- Pujya Babuji Maharaj

By the grace of my Master I shall try to reveal a great secret, or a mystery, which the people in general do not know. It is a great wonder when a great personality like Lord Krishna, Swami Vivekananda or my Master changes the entire course of a man's life. How is this done? Some sceptics may say it is after all due to the person who wanted to change himself, and the Master or Guru was the cause merely for name's sake. If Lord Krishna had such power why did he not change the heart of Duryodhana instead of bringing about the battle of Kurukshetra? They may also quote many stories wherein somebody taking a worthless person or even a lifeless object as a guide has become a great saint. But this need not hinder us in trying to find out the reality, because God's ways are mysterious. Some are deluded by their own thinking and some are illumined by Divine Grace.

If the question as to from whom Lord Krishna got light is put to me, my answer would be that He is Self-luminous. But then this need not mislead the enquirer that he too is self-luminous and everyone else is also such, and there is an end to all enquiry. Logical speculations are no substitutes for the cravings of the heart. The heart is not satisfied even if the logic stops dead in some blind alley.

Pranahuti is effected through the power of will which is always effective. If a trainer in spirituality exerts his will to mould the mind of the trainee it will bring effective and excellent results. Many swamijis, who start the profession of gurudom as soon as they put on the ochre-coloured uniform, complain that although their shishyas (disciples) listen to them with interest, yet they remain as crooked as the tail of a dog. The reason is obvious. Either the swamiji does not exert his will or he has got no power. The teachers prescribe many laborious and brain-taxing practices and leave their disciples to their own fate. Neither does the teacher know the result of the methods nor does the disciple care to use his discrimination. The result is internal grossness, dullness of the intellect and loss of freedom on the part of the disciples, and corruption, degradation and moral turpitude on the part of gurus, who are very conscious of only their right to teach, but quite unmindful of their duties and responsibilities towards their disciples.

The worthy trainer with the power of yogic transmission weakens the lower tendencies of the mind of the trainee, and sows the seed of Divine light in the inner most core of the abhyasi's heart. In this process the trainer uses his own will-force which has the Divine Infinite power at its back. In a way he is conscious of That and he just focuses It through the lens of his own will upon the heart of the trainee. The trainee may not feel anything at the beginning. The reason is that he is accustomed to feel only through the senses, and the Divine power is beyond senses. After some time, however, he may feel the results of such transmission, which also are in the form of subtle changes of the workings of his vital parts and of the tendencies of his mind.

A crude analogy of this process may be found in mesmerism and hypnotism whose results are contrary to those of Pranahuti. In these baser arts the hypnotiser uses his will-force with the backing of material power. And the will of the hypnotised person is weakened, and he finds himself dull and heavy hearted after he wakes up from the hypnotic trance. A disease may be cured, or a particular tendency of mind may be suppressed to some extent, depending upon the power of the hypnotiser and the submission of the hypnotised. But the effect does not last long. The hypnotic power is developed by some intense mental and physical practices using material things or mental images as objects of concentration. These practices often lead one to mental deformity or insanity, and sometimes even physical deformities will be the result. A successful practice, after a long time, may however result at the most in the gain of some material power which is limited, and useful only for the gratification of some kinds of desires as long as it lasts.

By now the reader might have come to the obvious conclusion that the power of Pranahuti is a Divine Power working through the channel of pure mind. How is the mind purified? How does it get connected with the Divine Power? The simple answer is that these happen when the thought is linked up with God permanently. Again, how is one to link up his thought with God permanently? Many answers have been given to it. But the secret which bubbles up from the bottom of my heart is that it is my Master who does it, who did it, and who is doing it. When I saw my Master my heart was filled up with his light. And I started to remember him constantly as my Lord, my Master and my Soul. May all true seekers find him. Amen!