BOOK REVIEW                   SPIRITUALITY
ENCOUNTERS WITH
MEN OF MIRACLES
AUTHOR: MAYAH BALSE
REVIEWER: RATNADEEP BANERJI

Occult powers are not mumbo jumbo

Can fables be enacted in our real life? Quite indeed, the occult makes fact and fiction converge. Incredulous though, Mayah Balse ferrets out such instances of aberrations, vagaries, freaks and eccentricities to topsy-turn her readers. And all this happens in today’s modish terra firma, amidst the milling crowd of the hoi polloi. The book encompasses all supernatural activities by mystics and alike, from faith healing masters to dare devil acts. Mayah also delves into the theory of spiritual evolution. The book also answers several questions haunting the Indian society about the mystics that lie beyond the purview of human comprehension and perceptions.

Mayah Balse asserts, ‘almost every third person I encountered in the normal course of day-to-day living had had direct experiences with ghosts or spirits; had been influenced by a mystic, or cured by a faith-healer’. Incredulously Mayah Balse discovers flesh mortifiers, black magicians, death defiers who despite getting interred remain alive, yogis who can voluntarily stop their pulse and heart-beat, mystics who can reify honey and ash from thin air and the clairvoyant masters. 

Kalika Prasad sounds an ordinary Indian name albeit his ability to draw supernatural power from liquor. He claims to have saved a woman from the throes of death merely by sprinkling liquor over her face. He attributes it to ‘amazing properties of alcohol. In the highest form of “tapas” we perform puja with alcohol, offer it to the Deity and drink it ourselves as prasad’. Kalika Prasad also claims paan and zarda to trigger his supernatural powers. How he acquired these powers? ‘It is the result of intense concentration’ and is candid to admit that ‘I do no yoga nor have I acquired any sidhdhis. All I do is sit quietly for a few hours each day and concentratrate’. The authoress also found out that Kalika Prasad ‘has an uncanny knack of telling the future, to a surprisingly accurate degree’ as it happened to her. Mayah recounts an incredulous incident about how Kalika Prasad got initiated by Dastagir Baba. ’Other mystics go away into the Himalayas to meditate and pray. As for me, I did not stir out of Delhi. ‘ The book has peeled down the rigmaroles Kalika Prasad followed upon his quest.

Narayan Baba, otherwise a mundane person with a plush house, car and a family can materialize ash and idols from nowhere. He was a rich doctor’s son, got kidnapped by robbers and finally landed up in Shirdi with Sai Baba. And then subsequently, he went on to establish 36 spiritual centers abroad in different parts of the world – Narayan Baba Spiritual Healing Centre. He is touted to remove stones from gall bladders and kidneys with just a superficial touch on the skin. The authoress saw press clippings of this feat that he attempted abroad. He also makes predictions without knowing astrology, numerology or palmistry. It is all Raja Yoga that endows him this mystic prowess. As a youth Narayan Baba had served Ramana Maharshi as well. 

What is God like? Mayah Balse handpicks, ‘Bhagvan’ Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthy. On auspicious occasions like Shivaratri, ‘Lingam’ is regurgitated out of his body through mouth. Numerous miracles witnessed by Baba’s disciples are mentioned for the readers to adjudge the veracity of facts and fiction.  His fabulous power to apport makes the entire world make a beeline to witness the splendour. The profundity of his apporment rules out any sleight of hand.

The book also deals with the Hindu concept of reincarnation and transmigration of soul as propounded conclusively in the Upanishads. Mayah cites several cases from Ian Stevenson’s ‘Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation’. Stevenson puts the figure around 2500 worldwide to assert overwhelming evidence for the theory. Mayah also met Dr Paricha and Dr Murty who were researchers at Bangalore who had stumbled upon more than eighty cases in India alone. Mayah puts forth several of such cases in India which conclusively bears ample evidence that in the after-life several persons retain memories of previous life. Also, such previous-birth memories linger in the after-life in cases of violent deaths. And interestingly, in many cases a birthmark remains in the after-life of the inflicted injury in the previous life. Such freak memory generally fades out as one starts growing up.

Faith-healing and thaumaturgic power are proven facts worldwide. Psychokinesis has been experimentally proved. Barley seeds watered with ordinary water grow far slower than when watered with mantra-treated water. In situ, wounds in mice have been shown to heal much faster with the touch of faith healers. And so the healing factor of vibhuti stands undisputed. An entire chapter is devoted upon ‘the third eye’ much touted to hold extra sensory perception. Mayah goes on citing umpteen such cases. ’The astral body’ is a chapter devoted to psychedelic trips, the most incredulous to believe. There are numerous apocryphal stories related to Indian folklore.

The book amplifies those hushed reverberations that does rounds in the metaphysical corridor and ever remain enshrouded. Quite indeed the book offers a fascinating reading with figments of fancy becoming tangible for readers to take stock of occult science and also dabble with the realms of recondite extra sensory perception.