THE REAL THING THAT MATTERS

 
No miracle is an exception to the existing laws of the universe. It is an overt result of the impersonal working or conscious use of the established laws of the inner spheres. It is called a miracle because it cannot be explained by the known laws of the gross world. Here, known laws are superimposed by unknown laws; it is not a case of chaos or lawlessness.

There are many examples of miracles. Giving sight to the blind and kindred achievements are brought under the category of miracles. They do not set aside the laws of the universe but are the expressions of laws and forces, unknown and inaccessible to most human beings. There are some persons who, through the use of their supernatural powers, can keep their bodies alive for hundreds of years although they are not necessarily spiritually advanced. In the same way, the lingering aura of a saint may work miracles from his burial place.

The scope of miracles is very wide. Even the animal world is not exempt from the possibility of miracles. Though mammals such as porpoises and other animals do not have a fully developed subtle body, there is in the subtle world an equivalent or counterpart of their gross forms. The rudimentary subtle matrix, which has yet to develop into a definite and functionally self-sufficient subtle form, can still serve some purposes and become a medium for performance of miracles. Stories of sorcerers who cause schools of porpoises to come from the open sea to shore for a native feast are within the bounds of probability. But all the realm of the supernatural, occult, miraculous and magic (black or white) must be regarded as having no spiritual value in itself.

Occult phenomena like stigmata, telekinesis (effecting the flight of objects such as a communion wafer through the air), elongation, elevation, etc., may amuse, astound or overpower people. But they cannot bring about spiritual healing or uplift, which is the real thing that matters. They are just an illustration of the supersession of ordinary and known laws of nature by the supernatural and unknown laws of the inner spheres. The curious might very well occupy their minds with these things, but they are best relegated to the background as insignificant.

The real lover of Truth passes by these things without becoming entangled with any of them. He cannot afford to be distracted or diverted from his real objective, viz., attaining union which God and releasing the radiance of His purity and love.