HPB-SB-10-541

H. P. Blavatsky Scrapbooks

from Adyar archives of the International Theosophical Society

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vol. 10, p. 541	volume 10, page 541 vol. title: vol. period: 1879-1880 pages in vol.: 577
Legend HPB note HPB highlighted HPB underlined HPB crossed out <Editors note> <Archivist note> Lost or unclear SBT, DT Restored

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eng • рус

<Untitled> (The September number of The Theosophist...)

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<Untitled> (Cjl. Olcott and Mme. Blavatsky,..)

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<Untitled> (Colonel Olcott's lecture...)

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Maroti Baba's Wonders*

by g. s. khaparde.

When setting out last from my native place for Bombay I observed to my friends and relations, who had come to the station to see me off, that as it was very hot, I was likely to be very thirsty on the way. Immediately one who will form the subject of this memorandum, stooped down and picking up a few pebbles from the gravelled platform, and holding them a moment in his closed hand, changed them into four large balls of sugar of two different kinds—one, used by us to satisfy hunger, the other, to quench thirst. This startled some, but not many, for he is well known in those parts to be a great Yogi or “magician”—in the better and revived sense of the word.

I have known him upwards of five years, with exceptionally good opportunities of observing him night and day. He made a stay of a few months with us, hence my knowledge and the confidence and certainty with which I can afford to speak of him. Many stories are current about him, and are universally believed. I will, however, content myself with giving a few of them, the instances having mostly happened under my personal observation. They also admit of easy verification. One has but to go to Umrawati, in the Berars, and see my father, Mr. Srikrishna Narahara, or Mr. Devidaspant Bhow, and he will be enabled to converse personally with the Yogi.

Once he was standing near a large well at Elichpur with some few friends, including myself. One of them had two nice silver boxes (tavits) of curious workmanship, and he produced them to be shown to Maroti Baba (this is the ascetic’s name) and asked him to take care lest they fall into water. Thereupon the Baba told him to throw them into the water. He hesitated, but was finally prevailed upon to do so; and apparently had no reason to repent, for within a few seconds, the Baba asked him to feel for them in his (the owner’s) own pocket, which he did, and found the identical boxes.

The Extra Assistant Commissioner at Karanja, nearly forty miles away from Umrawati, was anxious to see the Baba, and wrote many pressing letters of invitation to him, but all in vain. It, however, happened that one of the parties in a civil case before him, mentioned the Baba as one of the witnesses. The Munsiff was highly pleased at this unexpected chance of obtaining his attendance. A legal summons was issued and duly served, but the Baba refused to go. He was now at Umrawati. His friends represented to him the dangers of disobeying a summons, but despite these repeated representations and remonstrances, he put off going from day to day, until at last the very day appointed for the hearing of the case arrived. Even then he was inexorable, and his friends gave up the matter in despair, with an inward trembling for the consequences. On the appointed day, the Baba, as usual, breakfasted at 8 a.m., with his friends, and then sat down to his wonted work of meditation, with great ease and composure. Upon this the friends remarked that it would have been infinitely better for him to have gone, but as it could not now be helped, they would seek out a legal practitioner to see if the consequences might be avoided. On hearing this the Baba roused himself, took his turban and said that he would go. The distance was mentioned to him, and the impossibility of crossing it urged, but to no purpose. He was seen to go out of the front door, but further on, none could trace him. A few days after they heard that the Baba duly attended the Court on the same day, and at the same hour, at Karanja.

Once he happened to meet the Deputy Commissioner of Nagpur, who having previously heard of his “supernatural” doings, begged him to favour him with an exhibition. Upon being answered in the affirmative, and asked what he wished to see, he said that he would like to pluck mangoes from the Nim tree before which he was standing. The Baba said “certainly; this is not difficult. Pluck as many as you like!” and straightway everybody saw that in an instant the tree in question had become thickly laden with nice, eatable mangoes. This Deputy Commissioner was an English gentleman.

Once the Baba was asked to cause to appear some edible substance that should be in such a condition as to show that it must have been instantly brought from a great distance. The questioner mentioned a peculiar sweetmeat that is made in Surat and nowhere else, and asked that he might have some hot from the cooking pan. At once the wonder-worker put his hand under his garment and handed the thing demanded and hot, as had been asked. This respected and extraordinary man appears to be not more than 25 or 30 years old, but he is known to be far older, and his oldest friends have remarked no change in his face or person since they have known him. His father before him was a Yogi, and the son in his youth showed no signs of his subsequent pious self-abnegation; but just before the father’s death, he called his son to his side and conversed with him in strict privacy. When the parent had breathed his last and the rites enjoined by religion had been observed, the present Baba left home and was seen by no one for above twelve years. When he returned he had become an ascetic and began showing the marvellous psychic powers above indicated. How he learned the secret or from whom, no one knows, for upon his experiences during the period of his absence from his home and friends he has ever maintained strict silence.

Parel Hill, Bombay, August, 1880.

* From The Theosophist (Bombay), October 1st, 1880.

The Hindoo Fakirs

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<Untitled> (The Theosophist for May comes...)

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Editor's notes

Sources

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  London Spiritualist, No. 426, October 22, 1880, pp. 202-3