A riveting account of a transcendental miracle of Divine as chronicled by Dr. John Hislop in Sanathana Sarathi, May 1974

Early in the morning of Dec 8, 1973, Swami departed Prasanthi Nilayam for Brindavan. After an hour or so of driving, He directed the three accompanying cars to turn off the road to a clearing in an uninhabited area of forest. Everyone got out. Swami was in a delightful mood, moving about amongst the party and cracking jokes with the men.

Beside the picnic area was a wood apple tree with a few large apples in view in the upper branches. The men tried to knock some of these to the ground by throwing stones, but without success. One small apple, about an inch in diameter, did fall to the ground, and Baba picked it up.

Holding the small wood apple between thumb and forefinger against the morning sun, Baba said, "Here is the moon.” Then He closed the small apple in His hand for a moment, and when His hand opened, the apple had disappeared and in its place there was a most extraordinary object.

The object in Swami's hand was a translucent disk (of stone?) thin at the edges and thicker at the centre. It reflected light in a brilliant way and throughout its body there was a puzzling variety of modifications. There were dark areas of uneven shape and size; there were short and longer veins of luminous mineral like materials of all shades of color; there were specks and dots of color that reflected brightly in the sunlight. The total effect of the disk was one of great beauty.

Everyone gazed at the object with intense interest and wonderment. Holding the disk to the sun, Baba said that it was the moon in miniature comprised of the moon's matter, that it was 'a mirror of the moon.' Nobody understood what He meant, and we started to ask questions at length and we understood that the two sided disk was an accurate miniature in stone and minerals of the two sides of the moon.

It was as if one were to photograph the moon as it is seen from Earth, and then to journey to the opposite side of the moon and photograph that side. Each side photographed would appear on a photographic plate as a circular disk. Thus, one side of the translucent disk created by Baba mirrored one side of the moon, and the other side of the translucent disk mirrored the opposite side of the moon. The darker unevenly shaped areas on the disk were the very large features of the moon's surface; the brightly reflecting specks and dots were individual mountains and smaller mountain ranges; the shorter and longer veins of brilliant varicolored mineral were additional features of the moon's landscape.

Indeed, the visual modifications to be seen in the disk were so complex that we could not readily understand it. Swami said that the mineralized appearance of the luminous features of the disk were in fact moon minerals, that they could be seen in the disk because it was thin and therefore translucent, and that the same mineralization was in the moon itself. The miniature moon was exact and fully accurate, and were there to be a photographic enlargement, Scientists could at once recognize all the landscape features with which they were familiar.

Baba told us that He would not give the miniature moon to anyone, and that the disk would be returned to where it came from. He did not describe that source and nobody asked Him.

At this point, food taken from the cars was ready, and a delicious breakfast was served by the ladies of the party. I had the moon disk in my hand, so I put it in the pocket of my jacket and kept it there until breakfast was finished. Then I returned it to Swami. He again held it up to the sun and all along the edge of the stone disk there was a rich golden light. Swami said, see there is the sunrise!

After we had all admired the golden light, Swami again closed His hand over the moon disk and when in a moment He opened His hand, the moon disk was gone and in its place was the original small wood apple.

By this time a few strangers had appeared from somewhere and Swami gave them the remaining food. The ladies tidied up the picnic ground, we all returned to our cars, and we resumed the drive to Brindavan thoroughly pleased by the breakfast picnic with Baba.


The Divine has to incarnate in human form to establish Dharma in the world by teaching humanity the omnipresence of Divinity. Assuming the human form does not, however, detract in any way from the plenary puissance of the Universal Consciousness (Para Brahman).

The delusion that makes one mistake a rope for a snake does not affect the real character of the rope. Likewise, the delusion about the phenomenal world does not negate the truth about the Brahman. In darkness the rope is mistaken for a snake. The moment a light is brought, it is seen that there is only a rope and no snake. The snake was a creation of the imagination. Neither did a snake exist nor was the rope non existent. In the same way, the eternal Divine Reality is omnipresent. It does not appear or disappear. In the state of ignorance we regard Nature (Prakriti) or creation as Reality. In the light of knowledge, the Brahman is seen as the same.

Man's true goal is to realise his Divinity. All his actions will become meaningful only when they are performed for this purpose. It is to reveal to man from time to time his Divine Reality and set him on the spiritual path that Avatars appear in human form. The realisation of the Truth about himself cannot come to one by the mere study of scriptures or by listening to the teachings of a Guru. It can only come as a result of individual effort and the spiritual discipline practised by one.