A miracle is when the impossible is believed happens.It’s when doctors have given up on a sick child and for no scientific reason, that child gets well or when you’re down to your last dollar, have piles of bills to be paid, and a check arrives in the mail from some unknown source. It can also a hurricane comes through a town and your house is left standing with desolation all around it.
Miracles take place everyday. Sometimes they’re very subtle and quiet, sweeping in like a touch on the face. Other times, it’s very evident and public. It doesn’t matter who you are, miracles can happen to anyone; if one cannot explain the course of nature or its secret of happening.Why do miracles take place? Some claim that it may be that God wants your attention!
However when you believe in God, you gain an awareness of Him. You see everything in a new light. He shows His great power through the trials and tribulations of life, through nature and science.That itself is a miracle, but few take noe of that.That is taken for granted. God is in the impossible business. What is a miracle? Someone once said, “Coincidence is when God wants to remain anonymous.” Well, miracles are when God reveals Himself. All glory and honor and praise belong to Him. Without Him there would be no miracles!
Miracles, today, are declared because of (1) the remission of an illness (2) the face of Jesus on a piece of toast and (3) "weeping statues" positioned under a leaky roof...or (4)finally the image of a khanda that seems to have appeared on a piece of cloth used to cover the Guru Granth sahib; after three elements meet, or an element exposed to another after a period of absence from it. There has not been one instance of what everyone would call a genuine miracle eg the crippled walking, the blind seeing, the dead getting up and asking for a coffee.
And interestingly, the so-called miracles always concern the human, not other species or phenomena. Why doesn't God reveal himself by making water run uphill? Something that can be experienced and witnessed? The concept of "miracle" is distinctly human, born of ignorance and refusal to engage in the real world. [/B]
In truth , the word miracle is most often used as a metaphor .However , different religions understand it differently.For the Christians, a miracle contains the gift of grace;and forgiveness is the home of miracles. Miracles fall like drops of healing rain from heaven on a dry and dusty world, where starved and thirsty creatures come to die.
But for a Sikh, the whole creation of life is a miracle of God.The truth is a miracle, the miraclous concept of unparralled shahidi and living to the core of the Gurus direction is a miracle.This is the real life miracle; that is continous and real.Sikhism does not approve of once a while miracles as understood by the muslims and the christians.Therefore any Sikh trying to understand miracle through that concept is not true to his or her Gurus direction and the Guru Granth sahib.
But why then miracles have such a large space in the Sikh mind and understanding?Because we have stories that Guru Nanak Ji went to Mecca and the ka'aba rotated each time the Gurus feet were turned into another direction.
We also have the story, that Guru Nanak Ji stopped the rock that Wali Kandhari pushed onto him, his hand print still remains on the rock, to prove the point and incident.
Guru Gobind Singh Ji removed fresh water with his arrow at a gurudwara Nagina Ghat in Nanded.
Guru Nanak Ji turned the bitter 'rithas' sweet for Bhai Mardana Ji.
These are only some of the "miracles" that Sikhs believe in, but hey, are they really miracles or true life incidents that were possible within the embodiments of the Gurus powers?I say they were true life incidents, not miracles at all.but who then claimed they were miracles?The blind, the mahants in control of our Gurduara for many generations turned us blind as well.
While we believe the above as miracles we forget the real miracles of Sikhi....Gurbani itself is a miracle. Gurus are a miracles. Guru ke sikh are miracles. Guru ke Panj piyare are miracles. 1699 Vaisakhi is a miracle. Baba Deep Singh ji fought with severe wound to almost cut off head, long after he was wounded and to the opoint of choice.
Bhai mati daas ji did jap ji sahib while getting sawed vertically in half. Bhai Taru Singh stayed alive 22 days after getting scalp removed. Baba Mani Singh ji did sukhmani sahib while getting cut into pieces. Guru Ke [Challi ]40 singhs at Chamkaur sahib fought against 2,200,000.
In recent times the battle of Saragarhi is a miracle when 22 Sikhs took on the might of the 20,000 waziris tribesmen ...and countless other miracles in the Sikh history contimnue .The count would be unending.
Real Miracle is called kautak in Punjabi.God himself is a Kautak.His entire rachna [creation] is a wholesome kautak.
However, when such" miracles" as the khanda happen, we must understand that people are mistake that for karamaat- karamaat means magical powers like the ridh sidh only a sudden creation of distraction ...once a while.
I believe if we can make Sikhs understand the difference between the concept of karamaat and kautak, perhaps Sikhs will understand the miracle of khanda has no value as it is only a karamaat and not the true mircale as kautak ..of the Creator; as such has no place in Sikhi.
According to the Gurbani the Sikhs call miracles and occult powers useless[karamat] and fruitless because they lead one away from God. As such the Sikhs have been strictly warned not to show any miracles and not to hanker after supernatural powers.
All that Sikhs ask for is the true name of the Creator and no miracle is considered greater than just remembering God and controlling one's mind in such a way as to feel satisfied. "To hanker after supernatural powers" says Guru Nanak "is pandering to low taste." When Guru Tegh Bahadur was asked to show miracles he only smiled and repeated the following hymns of Guru Ram Das:- "The desire to perform miracles is worldly and created ego, It is an obstacle in the way of repeating Lord's name that resides in my heart." The Guru did not show any miracles and only accepted to be beheaded. When Ram Rai, the son of the Guru Har Gobind, showed some miracles to Emperor Arungzeb at Delhi the Guru was extremely angry and refused to see his son for the whole of his life. In spite of the latter words repeated applications the Guru remained adamant and excommunicated his son. Baba Gurditta was so condemned at having shown a miracle that he dared not come before the Guru. Guru Nanak was asked to perform miracles when he visited the Sikhs and his reply was:- "I can do nothing against the laws of nature It is only He who can perform a miracle. For me the True Name is the miracle of miracles I know no other miracle." The Gurus never performed miracles to convince others of their spiritual superiority or occult powers and only said, "Miracles can delude only the fools."
As Emerson puts it: "Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles flow."
Why were Ram Rai and his followers ostracised from the Sikh Panth by the Gurus, because he indulged in miracles.Therefore miracles have no place in the Sikh doctorine.
According to Sikhism, occult powers come naturally through concentration on The Nam. Miracles should not be performed at the bidding of or to prove the greatness of one's religion or to confirm the faith of people in a spiritual guide. Guru Ram Daas Ji says: "The desire to perform miracles is a worldly attachment and is an obstacle in the way of The Nam residing in our hearts."
So Khalsa ji with this little understanding I share with those committed to the panth and the Sikh Gurus to disassociate themselves from such worldy miracles.
The only true miracle is the NAM of Waheguru.