MIRACLES FROM THE MASTERS

At a young age Swami Rama saw his Master move mountains, literally. He talks of an incident when he was about 6-7 years old and walking with his Master in the high mountains, crossing over a snow-laden valley, when an avalanche started to break away from a glacier and ominously started coming down. They were directly in its path, and no escape was possible. As it came tearing down it was a matter of seconds before they would be trapped under. The young disciple knew that death was imminent, but his Master simply made a sound and asked him not to speak. He then raised his arm, letting out an invisible force that beckoned the avalanche to halt its petrifying descent. To Swami Rama’s utter surprise the huge block of broken glacier stopped rolling down with its hundreds of tons of rocks and soil, all covered in enormous swathes of ice and snow. Master and pupil then crossed the half-a-mile distance and away from the path of the patiently waiting avalanche, at which point Bengali Baba asked it to commence its downward journey once more, motioning his arms like a traffic policeman does to resume the flow of vehicles. Such surprises and miracles were countless from the Master, and yet Swami Rama says that he was always warned not to pay too much attention to such feats, otherwise unimaginable for ordinary folks.

Sometime in 1954 just when Swami Rama was to leave for Germany Bengali Baba said that all swamis should come at 5.30 in the evening for the last teachings. He was going to cast his body. He eventually sat in the accomplished pose and gently muttered the sound “Aumm” and became lifeless. Everyone, including Swami Rama, started crying. For two days starting at sunrise the distraught disciples carried his body through the hills before deciding to bury it on a mountain top from where they could see their cave at a distance. Swami Rama, however, recalls becoming inert and lifeless shortly after. He could feel that his soul was entirely separated from his body. Others too were having a similar experience. Meanwhile, knowing the pain his disciples were going through, Bengali Baba got up and came out of the pit they had dug to bury his body. He told them that they were still worshipping the form and were unable to go beyond it. Then he started teaching Swami Rama the relationship between the body and the formless soul.