Miracles,
Wonders and Prayers
Miracles are one
aspect of religion – and there are so many of them in every religion – which
the rational mind rebels against. In fact, more often than not,
any discussion of Science and Spirituality is likely to end up into a debate on
miracles. If you probe carefully into someone who is disinclined towards
spirituality and if you scratch below the surface you will find that the real
reason is disbelief of what is usually called a miracle and a
consequent distaste for anything that is termed supernatural. The concept of avatAra (divine descent or manifestation) – so special
to Hinduism – is another part of the miracle story which drives away the
skeptic. That God can descend to the earthly level of
manifestation, live amongst us like one of us, eat and drink like all of us,
beats the imagination of a ‘scientific’ mind. But this is where one may see the
other side of
The most
well-known divine descents in Hindu tradition are those of Rama and
The natural questions that
usually arise in the mind of a modern rational human being are many.
Some of them could be the following:
If all these are avatAras of Divinity why have all the problems
of the suffering world not been solved?
Why are people still suffering? If God has come down on earth why is He allowing
suffering to continue? Why do we fight right before his eyes? Having manifested on earth, why does’nt He
solve our problems?
These
questions certainly rise, at one time or another, in all thinking minds who are
eager to understand Divinity and its purpose.
But we forget we think of these questions only in relevance to an avatAraa. Why is it the same questions
are not asked in respect of that all-knowing omnipresent Divinity irrespective
of whether He comes down on earth as a manifestation or not? Even when Divinity
is in its own heaven, surely it is aware of all the sufferings man is subject
to. So why does it not remove our sufferings by a stroke of its magic power?
Thus posed the question looks childish. It now looks like the questions
frequently asked by non-believers to throw doubts on the existence of God namely,
If God exists but cannot
remove our suffering then he is not God;
If God exists and would
not remove our suffering then he is not kind;
If Godexists and should
not remove our suffering then he is not the boss;
If God exists and
suffering also has to exist then he is not the only Truth.
These are only
rhetorical statements
which do not take into account the fact that a God, if He is really God, should not be
judged from our human norms of right and
wrong, justice and injustice -- for the very simple reason that no human has
either the database or the holistic view that the divinity must surely have of
the universe and its contents. Even in our day-to-day activities we come across
incidents which bear testimony to the presence of this holistic objective in
the Powers that are beyond us.
So then, what
is the purpose of a descent of Divinity on earth? It is only to establish faith in the
existence of a higher Reality and the truth of spiritual laws, so that man may
have the strength to turn towards righteousness and steadfastly work for
salvation of himself and his contemporaries. If the Supreme Reality in the form
of either the Omnipresent Divinity or an avatAra solved all our problems of poverty and
disease, would that be the end of our problems? No. The cure of our bodily
illnesses or of our poverty would still leave us spiritually as we were, at the
same level of consciousness and spiritual evolution as before, so that very
soon we would be at one another’s throats. The same chaotic world will
continue. A God can perhaps convert the entire ocean water, or
at least a large part of it, into oil, so that the fuel problems of the world
can be solved immediately, but even God cannot give a guarantee that no crazy
man would throw a lighted cigarette in that sea of oil, because man has the
free will to do so. If God had really a purpose in descending on earth,
it would be only to clear the way for our spiritual growth! People who have
been around the God-men of the 20th century, who are known
to perform ‘miracles’ are of the opinion that they are
personally experiencing the even more unbelievable miracle of transformation
that is taking place within themselves - and they are seeing and feeling and
hearing of the countless, deep personal transformations occurring within the
throngs of people at the ashram and around the world. Many come to observe the miracles and stay on
to experience the great personal growth that accrues to those who come. The
miracles force an expansion of consciousness: it is like opening the gates in
our scientific stalls and being invited to gallop out beyond our limits. We are
reminded that we need to shift our beliefs, that there is more to this life
than we think we know.
From Reawakening the Spirit In Work, by Jack Hawley, p.195
One may wonder
why we are not asking the question: If God exists and did create the universe what was
His purpose in such a creation? In fact this is an
important question which occupies the mind of every scientist who investigates
into the frontiers of science leading him into questions of spirituality and
God. The MuNDaka-Upanishad answers this question by citing three
analogies for the relationship between the universe and the Godhead, brahman, which is the origin of the universe
according to the Upanishads. The three analogies are contained in the verse: MuNDaka-Upanishad, I - 1 - 7:
Just as the spider emits its own saliva
to build its web and withdraw it;
just as plants grow on earth naturally without any effort ;
just as hairs grow on a man spontaneously,
so also the universe emanates from the Imperishable brahman.
The
first analogy raises the doubt that the Ultimate may have a purpose, like the
spider. No, says the second analogy. But the latter raises another objection
questioning whether brahman, the Ultimate, is unconscious or inert
like the Earth. To answer this, look at the third analogy. Hair grows on a man
without effort or strain, so does the universe sprout from brahman, just as an extraneous
projection of His Sakti or prakRti.
The most complete incarnation of God in Hinduism is supposed to be the descent of
A philosopher
or an intellectual may rise by successive steps of reasoning to the level of
understanding an unchanging Atman which is omnipresent, omnipotent and
omniscient. A true devotee also is ready to grant that there is a Supreme Power
who controls everything. But the vast majority of people are
neither philosophers nor intellectuals nor are they convinced devotees of the
Lord. They believe in God only when that God expresses Himself through
miracle-healing or through inexplicable phenomena. It is a moot point whether
Jesus or
The
value of prayer can never be overstated. The so-called fate cannot No one can reveal God to
another. But by revealing the value of prayer and inculcating the habit of prayer
we place ourselves in a position to receive God-experience, in due time.
Spiritual experience can come only through the correct understanding of prayer.
Prayer is the point of contact with God. Silent prayer is
the preparation of consciousness for the experience of Divinity within. We
should tune ourselves from
childhood well enough so that at adult age we are ready to
receive the inevitable message that unhappiness and suffering are necessary for
the unfolding of the soul within and to stand that unhappiness and
suffering, prayer is the nutrition needed. From the age of 5, the practice of
silent prayer should become a daily routine for a child
irrespective of the denomination or religion to which the child belongs or does
not belong. The habit of prayer must be made a second nature. This should not
be left for the child to learn by itself after it
reaches adult age -- as is the experience of many a materialist adult who has
learnt things the hard way and then, turned to the ways of the Orient in the
past few decades. This is where it is not possible to accept the plea of the
rationalist that, to pray or not to pray should be left to the individual for a
decision on his own, when he becomes an adult. The plea assumes that each man, without
standing on the shoulders of the men of earlier times, begins all over again to
learn all that the earlier civilization has already discovered and recorded for
us to take the torch from there. That is
not the way Man has ascended to the present state of knowledge.
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