FASCINATING!!!!!-A few years ago Baba Rampuri was asked in an interview whether MAGIC exists. He replied:
“You see, we are running up against the same problem again, which we are going to continue to run up against. And that is that we have a structure dealing with this material that is different from dealing with this material in a traditional culture.
We are referencing science, for example, as the normative paradigm, as the normal situation, and then we see something that is unexplainable by science and we treat it as magic, because it is not science and yet we experience it, so it is magic.
But you see, we are framing the question and we are framing the experience in terms of science, we are already making an assumption that science is the normal.
Now, if you take, say, a yogi in the Himalayas, he is not taking science as the normal, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe in science, that he doesn’t use science, of course, he uses it, but his normal is the mythological world, his normal is the magic that happens out of guru disciple relationship, the tradition of this relationship.
**So, when something extraordinary happens, the person whose normal is science would call it magic, but the yogi might call it revelation. Not magic, but revelation. So, in other words the beholding would be what they call in Hindi or Sanscrit “Darshan” rather than “Magic”. It is the difference of orientation.
It is very comfortable for western audience to fictionalise Indian yogis, but where does it get us unless we are selling the film rights, if you know what I mean. It is crucial to identify the assumption, to identify who we are, who is asking the question, even though it may be very difficult to exercise. Because, whoever is framing the question is predetermining the answer.-
