It’s a Miracle

Alka

I wanted to write about miracles in various religions but am currently distracted by a controversial article by dost-mittar ji that is keeping everyone at chowk busy.
Maybe others too find religion related politics more attractive than anything supernatural issues like miracles.

Anyway..keep writing

Inquirer #18 Thanks very much for the explanation concerning the Upanishads.

A couple of questions: Is the concept of the Brahman (which is the same in essence as the concept of Allah, as I understand it) also the focus of the Ramayan? There is a slight difference between the relationship of the atman (i.e. the individual basically, as I understand it) and the Brahman in the Upanishads I think and the relationship between the individual and Allah in Islam: the two are assumed to be separate entities in the Quran. What does the Ramayan focus on, if not on the Brahman? And from your post it seems that the Ramayan (which I assume is the Ramayana) is the ``Bible`` in hinduism today. Is that correct?

PS: I dont want to impose on your time, so please dont feel compelled to respond just to satisfy my curiosity.

Ref sameerJB #24

[Yes, she was Mallika Sarabhai some 7-8 years ago in NY. This particular segment was near the end of her show and I, being up close, focused on her eyes if she was looking at her feet while performing but she did not.]

Tha t would be Mallika Sarabhai allright. I should remember her; I had to pick up that steel frame and the inkpad when I received her at the airport some 15 years back. At that time, it was the figure of a sitting lion that she traced with her footsteps.

Never again will I volunteer to meet a dancer at the airport. They just bring tons of stuff!

OK. I now come to miracle. Since this is no University Avenue, these childlike discussions of miracle are acceptable.
Really, what is miracle except an ignorant`s wondering of what happened? None of the issues characterized here is unexplainable. Even the very origin of life is about to be explained in molecular terms. Anyone who thinks pregnancy, childbirth, Bharat natyam figures or Sai Baba is miracle needs to his head examined.

rsrisshar:
Yes, she was Mallika Sarabhai some 7-8 years ago in NY. It was a fabulous performance by her in front of a full house with no standing room either. This particular segment was near the end of her show and I, being up close, focused on her eyes if she was looking at her feet while performing but she did not.

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Ram Gopal Verma kahaan say aagaya??

Some eager muslims sent me photos of a forest in Germany where the trees had taken the shape of the Kalima in Arabic. It is said the German authorities blocked access to that part of the forest. Similarly, Neil Armstrong heard the azaan when he was walking on the moon.

#19, Alka:
Thanks. As I have stated in a comment not yet posted by Chowk, the only scripture you need to read is Tulsi Das` Ramayan.

Thanks Essensaur (#3)
That was a nice little anecdote to emphasise that miracles do happen.
Probably, when things happen in our life that we expected the least, then we say it was a miracle. If we leave food-miracles aside, then most of us have encountered simple miracles in life, now and then. Like passing with flying colors a very tough exam, in the very subject that we hate and for which we were least prepared of all. And then pursuing a career in that once hated subject area. Maybe that is destiny, another controversial topic just like miracles.

Inquirer (#10, #12)
Good information from you. Hindu scriptures are so vast that I never seem to get time to actually probe them deeply. But I do appreciate most of the basic philosophy underlying this ancient religion.

#14, tahmed32:
Thanks for the appreciation and suggestion.

Here is the description of the Upanishadic conception of God. The Upanishads represent the very acme of the theoretical development of thought in India. They were written around -1000 to +500 years after Christ. One should not consider them to be the daily guidance of Hindus. AS A MATTER OF FACT, TODAY`S RUN-OF-THE-MILL HINDU KNOWS HARDLY ANY THING ABOUT VEDAS OR UPANISHADS. The religious guidance is almost completely derived from Tulsi Das Ramayan. This includes elimination of Valmiki`s Ramayan if it contradicts Tulsi`s Ramayan. That is Valmiki Ramayan has a lower status in the eyes of a Hindu than Tulsi`s Ramayan. All this notwithstanding, the underlying principles and beliefs of the Hindu subsist on Vedas and Upanishads with a confounding mixture of Puranas.

Upanishadic Conception of God and Universe

Upanishads represent a spirit different from and even hostile to ritual and embody a theory of universe quite distinct from the Vedas. All Upanishads reflect this antagonism, e.g., Mundaka Upanishad states “whoever hopes for real good to accrue from these rites is a fool and is sure to be overtaken again by death and decrepitude.” (Mundaka Upanishad: Mundak I. Chapter ii. 7.) Upanishads substitute an allegorical form for literal interpretation of the rites in the Vedas. Upanishads signify secret instruction imparted, at private meetings, to a student by the rishi. Upanishads were first to develop the concept of a supaatra. Upanishads have been composed by several rishis. We have about 200 Upanishads. They often contain pithy statements such as “Tat tvam asi”, that thou art. Most of the early ones are pre-Buddhist. They represent the earliest effort of man at giving a philosophical explanation of the world. The text is usually in a dialog form and reads more like poetry than a treatise. Information is generally presented in an allegorical form. The teaching of Upanishads is intellectual and monistic. The two pillars of this teaching are the Brahman and atman. Brahman as prayer is what manifests itself in audible speech. Atman initially meant breath and then came to mean whatever constitutes the essential part of any thing in particular for a man, it is the self/soul. Thus the soul represents the inner world while the Brahman represents the external world. The atman/Brahman correlation is a consequence of seeking correspondence between an individual and universe. As an example of this one notes the representation of universe via the man in the Purusha sukta in Rig Veda where the universe is represented by a human body.

When the rishis started to go beyond the child like conception of individual gods and the external world in post-vedic period they were led to Brahman and atman as the lowest common denominators for external and internal realities. At some stage in the evolution of thought – desiring ardently unification of external and internal realities Brahman was identified– thru human psyche – with a human’s inmost essence: atman. This fusing is described in Upanishads via mahavakyas: “Tat tvam asi”,”Aham brahmo asmi” leading to the equation [Brahman = Atman]. In other words nature, man and god are one.

This all-inclusive concept is described by satyam – gyanam – anantam where satyam points to immediate certainties of individual perception, gyanam to spiritual nature of man and anantam to its all-inclusive nature. This is called Absolute in Upanishads. (For more discussion of this point see Chhandogya Upanishad)

The idealistic monism in Upanishads is found to appear in two forms between which there is an important difference. In some passages Absolute is presented as all comprehensive (saprapancha) i.e., cosmic form while in others again as all exclusive (nisprapancha) i.e., acosmic form. Chhandogya Upanishad describes cosmic model as sum-total of all. Totally complete hence calm. It is identified as the self. Brihad Arranyak Upanishad describes Brahman, thru Yagyvalkya, as outer space in a negative way and asserts it is beyond the grasp of human experience. Shankara unified these two models when he ascribed cosmic model as describing Absolute from external point of view and acosmic model when Absolute is described from transcendental point of view. This unity is discussed Mundaka Upanishad. Thus Brahman in Upanishads is both immanent in the world and transcendent of it.

Idea of Soul in Upanishads:

To the seers of Upanishads the existence of soul is a necessary presupposition of all experience. Soul is described as purusha, which is explained as puri-shaya, what lies in the citadel of body. The existence of the physical body, with its diverse but cooperating parts implies the existence of something whose end it – the body - serves. In the narrow span of a single life we cannot possibly reap the fruits of all we do. Nor can we, so long as we confine our attention to this life alone, fully account for all the good and evil that may come to us (Katha Upanishad: Part II, Chapter ii.7). Individuation of soul, i.e., association of a soul with a body-mind, leads to forgetting of its essential identity with Brahman.

In summary, as far as the Vedas are concerned the nature gods of Vedas were subordinated to Praja-pati. Then in Upanishads, Praja-pati was subordinated to Brahman and nature gods including Sun, Agni, Vayu, Indra even Prajapati became servers of the highest. The fact is that we cannot properly look for any theistic view in the Upanishads whose main concern is with the philosophic Absolute, except where the Absolute itself is personified and spoken of as God. The Upanishads explicitly repudiate an objective conception of God. “Whoever worships a deity thinking that to be one and himself another - he does not know.” (Brihad Aranyak Upanishad Part I.Chapter IV,10)

What? An articles about miracles and no mention of Sai Baba?
There is an organization in India (Moral Rationalists Association or something like that!) which challenges all miracle makers to prove their miracles to them. I don`t think anyone has taken them on yet!

Inquirer...are you inquirer or `believer`??? ;-)

Inquirer #12 Those are beautiful lines from the Rig Veda. The concept of creation described in these lines is very similar to that of the Abrahamic religions (with the famous lines from the Bible - ``In the beginning there was nothing`` or words to that effect), and indeed quite similar to the generally accepted scientific theory of the Big Bang concerning how the universe was created out of nothingness.
Perhaps you will find time sometime to write an article expanding on the development of hinduism, as described in your post.

Thanks to you all for the responses.

Harimau, you are right in saying that it is not only the subcontinent where such miracles keep happening. Especially recently there have been plenty of them in the limelight in western countries. My article is merely a matter-of-fact statement about miracles and I wanted the readers to share more of these by writing them at chowk, which they have done.

If only a Muslim woman discovers a script of Allah in a brinjal and it is a Christian and not a Hindu who sees the face of Jesus in his roti, then maybe all this is a projection of our day-to-day thoughts, our impressions since our childhood. Otherwise, I am sure, God doesn’t discriminate.

As you said, the signals can be negative too. There may or may not be any meaning in these signals but the seemingly positive messages would act as a therapy but negative ones are liable to scare especially a weak heart who is already on a verge of misery or disaster.


Zeeshanmahmood, let us hope God keeps smiling. And let us humans also smile at each other occasionally and not just hell bent upon waging a war.

re:#11 by sameerJB
I think you are referring to the dance performance by the nenowned dancer Mallika sarabhai. I have witnessed a similar performance by her on T.V. It was truely remarkable.
Sridhar