Bhava Samadhi: Healing
Shivabalayogi healed countless people of physical and mental
illnesses, almost always indirectly through vibhuti (blessed ash)
or through devotees in bhava samadhi, as if to take attention away from himself.
These are only a very few examples of healing though devotees in bhava samadhi.
Brain Cancer
S. Veereshaiah, Bombay
My relative had a brain tumor and we lost all hope that she would live. She had actually resigned to die and had written down instructions on what should be done after her death. Her husband also lost interest and wouldn’t take care of her any more. She was brought to our house where I was nursing her. It was in the back of my mind, but I didn’t know whether to ask Swamiji or not. Two days before the operation was scheduled, my wife Leela was in trance in their flat which is upstairs in the building. Word was sent to us that Swamiji was in trance so if we wanted to ask something or take his blessings, we could come over. That was when I brought my sister to Swamiji in trance. In trance, Swamiji applied the vibhuti on her head where she had the tumor.
Afterwards Leela told me that a powerful charge passed through her hands into the patient’s head. I could see that Leela was profusely perspiring during this treatment. The operation was performed and it went really very well. There was no problem and she recovered very well. Eight days later she was able to talk and walk properly. Now she is doing very well and she can take care of her eight year old daughter and six year old son.
Healing through Touch
Mriganka Gupta, Delhi
Swami never gave me the kind of bhava that I observed in everybody else. Others would lose ordinary consciousness, but I was very self conscious, always controlling myself. When I think of the kirtan in the first years in Dehradun, I remember how powerful it was. All the people would be swirling around all the time. Everybody who was coming there was getting something out of it. One felt a sense of elation all the time. Everybody felt it. It was a matter of degree.
Definitely I had trance. One night, almost towards the end of the kirtan, a fair-skinned lady came and sat in front of me. I didn’t notice her coming and I didn’t see her face. I was playing the harmonium. One hand was on the harmonium and my other hand went on her back. The hand was moving over her back, neck, spine and to the small of her back, maybe for two or five minutes. The arthi was finished and the prashad was being distributed when the lady turned around, took my arm, and asked, “What happened? What did you do?”
I said, “I didn’t do anything. I just . . .” and I gestured with my hand. Then the lady asked Mataji, “What happened? Ask her, what did she do to me?” The lady explained, “This girl touched me. I have been suffering from terrible backache for years and years. I have been taking all kinds of medications. It’s gone. When she touched me, this unbelievable feeling of elation came. What has she done to me? . . . We were coming down from Massurie and we heard kirtan going on, so we stopped the car and came in. I just sat here and this girl healed me. I don’t feel any pain.”
There was another night when Swamiji was making me get up and touch many different people. I remember that afterwards a gentleman came up to my aunt, Mataji, and me. I remember because he came from a large family and several of his family members had been blessed by Swamiji through healing trance. He said, “Look, you seem like an intelligent person. You are very well aware of what you are doing. What is it that you are doing?” I was taken aback and didn’t know what to say.
My aunt said, “What exactly did you experience?”
He said, “The moment she touched there were electrical currents going through from the spine. Is she in trance? She has got her eyes wide open. How is it that she knows how to touch the exact pain spots? Whenever you touch us, we feel well. We get this sense of elation. What is it?”
My aunt explained, “She is just a medium through whom Swamiji is working. She is in a healing trance. She doesn’t know the exact trouble spots. It’s only Swami who knows and he makes her touch those spots.”
Patrick Baker, Seattle
My first experience with Swamiji was my second or third time coming to the Seattle Meditation Center. A woman was in bhava. I got in front of her with my back turned. She couldn’t see me, not with her eyes anyway. She reached out with one of her fingers and touched me at the exact spot that was the center of my injury. She could not have known that. With her eyes were closed, she was able to reach out and touch me.
Instantly, it happened so quickly you could not even measure it in time, a bolt of electricity went through me. It felt like lightening. It was icy cold, a touch that was completely overpowering and purifying. She held her finger on my neck for a few minutes, then moved it down my neck and on my shoulders. Instantly the pain was gone. I had free, complete movement in my neck. I haven’t had any problems or any reoccurrence since. There is no idea that I ever had an injury there. It had been there for about six months. It was debilitating and I thought it was something that I just will have to live with.
Bhava samadhi. Images taken from movie film taken in Adivarapupeta, March of 1963, that can be seen at the ONLINE VIDEO pages.
Bedridden in a Body Cast
Hari Gopal injured my back in a riding accident. The injury developed over a long period of time to the point where he couldn’t move. He was confined to bed and bandaged from head to foot. He had to resign from Swamiji’s committee in Agra. The doctors suggested an operation, but the Bhadawar Maharaja urged me not to do it. He knew of another man with a similar injury who was left totally paralyzed from the operation.
It was the 24th of January (Swamiji’s birthday). Hari Gopal liked the kirtan so much that he would not miss it at any cost. He felt bad that he couldn’t attend the birthday function at the Bhadawar House. He had been on his back for almost a year and he was desperate. That night he was hoping that someone somehow would take him by car to Swamiji’s program.
Bhopal Singh Bhadauria was attending the kirtan that night when the queen mother got trance, went to the dais, picked up a handful of vibhuti with both hands. She came straight to where Bhadauria was and he almost went into trance. His eyes closed but his hands opened when she was about to give the vibhuti to him. Bhadauria took the vibhuti into his hands and saw a vision. He saw Hari Gopal bandaged from head to foot, lying on a couch. Bhadauria remained in meditation for a long time. After the meditation, the queen mother sent her daughter to call him.
The queen mother, still in trance, told Bhadauria, “Hari Gopal is lying at his house. He is sick and bandaged head to foot. Take that vibhuti. That is for him and ask him to apply it all over his body.”
The queen's daughter, Lal, and her niece were in Gauri Shankara trance, and they reamined in trance after the arthi. The family didn’t know what to do. The two walked right out the door and down the steps. They stood by the car and waited. They wanted to go somewhere. A nephew opened the door. They both got inside the car, still in the Gauri Shankara position, their arms around each other. They indicated they wanted to be driven, so the nephew started the car and they drove to Hari Gopal’s house. They pulled him out of bed and stood him on his feet. He hadn’t walked for a year. They put him in the car and brought him the the Bhadawar House.
He walked into the room with tears down his cheeks. Others also sat and cried. He told them that he had such a desperate desire to be able to come for kirtan at least for Swamiji’s birthday function. After that he came every Sunday and he was soon back on the job organizing Swamiji’s local activities.
Hari Gopal decided against the operation. He got the vibhuti and started using it every day. Within about fifteen days his body started working again and he was able to move my fingers. When the doctors saw that, they decided there was no need for the operation. “Swamiji cured me. It was only through the blessings of Swamiji. Although the doctors were working on me and giving me medical treatment, it was the blessings of Swamiji that actually healed me and made me into a normal man to be able to sit here as healthy as this. I am extremely grateful to Swamiji.”
Comfort for the Dying
Bapanamma, Adivarapupeta
Aptharaju, one of the ashram committee members, suffered a heart attack. His brother and the other committee members were with Swamiji. They didn't know anything about Aptharaju, but Swamiji knew. He immediately called a devotee and asked him to arrange for two buses. Swamiji sent two bus loads of people, including all the people who were in trance at the ashram at the time, to the village where Aptharaju was lying ill.
The people in bhava rode the bus and arrived while still in bhava. There were about twenty to twenty-five people in trance. Through all these people, including those in bhava, the man was taken care of. They massaged his chest and he became all right. Six months later that man had another attack. That time Swamiji was in kaya kalpa and nobody was allowed to go in. So Aptharaju passed away.
Bhopal Singh Bhadauria, Agra
There was a gentleman from Kachaura who was suffering from many diseases and came to attend kirtan. I was in trance and went near him and began to cry. Tears fell from my eyes and touched the gentleman who also fell into trance. He told me afterwards that he felt very comfortable and he felt that the pain was being taken out of his body. The gentleman later died after a few months.