We have been hearing an advertisement in the USA for a long time that "Milk does a body good." Now it seems our souls may be purified by the miracles of milk. The word miraclebecame extraordinarily significant from the day the news of Lord Ganesha drinking milk spellbound everyone--believers and atheists, Hindus and non-Hindus, East and West, rational scientists and bhaktasor premisof God. We all have to agree that miracles have been reported to occur in almost every religion of this world, such as the parting of the Red Sea, thundering of the Ten Commandments from heaven, revelation of the Koranto Mohammed, flying of Hanuman with a mountain of Sanjivani herbs on his shoulders, attainment of Nirvana by Buddha and the resurrection of Jesus after his crucifixion. If they are challenged and rejected, then religion is reduced to mere codes of conduct for happy living dependent on fear of God for motivation, just as Karl Marx theorized.
Look at nature: the billions of stars, the shining of the sun, the emergence of fruits and leaves from a seed, the reproduction of humans and animals from the womb of the mother, the limbs of the body, the colors on the petal of a flower and the immense distance to where the fences of this universe are located--or perhaps we live in a fenceless, limitless universe. If we cannot explain or duplicate these, even with all the scientific theories as to how and why these phenomena occur, shouldn't we call them miracles?
Therefore as a first conclusion, let us agree that miracles in nature are happening every moment we live. Hence miracles cannot be ruled out. Do we have to prove these spectacular and unbelievable things which happen everyday before our own eyes?
Secondly, most religions have intentionally closed their chapters of revelations and miracles of spiritualism by making their texts or messengers the only or the last ones capable of revelation or miracles. But Hinduism, being a theory of continuous research in God and of life by rebirths and reincarnations, has a moral and legal scope for the possibility of miracles. The third conclusion is that if miracles could occur and be proven, it would be possible only in Hinduism and like religions which have limitless dimensions in spiritualism. So, the Gods of the Hindu pantheon could do a miracle for us by drinking milk, if the Almighty decided to demonstrate that all styles of sincere worship, based on belief, should be respected and be declared acceptable to Him--including the idol worship of Hindus. It is the fourth conclusion that no one should condemn any of the ways of worshipping Him. There is no superior or inferior procedure in beliefs.
Since these acts of milk drinking have been reported almost everywhere on the globe and reproduced by thousands of ordinary people, not just by the exclusive priests in charge of the temples, the one major criteria of science of reproducibility seems to have been satisfied. Naturally this baffles all of us. Let us be very critical and try to disprove this miracle by the explanation that milk from the initially tilted spoon trickles down the statue's side by surface tension and forms a smooth continuity of flow unnoticeable to the eye. Or we can postulate that the capillaries of the porous stone absorb the liquid and give an illusion of disappearance or drinking of the milk by the statue. But with either explanation, the milk fed in such a quantity by lakhs of peoples should drain out continuously. The simple principle of science, conservation of matter, states that the milk must re-accumulate somewhere. But we are not able to conclude anything about this question, "Where has all the milk gone?" even when every eye is watching the disappearance of milk from the spoons. We know that miracles of nature are happening every second that prove God is the energy and driving force behind this miracle of the universe and life. We know that Hinduism does not rule out such happenings. We know it happened to a Hindu God. We know there is no one religion that is superior or inferior and that all forms of God are acceptable to the Supreme. Then our final conclusion should be that "Lord Ganesha is drinking milk. Yes! He is blessing everyone."
Prithivi Raj Singh is the president of the Federation of Hindu Associations Incorporated, in Artesia, California. He is a chemical engineer who runs his own chemical business.
The neighbors gathered together wailing loud and long, denied him now a name, called him corpse, and bore him to the burning ghat and the body burnt, then did a ceremonial dip--and memory of him fades away. --Tirumantiram 145.