Paranormal Mystics and Miracles in Modern India

book photo of Mayah Balse and a 1970s view of Delhi at the Jama Masjid Mosque

 

Delhi journalist and author Mayah Balse interviewed current-day yogis and mystics as reported in the book Mystics and Men of Miracles in India (1976).  A 2009 revised edition states that the author during her career made more than 1,000 contributions to mainstream media outlets, including The Times of India, Femina, Eve's Weekly, Reader's Digest and the BBC.  Mayah Balse (1939-2010) was the wife of an Indian Air Force officer and she also was an episodic TV show writer in India.  The interviews in this book reveal information seldom presented in the West.  This data is of scientific interest despite evidence presenting some 'paranormal' aspect often remaining unreported among news and information media.

Chapter titles include "The Third Eye," "The Astral Body," "Materialisation," "Dare-devil Feats" and "The Women Swamis."  The book was co-published in the United States by The HaPi Press of Oregon by arrangement with Heritage Publishers of New Delhi, India.  

Mystics and Men of Miracles in India begins with these introductory sentences: "I met many people in the course of writing this book, some who were magicians and mystics in their own light . . . others who were neither but had just had experiences with supernatural phenomena . . ."  Mayah commented in one of the first paragraphs about cultural traditions encompassing spirituality, mysticism and perspectives of 'God' in her country:

The true mystic, we are told, renounces the world of material things for God realisation or self-realisation which is one and the same thing.  In the philosophy of 'Monism' which occurs in the Indian 'Vedanta,' God and his Universe are said to one and the same.  Man is the 'microcosm' while God is the 'macrocosm.'  In the nature of man lie dormant all the forces of his sublime and infinitely greater half.  The process of awakening this energy [as traditionally perceived] is long and tortuous but those who venture are promised the higher perception which makes them akin to supermen or minigods.

Comparing this statement to Western Pop culture, commercial Pop culture offers a perspective of Divine creativity on the basis of individual perception and social consciousness.  Mayah mentioned ancient texts the Reg Vedic Upanishads and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali circa 200 B.C.

The sacred texts declare that the Yoga of body control was revealed by Lord Shiva himself to the sage Cheranda.  This was later passed on to the holy man Marteyanda and it ultimately came down through the years in a continuous relay.  But legends like this are rampant in Hindu mythology . . .

 

 

In the ancient Sanskrit classics, rishis and holy men were revered and glorified.  In fact they were placed in the same category as kings, if not a shade higher.  Daughters of monarchs were frequently given in marriage to them, even if they were unwashed ascetics dressed in tree bark.  Princes fell at their feet and treated them as embodiments of the gods.  In fact, they were credited with all kinds of strange powers, of blessing and cursing and even of metamorphosing themselves into any form at will. 

Mayah raised the question, "What is the difference between magic and mysticism?" . . . So come with me while I open those windows." 

During a visit to the rural ashram of 'Bhagwan' Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011) while conducting her in-person research expeditions, she encountered the historian/biographer/translater of Sai Baba's discourses who suggested for her to buy the three-volume biography about him (by N. Kasturi).  Mayah's book describes many of the adulatory perspectives and surprising paranormal testimonials being made at the time about Sai Baba, such as 'The Miracle Man.'  One case study book mentioned is The Man of Miracles (1971) by Howard Murphet.

 

Mayah's book divulges the gamut of perspectives and associations of 1970s India related to diverse traditional metaphysical and mystical orientations.  Observing people who dedicated themselves to spiritual healing resulted with Mayah concluding, "It is a force which works miracles."  She observed that the variety of metaphysical perceptions of contemporary people in India varied from those having esteem for a 'Guru' or 'Yogi' to individuals being a 'religionless meditator,' 'agnostic' or 'atheist.'  One 'magician' is quoted: "There is in this world a great deal that we cannot explain in plausible terms.  It is certain there is some force beyond us . . ."

 

Readers are reminded by Mayah, "Ours is the age of Kali Yug."  Judith M. Tyberg in The Language of the Gods (1970) provided a description of Kaliyuga for Westerners after studies at the Theosophical University of California, receiving the Masters degree from Benares Hindu University, and staying six months in the ashram of the sage Aurobindo:

The Dark-Age, the Yuga in which only one part of the truth prevails, because materiality and ignorance with their evil relations of selfishness and anger and indifference hold sway over men's hearts.  We are now in Kaliyuga; this dark age commenced at the death of Krishna at midnight between February 17th and 18th in the year 3102 B.C. (kal — to incite, to impel).

One anecdote shared by Mayah involves a quoted conversation with Avinish Chandra, an Indian Air Force soldier-turned-mystic who spoke with her about his experiences of meditation and mantras, palmistry and yogic chakras.  When Mayah's husband suddenly took her arm and steered her away, she mused: "If I became a Yogin, he would have to become a Yogi . . . I wondered what had upset him . . . 'All Yogins,' I explained on the way back, 'are not in the same class.'" 

 

While observing examples of stage and street magicians, Mayah became acquainted with 'Mustafa the Mystique' (E. B. Surty) "who labels himself both a mystic and a magician, displays magic which is a combination of Oriental and Western Magic, tricks and illusions, with Yogic feats, extrasensory perception and telepathy thrown in for kicks.  He says he has not invoked any nature spirits or any spirits from the higher or lower astral."

"A mystic is not necessarily a magician, nor a magician a mystic," said Mustafa, "as is commonly supposed.  A mystic in the true sense would be one who seeks for direct intercourse with the Almighty Creator in elevated religious feeling or ecstasy.  A magician normally does or indulges in the pretended art of producing marvelous or amazing results apparently by the aid of spirits or secret forces of nature.  He actually does skillful sleight of hand tricks and performs illusions.  'You see what you don't see and you don't see what you see.'"

 

 

Mustafa too is only a part-time magician.  A triple graduate equipped with a Certificate in Business and Industrial Management, he is employed as a Sales Representative in a leading organization in Bombay.  He says he incurs heavy expenditure in the manufacturing of his magical apparatus, so he charges for his performances.  Sometimes he finds himself spending more than he earns.  He takes great risks doing death defying feats.

 

 

The part-time magician then is still holding fort in an increasingly difficult age when he is being paid less and less attention and even lesser money, his pastures of entertainment having been gradually eroded into by a gargantuan medium of mass entertainment, the cinema.

Mayah found that there were mystics "reluctant about disclosing their experiences" so "Our knowledge of the subtle realm then, must needs be gleaned from dissociated accounts of people who have come very near death."  Her book includes one 'near-death experience' described by H. L. Bhugra of Bangalore.

 

"I was in a hotel on Wellington Island, Cochin.  The participants of the dinner of Thursday 26th July 1962 were taken ill.  It was food poisoning due to tinned fish.  I was also a victim.  As the days passed my illness increased and took an acute turn.  A doctor was called in, with no relief at all.  He advised shifting me to a private nursing home.  I was there till 3rd August, but my condition went on deteriorating.

"Hiccups then developed and all the organs in the abdominal region were affected.  The intensity of pain was unbearable.  The doctor in charge of the nursing home did not want me to die there.  He advised my removal and nothing further could be done for me.  I was brought to my hotel room and left there."

"I was in great pain next day.  I prayed with all the strength and faith of my soul.  As the thought ended, my breathing stopped with a long drawn sigh like a rattle.  The hiccups also stopped.  I became semi-conscious or so I thought.  I felt very light, as if I was being lifted up and up . . . all soul . . . no body.  Then I was near another figure vague and hazy.  He was carrying me like a baby.  His face was bearded and kind.  There was no pain."

He eventually awoke to discover himself feeling fit again and Mayah related that the doctors were surprised at the miraculous recovery of the Bangalore businessman. 

Part 2 of this article presents "Excerpts of Interviews with Mystics and People of Miracles in India".   After having personally observed a variety of apparent occurrences of psychic phenomena and spiritual healing, in the chapter "The Women Swamis" Mayah expressed the irony that in the dark ages there was a belief that a woman could not attain 'moksha' directly but had to be born first in the body of a man before she could aspire to self-realization.  Previous blog articles relating to spirituality in India include "India's Wisdom Traditions, Sages and Cosmogenesis Mythology" and "Krishna Consciousness and The Beatles".