Loving Ganesha: Preface, The Milk Miracle--Kshira Chamatkaraha

[Guest guest]

Namaste all,

 

Continuing with Loving Ganesha, this page is from

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/books/lg/lg_preface_milk-miracle.html

 

Om Shanti,

 

Neil

 

 

Kshira Chamatkaraha

TheMilkMiracle

On September 21, 1995, just days after I had completed the final editing of

Loving Ganesha, something quite wonderful happened. Lord Ganesha began sipping

milk, first in India, then in nearly every country where Hindus reside, as

devotees rushed to temples and shrines to offer milk to the elephant-faced God.

It was a great spiritual experience for us in Hawaii, where we publish the

international monthly news journal, HINDUISM TODAY, to receive the many phone

calls and fax messages with positive, uplifting testimony as to His drinking

milk in so many places. As perhaps the most fitting preface to this benevolent

Lord's 800-page book, we are pleased to present the story of the milk miracle

-- kshira chamatkara -- from HINDUISM TODAY, November, 1995.

"It's a Miracle!" Rejoice MillionsAs Lord Ganesha Receives Milk

The Supernatural Event of this Century Is Experienced Simultaneously Worldwide

T ALL BEGAN ON SEPTEMBER 21 WHEN AN OTHERWISE ORDINARY MAN IN NEW DELHI DREAMT

THAT GANESHA, THE ELEPHANT-HEADED GOD OF Wisdom, craved a little milk. Upon

awakening, he rushed in the dark before dawn to the nearest temple, where a

skeptical priest allowed him to proffer a spoonful of milk to the small stone

image. Both watched in astonishment as it disappeared, magically consumed by

the God. What followed is unprecedented in modern Hindu history. Within hours,

news spread like a brush fire across India that Ganesha was accepting milk

offerings. Tens of millions of people of all ages flocked to the temples. The

unworldly happening brought worldly New Delhi to a standstill, and its vast

stocks of milk, more than a million liters, sold out within hours. Just as

suddenly as it started in India, it stopped, in just 24 hours.

But it was just beginning elsewhere, as Hindus in India called their relatives

in other parts of the world. Soon our HINDUISM TODAY offices were flooded with

reports from around the world. Everywhere the story was the same. A teaspoonful

of milk offered by touching it to Ganesha's trunk, tusk or mouth would disappear

in a few seconds to a few minutes -- not always, but with unprecedented

frequency. Reuters news service quoted Anila Premji, "I held the spoon out

level, and it just disappeared. To me it was just a miracle. It gave me a sense

of feeling that there is a God, a sense of Spirit on this Earth." Not only

Ganesha, but Siva, Parvati, Nandi and the Naga, Siva's snake, took milk.

This "milk miracle" may go down in history as the most important event shared by

Hindus this century, if not in the last millennium. It has brought about an

instantaneous religious revival among nearly one billion people. No other

religion has ever done that before! It is as if every Hindu who had, say, "ten

pounds of devotion," suddenly has twenty.

Miracles witnessed by many people happen from time to time in Hinduism as in

other faiths, but they're rare. As a young boy, the tenth-century saint, Nambi

Anbar Nambi, inspired Lord Ganesha to actually eat the offerings placed before

Him. Saint Jnaneshvara of Maharashtra became famous 600 years ago for having a

water buffalo recite the Vedas before a group of arrogant priests.

Naturally there are skeptics -- 10% of Hindus, according to our very

unscientific poll, all of whom moved swiftly to distance themselves from the

phenomenon. "Capillary action," coupled with "mass hysteria," is the correct

explanation, concluded many scientists within a few hours. Aparna Chattopadhyay

of New Delhi replied to these scoffers in a letter to the Hindustan Times: "I am

a senior scientist of the Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi. I

found my offerings of milk in a temple being mysteriously drunk by the Deities.

How can the scientists explain the copper snake absorbing the milk I offered

with a spoon kept at a good distance away from it?" Scientific or not, gallons

of milk were disappearing with hardly a trace. A leading barrister in Malaysia

was dumbfounded when he watched a metal Ganesha attached to an automobile

dashboard absorb six teaspoons of milk. In Nepal King Birendra himself made

offerings to the God. Deities in Kenya and other countries took gallons of milk

while sitting in shallow metal trays with no drains.

The worldwide press coverage has been nearly as amazing as the miracle itself.

Of course, the event dominated the news in India for days. But once it started

outside India, local and leading national papers, such as the New York Times

and Washington Post in America, and the Financial Times in UK, picked up the

story. The international wire services, Reuters and Associated Press, carried a

dozen articles a day on what had now been named the "Milk Miracle." Many in

India are unaware of how warmly the Western press embraced the miracle. In many

countries reporters came to the temples and personally offered milk. Of course,

they too would put forward a "scientific explanation" in their report, but

many, otherwise detached, Western journalists shared their own joyful

experience as a fact.

Ironically, the reporting inside India was a completely different matter. The

English-language press in India, with its Marxist-leaning political slant, has

never been a friend of Hinduism. Headlines heralded the attitude: "People go

Berserk at 'Milk Miracle;' Scientists Dismiss it as Mass Hysteria," and

"Milk-Drinking Deities Unleash Mass Hysteria, Scientists Ridicule Miracle

Theory." Not every Indian paper was so negative: Tunku Varadarajan of The Times

expressed his concern that "Modern Hindus are often all too apologetic about the

apparent angularities in the beliefs of their countrymen. In this, secular

Indians are in danger of denying the very logic which has allowed India to be

secular in the first place. If that tolerance is now under strain, the blame

lies in part with those who would regard as dangers any celebrations of the

country's underlying Hindu identity."

Hinduism has its own science to apply to this miracle, that of the

interpretation of portents -- unusual or supernatural events. Portents are the

specific domain of astrologers to interpret. The "milk miracle," under this

analysis, is not the end in itself, but rather signals a future event of great

import. Shri K.N. Rao, one of India's most noted astrologers, explained that

the involvement of Ganesha means that harm will come to the "commanders of

armies." The acceptance of milk, however, is an auspicious sign. Therefore the

final result will be a greater good. The portent will take effect in eight

months, just about the time of an eclipse in April, 1996.

H.H. Shri Tiruchi Mahaswamigal of Bangalore said incidents of Deities accepting

offerings occur every 100 years, usually eight or nine days after Ganesha

Chaturthi. Swamiji believes it is a very good omen, as do other swamis,

astrologers and pandits we have contacted.

Joyous eye-witness reports of Ganesha's drinking milk were received at our

editorial offices from over two dozen nations and a multitude of locations.

Testimony of the Milk Miracle Worldwide

INDIA: It was around 7:30AM that my father came back from his morning walk and

told me, "Rajiv, go to the temple. A great miracle is taking place. Lord

Ganesha is having milk. This is happening all over Delhi." I and my wife rushed

to the Deepali temple which is next to our house. There were hundreds in a long

queue waiting to offer milk. Inside the eight-by-ten-foot sanctum a dozen

people at a time were offering milk in spoons to the small Ganesha. My wife

offered milk twice. I could clearly see the milk disappearing in a few seconds.

Many temple priests said they had dreams of Ganesha asking for milk, which they

then offered in the early morning. The Deepali temple priest told me, "Somebody

came and knocked on my door at 4:30 in the morning. He called, 'Ganesha is

having milk! Ganesha is having milk!' The man was gone when I answered the

door." Life in Delhi was almost at a standstill. The markets were deserted.

Banks and official institutions had very thin attendance. In the last few days

I have spoken to about 100 people. Ninety percent of them told me that they had

experienced it, and the milk had really been accepted by the Deity.

Rajiv Malik, New Delhi, Journalist

NEW YORK: Even in cynical, hard-edged New York the miracle was happening. The

milk was actually disappearing. Manisha Lund, a young college student, went to

the Hindu temple in Queens and says it was a virtual stampede. When she offered

milk to Lord Ganesha, "It was sucked up like someone was drinking it with a

straw." Ganesha seemed to be in a whimsical mood: sometimes He refused the

spoonfuls offered by devotees and slurped up that given by nonbelievers. At the

Hindu temple in Flushing, a young African-American woman who is not a Hindu but

loves Hindu philosophy wondered aloud whether Siva would accept her offering.

She extended her spoon and before the eyes of many worshipers, the milk

disappeared into Siva's mouth. Tales of faith and joy were repeated in many

homes and offices where devotees offered milk to idols of stone, brass and

silver. Young people seemed to have better luck, and delighted in the miracle:

Pummy Singh, 14, called Indra, her mother, at work and gave her the exciting

news: Ganesha had taken the milk three times from her and her friends. Such was

the frenzy that it was hard to gain entrance into the crowded temples, even at

2:00 in the morning.

Lavina Melwani, New York, Journalist

LOS ANGELES: "One of the devotees received a phone call from India about the

miracle," recalls Bharat Shastri, priest of the Hindu temple in Norwalk. By

evening he had received 600 phone calls. There was a general air of skepticism

here and at other temples in Los Angeles. Only a few devotees had their milk

offerings taken by Ganesha at Norwalk. Nothing extraordinary happened at the

Shri Venkateshwara Temple in Calabasas, where milk was offered only by the

priests. At the Chatsworth temple, the miracle seemed to have happened big

time. "On Thursday morning, temple president Dinesh Lakhanpal offered milk. It

disappeared. Then I offered more, and that too disappeared," said Ravi Sharan,

vice president of the temple. CNN and local TV channels came and the miracle

reportedly happened for them. "One reporter, Sharon Tae of Channel 5, was so

excited she hugged me with tears in her eyes," said Sharan.

Archana Dongre, Los Angeles, Journalist

This devotee is one of thousands to offer milk to Lord Ganesha at a temple in

Edmonton. Unlike in India, the phenomenon continued here for days.CANADA: The

phenomenon began following the 7:30PM puja Friday and continued unabated until

about 11:45PM Sunday, the 24th, at the Edmonton Ganesha temple. The atmosphere

around the Ganesha murti was scintillating. Devotees approached, bowed and

offered their prayers and a spoonful of milk. They ran the gamut from sari-clad

pious elderly ladies supported on either side to gum-chewing teens in black

leather jackets. I simply can't explain what happened to the milk. It would

visibly "wick" up from the spoon to the surface of the stone of the trunk.

Spoonful after spoonful was absorbed, sometimes as quickly as one could count

to three, usually in 20 seconds. At the conservative rate of two teaspoons per

minute for 51.5 hours (milk was offered continuously), some 7.7 gallons of milk

were taken up. I could see no significant amount of milk around the Ganesha

murti. Of course, with the number of devotees and dripping spoons, Ganesha's

garments became wet on the same side as his trunk, but this didn't begin to

account for the volume of milk offered. I was forced to conclude that we were

all witnessing something that we could not logically explain.

Aran Veylan, Edmonton, Barrister

MAURITIUS: Today, September 25th, I've given milk to Ganesha. It is happening at

a temple called Tulsi Sham Temple in Beau Bassin. I rushed there, leaving all my

jobs behind. I took some milk and brought it close to the trunk without spilling

any. The milk was absorbed very quickly. This is something great which is

happening all around the world and making us better and better Hindus.

Parmesh Pallanee, Petite Riviere, Computer Systems Advisor

KENYA: It all started with a phone call from India to a relative in Nairobi that

Lord Ganapati's marble statue was drinking milk. Pandit Narinder Kumar Shastri,

head priest of Shree Sanatan Dharma Temple, recounts the experience with great

emotion. According to him, an unlimited amount of milk was consumed by the two

Deities in the temple. People from different religions and nationalities came

and made the offering. Many nonbelievers came to test. When the offering was

accepted, it changed people's thinking. The miracle had a special effect on the

younger generation. Panditji believes a new generation of staunch Hindus has

been born as a result. lt is extraordinary that the miracle occurred even on

African soil, and it is equally remarkable that many African non-Hindus visited

the temple and have become devotees. I stood inside the temple door for three

hours and saw crowds coming and going. The atmosphere was charged and volatile,

but peaceful. The people were mesmerized and were not prepared to leave the hall

even after having made the offering.

In the private temple of Jyotin Arvind Bhai Patel in Nairobi, the miracle began

in their temple at 4:30 pm on Thursday and continued till 9:30 am on Sunday. He

and Minal tried with a spoonful of milk, which disappeared. The spoon was kept

under the trunk of Shri Ganesha and the milk was sucked up. Minal recalls

hearing the sucking sound. In four days, 15,000 people belonging to all castes

and nationalities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Africans and Europeans -- made offerings.

As the result of the personal experience of one non-Hindu, the Patels have been

offered free land to build a Siva temple in a shopping complex.

Prabha Prabhakar Bhardwaj

My Luckiest DayBy Colonel P. C. Bhardwaj

It has taken many, many births for millions of us to witness and participate in

such a miracle. I was one of the many lucky ones whom God gave the opportunity

to feed Him. This miracle was needed to instill faith in people that the temple

images do have powers, and to worship them is one path to reach Him. I am an

engineer of long standing. The theory that capillary action caused the suction

of hundreds of pints of milk by Deities of stone and metal as small as twelve

by six inches is not possible. Most of the Deities are carved of solid stone or

cast of metal. Lord Ganesha's trunk takes a bend and makes a twist at the tip.

Its tip only has a small hole; the rest is solid mass. This tip is not capable

of holding even one spoon of milk. In some of the murtis, the trunk falls

straight and the tip does not have a hole. It sucked hundred of pints of milk

in a few hours. No milk was seen flowing out of the body, and no mist was

formed around the murtis. What shall we call it, other than Godly miracle?

We Are So Close To GodBy Jay Dubashi, a columnist for New Delhi'sOrganiser, in

which this article first appeared

It was a small boy who first alerted me as to what was happening. "Come, come,"

he said, "Ganesh-ji is drinking milk." We went to the nearby temple together,

he and I, and the crowd was thick. A small girl, not more than three or four,

was raising a spoon to the lips of Ganesh-ji, and as we watched in awe the milk

disappeared. "What did I tell you?" said the small boy. There was nothing to

argue. A miracle is a miracle. Even if it was not a miracle, it is still a

miracle in the eyes of those who see it. There are too many things in this

world which cannot be explained by the simple theories of physics or chemistry,

for the theories themselves are changing with the times.

Associated Press published this photo worldwide of Hindus in Delhi gathered

around an image of Ganesha to offer milk outside the Birla temple.But it is not

milk that interests me. The miracle was seen not just in India, but almost all

over the world, wherever Hindus congregate. And it did not take days, not even

hours, probably a few minutes to spread. It shows how close the Hindu community

is when it comes to things that affect its identity, even closer than the

Internet. There were throngs of Hindus in temples in London and Leicester, New

Jersey and Chicago, Denmark, Canada, Bangkok and Singapore. And the whole thing

was breathtakingly spontaneous.

It also revealed how close Hindus are, not only to each other but also to their

Gods. This is something nobody but a Hindu understands. To us, the Gods are not

external to us, but very much a part of our being. The relationship is

affectionate and intimate, as between members of a family. There is nothing in

the world as close-knit as a Hindu family, and the Gods are as much a part of

this family as anyone else.

When I grew up as a boy in Goa, we had, of course, temples and mathas, but what

we liked best was the time when Ganesh-ji came home for the Ganesha Visarjana

festival. We used to have made a serious-looking idol as befits a family of

teachers and officials, but somehow we never thought of Ganesh-ji as a serious

person. How can anybody be serious if He chooses a small mouse to carry His

plump weight? But we never asked such questions. It was enough that He was in

our house for a few days, and we treated Him like a king. He wore the finest

silks and ate the finest food. He was bathed in enough milk and honey to wash a

grown elephant and his family. We kept Him in the house only for a day or so,

and then it was time to take Him to the river for immersion. That was the

hardest time for all of us, particularly for my uncle, whose job it was to

prepare Him for immersion. We children went to the river, shouting all the way,

but overtaken by grief at the impending departure. After a brief puja on the

bank of the river, the idol was slowly let into the swirling waters as we all

wept, including my uncle, a grown man who actually ran the district. Our Gods

do not ask for votes or for money. All they want is your love and affection,

for that is the only bond between a Hindu and his God, like the bond between a

father and son, or between brothers.

In no other religion is there such a deep and lasting bond between Gods and men

as there is among Hindus. For we are, after all, descended from the Gods, and

from the mountains and rivers where They stand guard and watch our holy land.

And, if once in a while, they come down and sip a little milk from our spoons,

why should it be a miracle? It's the most natural thing in the world.

 

 

 

Loving Ganesha by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

 

Web sites: http://www.hindu.org/ & http://www.himalayanacademy.com/

email: contact (AT) hindu (DOT) org

Himalayan Academy Kauai's Hindu Monastery107 Kaholalele RoadKapaa, HI 96746-9304

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Namaste all,

 

I was not priviliged to see the milk miracle, however my mother-in-law did.

were any of you blessed to see our lord drink milk during that time?

 

Regards

 

Adam