But if people have faith in themselves, with this faith they can transcend astrology. That is why we say that faith changes things by an unchanging will. If we have an unchanging will, fate can be changed. True, all our past deeds are recorded in the stars. But if we want to obliterate fate, it is like obliterating something on a tape recorder. I say something and it is recorded, but if I want to erase it, I can.
Astrology is one hundred per cent correct when one is totally in the physical world and is living an ordinary human life. When one enters into the inner life, the spiritual life, it is sixty or seventy per cent correct. If the aspirant is in touch consciously or unconsciously with his inner being, and if his inner being is constantly in touch with the Source, there will be many, many bad things that he can avoid. Finally, when one is consciously in communion with God, astrology does not function at all for that person, because everything in his life comes directly from God. True oneness with God is far beyond astrology. With our intense aspiration if we say, “God, I don’t want this,” and if we are one with God, then God will say, “All right, then don’t take it.” Of course this does not apply to beginners in the spiritual life. Only those who have an immediate inner communication with the Highest Being can go completely beyond the influence of the stars. But one does not remain a beginner always. In the course of time one becomes more and more advanced in the spiritual life, and more and more immune to the forces of one’s past.
Now even if one is not a seeker, an astrological prediction may still be transcended. On a deeper level there is always a higher force called God’s Grace. God’s Grace can change anybody’s fate. This Grace is almighty; it changes the occult possibilities and transcends the laws of astrology, which are God’s cosmic Laws. Sometimes an astrologer’s prediction is actually true, but it does not happen because of the divine Grace. That is why astrology is only thirty-five or forty per cent correct when it deals with the future. When we know that there is something infinitely superior to astrological law, we should have faith in this. So my request to my disciples is not to have faith in horoscopes and palmistry. Have all faith in your aspiration. If you have total faith in your aspiration and in God’s Grace, then your salvation will come. You need not worry about your future.
In India there are quite a few systems of casting horoscopes. The Bhrigu system is most significant. It was introduced thousands of years ago and now there are volumes upon volumes written about it, with everything recorded. You just give your chart to the brahmin, the astrologer who is dealing with this system, and he will turn the pages in front of you and tell you everything about your life. Very often it is true. Your life history has been written there. If the proper chart has been drawn, then he does not even have to cast a horoscope. It is already written there.
My eldest brother, who is an astrologer, went to an astrologer who was conversant with this system and who had all the old, sacred books where everything is written. When he showed my chart to this astrologer, the astrologer said that after the age of twelve, my horoscope would not function anymore. He was absolutely correct, because at the age of thirteen I realised God and became immune to all the astrological laws.
One more incident I wish to tell you about the Bhrigu system. My maternal uncle went to an astrologer to have his horoscope cast according to this system. He and his wife did not have any children. In the horoscope it was mentioned that this couple would never have children because my uncle, who had been a hunter in his previous incarnation, had killed a deer which was pregnant. While the deer was breathing her last, her soul prayed to God, “O God, he has killed my baby inside me. Please do not give him any child in his next incarnation.” God listened to the deer’s prayer and in this incarnation my maternal uncle had no children. After my realisation I concentrated to see whether or not this story about my maternal uncle in his past incarnation was true, and I found that it was absolutely true.
Now this does not mean that everything astrologers say is true. Far from it. Last March a disciple of mine came to me crying that somebody had predicted her father would die that month. I said, “Well, if your father is meant to die, he will die according to the astrologer’s prophecy.” Then I concentrated and told her, “Don’t worry. I am doing nothing. I am not bringing down God’s Grace. I am not even praying to God for your father, but the prediction is wrong.” Believe me, I did not pray to the Supreme in order to nullify the astrologer’s prophecy, but her father is still sound and healthy. Another disciple’s mother was supposed to die, according to astrologers, on the seventeenth or eighteenth of December. That disciple of mine cried bitterly. But I told him that this prediction was also wrong. His mother is still alive.
In India we know of many cases where astrology has failed, especially in situations involving a spiritual ashram. The astrologers may say that when a child is fourteen or fifteen his parents will die. But if, before the child reaches that age, his parents accept the spiritual life, they may live many years longer. Many Gurus have changed their disciples’ fate. There are many stories about this in India. For example, an astrologer once said that someone was going to die on a certain day and at a particular time. But a spiritual figure told the man to come to him. The person came and the teacher placed him on the ground and covered him with mud, then sat there meditating. When the designated hour had passed, the Guru removed the mud covering his new disciple and said, “Now go to the astrologer and show him that you still exist on earth.” There are many, many authentic cases like this one.
There are crises in our lives. Sometimes when we are young our lives are in danger. But if there is God’s Grace or if somebody such as our parents or relatives is consciously or unconsciously praying for us, then we can avoid the danger.
In horoscopes we see that many times death is written for a person. Astrologers mention that there will be danger and the person will die. But many of these people are still alive. Furthermore, we have lines in our palms that show how many years we shall live on earth. In some cases, anybody who knows palmistry will say that a person’s life-line is only for, say, thirty-two or thirty-three years, but this person may be seventy-two or seventy-five years old now. Even among my disciples there are two or three women whose life-lines are completely broken. If a palmist reads their palms he would see just the two halves and be astonished that they are still on earth. How does it happen? Some higher power has been responsible. There is nothing that cannot be changed by the infinite Grace of the Supreme.Very often people make amazing predictions, positive predictions such as ‘you will be favoured,’ ‘you will become a great person,’ ‘you will become something wonderful and the whole world will acclaim you.’ When this kind of prediction is made we often see the malicious interference of the hostile forces. The person who has made the prediction has seen the truth, but his vision is not the vision of the Omnipotent; it is the vision of someone who has the capacity to see the truth, but not of the One who can create the truth, who can manifest the truth. When an ordinary person has the capacity to make predictions, he feels that he has created the truth; but that is not true. Only God has created the truth and only God has the power to nullify the truth or transform the truth. I personally do not like to predict anything, because very often we break the cosmic Law in predicting the future. We do not allow this future to be expressed the way it was intended by God.
A disciple once went to his Master and said that an astrologer had predicted he would die that very day. The Master concentrated on the disciple and said, “Yes, it is destined, but I will bring down the Grace of the Almighty and I will be able to save you.”
The disciple went back to the astrologer and told him, “My Master says your prediction won’t come true.”
The astrologer said, “I have made predictions hundreds of times and all my predictions have come true. If my prediction does not come true in your case, I will become your Master’s disciple; and if my prediction comes true, then your Master will have to come and learn astrology from me.”
The disciple told his Master what the astrologer had said, and the Master agreed to the bargain.
The day passed and nothing happened. So the astrologer went to the Master to become his disciple, and the Master explained to him: “Your prediction was absolutely true. Although there are people who make wrong predictions, your prediction was true. But I brought down the Grace of the Supreme for my disciple to counter his fate.”If you consciously and deliberately enter into the vital plane, the first thing that happens is that you are caught by the vital beings. These beings will very often gladly give you some of their occult power to use. For some time they will allow you to make use of their own occult power and then they will try to control you. These beings have countless silly desires, which they try to fulfil through the seeker whom they have entrusted with their occult forces.
If a seeker is true and genuine, and if he enters into the vital planes for spiritual purposes while widening his inner consciousness, there is no danger. This is because the seeker is firm in his aspiration. He wants only the spiritual expansion of his inner and outer nature and does not care for the so-called occult forces. But the seeker who has tampered with the occult world sees that his Goal is a far cry and, at the same time, finds that he has been mercilessly captured by the beings in the vital planes. There he is lost, totally lost. There are many, many seekers who started their spiritual journey with all sincerity, but who were caught on their way by the occult forces, and could not reach their goal.When spiritual power is used, it is all peace, all harmony. If somebody is applying spiritual power to you, you will feel that there is dynamic power, but at the same time there is no aggression in it. It is like seeing the sea when it is calm and quiet. When it is turbulent with waves, you are frightened. But when the sea is in silence, at that time you are not afraid. In both cases, however, the same power is there. When you enter into the consciousness of the sea, you see that it has tremendous, boundless power. Spiritual power is a quiet, infinite expanse, like a calm sea with no aggressive motion in it. But it has solid power, dynamic solid strength.
In occult power, on the other hand, there is a kind of movement which is almost always restless. A child has strength; an adult also has strength. A child’s power is always revealing or manifesting; the child is constantly wanting to express this power. But a grown-up person knows that he has power and can use it at his command, so he does not feel the need to express it constantly. A possessor of occult power rarely has peace, whereas the possessor of spiritual power is inundated with peace. A possessor of occult power makes a tremendous outer show of his occultism; a Yogi with spiritual power tries inwardly to change the face of the world.
Occult power is used in a negative way very often. In occultism you will see that the power is practically like that of a ferocious animal. When unwise people use occult power, it is only for destruction. It can be positive only if it is guided by a spiritual Master. Possessing occult power is like walking on a rope — very dangerous and risky. Having spiritual power is like walking along a solid road, where there is no danger. And if one has both spiritual power and occult power, then, too, there is no difficulty or danger. With spiritual power we will be able to succeed — slowly, steadily and unfalteringly. Infallibly we will be able to do what we set out to do. With occult power, if we use it correctly, we may do what we want to do immediately and directly. If this tremendous speed of occultism feels the necessity of surrendering to the wisdom-light of spiritual power, then occultism is a veritable blessing for humanity. It is a veritable boon from God, for humanity has no patience; it wants to get everything done sooner than at once. But if occultism stands against spiritual power, then it is negating truth itself. And when it negates truth, it is creating destruction in humanity and for humanity.
If one wants to practise occultism in order to awaken the consciousness of humanity, then he first has to conquer fear: physical, vital, mental and psychic fear. If occultism is to be practised to serve the Supreme, the divinity in humanity, one has to conquer the lower vital, which we will call sex. This impure, unlit urge in our human nature must be totally conquered. Then if one can have the realisation that one is living the Eternal Life in the fleeting life, the Infinity, Eternity and Immortality that he has achieved in his own inner being or consciousness can be used to serve humanity in a divine way. At that time, occult power will be a real blessing.
I wish my dedicated disciples who are interested in occult power to bear this in mind: first spirituality and then occultism, first divinity and then humanity. When one knows divinity and can remain in divinity, only then can one serve humanity. Manifestation without realisation is no manifestation at all. It is like a body without life. Once I reach the Goal and become the Goal, then everything is inside me. Nothing can disturb me; nothing can destroy me; nothing can harm me in any way. Everything in God’s creation can be seen, felt and accepted. The realised person is in a position to handle both spiritual power and occult power. After realising the Truth, while manifesting it on earth, one has to take help from all planes, including the occult.
Spirituality is far superior to occultism. The occult region and occult practice are also part of God’s creation. But we do not have to go through the occult regions if what we want is God-realisation. If one wants God and God alone, then I must say that occultism cannot help even an iota in one’s God-realisation. But spirituality is absolutely necessary to realise God.
A real spiritual aspirant does not care for occultism at all. But on his way toward the Highest, occult power sometimes automatically comes to him as a test, to see whether he is going to be impressed by it and show the world his capacity to perform miracles or whether he is going to use it properly and divinely. Sometimes, when an aspirant is on the verge of realisation, the occult powers from various planes of consciousness come and touch his feet. They say, “Master, use us. We will be at your service; we will make no mischief. Only use us for the fulfilment of your realisation.” In the case of quite a few spiritual Masters this has happened. And your Master is one of them.
I have used occult power many, many times, but only when I have been asked to by the Supreme in me. And I use it only to help inwardly. Outwardly I am reluctant to use my occult power because I will be misunderstood. And never will I use it to punish or torture anyone. Occult power is very dynamic, but often people do not take dynamism from it. They take aggression from it instead and use this aggressive power to harm others or to attain their personal desires.
Occult power is not bad in itself. Some people say that when a person gets occult power he will misguide others and ruin himself. In India some spiritual figures do not care for occult power at all. But this power itself is not bad; rather, it is how you use it. If you have fire, you can burn yourself, or you can cook food. If you have a knife, you can use it to stab someone or you can use it to carve a beautiful statue. To some extent it is true that if you don’t have a knife, then of course you cannot do anything bad. But there are many good things which you may not be able to do, either. It is we who must use occult power wisely if and when we get it.
Some spiritual Masters in India advise their students not to deal at all with the occult forces, but to practise the spiritual life first. Then one will attain spiritual power, which can never create problems. This is what they say. By nature spiritual power does not have that aggressive or destructive quality which occult power has, but even spiritual power can be misused, if one does not listen to the dictates of his inner being or to the Supreme.
There are also spiritual aspirants who practise spirituality and occultism together. They say that during the day you should practise spirituality and during the night you should practise occultism. Let spirituality and occultism walk side by side. This path is a bit dangerous. Many have tried, and most of them have failed to combine the two properly. The safest and most effective way is to launch into the spiritual path and widen one’s own consciousness into Infinity and Eternity. At that time you will have full mastery in the occult world.
If a spiritual Master has the capacity to use spiritual power, you may ask whether he is able to use occult power as well, without making any mistakes. The answer is no. When a spiritual Master uses spiritual power, usually he uses it well. But when it comes to occult power, he does not actually misuse it; rather, he simply may not know how to handle it. There is a tremendous conflict between spiritual power and occult power when the Master is not of the highest calibre. If this happens what should he do? He should totally discard his occult power. He should say, “I don’t want it. It is too dangerous. Let me use only spiritual power which is an infinite sea of Light and Bliss. This Light and Bliss is Power enough for me.”
If you practise Kundalini Yoga even a very little — say only fifteen minutes a day — along with your real aspiration and meditation, you will see that your psychic or occult centres are being opened. But if you enter into the inner life just to get occult power so you can show the world your capacity, then real spirituality will never dawn in your life. If you want to open your heart centre and show miracles so people will appreciate and admire you, and if you think that you will get more inspiration from their appreciation and admiration, I must say here that you are making a mistake. In other cases, when you do something and are extolled to the skies, you may get more inspiration to do it better. But in this case it is not like that. If you display some of your occult power and others appreciate you, you can rest assured that this is your downfall. You will not be inspired; on the contrary, instead of going deep within to get the real realisation, you will go on increasing your occult power. Occult power is all temptation.
The more you display occult power, the quicker you will lose it, because you have not been able to become one with the source. The source of occult power is Light — quite limited, but still most pure Light. Therefore I always say that if you are going to deal with Light, then you should deal with spiritual Light. If it is limited, no harm, for it will not cause any danger. You may get a headache if you invoke too much, but it will not destroy you. Even if you bring down spiritual power beyond your capacity, it will not totally destroy you. But if you draw occult power into your system beyond your capacity, you will end up in a mental asylum. It is that dangerous, that destructive.
Our first wish should be to please the Supreme. In order to please Him, we have to give Him all our aspiration, and lay everything at His feet. Once we have pleased Him, it is up to Him whether He will give us spiritual power or occult power, or both. If He wants to give us spiritual power, well and good. If He wants to give us occult power, well and good. If we have surrendered to His Will and He gives us occult power, rest assured that He will also give us the capacity to use it properly for Him.
If you want to please the Supreme in your own way, you will do many insincere things to please Him. You will try to please Him by hook or by crook. You will even go to the length of trying to flatter or bribe Him if your nature is not pure. But if your nature is pure, absolutely pure, snow-white, then you will try to please Him the way He wants to be pleased. If you can do that, if you can please God in His own way, all occult power, all spiritual power will be at your feet, serving you.
What the world needs is to please God. By pleasing Him, it will become ready for illumination. But the world is doomed to disappointment, because it cries for power. If the world wanted God’s Love, then by this time the world would have been saved, illumined, perfected and immortalised.Of course, the psychic being with its psychic power eventually can grow into a most powerful and most fulfilling being. Since the psychic being evolves, the gradual increase of psychic power is not only possible, but also inevitable. The manifestation of psychic power is a subtle, delicate, soft and lucid way of the divine manifestation in fairly advanced seekers.
With psychic power an individual can perform miracles. With this power one acquires the capacity to identify oneself with, and thereby see, the present, past and future of others, as well as one’s own. Although it is a manifestation of divine power, psychic power has tremendous beauty, like the beauty of a flower or the beauty of the moon. This psychic beauty, in itself, is a tangible power.
Roughly speaking, psychic power is the power of a child, although this power can become boundless through its most intimate oneness with the Source. Spiritual power is the power of a grown man, although he may not use it wisely all the time. Occult power is the power of a restless or dynamic youth. Spiritual power is the power of a calm and quiet sea. Occult power is the power of a sudden mighty wave. Spiritual power is usually not as swift as occult power. But occult power very often breaks instead of building. Spiritual power always gives importance to building the Palace of Truth, slowly, steadily, unerringly and convincingly.
Whatever spiritual power does is sound, solid and lasting. Spiritual power has confidence from within and assurance from above. For the total manifestation of divinity on earth, all the psychic powers and all the occult powers must follow the lead of the spiritual power in order to reach the Absolute Supreme.If you are endowed with some psychic faculties, you will only try to use these faculties, and you will become enamoured of them. Very often people who get a little bit of psychic capacity, psychic power, become satisfied, and then they try to apply it to this person and that person, in season and out of season. It is like a child who has some fascinating toys and plays with them all the time. He will neglect his studies and remain a fool. If the child is sincere or earnest and gives value to his studies, then he will stop playing and start studying, because he knows that he has to study to become a man of wisdom.
Another danger with these psychic faculties is that they are very often threatened by the spirits. Those who develop the psychic faculties may not be spiritually or occultly strong. The psychic faculties come from the psychic world. They are very subtle, soft, or you can say, delicate. Very often they are threatened by occult powers which are sometimes very fierce, dynamic, arrogant and destructive. The hungry unsatisfied spirits will try to enter into the psychic faculties of the aspirant and take away all the aspiration that he had before he paused in his spiritual journey to develop his psychic powers. But if one makes true spiritual progress, inner progress, without caring for the psychic capacities, one will undoubtedly have all these faculties at the end of his journey, after he has realised God.
You will never be the loser if you do not pay any attention to this psychic capacity, because it will be developed in you automatically when all your centres are opened during your deep meditation. To achieve this meditation, you have to go to a God-realised spiritual Master who can teach you individually and who can also protect you from the attack of the wrong forces.
Right now, to be frank with you, there are already four forces that are constantly attacking you. Please be very careful about these forces. These four forces are already hovering around you. They are not good; they are undivine forces. On the one hand, your psychic faculties are being opened, or are about to open; on the other hand, there are forces, negative forces, which are trying to destroy you. So please go deep within. Cry inwardly for God’s protection and for God’s illumination, and these four forces will leave you. They are bound to leave you.Who is the possessor of all powers? God. When we become one with the Possessor, all His possessions immediately become ours. But without caring for the Possessor, if we cry for the possession, its attainment will hinder us on our journey to the ultimate Goal. It is really a blessing not to have the psychic powers before major realisation. If we get them too soon, we shall be all the time in the world of showing off, in the world of miracles, in the world of magic, and not in the world of aspiration, dedication and realisation.
Ramakrishna’s greatest disciple, Swami Vivekananda — originally called Naren — was once asked by his Master, “Naren, I have practised austerities for many years; now look at me — I have all these high siddhis. Would you like to have them from me? You have not to meditate because I have done it for you. I will give you all my powers.” Naren’s immediate answer was, “Will they help me in my Self-realisation?” The Master replied, “My dear Naren, no. No, they won’t. For Self-realisation the psychic powers don’t count. But if you want to, you can use them after Self-realisation. And if you have these psychic powers, naturally people will flock to you, and you will be better able to serve God in humanity.” The disciple said, “No, thank you. Let me realise God first. Then I shall think of attaining these psychic powers.” Then Ramakrishna, in front of his other disciples, blessed his dearest disciple most profoundly and said, “I knew it. It is you who can pass my test. Had I asked the same question of anybody else, like a greedy person he would have said, ‘Yes, yes, please give me the powers. It is so kind of you,’ But I knew your heart is absolutely pure. You want God, God alone.”When a seeker consciously or unconsciously concentrates on these psychic centres, he develops psychic power. He may not know the actual name of the centre, but if he concentrates on the correct spot, automatically he acquires some intuitive power. To get the chakras to open and the Kundalini to start functioning, you have to concentrate on each chakra. That is one way to get psychic power — by means of spiritual discipline. Especially in the West, I hear many people saying that he has psychic power or she has psychic power, even though the person may not have even an iota of psychic power. Some people get a little intuitive feeling from the plane of intuition or from the physical mind, where there is subtle intuition, and they claim that they have psychic power. But it is not so easy to have psychic power. One has to work hard in order to attain it.
At the same time, if a Guru or spiritual Master wants to, he can infuse that power into you without your having to meditate or practise Kundalini Yoga. It is a spiritual Master’s privilege to give these powers, but it all depends on God’s Will. If God wants to give you psychic power, during your sleep you will get a kind of mantra which is meant for you. At that time the figure or being appearing in your dream will tell you how many thousands of times you have to repeat that particular mantra. It will not be necessary to concentrate on a particular centre. You just have to repeat that mantra a certain number of times and then you will get psychic power. This even happens in the case of realisation. Most people realise God by practising spirituality throughout their life, but there are some who need not practise the spiritual life at all. In a dream God enters into the person and illumines his consciousness, and anyone with spiritual vision will see that he is liberated and realised.
It is not always necessary to cry consciously for psychic power either. When one becomes a Yogi, his centres often open spontaneously, and psychic power automatically comes. Even if one does not care for psychic power, it usually comes when one is advancing fast, very fast, towards his goal. If occult power comes as a blessing and does not prevent one from manifesting his inner divinity, then there is no harm in it. But if it stands in one’s way as a curse or an obstacle, if it tempts the person and causes him to lose his speed or be diverted from his path, then he has to reject it bravely and concentrate on reaching his goal first.Psychic power is not required, but only devotion and faith. When you have devotion, the Master, or the person whom you are praying to is at your beck and call. Sri Krishna, India’s foremost spiritual Master, said: “It is easy for God to give Power, Light, Bliss and all other divine qualities to a disciple. But if He gives devotion to the disciple, which is also a divine blessing, then He is caught. The moment the disciple gets devotion, the disciple can rest assured that his Master has become his perfect slave. A true devotee is very, very rare in this world. But a man of knowledge and wisdom, a man of light or a man of peace can very often be found.
Lord Krishna had a very intimate disciple named Vidhura, who was very, very poor. It happened that one day Lord Krishna visited Vidhura’s house. Vidhura could not give him rice or a proper meal, so he served Sri Krishna a very simple meal on plantain leaves. Sri Krishna’s heart swam in a sea of ecstasy and delight. What did he do? First he ate the meal, then he ate the whole plantain leaf. Vidhura asked, “Master, what are you doing? You are eating the plantain leaf. This is not food!” Sri Krishna said: “O Vidhura! How can I separate your food from the plantain leaf? How can I separate your devotion from your existence? In your meal I see devotion, in your body I see devotion, in your heart I see devotion, in your plantain I see devotion. Whatever I see with you, around you and in you is all devotion. I can no more separate the meal from the leaf than I can separate your soul from your body.” So this is what happens when one has true devotion for God, for the Supreme. One gets the Supreme by his side all the time.
Now I wish to say something about faith. I am sure that all of you have heard about the Ganges, India’s most sanctified river. It is said that whoever takes a dip in the Ganges will be freed from all sins. Throughout the year you can commit all kinds of sins, and then if you just enter into the river, all these sins will disappear. This is our Indian belief. How stupid we are only God knows. Once Parvati, the consort of Lord Shiva, asked Lord Shiva: “Is it true that if once a man takes a dip in the Ganges all his sins will vanish in the twinkling of an eye? Do people have such faith?” He said to his consort: “Well, the best thing is for me to demonstrate it. Look, both of us will take human form and sit on the bank of the Ganges. I will be a very old man and you will be an old woman. You will be holding a baby in your lap and I will take away the life from the baby. Then immediately you start shedding bitter tears and crying that we have lost our only child. Many will come to console you and you will tell them: ‘If my son is blessed by a person who feels that he has no sin, he will come back to life.’
So they took human form and sat on the banks of the Ganges. Hundreds had come to swim and bathe in the river. Parvati said: “All of you here know that the moment you enter into the Ganges, all your sins will no longer exist. So go and have a dip and then bless my child, and he will come back to life.” Hundreds of persons passed by, but nobody wanted to do it. They were ready to swim, they were ready to take a dip or bathe in the Ganges for hours, but they knew that it would have no effect on the child. They would touch the child, but he would not come back to life. This went on for hours. Finally the bystanders saw a middle-aged man approach the lady who had lost her only child. This man had just come out from a bar. He smelled very unpleasant and, according to Indian standards, was what you would call ‘characterless.’ The man came to her and asked, “Why are you crying?” She said, “I am crying because nobody is coming to bless my child, although everybody here knows that the moment they bathe in the Ganges all their sins will leave and they will be able to bring my child back to life.”
“You are crying for that? I have faith. Let me go.” So he jumped into the Ganges, and in a couple of minutes he came back and touched the child. Immediately the child returned to life. Then Lord Shiva said: “See! Out of thousands only one person had faith in the Ganges!” And with this Lord Shiva, Parvati and the child disappeared.
Whenever we do anything we say that we have faith. but we are only fooling ourselves. This man never cared for the spiritual life or anything, but he knew that the Ganges actually came from the Himalayas. All India’s spiritual Masters have great admiration for the Himalayas, and most of the Indian Vedic Seers meditated in the caves of the Himalayas. This man had boundless faith in the Ganges. Most of us would have gone to the Ganges but would not have dared to touch the child, because nobody wants to be a laughing stock. When it comes to the practical life, most of us will fail. And almost all of us who might have come and touched the child would have seen that we were not successful, because we lacked true faith in the Ganges. But that particular man did have faith in the Ganges. If we have true faith in God, we need not meditate twenty-four hours a day; just a few minutes will serve the purpose. If we have that soulful faith in God, then God takes care of us.I know of a woman in Miami who used black magic to make her sister give birth to a stillborn child. The woman did not have the power herself, so she went to a black magician in Haiti who used his power. He created all kinds of problems, just by using occult power from Haiti. The sister suffered from many ailments which the doctors could not cure. She will have to go all the way to Haiti to beg this stupid black magician to help her out of the difficulties created for her by her own sister.
In Manhattan we had two or three cases of this kind of black magic. A disciple’s sister went to Haiti. Afterwards, her husband could not walk, dishes full of food dropped while he was holding them and many other things happened — all from occult power. The husband came to the Indian Consulate to meditate with me. He even came once or twice to see me at my house. He was cured, and then he left.
In the occult world, ordinary occultists fight like cats and dogs. Worse, in fact, for at least cats and dogs get tired. Ordinary occultists meditate, get a little power, and then, instead of following the right, spiritual path, they use their power to try to steal the power of other occultists.
A black magician can never harm a spiritual person who is realised or has spiritual power. A realised spiritual person, however, has the power to threaten the occultists and the black magicians, but he usually will not do it. When a spiritual person uses occultism, he uses it in a divine way. If there is a serious attack and somebody is going to fall from the spiritual path or is going to have a serious accident in his inner or outer life, I shall immediately use occult power if the Divine at that time wants me to be the instrument to help that particular person. This is pure occult power.
In India, black magicians have tried many times to punish spiritual Masters or destroy their spiritual power. The result was that they had to surrender all their black magic powers to the spiritual Masters. Many times occultists have tried to steal the powers of spiritual Masters who were sleeping. The Masters rest for only two or three hours, sometimes not even taking any sleep. When they lose consciousness, they do not keep any connection with the physical. At that time, an occultist can enter into the spiritual Master and try to take away his spiritual power. But these occultists are fools because spiritual Masters are always guided and protected by the Omniscient and the Omnipotent. The occultists will lose and have to surrender all their occult powers to the spiritual Masters. Then the occultists cry and cry. Some of these former occultists are now disciples of the spiritual Masters who have taken away their powers. Some black magicians who came to torture spiritual Masters lost their undivine, evil tendencies and became white magicians. They went to a person who was all compassion; and they were saved.
At the end of 1963, a very well-known Indian Muslim occultist from Hyderabad came to Pondicherry. He was an occultist, an astrologer and a black magician combined. A very close friend, an admirer of mine, said, “How I wish you would come and see this occultist.” I said, “I do not care to see an occultist. If it is an occultist, I don’t want to go.” But my friend was adamant in his request, so I went to see the occultist at his hotel. When I went to his room, I just stood at the door while the occultist was sitting in a chair. What he saw in my eyes God knows. But he was so shocked that he sank onto the table and could not open his eyes for five minutes. He could not look at my eyes. He was crying and crying as if somebody had just saved his life. Then he rose and came to me with folded hands and said: “At this hour of my life, you have come. God gave me occult powers but I used them only on women and on wine. I used them so that people would appreciate and admire me and touch my feet. But I see in you a real flood of spiritual powers.”
Then what did he do? He said to me, “I am not worthy of touching your feet, but I am touching your feet only to be pardoned, only to be blessed.” He touched my feet and showed his devotion in many other ways.
When a spiritual Master stands before an occultist, the occultist, if he is a sincere man, will simply cry. He will weep because of the way he has misused his power. The spiritual life is flooded with purity and peace, and this peace and purity can easily swallow all the poisons of the occult world.If somebody has become a victim to these forces and you show him an ordinary picture, even if he has faith in that picture, it will not protect him. First of all the person will not have enough faith in that particular picture if it is not my transcendental picture. Second, even if he does have faith in the picture, divinity will not come from there. The protective power of light works in a specific way. In this chair there is a soul, and in my body there is also a soul. But there is a great difference between the soul that I have in my body and the soul that the chair has. It is true that in a carrot there is God, and in a pencil there is God. But how much divinity is there in that carrot or in that pencil? If the victim looks at the transcendental picture and is able to receive from it, the vital being will have to leave. It will be terribly frightened of the light and power that will flow into the victim from the picture.
Forces attack, but protection is always there. The best thing to do is to think of protection first thing in the morning every day, when you pray and meditate.A spirit, as we use the term here, refers to a vital entity which is unsatisfied or dissatisfied when the person dies, and which stays in the vital world for some time. There are many, many disturbing, obstructing, conflicting forces that take the form of spirits.
These spirits try to create disharmony, division and so forth. This is their function.
Spirits sometimes will also help someone gather information in the vital world about what is happening there or what is going to happen tomorrow or the day after. They have this capacity because the vital world is higher than the physical world. If you climb up a tree and look down from the top, you have a wider view and can see everything more clearly. From the vital world it is easier to observe the happenings of the physical world. But from the physical world it is very difficult to enter into the vital world. Occult practice or spiritism is involved here.
Very often spirits say to someone that they will bring their parents or their dearest ones to visit the bereaved person. I wish to say that people who listen to these spirits are committing a great blunder, because the spirits do not actually bring the soul of that particular person, their dearest and nearest. Rather, they bring dissatisfied, hungry entities from the vital world.
There are some spirits that take possession of the existence of the people who deal with them. The outer beings of these people allow the spirits to enter into them, with the result that they become possessed. Sometimes these people predict many things which may or may not happen. Unfortunately, however, this does not bring them into the spiritual life. After a few years the spirits say: “Now give me payment. I gave you name and fame. You did not know anything about the past or future. I showed you, so now you have to give me payment.” What can he give? His name and fame cannot bring joy to the hungry spirits, so the spirits strangle him. Many, many black magicians and people who deal with spirits have been strangled or killed. I know because I have been near quite a few of these cases.
To come back to the term ‘spirit,’ in India we use the term with a capital S. and it means something different from what it means in the West. This Spirit is the masculine form of God which does not enter into the field of creation. It is the unmanifest Beyond, the Self. When we enter into the inner life and make spiritual progress, realising ourselves and liberating ourselves from fear, doubt and limitations, we gain a free access to the Spirit. There we achieve our own identity with the Cosmic Vision and Reality. This conception of Spirit is not used in the West. In the West we use the term ‘spirit’ to refer to spiritism and to beings in the vital world.Once when I was twenty-one years old, six spirits came and attacked me. I was in my bed and I started to fight with them. By God’s Grace those spirits had to leave, but they returned later. It was around three a.m., and there was such a commotion that all the members of the house — there were eleven or twelve of them — came down. Only my brother, who was there in my room in a bed right next to mine, could see that I was fighting with something and talking in another language. He did not know the meaning of what I was saying, but he wrote what he heard when I was arguing and fighting with them. Afterwards he asked me the meaning of it, but I had forgotten everything. Later I concentrated and meditated and told him the meaning of these foreign words.
These spirits were evil spirits. Very often evil spirits try to take away our spiritual power in our unguarded moments. It is not only spiritual power that they take; if you have honesty, simplicity or, especially, purity, they try to take it away. Purity they take first, because they know that if purity is gone from somebody, then that person cannot progress any further. If one wants to have something lasting in one’s spiritual life, then one must have purity first.If you have a servant — a maid, for example — and the maid dies, if she wants to take revenge, she can remain in the vital world for a few months or a few years. From there her spirit may create many problems. But then, everything is limited; she cannot go on torturing you forever.
You have no idea how X suffered when her first husband committed suicide. Two or three hours after the wedding took place, he got the brilliant idea to kill himself. How X suffered from it for five, six, seven years — perhaps even more. Every day she was attacked, threatened, frightened, tortured in so many ways. I was in India at that time and I did not know her, but a friend of mine asked me to help her. I used my power, and after so many years of torturing her, the spirit finally left her alone.
We think that as soon as the soul leaves the body it becomes generous, pure, forgiving; but this is not so. If it were that way, we would always welcome death. We would say to death: “The moment you accept me I will be free from all bondage.” But it is not like that. The standard that we achieve in this life is a stepping stone. In our next incarnation we have to start with our present achievement. If we have cultivated forgiveness, love and sacrifice in this incarnation, then on the strength of our forgiveness, love and sacrifice we will go a step ahead in our next incarnation.
People who try to take revenge on their friends or acquaintances after their soul has left the body are really making great blunders. They are hampering their future incarnation, because they are not leaving the vital world. They are staying in the vital world and entering into the gross physical world to threaten, to frighten or to give some news. If they tried instead to enter into the mental world or the plane of intuition or the higher mind or overmind or the soul’s region, then they would make real progress, but they do not.
When that man whom you referred to in your question took home the skull, he put himself in contact with the vital forces. And he was inviting trouble by doing that. When I was nine or ten, I went to a place where I saw a skull. I saw a few words in Sanskrit written on the skull. Later, while I was going back home, I saw inwardly that in those very few words a long letter was written, and in this letter the deceased person was telling how his wife and children had been cruel and unjust to him. If I had brought the skull home, I would have had the same fate as the man you referred to in your question. Even though I was not involved with the deceased person, just because I showed interest in that particular skull I would have been bothered by him.Unfortunately, very often these stories have nothing to do with reality. Only rarely do mediums bring real inner messages from the soul. You have to know that when a person has left the body only a few days or a few months ago, or a year or two ago, then there is a possibility that the soul is still in the vital world. At that time it is easier for the medium to bring down true messages. But when the soul enters into the mental world, intuitive world, psychic world and the soul’s own proper world, which is infinitely higher than the vital world, at that time the messages that you get from the medium are all untrue.
Another way is to go to a real spiritual Master. If I go to the owner of a shop, a big shop, and ask him to do something, if he is pleased with me he will immediately do me the favour. But if I go to just a messenger boy or am ordinary clerk, I will see that his capacity is very, very limited. In the spiritual world, when one goes to a real Master, one finds that his capacity is unlimited. He is like the owner of the shop. He knows what he has, he knows where it is, and he can give anything he wants to anybody. But a medium is just like a clerk or messenger boy. He has very little power to give you what you want.
When a spiritual Master takes or brings the message, he enters into the soul of the person who is asking him for this favour, because this person’s soul will know where the soul of his relative is right now. His mind does not know, his heart does not know, his vital does not know, his body does not know where the soul of the dear one has gone. But the soul knows. However, spiritual Masters usually do not like to carry this kind of message, because they feel it is all curiosity.
If a person has a sincere cry rather than just curiosity, he does not have to go to anybody if he wants to send a message to a departed friend or relative. His sincere prayer is infinitely more safe and sure than accepting someone else as his messenger. If he offers his message to God with his heart of prayer and his heart of meditation, God can easily carry his message to the person it is meant for. The heart that wants to pray immediately becomes one with God’s Compassion. The heart that wants to meditate immediately becomes one with God’s Light. If we contact God’s Light and God’s Compassion, then without fail our prayer, our meditation will reach the right person.
Now how do we know whether the person has received our message or not? We have to have faith. We go to a medium because we have faith in the medium. We go to a spiritual Master because we have faith in him Why should we not also have faith in our own prayer? If we have no faith in the medium, even if the message is correct, we will not believe it. If we have no faith in the Master, even if he does everything right in front of us, we will say that it is all hallucination. If we have faith in our own prayer, our prayer has the capacity to become a pure child who will run lovingly toward his Father to get something. The moment the Father sees that His child has come running to Him with such love and faith, the Father will immediately give him everything.
If we cannot pray or meditate, if we do not care for a spiritual Master and have very little or no faith in a medium, then there is a practical way to send messages to our departed ones. We should note down about seven incidents in our life that have to do with that person. The incidents should be most soulful and intimate, anything that is still living in our heart. When we have seven incidents which are most intimate, most soulful, we must place them before ourselves one by one. Then we must take each incident and enter into it with our present life and present concern. Each incident is like a tiny dot. When we enter into it with our present life-breath, we see that from a dot it becomes a big round circle. The intensity, the capacity of our life-breath immediately makes it bigger. Then the life-breath of that reality will enter into the universal reality and become one with the universal reality. When we clearly see that this is the universal reality, the face of the person in subtle physical form is bound to appear. If we are ordinary men, we will not be able to touch this subtle physical; if we are spiritual people, the subtle physical will be palpable, solid.
Here we have to be very practical. We have to have confidence in the world which is; right in front of us. When we look into the universal reality and see the person’s face, we will be able to offer our message. But we have to feel that those intimate moments are the only moments that existed between ourselves and our loved one. If any disturbance or any action which displeased us enters into our feeling for this person, then immediately we are ruined. We have to have the feeling that we would be willing to give our life for that person, and that he would also be willing to give his life for us. When we can feel that we each are ready to give our life for the other, at that time we can become consciously one with that person’s life, and we can easily give or receive a message.If you want to know whether it is actually your relative or some other being, what should you do? You should pray to God with all your heart and soul to bring forward all of your purity. Then, when you feel that you have brought all your purity to the fore, you should look at the feet — not the face — of that being. If you are surcharged with purity, then immediately any evil being will disappear. Sometimes they literally burst and make a terrible noise.
If a spiritual Master is not of a very high order, sometimes the hostile forces will take his form. They stand in front of the disciple and say, “Do this! Don’t do this!” The disciple listens and then everything goes wrong. In such cases, when the Master is still on earth, there should always be some means of identification for the disciple.
I know of a case in India where the hostile forces used to take the form of a particular spiritual Master and ask the disciples to commit suicide. “If you commit suicide, I will be able to give you liberation sooner,” it would say. They tried to commit suicide even though the Master told them outwardly that he had never said that. These hostile forces are very clever. They play all kinds of tricks and make all kinds of mischief and destruction, but they have to surrender eventually to the Supreme’s Power.
It is not possible for an ordinary human being to know whether he has contacted the real person or the wrong forces except by his conscience. Conscience comes to the fore and makes him feel immediately that this being is not the correct one. A child does not examine anyone mentally; he does not have the capacity. When two persons stand in front of him, he cannot distinguish which is real and which is not. But his heart or conscience makes him feel that one person is real and the other is unreal.
For an ordinary person, conscience will make him feel whether he has contacted the right person or not. For a spiritual person it will be easier. And for a Master, it takes not a second to tell whether the right being or an undivine being has come.I have disciples in New York who indulge in hypnosis. But I say to them: “What do you want from yourselves? What do you expect from the other person? If you want the other person to be freed from misery, frustration and worry, then show him the light and do not ponder over his past failings or the defects that are preventing him from expanding his free consciousness.”
If one wants peace, if one wants fulfilment, if one wants joy out of life, then spirituality is the immediate answer. Spirituality seems a very vague word. People call something spiritual when it is something which they cannot comprehend with their physical minds. Anything a little abstruse they think is spiritual. But spirituality is not something foreign; it is not something theoretical and unreal. It is something natural and practical, a practical achievement and realisation. Spirituality is something spontaneous, something that unites the inner life with the outer life. Spirituality can solve all human problems, inner and outer, as well as problems that are not yet even born in our life. Spirituality can solve these problems before they manifest themselves; it can enter into them and destroy them.
I feel that hypnosis is of no value. What is of value is aspiration — bringing down into the physical consciousness infinite Peace, Bliss and Power through constant aspiration.These beings are luminous and very beautiful. They can reveal any form they like to the human mind. But while on earth they take human form just to show that it is possible. But if we could go to their own world, we would see that very often they take the form of a flower, a bird or an angel.
There are human beings who can consciously go to another world during their sleep, even though they may not be spiritually aspiring. These people, however, are not totally human. They come from other worlds, but take a human incarnation in order to see our world. One of my disciples in New York is one of these people. When I bless her and look at her face during meditation, I immediately see that she comes from a spirit world, a world of angels. Her soul is very much in tune with that world and she very often goes there. These souls from other worlds, who have taken human form, are often found in Vermont, in Canada and in Southern India.
The language of these beings when they are not in human form is altogether different from ours. We cannot speak to them in their own tongue, but we can speak to them if we know the language of the soul, because these beings also have a soul. They come here out of curiosity to see what earth looks like and what is actually happening here. They come from another planet just to investigate, not to seek help from us or to get any benefit here. In our case we want to evolve and we want to go to God, so we seek illumination. They cannot help us and we cannot help them. We have this material world; it is self-sufficient. Their worlds are also self-sufficient. But at the same time, they are like beggars because in their worlds they do not have God-realisation.
If a being from that world wants God-realisation, Self-discovery, it has to take a human body, whereas we do not need any other form to realise God. This is the advantage that we have. Although we are full of suffering, limitation and ignorance here, this physical world offers the only possibility to realise the Supreme. Beings from every other place must come down into this world if they want to realise God. God is available only here. With God-realisation, you can go to any place; in every place there is God. But full realisation you must attain here on this planet earth, and nowhere else.There are some cosmic gods who try, out of jealousy, to prevent human beings from going beyond their [the gods'] own achievements and attaining Self-realisation, for human beings can have full realisation, while the cosmic gods have only a limited consciousness. Most of the spiritual figures who have attained Self-realisation say that in the beginning the cosmic gods helped them in their spiritual progress. But when they tried to go beyond the limited domain of the cosmic deities, they met with vehement resistance from those very gods. But if the aspirant is very, very powerful, and if he is very, very intense, the Grace of the Supreme descends, and the aspirant is able to go beyond the minor gods. We must not give much importance to the cosmic gods, or angels, as we call them in the West. No, we have to go beyond them, beyond them. They are not human beings; their life-process is different from ours.
These gods are sometimes cursed by the aspirants and, if they are cursed, they have to take a human incarnation. There is always anger, in man as well as in the gods. When the gods get angry with an aspirant, they will curse his family. At that time, if the aspirant is really strong, he will literally refuse the curse. Then the god will have to come to the human world and will have to undergo suffering. These things really happen, even in the high worlds of the cosmic gods.Science can investigate certain spiritual phenomena. Some Yogins can stop their breathing and stay buried underground for hours and days without their heart functioning. One can consciously stop one’s breathing and the functioning of the heart, but science cannot believe this. Science says, “Without the heartbeat, how can one live?”
There are many things science can discover, many marvels, but science cannot go beyond the range of the senses. Beyond the range of the senses there are planes of consciousness where one can see the soul playing, moving, dancing and doing many other things. If a spiritual man wants to, he can easily see the soul of any person. There are many things that are not visible in the outer plane and yet are absolutely real. If you have seen your soul or your psychic being, how can science deny it? We adore science because science has discovered many, many things. But we cannot deny the things that spiritual persons have discovered and have made others see.The world is constantly evolving. The doctor is now trying to conquer death. The scientist is trying to conquer death. The spiritual aspirant is trying to conquer death. We are attacking death from every angle. When we have conquered death we will become immortal. But from the strict spiritual point of view, I wish to say that Immortality will come through aspiration and not through transplantation. When a soul takes a human body, it brings its own particular heart, its own particular mind, its own particular vital, its own particular physical. Now when you replace something, you introduce a foreign element. Anything that comes from elsewhere cannot be mine; it cannot be my own possession. But by using foreign things, scientists have discovered that they can prolong the life process for five, ten or even twenty years.
What we are doing with heart-transplants is, to some extent, unnatural. It lets us delay death, prolong life, but it will not allow us to immortalise our physical existence. For Immortality we have to have a different body, a different consciousness, a different illumination.
Medical science is trying to conquer death, but actual physical Immortality will come into existence only through aspiration and God’s conscious Will. If you feel that medical science will eventually conquer death then I must say that you are mistaken. Death will be conquered when each individual some day possesses a different consciousness, and that consciousness will come only after liberation and Self-realisation. We will have at that time a different body, a divinised body, a transformed body.
A day will come when a different order of beings will inhabit the earth. They will not have the same organs that we now have, and they will not have so many organs. They will be a completely different race. They will not be limited by the body-consciousness at all. The body will be a more subtle body, which will have no need of all the internal functions and organs that we have now. It will be a divine body — very luminous, very beautiful, very strong and powerful. The body will also be adaptable. If something is thrown at it, like an arrow, the body would have the power to repel the object without letting it come near. And if the object did come near, it would go right through the body without causing any harm. The body will have many capabilities that it does not have now.
And there will be no differentiation of the sexes, and no need for reproduction and the mating of male and female. All souls will incarnate through occult means. The actual union will take place in the psychic world, and from this psychic world the souls will take a body. These souls will not come to life through the mother’s body. And souls will be able to call other souls to incarnate when they want them. However, the hour for all this has not yet struck and it will take a long time to come.This brings up another point. The heart is the seat of the emotions and we always identify our deeper feelings with the heart. We say: “I love you with all my heart.” And although the physical heart is just an organ, the emotions — what we call the vital or emotional nature of man — are invisibly housed in this heart area. This vital nature is actually housed in the middle of the chest, but not in the physical heart itself. Even so, whenever one person’s heart is transplanted into another person’s body, a certain emotional confusion and disorientation are bound to take place.
I am not actually in favour of heart-transplantation, for it impedes the spontaneous flow of life-energy. Also, the physical sheath, which is composed of five elements, finds the transplantation a tangible intrusion of a foreign element in subtle ways that medical science will not understand. Medical science can prolong a person’s life by transplanting a heart, but mere prolongation of life is of no avail when one’s inner aspiration for the perfection of one’s own body is lacking. A real aspirant will not be able to aspire for a higher purpose with the potentialities and capacities of a different heart.I see also in Puerto Rico that there are some who have this soul’s affinity with a few of you here. If you go there, you will be astonished to see what happens. Although you have never seen them before, the moment you stand in front of them you will feel that they are your very own. This is because you have been together for many, many lives. This is called soul’s affinity.
Twin souls are those that share the same type of capacities, and have the same type of experiences together. Soul mates are usually complementary to each other and share with each other a variety of experiences, although each one gains from these experiences according to the mould and pattern of the soul’s inner awareness, inner attainment of light and inner sense of manifestation on the earth-plane.Negative thought, undivine qualities in the nature: we are always dealing with these things in our spiritual life. But by constantly dealing with the negative forces, the unlit qualities in us, we cannot run towards the Light. If the vessel is filled with dirt, then we have to empty it and fill it with divine things.
The tiny vessel which we have inside us has to be kept purified and empty so that every day we can fill it with Light. But if we constantly dig up the dirt without paying attention to filling ourselves with Light, what will happen? After digging the vast quantity of dirt that we have in our conscious mind, we will then enter into the field of the subconscious, then into inconscience. Finally we shall see what we were some three thousand or four thousand years ago: we shall see an animal, or just a tree, or a solid piece of stone. Now what benefit do we get from this? If we want to go to the source of our evil, dark, corrupt ideas and activities, we shall end up at the very source of destruction or imperfection. We have to be very careful about this.
I may not know the term ‘scientology,’ but from your explanation of it, I think that spirituality encompasses it. That is to say, if you care for aspiration, what has to be rejected will automatically be rejected and whatever has to be transformed will be transformed.From:Sri Chinmoy,Astrology, the supernatural and the Beyond, Agni Press, 1973
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