Divine Power
Power creates, sustains, or destroys. If it is exercised on the side of good, it is divine power; on the side of evil, demonic power. The earth oscillates like a spinning top, this side and that. It reveals its dark half and its bright half through space and time.
This is true of human potency. But when there is descent of superhuman power, power that stems directly from the Divine, it contributes not to the mere oscillation of earth, but to a new dawn, the world’s great age, a new step in human evolution. Baba is the harbinger of this new world order.
Baba’s power is the power of spirit. Temporal power may not heed it for a while, blinded by its own glory, but it bends its head low before spirit at the end. It proves to the hilt the truth of the poet’s utterances—”it is the eternal law that first in beauty should be first in might,” interpreting `beauty’ to man’s sheer innocence and purity of being and becoming. It is the power of truth that knows no compromise, of justice undimmed by any frailty of heart or head, of love that washes the human shores of earth whether they be black or yellow, white, red, or brown. This power is a white radiance, a transcendental sunbeam.
What exactly does it consist of? It is a dewdrop that descends from the lotus with thousand petals, the elemental exercise of a will that is omniscient and omnipotent. It is the will that sees and acts simultaneously. What it wills, fills, and fulfills itself in space and time. But it bides its time, unwarped by slushy sentiment, unbiased by impatient hurry. And when it strikes, it is there for all to see, like a column of light that unites the earth and the sky.
Baba’s power is not the display of a siddhi [supernatural power] attained after prodigious labor. It scatters its silver and gold with a rare prodigality, giving people what they want, until they begin to aspire for what Baba likes them to want. It is the cascade of vibhuti or holy ash, endless, exhaust‑less. It is the crystallization of lingam after lingam—spheroids of alabaster or jade—from the silk‑soft lotus leaves in the abdomen. It is the ceaseless oozing of honey from the heart of granite itself. It is the descent of a succession of golden images of gods and goddesses from nowhere. It is the transformation of stray particles of sand on seashore into the divine image of Sri Krishna, the reconstitution of water into petrol.
It is the profuse outpouring of vibhuti and the amassing of kumkum [vermillion powder] behind the glass frame on the photograph, the footprints in holy ashes leading to the worship room in a house and out of it. It is the flower moving marvelously from the top of a photograph to its base, or whole garlands aflutter, as if shaken by the wind. It is the tyrannical teacher glued to his chair in the class, unable to rise unless he rises with it. It is the rain that suddenly stops raining or the electric bulb that blazes with light when the whole area is plunged in darkness. It is the shaft of light that hits you in the eye from a photograph. All this is not magic. It is the magic of all magic creation itself, for there is no such magician to be found anywhere.
No wonder a hippie said that he knew now that he had met Baba that the world was safe from atom and hydrogen bombs. The atomic stock‑piles of the great powers might, at a strategic moment, lie de‑fused in their vaults, with no hand touching them at all.
This is Baba’s elemental power over nature, which is incredible and yet as clear as daylight. It becomes even more staggering when you remember that these phenomena occur in thousands of homes simultaneously, though removed thousands of miles from each other. It happened years ago, and it still happens today with unabating vigor and it will continue to happen more miraculously than ever.
There is another dimension to this power. Baba can appear in an operation theatre behind closed and guarded doors. He can be here and there, in another place a thousand miles away at the same time. His image can stamp itself, as in the heart of crystal, on the stone lingam in a village temple. He can appear in dream before numberless devotees and recount to them their dream‑experience when He meets them individually.
In a chat over the breakfast table, speaking to the devotees who were there at the time, regarding all such miracles He once said, “This is happening in millions of homes. The time has not come as yet to assess it publicly. I am waiting so that all the devotees who have yet to come to Me may do so. When there is public assessment, there will be such widespread excitement that I may be rendered inaccessible. All these are signs of a power that can change the very course of events in the world.”
An American devotee who was present at the time when these remarks were made asked, “Baba, have I your permission to tell my friends in America about this pronouncement?”
Straight came the answer, “It’s not my business. It may be your duty.”
Baba is what He is. It is not for Him to proclaim from the housetops what He is. But it becomes the duty of the devotee who has come to know Him and to experience His effulgence to tell the world what Baba is, if the devotee is convinced that what he has experienced is the truth.
It is well-known that Baba takes on critical attacks of illness with which His devotees are afflicted. This happened in a striking manner once when He took on paralysis at Puttaparthi, and again when in Goa He took on acute appendix resulting in peritonitis. To put it more precisely, these diseases come on Him, rather than being taken on by Him. His body, like an Aeolian harp, trembles in response to the call of those who love Him with a pure and intense love—it is a matter of sympathetic vibrations, for He is love itself. What saves His body from these fatal attacks is the immortal and unconquerable power of this very love.
There is another facet to Baba’s power. As an American disciple said, Baba can change the human heart. It is not merely a question of teaching yogic or meditative practices. He brings about a transformation in a man’s character and personality. Thousands have been changed in this way by His compelling sweetness, His ineffable love, casual word, or look. His compassion can put on the mask of harshness, when that becomes necessary.
What is much more difficult to understand is Baba’s power to change human destiny. He is endowed with that power of grace that can alter the characters writ in the stars or on one’s forehead. That He can do this, I have no doubt whatsoever. If it sounds incredible, it has to be experienced to be believed. Here again it is divine love that is at work for its own inscrutable purposes.
Baba has declared that He is here in the flesh to restore India to her former spiritual glory and to carry the message of spirituality to the whole of humanity through her. He has said in categorical terms is that His labors in this manifestation will not cease until His mission is over. I am one of those who believe in Him and in the surety of His pledge. The question may be asked, “Why? On what grounds?” My answer to that question is, “I believe in Baba and in the surety of His pledge, not because I am what I am, but because Baba is what He is.”
~Dr. Vinayaka Krishna Gokak, M.A., D. Lit.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, June 1971
