Daily Notes and Reflections by Alokda

Much group healing is like this. Such sessions are generally full of vital forces thrown out by the group members themselves and the healer or medium, often a strongly vital person, generating a strong field of vital forces that are supported by a collective hope. Functional illnesses, that is to say, not so much physical as psychological, like for example hysterical paralysis or blindness or epilepsy which is more a dissociative reaction, may seem to magically disappear but only to return in a new dramatic form or remain as an undercurrent in the hysterical personality. Many so-called miracle men thrive on this sort of mixed stuff and some make it really big because of the high drama generated by their extremely vital personality that magnetically attracts such a following. These things often rise on the crest of a popular boom and later crash as suddenly as they had appeared. Of course, people may continue to throng around such individuals because that is the usual psychology of the sufferer. They do not mind trying it out even if it does not work for the moment. In any case, the intensely vital atmosphere, combined with heightened expectation, facilitates an emotional catharsis and so attracts people. Most men relish emotions on display and to that extent this catharsis itself partially helps. It is as if by sharing this group enthusiasm, we forget for a while our personal grief and pain. This is not so much caused by any great or astounding power on the part of the medium, but rather due to the very nature of group psychology!

The other form of a miracle is through the intervention of a higher determinism, or bringing into play higher forces than the physical, say vital (pranic) and mental energies for example. These forces may intervene, changing the course of illness or may simply superimpose themselves on the physical manifestations of illness leading to temporary reprieve. The illness may then remain dormant for years but may never leave completely. It can also erupt again after a certain period. Or else a new malady may appear in place of the old one. Otherwise it might stay as an undercurrent of life, maiming us from within, even though we may seem to be free of the illness from outside.

These interventions sometimes appear miraculous since they relieve and heal without the aid of physical methods. We are so used to thinking and believing that material forces are the only effective means that we feel any other intervention without material support is truly miraculous. But if we look behind the magic and try to understand the play of forces, then we discover that even this is effective only to the extent that the body consciousness secretly supports the will to cure and the mind gives assent through its faith in the process. In reality, the body is cured only when it has decided to be cured and the means it uses is the one in which it has faith.

In other words, miracles have a pathway. A miracle is not a rope trick that hangs from nowhere. Neither does a miracle necessarily ignore the conditions of earthly existence. Take the common example of a miracle cure. Now, the miracle cure may take place without the use of drugs, but it may also employ some material support in that form to shorten the course of illness. Sometimes the illness may be allowed to run its full course and yet the power working out the miracle works in such a way as to avoid possible complication. At other times, it may reduce the need for drugs and their dosage and the response is much faster than usually observed. Finally, it may not change anything in the outer form of the illness, but the mind of the patient is free from suffering, his heart spontaneously lifted to a calm gladness in spite of everything. All these are various forms and shades in the working out of miracles. To understand this, we have to delve a little into the pathway of events and dynamics of a miracle in this great chain of cause and effect.

Any event on earth passes through a chain of processes. Science, or more accurately material science, has studied some of these more outward links in the process. But behind the observed there lies a chain of subtle and hidden forces interlacing through the complex cosmic fields of existence. These forces act and interact with each other to shape outer events, much like those in the physical field. Man is himself a part of that great machinery and is used for the shaping of events. Now one can intervene at many levels in this chain. The first level is the most outward, the physical one; and science has done much to study and master the field of physical forces. One should not think this field inferior since it is merely physical. Its mastery is necessary. Nevertheless, the full significance of this field itself cannot be understood until we have understood its relation to the whole. Yet some of the physical interventions themselves are no less miraculous when seen through the eyes of people living in the previous century!

Behind the physical is another range of consciousness termed the vital. Nature’s primal energies of life are the field of its play. Deft occultists and expert pranic and reiki healers manipulate this domain and, by bringing it into play, alter the balance of physical forces in favour of speeding up the healing process. And beyond the play of life-energies, there is the play of mind-energies whose role in health and healing has already been explored and accepted even by main-stream medicine. Meditation, visualisation, biofeedback are only some of the recognised ways of altering the balance of illness in favour of cure. But mind and life energies are still powers of cosmic ignorance and so they also work much like a physical pill, unable to do anything more than flatten the physical effects of illness by intervening at an earlier chain of events. They cannot tackle the subconscient roots of illness. Of course by altering appearances they too can, like modern medicine, act with swiftness and sometimes give an illusion of cure since the symptoms may disappear. But Nature’s chain persists and, like a spider’s web or hydra’s head, it springs up again in another illness. This continues till death befalls us, unless we try to grapple with the problem at its subconscient roots. This is possible only through higher spiritual forces that are sometimes activated through ardent prayer. This takes time since the roots of the malady are very deep and since it is we who nourish these roots. It is as if we try to push away illness with one hand while clinging onto it with the other.

Miracles can take several directions. The most elementary and stunning are of course those done by modern medicine through a combination of material forces. This is necessary for those not used to invoking higher forces or those not invested with the necessary trust and patience. Some people neither want to take drugs nor fulfil the conditions for a higher intervention on a diseased body. To wait with an occasional prayer expecting a miracle to suddenly appear is to play the fool with oneself. Not that a miracle cannot happen suddenly or that prayers are useless. Prayers may yet be effective and a miracle may still happen, but it may take time.

That takes us to another aspect of miracles. It relates to visible ones, the ones we appreciate and the invisible miracle, which we often fail to appreciate. Let us illustrate with an example. Men who survive major catastrophes often allude to God’s Grace and take it as a visible sign of His miracle. That is understandable. A more difficult thing to accept is the miracle of hope and faith, the miracle of dauntless courage springing up from some secret source within when challenged by adversity, the miracle of the best coming out of the worst in terms of our inner growth and resilience. Where do these things come from, but our own inner heights and depths concealed to everyday sight? It is as if adversity rents the veil that separates the surface from the silent spaces of our soul that lie hidden deep within us. In other words, it is undoubtedly a miracle when a man is cured of an intractable illness, but it is a still greater miracle that a man continues to smile and display faith and courage, even inspire hope and trust in others whilst facing death and imminent disaster. It is indeed a miracle that a man gets what he desires through prayer, but it is a still greater miracle if, when the desire is rejected, he gains a sense of freedom and inner victory. These greater miracles happen silently; they are neither visible to the outer eye nor appreciated by the common mind. But these are by far the greatest miracles of God.

There is a flipside to this matter of expectation. We often find men in religious garb making stupendous and fantastic claims. So often we even hear men of little apparent merit claiming that their practices, techniques and methods, or even mere presence, is sufficient to cure anyone of every ill, from problems of money to every physical and psychological malady. When some illnesses are cured or partially rectified, primarily due to the faith people place in the process, then the claimant opens shop. Those in whom it does not work simply succumb to their fate and do not raise a word of dissent, lest it be held a sacrilege.

Even God would not make such fantastic claims, though potentially He is fully capable of them — not because He is less powerful than these god-men, but because His power is commensurate with His wisdom. His compassion is not blinded by a passion to rush in and help, as if He dwelled in an alien world and the rest of humanity in another. The fact is that He is here too and knows perfectly well what is going on. If He does not always seem to respond to our prayers for help, it is simply because He has seen beyond the rush and rumour of the present moment of anguish and realises the daybreak and advent of Light that waits behind the storm and night. He also knows that the storm and night are often a preparation for the day, so we grow stronger in our energies and not sink into an abyss of inertia or tamas.

Another common misconception is to see events from a very personalised point of view. So, when things happen in our favour we regard it as a miracle and take it as synonymous with the will of God. A deeper study reveals that this may not be so. Life and Nature do not move with the sole objective of satisfying us. They have their own rhythm and purpose. And whilst our personal choices are taken into account, they are not the sole or perhaps even major determining factors. But our choices do make a difference. Because inherent in our choices are our attitudes towards life, which may or may not be aligned to the cosmic purpose. When it is aligned, we feel happy even if adversity appears. When not aligned, we eventually suffer even if the results seem favourable and happen according to our choice!

Another misconception is that a miracle can be made to order. This arises from an ignorance of the way a miracle works. Even when a miracle seems instantaneous, there is a process, however subtle or swift it may be. It overrides the known laws and conditions of working, but there are other hidden laws and conditions through which it works itself out. It is not a creation out of nothing. That would be an impossibility or a trick. Even the Divine does not totally disrespect the conditions of the field in which He works. The field and forces are also Him and have a great purpose in His grand plan. This grand plan and purpose is often far more important than the immediate impulse of the moment.

Recently a girl demonstrated her power of subtle vision to see and diagnose pathologies and illnesses. The scientists demanded proof. The little girl was placed under strict scrutiny and left alone with a group of disbelieving sceptics. The stress created in the child was evident. Yet she could accurately match four out of seven diagnoses and was almost correct with the fifth. But the sceptics were not satisfied! Under such strict criteria, even well-qualified and experienced doctors would fail to pass the test and medical science might be dubbed a superstition rather than a science! That may well be so, but the point is that miracles require certain inner conditions as science requires certain outer ones.

A miracle is also not necessarily an instantaneous event that dazzles the eye. There are many miracles that unfold over a period of time and which are no less miraculous on this account. So, for example, the seed of life grows over the years from a tiny cell to a mighty king or an illumined sage. Such a miracle evolves slowly; it not only creates a king, but also often equips him with the instruments to rule.

The most perfect acts that weave such intricate patterns of life need time and patience. These are God’s true miracles: the opening of a flower bud, the turning of an all-devouring caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly, the evolution of these many tiered universes and systems of galaxies and stars out of a single point of intense concentration. These are the greatest miracles that no human magic can imitate and yet these miracles take the longest.

They are not the miracles of things that are accomplished and known but the miracles of the still unknown and unborn. And yet man hardly recognises them as such; he passes by without even noticing them, since they extend beyond his arc of vision in terms of time and space.

Man needs miracles. This need when deeply observed, is the expression of a hunger for power, a need to break free from his countless limitations. But superficially, it expresses itself in the need to witness the dazzlingly fantastic and seemingly impossible.

But what exactly is a miracle? It is the occurrence of a phenomenon which defies the normal processes through which Nature seemingly operates. Magic is different. It is a tricking of the mind and senses, an illusion created by carefully applying the normal laws of Nature to create an illusion e.g. sleight of hand. It works even with the mind. The mind can so concentrate on one object as to become oblivious of others. Used differently, this faculty of concentration creates the magic of mind-games.

Miracle is not a trick or illusion. But neither is it supernatural. It is supernormal, in the sense that it does not work through the normally known operations of Nature. It does not displace normal operations. It really brings out into the normal world another play of forces and fields. To one who knows them, these forces are perfectly normal and natural. But to one who does not know how to handle them, they appear miraculous and supernatural.

Sadhana in its deepest sense is independent of all outer circumstances. It is our ideas of circumstances and attitude towards the daily events of life that make them more or less favourable. The medical profession is no exception. Take for instance the very first brush that a doctor has with the medical profession, in his study of the human body. Looked at in one way the young medico regards the body as a fantastic machine. Overawed by the workings of this wonderful machine, he is easily led to conclude that our finest thoughts, our deepest feelings, our sublimest experiences are nothing more than the body. However seen in another way the same body appears to be permeated with a conscious intelligence. One wonders whether such a marvellous creation can be simply explained by chance evolution and random mutation. One begins to feel that there is more to it than meets the eye. It is like a reaffirmation of faith that existence could not be without a vast and unified conscious intelligence standing behind the works of Nature as its unobserved observer. It is therefore our basic faith, shraddha, that determines our understanding of what we see and experience rather than the object of experience itself!

Moving through the mazes of the human body, we marvel at the intricate perfection of Mahasaraswati’s work. So too in the many circadian rhythms of the human physiology and biochemistry, we begin to see a pattern that reminds us of the great cosmic rhythms. One can see how the universe reproduces itself in the individual at all levels as if all were the workings of a single dance of creation; from the spinning of the nucleus to the movement of molecules through the minute pores of a cell.

So far the learning remains impersonal. But with the beginning of the personal side of medical education, the fresh medico has to confront many existential dilemmas. His rendezvous with death, the great annihilator, becomes frequent enough to raise uncomfortable questions about life itself. He also meets life wearing the mask of death or hiding its sting behind glamorous appearances. Or else he begins to learn that the only thing predictable about life is its unpredictability. The neat and perfect world of cellular physiology is challenged and ruptured by the sight of human pathology. The rub of human pain awakens compassion more readily but can also desensitize one to it. Some doctors instinctively begin to carry this pain in their own consciousness through sympathy and empathy. Others begin to regard pain as a routine transaction between life and death as if pain were an inevitable price that life must pay for its will to live. The philosophical side of the doctor has to reconcile with the existence of pain in God’s world, while the practical side has to discover the many possible solutions to it, — only to discover the impermanence of all such solutions. Thus we see that medical training itself can serve as a useful preparation for spiritual life.

The human body is a meeting-point for all the forces manifested so far. A study of human beings therefore can be an interesting gateway to the understanding of the cosmic forces. True, modern medical science, basing itself largely upon material and sensory evidence, often ignores the role of many insensible and supraphysical forces in health and illness. Still most doctors, unless they are totally blinded by reductionism, do begin to acknowledge the role of deeper forces in healing. This recognition may come early or late, it may come when confronted with the anomalous or the unpredictable but it does come to most. Even as a discipline, general medicine is beginning to recognize the role of thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and emotional states in the causation and cure of diseases. What else is this but a backdoor entry into domains higher than the mere physical? In addition, the need for compassion, patience, perseverance in the face of inevitable failure; faith, goodwill, generosity, kindness, courage in the face of death; can be born naturally in a doctor, since they are so much more needed in this profession than many others. What else is this but a preparation for a higher and deeper life? For only the touch of the inmost soul can create in us faith, courage, charity, compassion and the will to help the struggling race:

Through this she sends us her glory and her powers,
Pushes to wisdom’s heights, through misery’s gulfs;
She gives us strength to do our daily task
And sympathy that partakes of others’ grief
And the little strength we have to help our race,
We who must fill the role of the universe
Acting itself out in a slight human shape
And on our shoulders carry the struggling world.
[Savitri: 527]

Of course, any profession can become a means for entry into a deeper and a higher life if we pursue it with the right inner attitude. Done in a spirit of offering and selflessness, asniskama karma, it can prepare us for a powerful Yoga in the world if not actually become a means of Yoga itself. But the fact that the medical profession needs a combination of the heart, head and dynamic will makes it specially useful as a means of preparation for an integral Yoga. The physician needs to deliberately reconcile in himself reason and faith, practical sense and idealism, the attitude of a fighter and the approach of calm wisdom, in a harmonious synthesis for useful action. Above all, he is called upon to become not just an instrument of light, strength, peace and love but most importantly, an instrument of Grace. On the other hand, he is also called upon to supply the deficiency of faith in illness-bound people. For in the final analysis it is not the physician or his drugs but the action of Grace supported by the patient’s faith that can victoriously conquer disease, suffering and death.

Alok Pandey