Miracle in Brazil

July 21, 2003

Hre is a thrilling narration by Swami Bhaskarananda on a real miracle

happening in Brazil:

Miracles continue to happen - and in the least expected places. One

such happened in Brazil in the fifties. In this article, Swami

Bhaskarananda, the President of the Vedanta Society of Western Washington in

Seattle, USA narrates this thrilling incident. (Courtesy: Global Vedanta

/Nirvana)

When I visited Brazil the first time, several years ago, a friend there

said to me, " Swami, do you know that we have a Ramakrishna Mission in

Brazil? " I was surprised to hear that. The Ramakrishna Mission is an

Indian-based religious and philanthropic organisation with several branches

outside India, but at that time there was none in Brazil. As a monk of the

Ramakrishna Mission, I was certainly expected to know that. I emphatically

said, " It's impossible! The Ramakrishna Mission has no branch in Brazil! "

Nevertheless, the friend insisted that what he had told me was quite

true, and that how the Ramakrishna Mission happened to be in Brazil without

the knowledge of the Ramakrishna Mission in India was nothing short of a

miracle.

The miracle took place in the city of Belo Horizonte, capital of the

mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais. A planned city founded in 1897, Belo

Horizonte is the third largest in Brazil.

In that city lived a gentleman named Mr Arlindo Correa da Silva. He was

born on June 2, 1910, in the city of Campina Grande in the state of Paraiba

in northern Brazil. He studied at a Baptist college in Recife, the fourth

largest city of Brazil and the capital of the contiguous state of

Pernambuco. He was trained as an accountant, but chose to become a

journalist in order to fight injustice, social abuse, and corruption in his

country. At the age of 22 he moved to Belo Horizonte, joined the spiritist

church and started a journal named O Poder (The Power).

In 1954, by the time he had married and was in his forties, he had a

vision of Sri Ramakrishna. He had already read a French book on Sri

Ramakrishna - L'Enseignment de Ramakrishna - and must have seen Sri

Ramakrishna's picture in it. Sri Ramakrishna said to him, " I am going to

send one of my sons to you. " So saying, Sri Ramakrishna disappeared.

Shortly thereafter he had another strange vision while bathing alone in

a small pool in his home. A person arose from the water in front of him and

said, " My name is Brahmananda: I am a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. He has

sent me to help you. " These visions took Arlindo totally by surprise. They

also scared him. At that time Arlindo was associated with a well-known

spiritist teacher named Francisco Xavier, also called " Chico Xavier " .

Arlindo described his visions to him, wanting to take his counsel. Chico

Xavier reassured him and said, " Don't be afraid, in the Gospels Jesus has

said, 'In my Father's house there are many rooms. " ' Arlindo understood that

he must have entered another room of God's house. All his fears

disappeared.

From then onwards Swami Brahmananda began to appear to Arlindo every

now and then and give him guidance. Swami Brahmananda instructed Arlindo

about what religious books to read and also asked him to serve the poor

children of the city. Even a copy of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna came to

him - an unexpected gift from a friend!

In 1955 he started to care for children in his own home. Some of

them lived with him; others went home at night to their families. Arlindo

named his organization Missao Ramakrishna - Portuguese for Ramakrishna

Mission. Eventually the organization was officially registered on February

6, 1959. Arlindo became its President and held that position until he

passed away on June 20, 1993.

As the number of children increased, Arlindo's own house proved to be too

small for Missao Ramakrishna. Professor Arlindo (as he came to be called)

sold whatever he could and bought a fairly large piece of land at a low

price in Betim, a small town 50 kilometers away from Belo Horizonte. Later

another house was acquired in Belo Horizonte to be used as the

headquarters of the Mission. Nowadays, however, the headquarters is located

at the original home of Professor Arlindo. The building has been modified

to suit the requirements of the headquarters.

The first building of the Mission in Betim, constructed with the help

of a bank loan, was inaugurated on March 31, 1960. The second building was

built in 1961. At first there was a great scarcity of water on the Mission'

s property in Betim. A firm was hired by the Mission to dig an artesian

well. Several holes were dug, but they could not find any water. Then one

day Swami Brahmananda appeared before Professor Arlindo in a vision, and

pointing to a rocky spot on the property, said that water would be found

there. Accordingly, digging was done on that particular spot and an

abundant water supply was found. Later a second artesian well was dug,

also following the instructions of Swami Brahmananda. All the water needs

of the Mission are now adequately met by these two artesian wells. The

Misson now has some fruit trees and a large vegetable garden, all irrigated

by the water from these wells.

The journal O Poder, once an organ of the Spiritist movement, now

mainly spreads the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, the Holy Mother Sarada

Devi, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Brahmananda and other disciples of Sri

Ramakrishna. The journal has a fairly wide circulation all over Brazil.

To make the Mission financially self-sufficient, a small macaroni

factory and a factory that manufactures wire netting were started. The

products of these two businesses are in great demand in that rural area.

Wire-netting is used there for fencing properties, vegetable gardens, etc.

There is a small workshop there to teach automobile mechanics, and a second

workshop containing several handlooms that are used to instruct the women

and children in how to produce various handloom products.

In the May-June 1993 issue of the bi-monthly journal Vedanta for the

East and West, Swami Bhavyananda of the Bourne End (England) Vedanta Society

wrote a beautiful article entitled Further Wanderings in Argentina and

Brazil: Pages from a Journal. In that article he wrote about the Missao

Ramakrishna in Brazil, describing among its attractive features its prayer

hall or " temple " in Betim for the children. Swami Bhavyananda writes: At 7

pm everyone goes to the temple, where they sing little hymns in praise of

Sri Ramakrishna, the Holy Mother - whom the children affectionately call

Little Mother - Swami Brahmananda, Sri Krishna, Jesus, etc. These hymns,

mantras as the residents call them, were taught by Swami Brahmananda. On

this point, there is another interesting story:

When Swami Ritajananda (who was then head of the 'Centre Vedantic

Ramakrishna' of Gretz, France) visited the Mission in March, 1992, he was

surprised to hear a hymn that is very well known in South India, but being

of a regional kind, is little known elsewhere. The children love to sing

these hymns, and they often begin to sing spontaneously while they are doing

their daily tasks, such as washing the dishes, sweeping the floor and even

playing.

Miracles do happen, even these days! And one of them has happened in

the city of Belo Horizonte in Brazil. According to the latest reports

from Missao Ramakrishna about 15,000 children have been given various kinds

of help so far. In recognition of the excellent philanthropic work of the

Mission, it has recently been awarded the prestigious Premio Itao/Unicef

prize.

Footnote: In an article in the Prabuddha Bharata (Sep. 1993) Swami

Bhavyananda also recalls the following incident when water was scarce and

had to be fetched from a long distance. " The children went along in single

file, each carrying a single bucket of water. Arlindo drew from the well,

and poured the water into the big barrel at the Mission. This was done

morning and evening. There was a boy in the Mission named Sandro who,

because he was older than the others, helped with the most difficult work.

It was all dark, and he told Arlindo he was very frightened. 'Pray to the

Little Mother to accompany you,' was the reply. In that pure little heart

the good seed quickly germinated.

When later on he was asked about being afraid, the boy frankly revealed

that a beautiful, blue light had lit his way to the well. This youngster,

who is now married and has children, still visits the Mission. "

July 22, 2003

In a message dated 7/21/03 11:14:28 AM Mountain Daylight Time, kamanat writes:

Miracles continue to happen - and in the least expected places. One

such happened in Brazil in the fifties. In this article, Swami

Bhaskarananda, the President of the Vedanta Society of Western Washington in

Seattle, USA narrates this thrilling incident. (Courtesy: Global Vedanta

/Nirvana)

What a wonderful story. Thank you,

Love,

Kanda

July 22, 2003

Thank you for a very interesting factual story. Please continue to send us such fascinating true stories, they are very inspiring for people who still have doubts about existence of a supernatural power which manifests itself in many different ways. The Princess of Faith