Invisible “g”
If tomorrow morning you hurry out of your house and find the pavement under your feet gently moving like a conveyor belt, quickly, to keep abreast with your house you will be compelled to walk. Suddenly, the ground speed doubles, you have to break into a run. A greater acceleration, a swifter run and to your unthought horror it climbs to an incredible 1000 mph. Man's over-estimated maximum speed is 25 mph and say you manage the impossible 1000 but then a blasting wind of 66,600 mph hits you head on. Will you still maintain balance? Who or what can survive the savage impact of 66,600 mph. It is amply capable of stripping the earth bare of all buildings, nature and life and can certainly send the puny 'us' spinning into space, dead.
This is what would happen if there was no gravity! The earth rotates on its axis at the equatorial speed of 1000 mph and orbits the sun at 66,600 mph. We remain safe on earth, thanks to gravitational force ('g'). But who has seen little 'g'? No one. Yet, does anyone doubt its existence?
Before the invention of telescopes, the early astronomers were puzzled by the erratic orbit of Uranus. Many dismissed it perfunctorily. However, one adamant French astronomer, Leverrier, postulated the existence of another planet beyond it. He was right. Two more planets were discovered - Neptune and Pluto and it was observed that at certain periods the very close presence of Neptune ensued this freakish change in Uranus' orbit. As intelligent beings it would be foolish of us to refute these inter-planetary force fields on the account of their invisibility.
Sometimes things invisible are more important and crucial in life than things visible. Man needs three things for survival: food, shelter and clothing. Naturally, a deprivation of any of the three, creates a calamity. But even in a majestic mansion, adorned with fabulous clothes and on a lavishly feasted stomach try surviving only five minutes without air! Air is invisible but that does not stop it from being the most important. It is our vital life support. We take air for granted because it is free and unseen. How many times need we remind ourselves that it is not the lofty sails but the unseen wind that moves the ship.
From wind, gravity to the magical electromagnetic waves of the remote control world, all are invisible and will forever remain unseen However, intelligence and inference makes them as clear as the bright sun. The only proof of invisible forces lies hidden in a deeper delving into and experiencing their effects. The following is a real account of a man who, through confidence, inference and perseverance unravelled the ultimate source of a mysterious force that saved him in the First World War.
What Saved Him?
Prof. Ronald Nixon, a brilliant graduate of Cambridge University was a fighter pilot during the First World War. His job was to bombard the enemy territory. One day, while on a reconnoitering mission he sensed half a dozen fighters roaring low as his plane veered off to the left.
A force was pulling him, the sheer magnitude of which confounded him. But it was too incredible to be doubted. Confidence reappeared at the controls as he returned back to base. He alighted briskly to be told by tension-taut faces that he had done splendidly well to return back promptly as a number of enemy fighter planes would have blown him to smithereens. A wave of thankful delight filled him. While his friends crowded him in cheers Ronald's mind stole aloof, isolated in mystery, far far away into an unknown world wrestling with an unanswered question. What had saved him so miraculously? What could have been that mysterious force?
Straight after the war, he left the airforce, shunned his professorship and shrugged off all materialistic interests to embark upon an exhaustive search for that force. It was the spiritual world he entered, a world with unending horizons and lasting visions. Finally in India, he surrendered at the feet of a 'guru' and embraced a fresh life and the name of Yogi Krishnaprem. Through long hours of devotion, meditation and service he enjoyed visions of God and in his later life wrote of his experiences with the invisible energies of God.
The Surest Way To See God
The most essential ingredient in the spiritual world is faith. No matter how weather-beaten you struggle, faith should always flourish. At the end of the Second World War the Allied forces as they swept across Germany found these words scratched on a crumbling wall by a victim of the Holocaust:
I believe in the Sun - even when it does not shine
I believe in Love - even when it is not shown
I believe in God - even when he does not speak.
However there is one sure and absolute route to seeing and communicating with God. A genuine aspirant, carrier of unswerving faith and unflagging determination, if he surrenders unto the enlightened spiritual guru, the vision and knowledge of God is revealed to him. A classic example is Narendra Nath, a brilliant young brain burdened with a thousand doubts. He questioned Ramakrishna Paramhansa.
"Have you seen God?"
"Yes," came the reply
"How?"
"As I see you."
That was it. Enough to cure his agnostic deformity. The short answers sparked across a divine impulse of honesty and surety. A fresh flower of faith sprung alive within him, which he plucked and offered to Ramakrishna, his spiritual Guru from thereafter. The young man was to become Swami Vivekanand.
Thus to see and experience God one must seek out an enlightened Guru and implicitly serve him. And today there are thousands of people who confidently testify of having touched God through His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj.