140. Fate versus Free Will. Part Seven.

 

 We were discussing the possible explanations of prophecies 

2. The predicted events were made to occur, when their time came, by some powerful living persons or spirits. Take the example of Mr Dickenson being told that one day his guru will give him a silver cup. Swami Vivekananda may not have seen the future; words may have been wrung out of his mouth by some unseen power, just as it happened to Sri Yogananda (blog 103):

 

“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. 

When Yogananda was walking in a street of Calcutta, an unseen power may have influenced his mind and made him buy a silver cup for Dickenson. Higher powers, when necessary, do influence our minds.

For instance, take the two incidents quoted in section 6 and 7 of blog 112, as Mufti Sahib’s prayers. In one instance some higher power influenced the mind of the wife of the landlord, and in the other case the mind of the person who gave Mufti Sahib money for the bus fare.

 

This argument can be invoked in some cases, but not all.  For instance, a fakir told my grandfather that he and one of his sons will be buried in one grave. To have it happen, a colossal event such as Partition of India had to take place, in which millions of people died or suffered. It could not have been done just to make the fakir right. Similarly Yogananda sister could not have attired herself in her bridal dress and later during the day kill herself to prove herself right.

 

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

This argument was first made by St Augustine sixteen hundred years ago (1). For instance the sunrise from day-break. I quote:

 

‘I behold the day-break, I foreshow, that the sun, is about to rise. What I behold, is present; what I foresignify, to come; not the sun, which already is; but the sun-rising, which is not yet. And

Yet did I not in my mind imagine the sun-rising itself (as now while I speak of it), I could not foretell it. But neither is that daybreak which I discern in the sky, the sun-rising, although it goes

before it; ……… . Future things then are not yet: and if they be not yet, they are not: and if

they are not, they cannot be seen; yet foretold they may be from things present, which are already, and are seen.’

 

This argument is not valid in any of the 14 situations cited above, such as for Swami Vivekananda to see the event of the silver cup 43 years in advance

 

4. The people who prophesied had the ability to travel in the future. Travel in the future is the fodder of science fiction. Even famous physicists claim that theoretically it is possible (2). If some men of God have this ability they could go in the future for few minutes, like Chandi Das did in front of Paul Brunton, and then come back to the present, and report their findings (blog 91)

 

Let us examine what the scientists have to say:

 

‘If you want to advance through the years a little faster than the next person, you'll need to exploit space-time. Global positioning satellites pull this off every day, accruing an extra third-of-a-billionth of a second daily. Time passes faster in orbit, because satellites are farther away from the mass of the Earth. Down here on the surface, the planet's mass drags on time and slows it down in small measures. In the  super massive black hole Sagittarius A at the center of our galaxy, the mass of 4 million suns exists as a single, infinitely dense point, known as a singularity [source: NASA]. It must slow the time a lot over there.

 

We call this effect gravitational time dilation. (3) ’

 

If you were travelling on a space ship at 99.999% of the speed of light, one year on that space ship would have equaled 223 years on earth. When you came back after a year, all the people you knew before your journey would have died. One would have travelled 223 years in future.

 

The trouble about all these speculations is they do not help us one bit. Take the example of a traveler starting on his space trip in year 2014, at close to the speed of light. Let us say he has the magical ability to watch the events on earth. After a month he wants to notify all the events to somebody on the earth. Let us further suppose that he can send the message at the speed of light. The message will take another month to arrive on earth. Two months have passed since he started his journey. These two months are approximately equal to 37 years of earth time. Time travelled 223 times faster on the earth than on the space ship. It is 2051 on earth. The message cannot tell the earth inhabitants anything that they already don’t know. They have lived through it. It is their past. What the men of God supposedly do is to watch the future, which yet do not exist.

 

To be continued.

 

 

1). Confessions by St. Augustine, chapter X1                                                                                            

(2).: How to build a time machine by STEPHEN HAWKING
(3) How Time Travel Works by Kevin Bonsor and Robert Lamb

 

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

 

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

 

 

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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