All World
Gayatri Pariwar

   Swami Vivekanand once happened to visit Hyderabad. Swamiji had heard about a Brahmin, who lived there, that he had some mysterious powers by which he could materialize anything anywhere. He was a highborn merchant of repute. Swamiji went to him and requested him to exhibit his miraculous powers. The merchant, however, was bed-ridden with some illness. There is a generally prevalent belief in India that a man's illness disappears if a holy man places his hand on the ailing man's head. The merchant appealed to Swamiji, “Swamiji, if you kindly put your hand on my head, my fever will disappear, and then I can show you miracles”. Swamiji agreed to do so.

The man kept nothing but a loin cloth on his body; he had removed all other clothes. As the days were cold, he was given blanket to cover himself. Quite a large crowd had gathered there. Having covered himself with the blanket, the man went and sat in a corner. Then he said, “Please, give me in writing the names of things that you want me to materialize for you.” Everybody did so. Swami himself wrote the names of those fruits which were not produced in that area. To the surprise of all, he produced from the blanket bunches of grapes and oranges in such abundance that their weight was double the weight of that man. All partook of the fruits, which were very sweet in taste. Finally, at Swamiji’s behest, he produced about a hundred or more fully-bloomed rose flowers whose petals were wet with morning dew and not one of them was loose or withered.

Endorsing the veracity of this incident, Swamiji writes, "People may consider this as a magical or miraculous display, but I don't. There is nothing that is not rooted in desire. This was an exhibition of fact. How can the shadow be there if the substance is absent? This was not 'Maya' but truth or fact. It is a proof of the limitless powers of the mind. Our mind is capable of producing anything desired. The mind is internally packed with all the wealth and abundance of the earth. The only condition is that we must handle the mind properly. An uncontrolled mind can not only ruin itself but all others too. This Brahmin from Hyderabad controls his mind, but is ignorant of the basic fact that he is dealing with his controlled mind. Under a delusion he has taken a halt at the limit of miracles. He has failed to recognize that Almighty, who resides within.” The miracles and miraculous powers of the mind have been proved in many ways. It is capable of conquering time and space through the force of its imagination.

It is reported about Rabbi Elijah of Lithuania, that in spite of his having some miraculous mental power, he could not turn it to his personal advantage on account of his inability to control it. Reading only once, he had memorized about 2000 books. Being asked to quote from memory any page from any book, he could do so faultlessly. His brain was ever active, so he had to have a book in his hand always and when he had nothing else to do he would start reading.

Harry Nelson of Pittsburg (USA) had also such wonderful mental faculty. He was reputed as “The magician of the Chess Board.” He could play with twenty contestants at a time remembering the moves of each of them. Sometimes thus engaged against twenty opponents he would feel some mental fatigue, to remove which he would indulge in a game of cards also.

A German emperor had his big library in Prussia. The librarian Mathurin Bassire had miraculous memory regarding sounds. Just to test his phenomenal memory, ambassadors of twelve different countries went to him and spoke twelve different sentences each doing so in his own mother tongue. No sooner did they stop, Bassire repeated twelve different sentences of twelve different tongues immediately. The fact was that once he heard the sound of man’s voice, it was permanently fixed in his memory. Politician Leon Garobatta of France and Richard Pearson, a learned scholar of Greek, also had such wonderful capability.

There cannot be a measure for the acuteness of the power of the mind. It goes faster than a thousand horse powered engine or even than a rocket. If the mind's capabilities are properly controlled and conditioned, a man can hear quite distinctly every word of the conversation being carried on between two persons thousands of miles apart, and they can be seen as if sitting very near. Not only this, but it is possible to know what goes on in the mind of persons thousands of miles away. Television and tele-audition are the achievements of a controlled mind. The great sage Patanjali propounding the characteristics of Yoga has said:-

“The meaning of Yoga is nothing else but controlling the tendencies of the mind.” A master yogi can do anything. He can achieve the incomparable ecstasy of knowing God (Brahma) or can overawe the people by displaying miraculous feats. Mesmerism and Hypnotism, which are considered base psychic tricks, do not contribute to any spiritual up-liftment of him who practices them. For true upliftment, mind should be directed towards spiritual quest. Even if this quest of the inner self cannot be revealed in concrete results, a reasonable person by reading, knowing and hearing about this wonderful power of the mind can surely endeavor to develop in himself this heavenly mental capability.

In India, which is the home of Yoga, one will never experience a dearth of miracles. The westerners are aware of this fact. In this connection a western correspondent's experience is worth noting. He writes, "I was traveling by a river boat in India. As soon as the boat touched a port, an Indian dressed only in a loin cloth boarded the boat with a bundle. He took a coil of rope lying there. Taking one end of it he knotted it and threw it upwards to the sky with all his might. The knot was going higher and higher and the coil below was being unwound of its own accord, and in a short time the whole coil of rope vanished in the sky.

A coconut shell was lying nearby. He filled it with water, the amount of which was meager. Yet pouring the water in a pail, he filled the pail to the brim. He repeated this process and filled fifteen pails in a row. Then he chanted something and raised up his hand, the coconut shell disappeared, and when he lowered his hand there was a pail seen in it. Seeing all this we were so amazed, that we could not make out what all that was.”

Paul Brunton wandered all over India in search of such miracles and as a result of what he saw he wrote a book in support of this secret lore. Louis Jackalion, a French magistrate of Pondichery has also written a book on similar lines in which he has praised very much this secret lore of India. What others look up as wonderful miracles or displays of secret lore are considered by the Yogis as a little glimpse of the power of the mind. Though the display of this power is attractive to observe, it is a serious impediment to the ultimate goal of self-realization. The aim of controlling the mind is to know the True Self. By achieving this knowledge man can experience freedom from life's bondage and enjoy bliss of heaven.

In “Ramottartapaniya Upanishad”, in the discussion of the capabilities of the mind, it is stated: “The meeting place between the eye-brows and the nose is not only heaven, but something higher than heaven, but it is controlled by nature. Thus knowing Brahma one must worship this meeting point at the time of performing Sandhya. The Sadhak, who knows that the point of achieving the un-manifested Brahma is limited to the physical meeting point of the eyebrows and the nose, calls the point as spiritual Kashi.
Mind is the chief means of achieving salvation. Lured by desires, man becomes a slave to passions. Enjoyment of passions does not lead to diminishing the force of passions but on the contrary to augmenting them. The powers of the mind are thus dissipated in such loose worldly affairs. Hence for the realization of the Highest Essence, it is desirable to discard all passions and desires of the mind and to concentrate it on the innerself. The pivotal point of creation and continuation is the mind.

Life is perennially new, but the mind is old and ancient. The dust of the past goes on collecting on it and this layer of dust covers the mirror of consciousness. Only the lure of material things remains active. Thus the mind falls into bondage. For the true experience of living, freedom from mind's bondage is essential.