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Excerpts from a newsweek article
What Miracles Mean
(
Newsweek, May 1, 2000 )
Go directly to: excerpts: referring Sathya Sai Baba

Working Wonders: 'The Miraculous Draught of Fishes' by Raphael

Woven into the history of the world's religions, miracles are more about faith than fact. In 'The Book of Miracles,' NEWSWEEK's Kenneth L. Woodward explains why so many people believe the unbelievable.

Newsweek, May 1, 2000
What Miracles Mean


Working Wonders: 'The Miraculous Draught of Fishes' by Raphael (Victoria & Albert Museum — Bridgeman Art Library)




Woven into the history of the world's religions, miracles are more about faith than fact. In 'The Book of Miracles,' NEWSWEEK's Kenneth L. Woodward explains why so many people believe the unbelievable.

Newsweek, May 1, 2000


A decade ago, at the age of 12, Bernadette McKenzie found that she could no longer stand upright, even after three operations. She suffered from a tethered spinal cord, a rare congenital condition causing constant pain. The nuns at her school in suburban Philadelphia began a series of prayers, seeking the intercession of their deceased founder, Mother Frances de Sales Aviat, whom they regard as a saint. On the fourth day, Bernadette herself knelt by her bed, telling God that if this was to be her life she would accept it. But she wanted to know—a sign. If she were to walk again, she pleaded, let her favorite song, "Forever Young," play next on the radio. It did. She immediately jumped up and ran downstairs to tell her family. Bernadette didn't even notice that her physical symptoms had disappeared, something her doctors say is medically inexplicable. Her recovery is currently being evaluated by the Vatican as a possible miracle.
Does God answer prayers? Do miracles—extraordinary events that are the result of special acts of God—really happen?

excerpts: referring Sathya Sai Baba
Maharaj Krishna Rasgotra, a retired foreign secretary of India, remembers the precise day almost 30 years ago when he became a devotee of Saty Sai Baba, India's most celebrated living saint. Over the years, the government official often witnessed Baba work his signature miracle—producing out of air mounds of vibhuti, sacred ash that his devotees credit with healing properties. But it was in 1986 that Rasgotra experienced Baba's power firsthand. After suffering a heart attack, Rasgotra lay in a hospital recovery room. Among the hovering doctors and nurses he saw Baba, though the saint was a thousand miles away. When physicians told him he needed bypass surgery to avoid a fatal attack, Rasgotra consulted Baba in person, who told him he didn't need it. Rasgotra skipped surgery and today, at 75, he plays 18 holes of golf regularly. "I have total faith in Baba," says Rasgotra. "Whatever he says comes about. Whenever you are with him you feel you're shedding something and acquiring a new kind of life.

For more than three millenniums, India has been a land of living saints. It is also a land of nearly countless local gods and goddesses—some 3 million of them, by one recent estimate. All gods, however, are but different forms of a single Absolute (Brahman) which is also the ground (Atman) of everyone who exists. Just as Hindu gods can descend in human form, so the Hindu saint can achieve god-like consciousness. Thus, through rigorous meditation and other yogic practices, the practitioner can decant his bottled divinity. Given this view, the line between human and divine is not as distinct as in the West.

Source Copyrights acknowledged: © 2000 Newsweek, Inc.

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