continued

 

174. Jesus Christ seen/heard over centuries. Part six

 

We were discussing the account narrated by Swami Yogananda of Therese Neumann

 

“I halted just inside the threshold, at a strange and most frightful spectacle. Blood flowed thinly and continuously in an inch-wide stream from Therese’s lower eyelids. Her gaze was focused upwards at the spiritual eye within the central forehead. The cloth wrapped around her head was drenched with blood from the stigmata wounds of the Crown of Thorns. The white garment was redly splotched over her heart from the wound in her side at the spot where Christ’s body, long ages ago, had suffered from the final indignity of the soldier’s spear thrust.

Therese’s hands were spread in gesture maternal, pleading: her face wore an expression both tortured and divine. She appeared thinner and was subtly changed in many inner and outer ways. Murmuring words in a foreign tongue, she spoke with slightly quivering lips to persons who were visible to her superconscious sight.

As I was in attunement with her, I began to see the scenes of her vision. She was watching Jesus as he carried the timbers of his cross amid jeering multitudes*. Suddenly she lifted her head in consternation: the Lord had fallen under the cruel weight. The vision disappeared. In the exhaustion of fervid pity, Therese sank heavily against her pillow…..again I fixed my eyes to Therese’s face, deathly pale under the rivulets of blood, but now calm, radiating purity and holiness.”

This scene is most important, because in other scenes/locutions by other persons there is only one witness of the event; the subject experiencing it. But here there were two people watching it, Swami Yogananda and Therese Neumann. These two persons lived thousands of miles away and had met only during Yogananda visit to Germany.

7. Swami Yogananda had a vision of Jesus (1). He narrates: ‘One night while I was engaged in silent prayer, my sitting room became filled with an opal blue light. I beheld the radiant form of the blessed Lord Jesus. A young man he seemed, of about twenty five, with a sparse beard and mustache; his long black hair, parted in the middle, was haloed by a shimmering gold.

His eyes were eternally wondrous; as I gazed, they were infinitely changing. I intuitively understood the wisdom conveyed. In his glorious gaze I felt the power that upholds the myriad worlds. A Holy Grail appeared at his mouth; it came down to my lips and then returned to Jesus. After a few moments he uttered beautiful words, so personal in their nature, that I keep them in my heart.’ 

8. Indra Devi (blogs 87-88) had in a dream a beautiful vision of Christ (2). She had found herself in a city, walking on a cobbled street. There were high building walls on both sides. From a side alley the sound of something heavy being dragged could be heard drawing nearer and nearer; and then the whole atmosphere changed­^___the air became surcharged with something that cannot be described.

               A few men with heavy clumsy clothes and rope sandals came in front and then there was someone bent double, dragging on his back a roughly hewn tree shaped something like a cross. It was too heavy for him and he was bare bodied except for a sort of Indian lungi^# She pushed her way through the crowd, and drawing near the person drawing the Cross, cried out “Oh Lord, why do you allow them to this to you?” She went down on her knees and wept. He who seemed so frail and weary looked up at her and she saw that his eyes were not sad. They were like two pools of deep water, full of compassion. For he understood why men do not understand. He forgave those very unfortunate beings who hated him, and offered them Divine Love…….The eyes smiled though the lips were parched. Indra was overwhelmed by the experience….peace coursed from her head right down through her body

9. Swami Ramdas in his book (3) describes his vision of Jesus Christ. He was living in a cave on water diet. On the fifth day, the cave was suddenly lit up by a strange light. Ramdas saw seated before him, on the floor about three or four feet from him, the figure of a man. His face was dazzling with a heavenly splendor. The features were fine, regular and beautiful. There was a short, black, glossy beard and mustache on the face. The lips were crimson red, revealing milk white, lustrous teeth. Soft white black curls flowed down his shoulders.

 

To be continued

 

*Her entrancement usually started with scenes of the events following the Last Supper and ended with Jesus’ death on the Cross; or occasionally with his entombment.

(1) Autobiography of a yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

(2) Pilgrim of the stars by Dilip Kumar Roy and Indra Devi

(3) In the vision of God, vol 2, by Swami Ramdas

^#   A wraparound cloth that reaches from the waist to the ankles

 

 

139. Fate versus free will. Part Six

 

What are the arguments against free will, or hypothesis two?

 Actually there is only one argument against it, and that is if the future does not yet exist (because it has yet to be made), then how come some men of God are able to tell it, sometimes in precise detail? In blog 135, I narrated how a man of God who foresaw the seven lottery numbers, one day in advance of their live drawing on TV. It is as if future existed somewhere.

 

Thus we arrive at a paradox:

 

1. Some persons can see future, therefore it exists somewhere

 

2. Future does not and cannot exist, because it has not been made yet.

These are two mutually contradictory, immovable statements. Only one of them can be right, or is there some way in which both are right?

Let us first examine the actual evidence of prophecies. I have chronicled 13 such events (excluding the one in blog 135) in blogs 102-3. A summary of them is in blog 114. Since many persons do not have access to computer, I will restate the summary here:

 

               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.

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

                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.

 

What are the possible explanations of prophecies?

 

1.  All these anecdotes of prophecies are false. They never happened.

2. The anecdotes are true, but the predicted events were made to occur, when their time came, by some powerful living persons or spirits.

3. The causes or signs of future start appearing in the present, from them the future can be predicted.

4. The people who predicted, had the ability to travel in the future

5.  There is a parallel world, which is a copy of our world, like the image in a mirror (or we are the image). It is ahead of us in time. Whatever will happen in future over here has already happened in the other world. Therefore access to that world enables us to know our future.

 

Now, let us examine these speculations in greater detail.

 

1.   All these anecdotes of prophecies are false. These episodes have been carefully selected by this mote. I heard the story of my grandfather and uncle, from the lips of my mother (blog 102). Mr Dickenson told the story of silver cup many times, and Sri Yogananda, being a man of God, would not have chronicled it in his autobiography, were it false. The source of other anecdotes (3-8, in blog 102) is also written by Sri Yogananda in his book. I, myself, talked to the teacher who put garland of flowers, around the president’s neck. He verified it. I, myself, talked to the seer who foresaw the seven lottery numbers. The other episodes are also taken from the books of men of God, like Paul Brunton, Brother Lawrence, and Dilip Kumar Roy. So all these episodes are authentic.

There is a valid criticism, that all of these episodes are hearsay or could have been fabricated by the authors, themselves. I have not mentioned a single episode, watched by me, or experienced by me. I have no answer to this argument. Maybe God will one day grant me such an episode. But it still will not answer the criticism, because how will the readers know that I am not making it up.

 

To be continued

 

131. 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

 

 

124. Three Yogic Feats

Indra Devi ( blog 87-8, also see the list of books ) witnessed three amazing yogic feats. 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, all 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.

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.

 

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 Kasha did die, as predicted.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

The End.     

www.afnta-questforallah.blogspot.com

Collection of chants at: mkadk.afnta

 “On a dark night…………without light or guide, save that which burned    in my heart”

                                                                          St. John of the Cross 

Email address; mkadk2012@gmail.com