As an avatar, Shri Nathji did not indulge in miracles. Nor did he at any time use a miracle to prove the existence of God. That miracles followed him was another natural spontaneous action of the Divine Power within him; it was something extraneous to which Shri Nathji attached little importance. Miracles happened all by themselves around Him all the time even without His willing them. There was no particular intention involved, nor did Shri Nathji will such events to occur. Faith in God was injected by Shri Nathji without the use of miracles. The Chaube family accepted him as God first at a time when no miracles had been revealed to them. The faith was an inner recognition of the Divine which came from within their souls, and which led them to worship Shri Nathji in the form of Satya Narayan. The miracle of the revival of the old lady occurred later, and was a consequence of her faith in Shri Nathji.
It was true of all the devotees of Shri Nathji that whatever miracles they experienced in life came only after they had begun believing in him. H.S. Karai accepted the Divine in Shri Nathji when he was granted an inner recognition. The miracle of his mother’s recovery from cancer occurred much later.
Such miracles were not exhibitions that served to illustrate the existence of God. Miracles could occur even without the intervention of God, and were, therefore, no proof of His existence. Faith in God did not depend upon the existence of miracles. No one would have worshipped Christ had his thoughts and actions been evil, even if he had performed some of the greatest miracles in creation. Real proof of godliness lay in the ability to convey Faith without external aids.
Shri Nathji would always say:
“A sick man could be cured, but He would fall sick again; a dead man could be brought to life, but he would die again. In the spiritual realm what mattered was the spirit and not the body.”
It was, of course, a law of God that he frequently answered the prayers of those who had faith in Him. As such, miracles could occur whenever God willed them, or whenever He heard prayers. But God never used His miracles for exhibition. The creation of the Universe was exhibition enough.
One recalls stories of characters in fiction: supermen, who could perform any physical feat whatsoever, from the moving of mountains to the smothering of atomic blasts. But these supermen were not God. They did not possess that most Godly of all qualities–the quality to convey Faith, Love, Peace, Bliss, and Divine Knowledge.
Christ could have come down from the cross, unscathed, he could have turned his enemies to dust; he could have flown up into the skies towards Heaven before the bewildered eyes of those who had come to see him crucified. But he did not do so. He chose to abide by the Divine Will. And the Divine Will had not intended a climactic, exhibitionistic miracle. The crucifixion of Christ spread greater righteousness in the world than a dramatic, miraculous coup would have done. There was greater spirituality in the humility of Christ’s suffering, than there would have been in the pomposity of a superhuman feat of retaliation.
Is not the Universe itself a great miracle? Shri Nathji would say, “What further miracles does one desire?
A magician might cause a watch to materialise out of nowhere. If he did that, he would only be proving himself greater than God! For, when God wanted a watch, He had to wait for millions of years for civilisation to advance sufficiently to develop factories that would manufacture a watch!
Miracles, Shri Nathji would say, are a snare on the path of the seeker after truth. The innocent can be deluded by cheap magical tricks, but the seeker after truth can seriously block his own spiritual progress. The phenomenon of miracles occurs naturally on the spiritual path.
“When a man reaches a certain stage of spiritual attainment, he finds himself in possession of powers altogether supernatural. If he begins using these powers for self- aggrandizement, to attract people to himself, he inevitably halts his spiritual progress, and falls. Such a fall is tragic because it comes after some progress in the way. The power of miracles becomes a veil between such a man and God!
Shri Nathji gave the following example:
A man is proceeding towards a garden. On the way he reaches a particular area where the breeze brings him fragrance from the garden. Instead of proceeding onwards towards the garden, the man sits down on that spot and becomes engrossed in the fragrance.
“Performers of miracles are like those who get intoxicated on meeting the scent-laden breeze, who sit down and go no further. Real mahatmas move on until they reach the garden itself, the source of all fragrance. Real mahatmas go through the stage of miracles with great caution. They look upon these miracles as external exhibitions with are temporary in nature and actually quite troublesome. Real mahatmas look upon progress or retardation in performing miracles, with contempt. They aspire to reach higher regions, and for this reason they leave miracles alone.
In the eyes of the Lovers of God, all except the Lord is nothing, or equivalent to nothing. They look upon miracles as another form of matter-worship. Contact with such Lovers of God makes worldly men look upon miracles with disdain. Such great souls, however, are not without powers to perform miracles. The difference between them, and those who perform miracles for exhibition, is that the former have all such powers under their control, but the latter are addicted to such powers and, therefore, subject to them. The aim of Real Mahatmas-Great Souls- is to change the outlook of those who come into contact with them, from the life of matter, to the life of the spirit. All their actions are above self. Miracles can surprise us, but there is a power that surprises them too.
Tired of the rat-race of the world of matter, man turns his attention towards Reality. As he attains spiritual progress, the world of matter appears before him again, this time in the form of miracles. It then appears to the seeker that the material objects of the world are at his beck and call. In this stage, the thought-force of the individual appears to have overcome the laws of Nature. This is a trap. It is a pit from which it is difficult to escape. The man feels that by his worship or devotion he has overpowered Nature. The world of matter is then jubilant: ‘Ha! I have caught him again!’
Genuine lovers of God take advantage of this situation. They know that until they have directed their attention fully to the life of the spirit, material objects shall keep them overpowered. This is what they say to themselves: ‘I have only just turned my attention to the life of the spirit, and, as a consequence, I have acquired these powers. What infinite bliss will be mine when I reach God!
And so, they say:
Speak not to me of miracles for I have left miracles behind.
There was an agnostic, Shri G.P. Bhutt, who used to say: I will believe in God only when someone shows me a miracle.
After meeting Shri Nathji, Shri Bhutt became an ardent believer in God.
What miracle did Shri Nathji show you? he was asked.
And Bhutt said to him:
Without showing any miracle to me, he took away the desire for miracles from me. That was Shri Nathji’s miracle.”
His exact words in Hindi were:
“Bin chamatkaar dikhaaye chamatkaar dekhne ki ichhaa hee samaapt kar dee!”
As stated earlier, Shri Nathji frequently said, The greatest miracle here is, that miracles occur every moment and a veil is thrown over them.
“Yahaan roz chamatkaar hote hain aur unpar pardaa daal diyaa jaataa hai!”