The Celestial Messaging!

It is a fact of life that we keep on getting celestial or divine messages from the invisible world—particularly during times when catastrophes/tragedies happening in or about to befall our family or locality or country and we might as well call these as intuition or premonition or telepathy or presentiment or the like. Most of the times we fail to decipher these in time; sometimes we understand but fail to act upon it and some other time we comprehend enough to prepare well for it. From at least three months prior to my father’s demise I had been having a very disturbing time—wanting desperately to go to him, be by his side; dreaming about him and at times having a hallucination of seeing him around. However, living quite far away from home, I failed to act upon it due to various external factors including a persistent financial strain. As was inevitable, he passed away one early morning and I could reach home only on the sixth day travelling for three days on an ordinary train as booking a flight those days was almost unthinkable. I joined my family, totally broke, depressed and inconsolable.

The first night we slept in my father’s bedroom. Early morning I woke up; there was an incessant chirping of a few house sparrows just outside the window. And I got a flash: my father was content and in peaceful rest, and that I should also feel happy, not to depress the atmosphere further. It came instantly before I had any chance of interpreting the chirping, and it did have a soothing impact on my mental health for the rest of the period.

(You can find a very similar territory in my thriller The Astral Limbo! No harm if you'd like to take a look!)

There was also a very painful prelude to the demise of my father-in-law: he had not been well for some time, but since he didn’t confide in anybody about his condition and we failed to take it seriously enough his condition worsened, and finally when we decided upon the journey he was literally on his death bed. For our peace of mind my wife and I decided to shift him to the nearest city for intensive treatment; we were desperate to do something for him, however futile or too late it were. Those 2/3 nights we spent in my in-laws’ house were terrifyingly disturbing for me. Every night I felt: the spirits of all his ancestors descending on me, not allowing me to fall asleep. I interpreted it thus: the ancestors came down and wanted to take possession of his soul in peace, because the end was inevitable and they did not want him to suffer more at the hospital beds and labs; they seemed to be angry at our efforts to linger it further. However, my father-in-law, kind soul as his was, understood his daughter’s feelings and allowed us to transport him for one last attempt to save him.

And, as it happened, he came back home again after almost a tortuous month to pass away in peace a few days later. Meanwhile, I had to go to my workplace for an emergency, and returned as soon as my wife gave me the sad news of his passing away. During the next few days of rituals leading to the aadya shraddha on the 11^th day I had a few supernatural experiences which, in final analysis, were only a communication or messaging from his soul.

Once around noontime, when I was alone in the room normally allotted to me on our visits, somehow I had an urge of sitting on the old wooden chair with arm-rests preserved there which was the favorite chair of my wife’s grandfather. As I moved towards it something inexplicable happened: the chair seemed to have jerked sideways which froze me on my track. I deciphered it thus: it was due to the profound respect the grandfather was given in that household, and that my father-in-law who lost his father very early in life wanted me to adhere to it.

One night as we were sleeping I woke up suddenly to a peculiar sound. It was a sound of laboured breathing that seemed to emanate from within the bed. It was so loud and clear that the bed almost shivered and shuddered. I put my ears near to my soundly-sleeping wife—no, it wasn’t coming from her. I examined the bed all around, but failed to identify the source of the sound. My efforts woke my wife up. I told her about it, she advised me not to think much about it. So we went back to sleep.

Very late in the night another time I woke up without understanding why. There was a pin-drop silence and it was pitch dark in the room—the period being a waxing moon fortnight. Suddenly I beheld a patch or a circle of bright white light floating at the ceiling, then moving all around us. It continued its movement for more than a minute, as if watching us, surveying us. My mind immediately started exploring the possible source for an infiltrating light. There was no chance. The curtained two windows on one side of the longish room were completely sealed in by the tin-roofed pandal constructed in the courtyard for the shraddhaceremony; heavy curtains were also fully drawn across the two windows on the other side and from that walled-in side there was no possibility of any light; the lone street light in the driveway had not been working for a few days. I confirmed every facet the next morning and found no justification for an infiltrating light.

There could have been only one messaging in those occurrences: that the spirit of my father-in-law wanted to assure us again and again that he was with us all the time and would be watching over us for some time. It is also interesting to note that my wife never expressed surprise or shock at my accounts, because, as I came to know later, she was also having similar communications those days.

 

Hark! Such messages keep on coming and are all around you! You only need to respect those and try to decipher to your own benefit. If you deem it to be superstition you’re most welcome to ignore this piece, apart from the messages! 

Lord Shiva Dwells In Your Heart And Home Always!

Lord Shiva is believed to be the most powerful God in the Hindu Trinity with Brahma and Vishnu. Lord Shiva is described as a destroyer and also a recreator and transformer. He is also referred to as Mahadeva or Maheshwar—the Great God. In his benevolent form he lives like a simple householder with his family of other Hindu Gods and Goddesses and spends His time in Kailash with the simplicity of an ascetic. But when He is angry, he becomes the Destroyer in which form he can obliterate demons, impurities in human minds and even the whole world. He is everywhere like any other omnipotent and omnipresent God. You can find Him in your heart, in the environs of your home and do your prayers accordingly; and if you want to worship Him in the form of an idol you can install a Shivling or Shiva Linga, the mark or sign or symbol of Lord Shiva, in your home or visit a temple or a shrine or a place of worship even under a big tree that are found almost in every locality in India. There are even artistic priests available in the country who can come to your home, create a perfect idol of Shivling in clay and do a most gratifying Puja for you. You absolutely need not launch yourself in a journey of finding and discovering Him.

 

History is a process of evolution and change. Mother Earth keeps on changing through wars, conflicts, rivalries, reforms and recreation in an endless cycle. Mother Earth belongs to the whole of humankind, and not to any particular section of it. Since evolution has been the eternal cycle human discoveries and inventions definitely mark the progress of humankind. In modern times archaeological surveys lead to priceless discoveries of civilizations, scriptures and monuments. Such priceless assets add to our knowledge and should ideally be preserved in museums and research institutions. Such discoveries should never ever lead to disputes or quarrels over the rights of ownership as we just said Mother Earth belongs to all. Petty quarrels make Lord Shiva very angry and we’ve been watching the devastation caused by Mother Nature in the recent decades, and mind you, the Shakti or the energy of Lord Shiva’s better half Parvati or Durga or Kali gets channelized through the Lord only.

 

Throughout history many of the kings or emperors, irrespective of their religions, had either done a lot of good or did a lot of evil deeds and acts of destructions. Many invaders coming from various regions of the world ravaged and savaged our countries on many occasions leaving a trail of pain and suffering; however, the next rulers repaired again, and therefore, the process goes on. We cannot bring those to court for doing wrongs over the centuries, neither can we reward those benevolent ones in public events. But we can do indeed learn, gather knowledge and follow the good ideals.

 

We should consider ourselves very lucky to be living in a modern and digital world of today where everything is at our fingertips. We can even find our beloved gods and goddesses in our handy devices and sing or listen to prayers, either alone with oneself or with others, within them. If we find something objectionable or we disagree with something/someone we can always exchange our views openly in a peaceful and a virtually-built environment, instead of breaking out in open physical conflicts that definitely anger the divine powers, Mother Earth and Mother Nature. The best option is to go on enhancing our Gyan or wisdom rather than be vapid about it.

 

We should also shift our focus on how to further the all-round progress of our country in all fields of activity. We’ve seen how the Pandemic nearly destroyed us; how the economies have been hit; how the inflation is becoming uncontrollable; how the gas cylinder prices have shot up beyond the 1k mark and the fuel prices have crossed the 100+ mark, still rising; how the unemployment has been becoming a scourge; and what has been happening to our neighboring country Sri Lanka. We have much to ponder upon while keeping our prayers pure and within ourselves. Besides, should we go on with our relentless hunts/quests/pleas to overburden our courts that have already been reeling under extreme pressure?

The Essence Of Hanuman Chalisa And Azaan!

Hanuman Chalisa is a collection of forty verses (chalis in Hindi means the number 40) except for two Doha or couplets in the beginning and one Doha at the end, in praise of Lord Hanuman who apart from being the exemplary devotee or Bhakta of Lord Ram is also regarded as an incarnation of Shiva and so, is recognized as a God. The scripture of Hanuman Chalisa is authored by Tulsidas (1497/1532—1623), the famous Bhakti poet-saint of the 16^th century India, renowned for composing the Ramcharitmanas (Lake of the deeds of Rama), retelling of the epic Ramayana. Ramcharitmanas is a monumental poetic creation because of the fact that Tulsidas composed it in the Awadhi or Oudhi language that is taken as a dialect of Hindi and thus taking the epic to the huge arena of the common Indians; Sanskrit scriptures are understood mostly by the scholars of that language. Hanuman Chalisa is also composed in Awadhi.

 

As we mentioned Hanuman Chalisa is a collection of forty chaupais (four-line-stanza verses) or devotional hymns or stotra in praise of Lord Hanuman. The verses describe the half-monkey God Hanuman as a staunch Bhakta of Lord Ram, a man of strength, courage and wisdom and a man without desire. As most citizens of the world know that Hanuman is one of the central characters of Ramayana, he is always in the service of Rama and doing everything possible for him to eradicate evil without expecting rewards. He is also regarded in India as a deity of Sankat Mochan, that is recuing humans from all crises and obstacles. Reciting Hanuman Chalisa is believed to help humans to overcome all such obstacles, realize one’s wishes and progressing in the path to liberation from all adversities or afflictions, finally achieving Moksha.

 

The Hanuman Chalisa booklet, apart from being readable to all knowing the Devanagari script are available in various Indian languages plus the numerous music albums. One CD sung by the reputed Indian singer Hariharan has reportedly achieved more than 2 billion views. Millions of Indians recite the Chalisa daily, anytime or any number of times they desire, at homes and even while on the move. The easily recognizable booklet in Awadhi is there in our home too. My wife reads it whenever she feels the need, almost daily at least once. And she sits in seclusion to read it, and reads it silently so that it does not disturb me or others present, irrespective of we being believers or non-believers. At times she reads it silently, sitting in the car as I drive on peacefully.  

 

The basic mantra about hymns or stotra or mantra is that the recitation of these means a prayer and a prayer done in the mind is said to be the best as it helps the praying person concentrate and visualize his/her favorite deity. In fact, it amounts to meditation which is very much recommended in our stress-filled times and it opens the road to spiritualism. Of course, all people may not or are not spiritually inclined and they want the reverberations of the hymns influence and inspire them. No issues here too. They can very easily recite it aloud at homes or even while in public transport, and they can also listen to loud recorded recitations or singing in their music systems within their four walls or even inside any temple that holds such prayers. The fact of the matter is that reciting Hanuman Chalisa is absolutely a personal choice, open to all willing ones, and therefore, it doesn’t at all need public amplification.

 

The Islamic custom of the Adhan (in Arabic) or Azaan (in many other languages) is slightly different. The Azaan is in fact means an announcement to call the devotees to the prayers to be held in the minarets or in the mosques. Not deterred by the Sunni and Shia differences over the practice, the muezzin or the person who makes the announcement recites the Islamic call to prayers. The ritual of Adhan has been in practice since the times of Prophet Muhammad (570 AD—632 AD) who approximately at the age of forty got his first revelation from God and that led to him to finally found the Islamic religion based on one God or monotheism, combining all the teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets. Prophet Muhammad, believed to be the last prophet sent by God, transformed the whole of Arabia religiously, socially and even economically through his preaching. The verses of his revelations received from God led to the compilation and creation of Quran, the finest scripture in Arabic.

 

Prayers, thus, were central to the Prophet’s preaching and teachings in order to attract more and more followers. Azaan started as a response; it is not clear if he himself started this or appointed his main follower to start making the calls. Anyway, to catch the attention of the followers and inspire them to come to the prayers Prophet Muhammad needed public announcements. The loudspeakers came only in the first part of the 20^th century. Of course, other mechanical devices like the bells, the drums and the horns were available; but Muhammad preferred only to use his own strong voice or the voice of the muezzin for that purpose.

 

However, when the loudspeakers were invented in the 1930s the Muslim countries started using those and fitted the devices in the minarets and the mosques, mostly as a show of strength of their faith rather than devotion. It is believed that Azaan or prayers need to be done five times a day for devout Muslim, and thus in many countries including the Muslim-majority ones the loudspeakers slowly started becoming a nuisance in terms of noise pollution. Over the decades we’ve seen restrictions imposed on the use of loudspeakers and the imposition of decibel limits becoming a common practice in may countries including Saudi Arabia.

 

 In India the loudspeakers for Azaan began to be used only from the 1970s and as the country’s Constitution had declared India as a socialist secular democratic republic all religious practices, festivals and rituals have been allowed in all their ritualistic grandeur. But in the past decade we’ve seen selective protests fueled obviously by the growth of aggressive majority nationalism and fundamentalism of various forms. The present controversy raging, unfortunately, throughout the country is nothing but practices of religion-based politics and growing intolerance—one making the other more and more intolerant in a vicious circle.

 

We had earlier argued that chanting Hanuman Chalisa silently or loudly is a personal choice with nothing to do with public announcements. We can express similar feelings about Azaan too. In modern digital times, it’s just not possible for the educated and working Muslims to offer prayers five times a day, that too at a public place of worship. In whole of my service career, I’ve seen my Muslim colleagues and friends offering Namaz only on the Friday afternoons, at the mosque nearby or in office itself, silently. I’ve also seen numerous passengers in train journeys doing Namaz quietly, putting a piece of cloth on the floor in-between the berths, without disturbing anyone. Therefore, I’d say Azaan or Namaz or any kind of Islamic prayers are getting increasingly influenced by personal choices. To call it anti-Islamic would be another form of fundamentalist intolerance.

 

You are right when you object to the noise of the loudspeakers, particularly keeping in mind the differently abled and the patients in general. But you cannot be selective about your protests or you cannot try to right a wrong with another wrong. If you ask, righteously so, for a ban on the loudspeakers in public places to prevent noise pollution which is indeed a growing menace it has to be a blanket ban, covering all kinds of religious-cultural events/festivals/rituals taking place twelve month a year in our country. And, you hardly hear religious chanting of hymns or stotra on the mikes, you only hear film songs and even disco songs so that the devoteescan dance too.

 

This kind of hypocrisy and the growing politicization cum commercialization of religions must stop. High time to adopt a new modern religion of making the religion a matter of personal choice; preferably in the innermost corners of your excellent and powerful mind or within the four-walls of your homes or within the four-walls of any place of worship. The Pandemic nearly accomplished this; but unfortunately, humankind hates to learn from even disasters.

Happy Guru Nanak Jayanti (Birth Anniversary)!

Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak or Baba or Father Nanak (1469-1539), was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus, is being celebrated this year today, the 30th of November or whenever the full-moon day called Kartik Purnima occurs during October-November every year all over the world. Guru Nanak is believed to have travelled across Asia teaching people the message of 'one God' who dwells in every creation of His and constitutes the eternal truth. With this concept he created a unique spiritual, social and political platform based on equality, fraternity and virtue. We wish you all a very blessed Nanak Jayanti. 

We remember Guru Nanak today and his teachings, his messages and his immortal devotional poems that are composed musically as Bhajans in basic Punjabi, cutting across all religious and linguistic barriers in India. Composers, Vocalists and singers have been presenting his Bhajans or devotional songs to devotees and music lovers since centuries. My father and my first musical guru Tabla Maestro music composer and director, Late Pandit Vivekanand or Bibekananda Bhattacharyya had also composed numerous devotional lyrics into melodious bhajans, including those of Guru Nanak. 

I take great pleasure in presenting one of the Nanak Bhajans composed by my father-guru and recorded by me for you all. This bhajan is from my Album of devotional songs, 'Hari Darshan Ki Pyaasi' 

Hope this devotional presentation gives you enjoyment as well as peace of mind in the times of gloom and crisis. Baba Nanak tells you to look up to God, your only true friend or kin on this earth, for the ultimate love and solace. Best Wishes...

Homage To A Spiritual Guru: Vijay Kumar Deutale!

 

We call him Bhaiya that means ‘Brother’; his official name is Vijay Kumar Deutale, originally from Nagpur in Maharashtra. He was tall, lithe, bespectacled and bearded with a predominantly grey tinge. He had a baritone that was always pleasant and soothing to the ears. I don’t remember him ever getting angry or raising his voice. He was always smiling, at times bursting out with free-flowing and pure laughter and merriment. Bhaiya had been known to us since the year 2003, and all these years he had been our spiritual guru, family friend and philosopher-guide in everything he chose to speak about us or we requested him to provide answers to our inquisitive questions. It wrenches away a part of our heart and soul to say that he is no more.

 

Vijay Kumar Deutale was working as a civil engineer in the government of Maharashtra. On a quest to explore life and meaning of life further he took voluntary retirement a few years back and started doing his personal work more intensively along with a stint in a private construction firm in Dubai for some time. Then he came back to India, and around 2017-18 he began experimenting with the medicine supply chain. He had been progressing well in this line, work mostly done online, keeping only a very limited number of close associates. During the lockdown period too, he was going ahead with his online activities, only perhaps missing his daily outings, mostly to his closest friends who had been his beneficiaries: in terms of spiritual advice and guidance.

 

Like Gautam Buddha, Bhaiya too left his family and kin very young in age, took the course to meditation and spiritualism, and made his life a success on his own; only that he never got married. His parents and siblings never approved his ways and, in a way, disowned him completely. Bhaiya had been living alone since then, and making a success of his materialistic career as a civil engineer as he bought his own flat in a central Mumbai suburb a few years back, and had been living alone there since.

 

He was all in his divine elements, like a live god, and was actively counselling and guiding his limited friends/associates/colleagues when a common friend introduced us to Bhaiya in Mumbai. In the days after the introduction we used to feel his presence constantly with us, and particularly during the nights I felt him treading around our home, perhaps to study us in all details. He confirmed his out-of-the-body experiments when I asked him about his nightly rounds. Aided by my rather intuitive nature and active alpha thinking I started having experiences of the ethereal type: Bhaiya helping me to delve into people’s, the ones concerned to us, minds or even bodies to find what was wrong, reading wordless messages emitted by living people in various ways, feeling the presence of good or bad spirits at times and find what the immediate future holds for us or our friends and kin. Whenever we queried him about our future or the justifiability of certain future plans, he used to close his eyes partially, his eyelids flapping, and then embark on a non-stop counselling and future-telling, never readymade solutions, but ways subject to severe conditions or dedicated efforts. Truly spiritual, he never recommended stones or jewels or talisman or anything to wear.

 

Vijay Kumar Deutale initiated his own technique of spiritualism and meditation thanks to his relentless forays into this mysterious and invisible sphere. His utmost thrust was on removing negativity from body and mind, making the body and soul pure. He never bothered what people eat or wear, but emphasized on proper meditation to rid negativity. His meditation technique consisted of selected mantras, depending on the people in consideration, that had to be chanted for a designed time-period, preferably every day. Chanting can be loud in the beginning; with the practitioners gaining command chanting then can be through only moving of the lips, and at the final desirable objective chanting must be done silently, without even moving the lips. As per the goals in life of the practitioners there can be objectives like health or success in work/projects or in relationships assigned to the mantras which means that the positive energy emitted through the chanting can be channelized for the accomplishment of the goals. The said goals can be materialized by making certain pledges to be assigned to the mantra-chanting.

 

His technique was fraught with grave dangers. Bhaiya used to tell us that if someone manages to remove his/her negativity the whole of that negative force bounces back on him, the originator of the process. We were appalled by this fact: the kind of negativity he must be bearing on himself thanks to all his beneficiaries. Of course, at his supreme level of spirituality he was very much capable of throwing off such forces with ease. However, one other fact remained. The negative forces did impact his physical body. For a couple of years, he was tackling with a persistent problem on his left leg up to the thigh, constant swelling and pain. He said this was due to all the forces he had been welcoming on to himself. Perhaps, this integral part of his method partially explained why his physical body ceased to exist so suddenly.

 

Vijay Kumar Deutale knew about this probability too. On various occasions he told us that his divine guru, somewhere in the Himalayas, used to send him errands, what to do or whom to enlighten next. Coming to us, he said, was a divine message and this perhaps was one of the last few errands left for him. As is proved by happenings a few years after our initiation, Bhaiya started reducing his divine practices/counselling gradually, stopping it almost completely after his voluntary retirement and his stints on various earthly jobs. On many occasions too, he used to warn us that he might vanish suddenly anytime and therefore, we or all the people enlightened by him must try utilizing his knowledge fully and fast.

 

Yes, we were astounded by his immense knowledge of almost about anything. Without any formal stint in music he used to tell my wife Ragini about the most profound and intricate things in music: in all forms, from the purest classical to the most modern, theories or practice or anything. He also wrote devotional lyrics to be tuned and sung. Unfortunately, like most normal human beings, we had not been able to gain from his acquaintance fully: on many aspects we were not able to follow his path devotedly and on many practical jobs we could not proceed as he desired. However, only his physical self has gone, we still hope to go on acquiring the knowledge and wisdom from his ethereal self.

 

On the evening of 13^th June 2020, he felt unwell with a severe stomach pain, and informed his closest associate, a lady doctor residing in Nagpur. As per the doctor’s instructions a neighbor admitted him in a hospital in Mumbai. The doctors there reportedly found a hole in his intestines, and a septic that was spreading throughout his body, affecting all the organs. He had to be given ventilator support, a day later. He passed away on the 16^th June 2020. No clinical theories can explain his demise. He left his physical form on divine errands.

 

And, we came to know about this four months later, through the same common friend who introduced us to him in 2003. It is believed now that he issued instructions not to inform anyone, except for a certain family, about his demise. This was most probably due to the fact that he sensed the misery of his close people going through during the prolonged lockdown, and he never wanted to distress or depress them further as long as possible.

 

Vijay Kumar Deutale, Bhaiya, had been a down-earth-person, never resorting to the luxuries of life and always living as a common man. He never made a living out of his divine prowess nor earned money from it; he traveled to everybody’s house whenever requested on his own, taking the local trains or the city buses. And, he had always been publicity-averse, requesting us never to create any form of publicity about his activities and powers. This directive from the spiritual guru put me in an existential dilemma: to tell people about him or not. I wanted to tell his story, desperately. Perhaps, in my meditation one morning, after a very long break, there was an abstract communication with his soul which seemed to permit me on my objective. People, maybe a limited number of them, must know about him and get inspired by his life. He is a celebrity in the field of spiritualism, a silent crusader, and I am privileged to be able to let people know about him.  

Spiritual Power Never For Sale! If You Sell, You Lose It!

Intuitive people cultivate meditation and some of them acquire spiritual or divine power. They remain in a constant awakened state and keep getting cosmic messages on all issues they are approached or told about. Such people are programmed and designed by the cosmos to help and guide distressed and gullible souls toward achieving Nirvana. If they try earning money from their power they lose it fast and inevitably.

I know quite a few awakened personalities including our guru Vijay Deutale (Bhaiya) who are helping people selflessly and sometimes transferring the ailments of their devotees to theirs visiting the followers on their own cost whenever called and never get irritated or angry or unwilling. Through their prescribed ways they absorb the negativity out of you and finally neutralize it. Some of them never even needs to eat. A divine fragrance envelopes them all the time. All of them tell on their own that earning money from their power is prohibited by the High Command. They also have the power to leave their bodies or die at will.

Believing or not believing rests with you. But you find lots of examples if you desire looking out and observing. Ramdev Baba is the latest example. He acquired spiritual power through practising yoga and meditation. But he made all the money all the time charging heavily for his yoga camps, selling his medicines at high prices and earning revenues from his television channels. Now, you see what happened when he planned to acquire political power with his millions. He could not sustain his fast even for a week landing at the ICU.

Yes, the question is how can they work? Some of them have full time jobs and some of them keep a donation box the proceeds of which go to the poor and everyone can donate as per capacity.

So spirituality means only humanity; no compulsions, no propaganda and of course no sales!