Kalinath Baba questions human striving and ego of agency. He compares life to a puppet show, with true liberation being rare.
While fate is generally inviolable, it can be overridden by the grace of the Divine Mother (beyond the universe), shattering even the Creator's decree
AFTER THAT, many more things were discussed. He said to Girdhari Dada, "The first letter of your wife's name is ‘U.’
We stayed with Babaji for a very long time. We noticed that his knowledge of English was very good. We also heard that at one time he had been an engineer. After that, we left and came back.
In this way, the acquaintance with Baba gradually deepened. A few days later, one day around eight o'clock, I saw that Babaji had arrived alone at my house. At that time, I was preparing to go to college. I postponed leaving for a short while and sent a message through the peon that I would arrive a little later.
At home, arrangements for Baba to sit were made by placing a pillow on a mat. Babaji came and sat in his place. Paper and pencil were also kept for him. At the same moment, one of my friends, Shivlal Jharkhande, came to meet me. He was the librarian of my college. He held both M.A. and M.Sc. degrees. He was a former student of Presidency College, Calcutta, and a contemporary of Subhas Chandra Bose. He himself practiced Yoga and was devoted to sadhus. His guru was Thakur Darpnarayan Singh, a resident of Lucknow.
Seeing Babaji in our house, he too became very pleased. Baba said to me, “Bring some mathematics books. Algebra, arithmetic, in Hindi, English, from any era, by any author, printed in any country, old or new — it doesn't matter.”
Collecting so many mathematics books was difficult for me at that time. There was a Sanatana Dharma High School nearby, and one of its students lived in my house. The headmaster of that school, Shri Kedarnath Pandit, was my disciple. I sent a note addressed to Kedarnathji through that student to the school.
Fortunately, a short while later, the student brought ten books from the school library. Among these books, some were in Hindi, some in English; they had all been published at different places and at different times, and their authors were all different, too. All of them were stacked in a pile and placed in front of Baba.
Meanwhile, what Baba did was cut some papers into small slips, write something on them, arrange them in order, and press them down under the pillow. After that, he said to us, “From any of these mathematics books, ask a question involving any number from any page.” We did exactly that and read out the details of the mathematics problem to him. He said, “Solve this problem.” We replied that it would take time. He said, “Look at the answer key.” At the same time, he told us to give him the first slip. The astonishing thing was that the answer he had written matched exactly the one in the book.
In the same manner, one after another, questions were taken from various places in different books and tested. According to the answer key, all the slips turned out to be correct. There was no end to the astonishment of both of us.
The Sadhu said, “Can you tell what the secret behind this is?”
I said, “This is either telepathy or clairvoyance — I don’t know. Unraveling the secret is difficult.” I further asked him, “By what process do you do all this?”
He said, “I know two methods: 1. Equation, 2. Direct vision. The equation of worldly powers means the coordination of cosmic forces. It is similar to a meteorological forecast. There might occasionally be an error in this, but rarely. Even if there is no mistake in the equation itself, an error can occur if there is a fault in the accumulation of some power; however, with extreme caution, no mistake happens. The second method can also be understood as clairvoyance. This is the direct way of knowing — there is no illusion in it. I generally speak from this one.”
For a long time, there was discussion with him on the subject of telepathy/clairvoyance. I said, “From this, it becomes clear that all events in the world are predestined. What is fated is the ordinance of the Creator. One may attempt countermeasures, but that too is predestined, and its result is accordingly the same.”
Hearing this, he said, “Then why do we strive and get stressed so much? Where is the root of our ego of agency? Just as the puppeteer makes the puppet dance, it will dance accordingly — it is not free. Gaining true freedom is liberation, and that is very difficult.”
I said, “Although the ordinance of fate is inviolable, it can still be broken, because if the grace-filled glance falls from Her who is beyond the universe, full of freedom, and the Mother of the universe, even the Creator’s ordinance can shatter. This is why the devotional poet has said in the hymn to the Mother: ‘If Your glance, O Shivaa, falls upon Him, even the Creator’s decree collapses.”
To be continued
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