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Journalism of Courage
Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the celebrated nineteenth-century Saint of Dakshineshwar, did not place great store by miracles. He said, 8220;I could never ask the Divine Mother to give me occult powers which are gained through yogic practices and intense sadhanas and by means of which one can perform miracles. I only beseeched her to grant me pure, unalloyed devotion at her holy feet.8221;
Not that he did not encounter miracles in his own life. A prominent one was when his ardent supporter and devotee, Mathur Babu 8212; a pure-hearted soul but somewhat sceptical soul 8212; questioned the ability of even God to go against the laws of nature. 8220;For instance,8221; he averred, 8220;that hibiscus 8216;China Rose8217; that you see before you has always produced flowers of a particular colour, white; it can never bring forth a red or any other coloured flower.8221;
But the occurrence of divine miracles is one thing and miracle-mongering is another. One of the eminent contributors in Vedanta for the Western World, edited by Christopher Isherwood, laments the tendency of some religionists to build their case of the superiority of their belief system on grounds of miracles 8212; miraculous cures and so on. Presumably they do this to 8220;spread their faith8221; not faith as such!, to increase their following. Shri Ramakrishna, on the other hand, notes the writer, would have none of this. He enjoined upon his followers to seek spirituality in its quintessential form because the goal or purpose of life is God-realisation, not miraculous cures.
The greatest miracle, it would appear, is when a wicked man reforms and gives up his evil ways 8212; turning away from them, he turns to God, like Valmiki. Hence the well-known prayer, asato ma sadgamaya, tamso ma jyotirgamaya mrityor ma amritamgamaya, from the unreal, lead me to the Real; from darkness to Light; from death to Immortality.
