“What is a miracle?-’Tis a reproach,
’Tis an implicit satire on mankind.”
-Edward Young, in Night Thoughts.
[34-6:] The theory of the atomic structure of matter was expounded in the ancient Indian Vaisesika and Nyaya treatises. “There are vast worlds all placed away within the hollows of each atom, multifarious as the motes in a sunbeam.” -Yoga Vasishtha.
[34-7:] Physical, mental, and spiritual suffering; manifested, respectively, in disease, in psychological inadequacies or “complexes,” and in soul-ignorance.
[34-8:] Chapter II:40.
[34-9:] A town near Benares.
[34-10:] In the path to the Infinite, even illumined masters like Lahiri Mahasaya may suffer from an excess of zeal, and be subject to discipline. In the Bhagavad Gita, we read many passages where the divine guru Krishna gives chastisement to the prince of devotees, Arjuna.
[34-11:] A porridge made of cream of wheat fried in butter, and boiled with milk.
[34-12:] The man, Maitra, to whom Lahiri Mahasaya is here referring, afterward became highly advanced in self-realization. I met Maitra shortly after my graduation from high school; he visited the Mahamandal hermitage in Benares while I was a resident. He told me then of Babaji’s materialization before the group in Moradabad. “As a result of the miracle,” Maitra explained to me, “I became a lifelong disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya.”