Paramacharya and miracles - 1

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Namami Sankaracharyam, sarvalokaika Poojitham

 

With permission blessings and grace from HH Swamy Vijeyendra

Saraswathi garu of Shri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham

 

Paramacharya and miracles

S.Balakrishnan

It has been my great good fortune to have had the privilege of

experiencing the presence of His holiness the Paramacharya from my

very early age. Apart from the close association of some members of

my family with the Paramacharya, my own personal exposure to him

started when I used to attend the discourses given by him every

evening in the Sanskrit College, Mylapore in 1932-33, when I was a

college student. From the very first day, I was so inspired that I

made it a point to attend the lectures every evening though I was in

the midst of preparing for my University Examinations. These

lectures were in the nature of divine expositions and even though

Paramacharya was very young at that time he had the luster(thejas)

and brilliance one associates with our ancient Rishis. I still

recall the electrifying atmosphere when His Holiness used to come

regularly to give these lectures, very fresh and cheerful, even

after a very strenuous day of Pujas, interviews and other

activities. In each one of these talks Paramacharya explained with

remarkable lucidity the essentials of Hindu Dharma, the importance

of the scriptures, the significance of festivals, temple worship

etc., and the supreme duty of everyone to cultivate devotion to God.

He exhorted everyone to lead a simple, unselfish, clean and godly

life. The audience used to listen to him in rapt attention. He had

such a mastery over the subject and such clarity of mind that the

message he gave went straight to the heart like the message of Lord

Krishna in the Geetha. Although, I had met Paramacharya a number of

times later, this early association had a profound impact on me and

in the development of my late life.

 

Millions of people, high and low, have felt the exhilarating

experience of even the briefest of meetings with His Holiness and

many can recount anecdotes of such experience. One such anecdote

which comes to my mind relates to Paramacharya's views on the place

of miracles in religion and of those who perform such miracles. in

religion and of those who perform such miracles. There have been,

and there still are, some holy men who perform miracles and to whom

devotees go for satisfaction of various desires, such as success in

life, birth of child, marriage, etc., or for getting relief from

sickness or pain. In one of the private meetings with Paramacharya

in a small group of devotees, a person was referring disparagingly

to another holy person who performed miracles and asked Paramacharya

whether he would approve of spiritual men engaging themselves in

this kind of, what he called, magic shows. Contrary to what that

person expected, Paramacharya replied that there was nothing wrong

in this or in a person going to such holy men, with faith, for

getting their desires fulfilled and needs satisfied. He observed

that the relief one gets from such holy men may look outwardly as

being given by him but in reality it comes from God. A person by

going to such holy men believes him to be God in human form and so

has necessarily to believes him to be God and His powers and Grace

to satisfy the desires of devotees. To this extent, the devotee is

in the right path. Further, most holy men who perform miracles

strive to create faith in God among the followers and this develops

Bhakti, which is certainly desirable. To a person pursuing the

spiritual path performing such miracles is not difficult as it is a

state of Siddhi. If that person stops with this, he stands the risk

of not proceeding to the higher stages of spiritual perfection. None

the less, such holy men by giving relief to others and by creating

faith in God do perform a useful role and must be respected. There

is also no harm in people going to such holy men for satisfaction of

the desires so long as it is always remembered that God is behind

everything including the relief which he gets from such holy men.

 

It is within the knowledge of many devotees that on several

occasions Paramacharya himself did something or performed some

innocuous act or made some casual observation which later turned out

to be a miracle, although he never professed to perform any miracle.

Thus there were many instances where a seemingly casual warning to a

person saved that person from catastrophe or became a turning point

in that person's life.

 

One such instance within my personal knowledge illustrates this

aspect of the miraculous powers of Paramacharya. I had an aunt who

had several reverses in her life due to Prarabdha Karma. She was a

pious devotee of God and of Paramacharya. One day when she was in

great distress and confusion, she sought Paramacharya's guidance.

His Holiness gave her a small lump of sandal-paste which he had used

for the Pooja and asked her to worship it as Devi. She did so with

faith and devotion by performing Trisathis and other Pujas daily as

directed and after several weeks she noticed to her great surprise

that the small lump gradually grew into a Moorthi of Devi with face,

legs and hands. She felt extremely happy and took it to Varanasi saw

this wonder for themselves. However, Paramacharya's object was only

to show that Devi's powers are unlimited and not to show that He

could also perform miracles.

 

Everything that happens around us, terrestrial or celestial, is a

marvel or a miracle although we take them all for granted as they

are so common. There are also man made marvels like the computer

which performs functions which are miracles by ordinary standards.

None but the ignorant will give the credit for the miracles

performed by the computer, to the machine or even to he maker,

because the scientists tell us that the functions are performed by

the chips made from silicon derived from the common sand. The wise

know that this quality of sand as also the quality and behavior of

every material in the Universe(Prakriti) as given to it by God

Almighty and could not have come from nothing. This is the rationale

behind Paramacharya's teaching that one should see the hand of God

behind the miracles performed by anyone including a holy man. When

one sees natural miracles like a mathematical prodigy or, when the

earth narrowly misses a collision with a comet, or any of the man-

made miracles like the modern communication systems, he should think

of God and feel grateful to Him for His Gifts. Likewise, the

privilege of having Paramacharya in our midst is itself a Gift of

God to mankind and so whenever one experiences the thrill of the

presence of Paramacharya, one should think of and feel grateful to

God Almighty for enabling this generation to enjoy such privilege

and pray for many more years of such enjoyment.