THE TRUTH WITHIN
by Dadaji
edited by Ann Mills
FREE download of book

Part IV
On Dadaji

"Your Dadaji, Amiya Roy Chowdhury, says do not try to test the Supreme Being. Do not try to understand Him with the help of your mind or intellect. Ever follow the Truth. Then, and then only, you are in communion with Him."

10 My Dadaji Experiences - by Dr. Lalit Kumar Pandit, Bombay INDIA

I met Dadaji on August 15, 1973. Since then I have had many occasions of meeting and talking intimately with him. My experiences associated with him have led me to an inner certitude of the existence of Truth (Supreme Being or Satyanarayan) that, however, defies any mental or intellectual description. As a scientist, a researcher in theoretical high energy physics, I am well versed in the presently accepted basic laws of physics.

LEFT: Dr Lalit Pandit speaking at Dadaji's request, Utsav in Calcutta India 1985

My working life in this world is thus entirely tied up with the world of mental concepts, expressed in mathematical form, framed for the purpose of achieving an orderly description of the phenomena of nature perceived via our senses suitably extended through complex instruments.

Experiences with Dadaji have NOT led me to give up or deny this world as seen and described by us....it too, after all, is the creation of the Supreme Being. What has happened is that an awareness has developed in me of the immanent and all-engulfing Truth beyondthe grasp of the intellect.

Only an open-minded (rather open-hearted) reader is likely to grasp what is sought to be communicated here. This shall be, for once, no occasion for merely intellectual discussions. Words, after all, cannot describe what the intellect cannot grasp or formulate. However, where the affinity of Love exists, all lovers know words can still be enjoyable even though they are thoroughly inadequate as vehicles for the feeling enjoyed in communion.

The Space-Time Complex: Relativity and Complementarity
As soon as we appear in this world of nature (the kingdom of Time), consciousness emerges in the garb of mind attempting constantly a separation of subject and object. An effort at continuous coordination in moments of time and locations in space attends the experiencing of the world within and without. A fragmented vision of events in time and space ensues. Desire to control the course of events takes hold. An attempt to describe the world, that may lead to practical ends being achieved, is inaugurated. Most magical rites and religious rituals of old, as well as scientific research and technology of today are based on this basic desire. The result, of dominating importance today, is the dazzling edifice of science.

Recent developments in the fundamental science of physics have thrown up a few general lessons of great importance. As a background to offset the experiences with Dadaji I will relate in this article, it will be worthwhile to briefly indicate these lessons. The first major revolution, still however permitting a deterministic causal description of natural phenomena, occurred in 1905 with the emergence of the special theory of relativity of Einstein. As a result, it became clear that the hitherto employed concept of time flowing independently of space, whereby simultaneity of events widely separated in space had an absolute meaning, was only of approximate validity and was natural to us only in the context of familiar experiences in which the speeds involved were negligible compared to the enormous speed of light in vacuum.

The physical space-time complex is actually inseparable, and simultaneity is a relative concept depending on the motion of the observer. Furthermore, no physical signals (or actions) can travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum....the latter being independent of the state of the source and is, as such, a universal limiting physical speed.

The second major revolution, and philosophically in many ways the more jolting one, was inaugurated already in the year 1900 by Planck's discovery of another universal limiting constant called Planck's quantum of action; and, properly matured only after another quarter century had elapsed with the discovery of quantum mechanics needed for a proper description of atomic phenomena. It rung the death knell on all attempts at a deterministic causal space-time description of physical phenomena at the atomic and subatomic level.

There must always be present an undetermined disturbance of the observed system in each act of observation. The observer and the observed can no longer be neatly separated. The description must thus, perforce be only probabilistic or statistical. The limitation of our language based on the, for all practical purposes, valid deterministic space-time description of the familiar large scale experience, for which the limiting constant of Planck is negligible, forces us to make use of mutually exclusive (complementary) physical pictures in describing one and the same physical system at the atomic level.

This was revolution indeed. Its lesson has been formulated as the principle of complementarity by Niels Bohr. Emboldened by this lesson from atomic physics, Bohr has even attempted carrying over the spirit of the principle of complementarity to other areas where the intellectual activity of concept and theory building is carried on, such as in psychology and biology.

It may be in the very nature of the intellect that concepts which are mutually contradictory in terms of the language pertaining to one level of experience must, nevertheless, be used together in a complementary manner when used to describe newer and subtler levels of experience.

The methods of science have proved eminently successful. As a result, in all areas of human activity, one attempts the methods of scientific model building. The open-ended evolutionary as well as revolutionary nature of the development of science is clear by the above examples.

Today, the focus of attention in fundamental research in physics is on the subnuclear high energy particle phenomena. Many new and totally unforeseen phenomena have been observed with the use of very high energy machines and complex detector systems. This research involving huge outlays of money and manpower, is seeking the ultimate theory of matter. This hope appears to us very naive, for no matter how high the energy attained, by marshalling perhaps the budgets of the whole world, it will still be negligibly small compared with infinite energy.

The open-ended game of scientific research remains, of course, certainly interesting and possibly technologically useful at every step. Such open-endedness is not peculiar to experimental science. In fact, incompleteness always remains in the intellectual game of abstract mathematics. Many are the other games of deep importance, such as the play of human imagination in the arts. The creative impulse is presumably from one and the same source, be it in art or in science. For the intellect, the world pictures from these two directions may appear contradictory; but, both sides are somehow important in the sense of the extended principle of complementarity. Certitude might well be impossible for the intellect, and yet be immediate to the heart.

To a general reader the foregoing paragraphs might seem too terse and hardly connected with our main theme. But, the essential point is that science is devoted to constructing a mental, intellectual description of the world in the space-time framework. The resulting picture is open-ended and no claims to absolute finality can be made for it at any stage of its development.

In contrast, the Truth that Dadaji refers to as the Absolute, is well beyond the pale of mind and intellect. Thus, no logically consistent description of Truth is possible in human language. The baffling Dadaji experiences I will relate serve to point to this BEYOND. Dadaji exhorts us all the same, to fully enjoy the familiar world as the creation and play of the Supreme Being, while developing an inner awareness of the Lord through loving devotion.

First Encounter: Mahanam Revelation
In June, 1973, I was participating in a summer school at Dalhousie. During one of the evening strolls, a distinguished colleague happened to mention a book, then recently published, relating miracles attributed to a well known "Miracle Maker" of south India. I became very curious. I had also read cursorily about such doings in a weekly magazine, all with utter disbelief. After all, as a physicist, I was well aware of the present basic physical laws, including those of conservation of energy and matter, which make physical means unavailable, certainly for large scale materialization or even transformations of physical objects.

LEFT: Dr. Lalit Pandit (physicist), Dadaji, C.S. Pandit (editor)

However, on my return to Bombay, I did buy a copy of that book and read it through. All the incidents were to me quite beyond acceptance. Even though unbelieving, I could not easily dismiss the testimonies of so many good and able people. Were they all gullible fools? Or, was it perhaps possible that, with all the numerous camouflaging hoaxes abounding in the world, there is in fact, an incomprehensible Divine Power, to which our laws do not apply, shooting forth baffling manifestations for some Divine Purpose?

It was not difficult to dismiss such thoughts and get involved with my worldly affairs. I had, furthermore, another absorbing pastime made available to me just then. My eldest brother, Mr. C.S. Pandit, had moved from Delhi to Bombay to take on the editorial responsibilities of a local daily paper. Our entertaining talks were indeed absorbing.

One evening, quite unexpectedly, he told me that he had been contacted by Abhi Bhattacharya requesting him to come and meet Sri Amiya Roy Chowdhury, who was referred to as Dadaji (Elder Brother). "You will accompany me for this meeting?" my brother asked. I told him point blank that I did not believe in going and meeting so-called holy persons and the invitation was clearly to him because of his public importance as an editor. So, he went to the meeting alone and, in fact, went three or four times after.

Each time he would come back with astounding experiences of breathtaking miraculous phenomena, thoroughly enchanted with the loving personality of Dadaji. I listened to him in disbelief, and yet with a mind open, albeit with some effort. Since I know him well to be a man not easily fooled and trained to watch the crooked by-ways of the political world; and besides, it was the nearest possible first hand reporting. My suppressed curiosity finally surfaced. I agreed to accompany my brother to visit Dadaji on August 15. We started out from my flat for the fifteen mile drive. It was the monsoon season and it was literally pouring. The going became rougher as we proceeded. My brother asked me in mocking dismay, "Are you in luck or not?" As soon as he said this, the lashing rain stopped and did not reappear for the remaining thirteen miles.

On the way, my brother ran out of cigarettes. We stopped and he bought a pack of expensive, imported State Express 555 cigarettes. He hardly had time to enjoy a few puffs, when we arrived at our destination, Abhi's flat in Bandra. He threw away his cigarette and we entered the flat. My brother and I were called by Dadaji into the private bedroom adjoining the main gathering room.

I had vaguely expected to see an awe-inspiring old man with gorgeous saffron clothes or some other appurtenances of ostensible holiness. Instead, I saw a rather ordinary looking man, appearing to be about fifty-five, with somewhat loose, long, mostly black hair, reclining on a bed in a most informal manner of any average elderly Indian householder on a Sunday morning. He was clad in the common summer attire of a Lungi and sleeveless vest. Could it really be the one I had come all this way to meet, I wondered.

I greeted Dadaji from a distance, abstaining from the traditional Indian touching of the feet when meeting an elder, and then squatted in front of him like the others. The casual informal conversation in progress when we entered continued. I felt somewhat out of it all, except when a couple of times Dadaji shot me a glance with a peculiar smile. Those glances and that smile are vivid even today. They had a quality that is impossible to describe.

All of a sudden, with an impetuous, spontaneous gesture with his hand, Dadaji called me closer to him. He touched my chest with his hand and I was engulfed all through my body and clothes with an incredible Fragrance which remained after many washings. As he touched my chest, Dadaji said, "You take Diksha from your inside, yes?" I vaguely nodded my head and shuffled back to my original spot. My brother asked Dadaji, "Why do you want publicity?" Dadaji laughed and said, "He does not want any publicity. But, who can stop His Work? Truth has ways to get His Work done." All very laconic. All of a sudden, Dadaji said, "Oh, Mr. Pandit has a great desire for a cigarette. Go on and smoke if you wish." I saw my eldest brother looking like an embarrassed youngster, an amusing sight indeed. Then Dadaji asked, "Oh, you will smoke my cigarettes? Here...." And, Dadaji flicked his hand and out fell in front of us with incredible suddenness a large carton of two hundred State Express 555 cigarettes, which no hand could have hidden! Dadaji shot me a glance, inscrutable, from a face somewhat flushed and radiant. And then, he took a small piece from his own packet of a cheap Indian brand of cigarettes and casually lit it.

LEFT: Dadaji smoking half a Wills cigarette, Bombay India 1984

That stub was to me a liberating experience. It seemed to say, taboos are man made, of no importance to Him. My suppressed curiosity for a materialization miracle had been taken care of in a way leaving no room for any quibbling. And this, while I was still suffused by the Divine Aroma Dadaji had touched off my chest.

While I sat somewhat stunned and yet strangely elated by what I had just witnessed, my brother regained his composure. He asked how these things could happen, speaking in my behalf, that I was a scientist and could hardly accept such happenings. Dadaji said, "Dadaji does not know, does not want to know and has no part in them. They happen at His Will. That is all. Only a scientist knows the boundaries and so what lies outside them. Just wait, our scientist will be straightened out in a minute." Dadaji asked the others to leave the room, then asked me to hold firmly in my hand a small piece of paper. He asked me to bow down to a picture of Sri Sri Satyanarayan and as I did that, he started muttering, "Jai Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Ram...." and touched my back. In a moment, I was living through the grandest miracle of all. While fully conscious, I was somehow aware of a deep inner subtle vibration, almost disembodied and from deep within I heard the Mahanam, Gopal Govinda, in a voice strangely familiar, just like hearing myself on a tape recording.

Dadaji asked me to look at the piece of paper I was holding. I found the Mahanam written on it in beautiful red calligraphy. Again I bowed and when I looked at the paper again Mahanam had disappeared, leaving a mere fragrant oily smudge. Dadaji explained, "You have seen your within, Lord Govinda. For a fleeting moment, the veil had been parted for you by His Grace. Back again you are in the mundane world of Maya. Your Mahanam is for your loving remembrance while you sojourn in this world, His Creation. It is not for a mere ritualistic repetition. Tell me, scientist, did I utter it in your ear to collect some fees? You have got what was and is yours from your within."

LEFT: Satyanarayan wallet picture given by Dadaji

And so, I was raised by His Grace to the level of a Drashta, a Seer. I had no reluctance to touching Dadaji's feet now, the feet that were fragrant with Divine Aroma. Before we parted, Dadaji gave me a small picture of Sri Sri Satyanarayan for my wallet and a large on for my home. On my second visit to Dadaji, again with my brother, Dadaji thundered, "All bluff! How can a mortal be a Guru of another mortal? The Lord alone is our Gurus." This attack on Gurudom and priestcraft is a common refrain with him, much to the annoyance of traditional beliefs (or superstitions) and powerful vested interests. I thought I was being clever when I bowled him quietly a googly, "And, Dadaji, who is this person in the picture of Sri Sri Satyanarayan?" Straight-away he batted me for six, "Nobody! He is no body. The symbol of Truth." Every mathematician, I remembered, knows the profound meanings attached to innocuous looking symbols, e.g. of unity (1), zero, and infinity. That took care of me beautifully. We were about to leave when Dadaji told us, "The Lord will give you a message, either of you." In deference to my elder brother, I stepped back and left the room. My brother later told me he, himself, held out in his hands a blank page torn out of a school exercise book and bowed to Sri Sri Satyanarayan while remembering Mahanam. Within a few seconds, he was out of the room with the paper now covered with a message beautifully written in red ink.