During the end-of-year vacation in 1959, Pradip Bhatnagar and Mahesh Agnihotri, two new initiates of Asthana from Allahabad, came to Jamalpur to see Baba (Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, Guru of Ananda Marga). On the way they were joined by Acharya Chandradev Verma. an officer working at the All lndia Radio, and Vinod Pandey, an initiate of his who had just completed his post-graduate studies in psychology. A philosophical discussion ensued during which Vinod said that he did not believe that the mind existed apart from the brain. He was of the view that both were one and the same. He argued that the mind was merely the ability of the brain to function. He added that the mind did not exist after the death of the body, so the concept of rebirth was illogical and he did not believe in it. His acharya tried his best to convince him about the existence of the mind and the reality of reincarnation through logical arguments, but Vinod refused to accept his reasoning and wanted concrete proof of the existence of the mind and reincarnation. After reaching the Jamalpur jagrti very early in the morning, they took a bath and did their meditation, then took their breakfast hurriedly, as they anticipated that Baba would arrive at any moment. Just as they were about to finish, they heard an excited shout, “Baba is coming, Baba is coming.” They quickly washed and rushed out on to the veranda. All the Margis were lined up in arrow with folded hands to greet Baba. He walked past them, accepting their greetings with a sweet smile, and enquired after their well-being. When he saw Chandradel’, he paused for a moment right in front of him, touched his chin and looked him straight in the eye, saying, “l understand your problem,” before walking into his room. After completing some office work with Pranay and a few others, Baba instructed Madhav, the ashram manager, to call everyone. There were over 30 Margis assembled in the jagrti. Baba gave a short discourse on the mind and the brain.
He began the discourse by saying, “Some people think that the mind is a mere function of the brain and does not exist after death. That is a defective idea.” Hearing this, Vinod looked at his acharya in amazement and wondered. “Did my acharya talk to Baba about our discussion in the train? But that isn’t possible as he didn’t have the opporltunity to meet Baba until now and could not have communicated our discussion to him. Maybe my acharya was correct that Baba can read the thoughts of others.” As he was thinking this, he saw his acharya smiling at him in a way that enquired whether he now believed that Baba was antorl’otni. i.e. one who is capable of knowing the thoughts, feelings and needs of everyone. “lt is a completely defective idea,” continued Baba. ‘A little deeper analysis of the function of the mind will prove that the mind is not merely a function of the brain. For example, common functions like memory thought, etc. concern the realm of ideas. It is neither possible to create nor store ideas in a physical structure like the brain. There are several other aspects of the higher realms of the mind such as the faculties of sentiment, rationality. discrimination and the propensities of the mind all of which cannot be considered as mere cerebral functions. Mind has several psychic abilities such as telepathy and clairvoyance, which go beyond the physical realm. Feelings of pain and pleasure are also psychic experiences. It is wrong to think that every human feeling that one experiences is permanently recorded or stored in a part of the brain. If it were true. then the brain would have to be very large, and new cells would have to be constantly created in order to cope with the expression of new feelings at every moment. “When the same objects or incidents are recreated in the mind, they are called smriti or memory. How does one activate the memory? There are two processes of remembering: internal and external. The internal way is to revive the undistorted image of perceived objects or events present in the nerve cells. In the initial stage, perception is registered in the unit mind through the nerve cells. and the vibrations of those perceptions remain embedded in them. The nerve cells in the brain differ according to the different vibrations they carry. Some carry the vibrations of knowledge, others the vibrations of action. “If someone happens to see a white cow, he can easily say after five minutes what the colour of the cow was because the image of the cow is still imprinted very clearly and distinctly in the nerve cells. But if we ask the same person to describe the cow after the lapse of a few days, he will find it much more difficult to recollect its colour because by then the impression of the cow the nerve cells will have become indistinct. At that stage the image of the cow can no longer be retrieved from the brain; it can only be retrieved from the ectoplasmic mind-stuff or chitta. where it was permanently stored when he first saw it. So the mind will have to labour hard to recreate the image of the cow from its accumulated memories. The ability to do this depends on a person’s psychic power. “So even if there are no impressions in the nerve-cells, the mind can at will re-vibrate the nerve-cells with its own accumulated memories. It can do so as many times as it likes using its own force. It can also create similar impressions in the nerve cells. As long as these mentally created impressions remain undistorted, it will be easy to remember them. lf you are asked what you have eaten today, you can reply immediately, but if you are asked what you ate the day before yesterday, you are likely to take some time to answer’ But after you have replied, if you are asked again a little later, ‘What did you eat the day before yesterday?’you will be able to answer the question very quickly. “If the external factors necessary for the revival of memory remain undisturbed for some time, one can more easily recreate events that have already been perceived. For instance. if one happens to go to the spot where one saw the cow, one suddenly remembers that a white cow was tethered there. But with the lapse of time, the external factors necessary for the recreation of that image change drastically and it becomes difficult for the brain to remember the details of the event. At this stage. to recollect the image one has to penetrate the ectoplasm of the unit mind. Of course, once one has recollected an incident or object, its impression remains in the mind for some time before it finally disappears.
“So the brain is merely a physical machine to help the mind recollect and perlform other functions. Its different parts assist the mind in a variety of ways. However, memory resides in the chitta, not in the nerve cells or any other chamber of the brain. So even though an impression has faded from the nerve cells, the mind can at will recreate the impression. When the brain assists in the recollection of any event or object” it is called cerebral memory’. “So it is incorrect to equate the mind with the brain. The mind is subtle, and because of that it has to take the help of a crude base in order to function. The crude base is the brain, and it is with the help of this base that our mind is able to work. Mind and brain are so closely connected that one cannot work without the other. Without the mind. the brain ceases to function, and similarly if the mind’s base, i.e. the brain, is not in proper order, the mind will not be able to function. A dead person’s body has a brain but it does not function because there is no mind in it. Similarly, when a person becomes unconscious when under anaesthesia or due to any other reason, the brain ceases to function for some time, and this results in the mind becoming inactive because its physical base, the brain, is not functioning.” Baba said that some people erroneously attribute the role of the mind to the brain. The brain is only a medium for the mind to function. Hence, if the does not exist it follows that the brain cannot function. He further explained that if, through a special process, the mind of a particular body were replaced with another mind, then, despite the presence of the brain. the entire personality of the person and his memories would cease to exist. After explaining the theoretical aspects of the subject, Baba asked the two new Margis, Ntahesh and Pradip, to come forward and sit on the floor on either side of the bed. Baba instructed Pradip to sit on the right corner and Mahesh on the left corner. After they sat down, Baba asked their names and what they were doing. Pradip replied that he had completed his medical studies and Mahesh said that he had completed law and was about to start his practice. “What is your mother tongue?” “My mother tongue is Punjabi,” replied Pradip. “My mother tongue is Bhojpuri,” answered Mahesh. “Do you know Punjabi?” Baba asked Mahesh. “Baba, I can understand only a few’ words of Punjabl that I have learned from Punjabi-speaking friends.”
Turning to Pradip on the right, Baba asked, “What about you, do you know Bhojpuri?” “lt is the same with me too, Baba. I understand a little Bhojpuri, as it is close to Hindi.” Baba then instructed both of them to sit in meditation. There upon he touched their Ajina chakra (psychic centre between the eyebrows), and they instantly fell over backwards. Baba asked some Margis in the audience to check their pulse and breathing. The Margis examined them separately and declared that they could not detect any breathing or pulse in either of them and that the symptoms showed that they were dead. When he heard that they had died, Vinod became worried. Baba continued, “The reason they are lifeless is because the mind has been detached from their body. Life is the condition in which the body and the mind have attained a state of parallelism. The mind is not a function of the brain. Do you follow, my little boy?” Baba asked Vinod. Baba then crossed both his index fingers. Everyone waited anxiously to see what was going to happen next. as the anticipation mounted. After a short pause. Baba turned to Pradip” who was lying on the right. and asked in Punjabi, “What is your name’.?”
“My name is Mahesh and I have completed law and am preparing to set up a legal practice,” replied Pradip in fluent Bhojpuri. Baba again turned to the Margis with a mischievous smile on his lips and said, “See. see, he too has changed his name and qualification. Only a few minutes ago he said that his name was Pradip and that he had completed hrs medical studies. He also said that he does not know any Bhojpuri. Now he speaks fluent Bhojpuri and says that he is going to practice law. Were they both not lying to us? Is it not so? What do you say my little boy?” Baba asked Vinod who was by then mystified. The demonstration had shattered Vinod’s belief that the brain and the mind were one and the same. He felt utterly bewildered and fumbled for an answer. Baba then turned to the others in the audience and asked them with an enigmatic smile, “What do you all say?” Pranay, Dasharath, Sukumar and some of the old Margis who had been with Baba for a long time smiled, as they knew exactly what was happening. By then Vinod’s confusion had increased considerably, as he tried to reconcile his views with what he was seeing. As he grappled with his deepening confusion and tried to make sense of it all, Pratibha blurted out, “Baba, you have interchanged their minds. You have transferred Mahesh’s mind to Pradip’s body and Pradip’s mind to Mahesh’s body.” Baba responded by asking, “Is it so. Pratibha ? Are you sure of what you are saying?” “Yes. Baba. How else could they have swapped their names and personalities?” The mist slowly cleared from the minds of the Margis as they saw the logic of what she was saying. They were highly amused by the dramatic nature of this amazing demonstration, but the greatest impact was on Chandradev and Vinod. Baba slowly turned his head from left to right looking at all the Margis with a faint smile on his lips, then nodded his head, suggesting that Pratibha’s answer was correct.
Baba also asked both Pradip and Mahesh how they felt. They replied that they felt a bit uncomfortable, as if they had entered a strange place. By now it was clear to everyone that it was actually Pradip speaking from ‘Mahesh’s body and Mahesh speaking from Pradip’s body. At that point, Baba touched the ajina chakra of both the persons. Once again, both of them became lifeless and fell backwards. He then turned to the Margis and said, “Now, is it clear to all of you that after their minds were exchanged, their identities also changed, and that the brain is only the physical medium of the mind? That is how Pradip’s body got Mahesh’s identity and vice versa. The identity belongs to the mind and not to the body. From this demonstration, it should now be clear that the memory and the identity of a person are not related to the brain but to the mind. The changing of bodies is called parakala pravesl’ta, which is a highly advanced occult power.” Then Baba turned to Dasharath and pointing at Vinod said, “Dasharath, see the past life of this boy.” Dasharath concentrated his mind on Vinod and said. “Baba, he was a tax collector of the local King of Chittorgarh in Rajasthan.” “See how he died.” “He was bitten by a cobra.” Baba asked Vinod, ‘Are you afraid of snakes’?” “Yes Baba, I am extremely afraid of snakes, so much so that after sunset I am afraid of venturing into dark places.” “See how the influence of the experiences of a particular life can mould the feelings, sentiments and thinking of a person in the next life as well,” Baba remarked. Baba again asked Dasharath, “Where did the snake bite him?” “Baba, it bit him on his right wrist,” said Dasharath pointing to the exact spot on his own wrist.
Baba then asked Vinod to show his wrist. Baba asked the others to examine his wrist to see if there was any mark. The Margis examined his wrist and were stunned to see a birthmark at the exact spot pointed out by Dasharath. Concluding the demonstration, Baba turned to the Margis and remarked, “Isn’t it interesting? These are matters of future research.” He then touched Pradip’s and Mahesh’s lifeless bodies and said. “They will wake up shortly in their original identities. They will be in some pain because the blood circulation had temporarily stopped. Give them some warm milk and massage their bodies. That will help to relieve the pain.” After the demonstration was over Chandradev Varma asked his initiate, “Now Vinod, what do you have to say about your earlier contention that the brain and the mind are one and the same?’, “Dada, what I have seen today is really amazing and I have no words to express my feelings,” replied Vinod. “But at the same time I am a bit confused. I am still unable to reconcile my view on the topic with what I have seen, whatever I have learned and believed until now has been proved wrong. It will take some time for me to come to grips with this new understanding of reality.” This was not the only time that Baba performed a demonstration where he swapped the minds and bodies of different persons. He conducted similar demonstrations on a few other occasions as well.
from the book: Shrii Shrii Anandmurti: Advent of a Mystery,
Collected and Compiled by Ac. Pranavatmakananda Avt.
Meditation 