Question 2

QUESTIONER: WE WOULD LIKE TO RETURN TO ARVIND SEEING VISIONS OF KRISHNA, WHICH YOU THINK TO BE A CASE OF MENTAL PROJECTION. IN THIS CONNECTION WE RECALL WHAT YOU ONCE SAID ABOUT THE TIBETAN LAMAS, THAT ON A PARTICULAR DAY OF EACH YEAR SOME COMPETENT LAMAS GATHER TOGETHER AND ESTABLISH CONTACT WITH BUDDHA. ON ANOTHER OCCASION YOU HAD SAID SOMETHING ABOUT GANDHI AND ON BEING FURTHER QUESTIONED YOU SAID THAT YOU HAD YOUR FACT FROM GANDHI HIMSELF. AND WE HAVE HEARD THAT TILL RECENTLY THERE WERE LAMAS IN TIBET WHO TRAVELED ASTRALLY FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER WHERE THEY AGAIN APPEARED IN THEIR PHYSICAL BODIES. WILL YOU PLEASE SHED SOME MORE LIGHT ON THIS MATTER?

In this context a few things have to be understood first.

It is true that on a particular full moon night, which is known as Buddha's full moon night, five hundred lamas gather at one of the summits of the Himalayas -- the same Himalayas where we are gathered at this moment -- and see visions of Buddha. The number of lamas who gather there never exceeds five hundred; it is fixed for good. It is only on the death of one of them that another lama is admitted in his place. But there is a basic difference between this and Arvind seeing visions of Krishna. In the case of his visions of Krishna, it is Arvind who takes the initiative and makes efforts to see them. The lamas don't have to do anything; Buddha himself appears before them according to a promise he had given to his disciples in his lifetime. The lamas have only to be present there at the appointed time. And this difference between the two events should be clearly understood.

Buddha has left behind him a promise that at a particular time of Buddha's full moon night of each year and at a particular spot in the Himalayas, he would appear for his chosen disciples. At this promised moment Buddha's oceanic body takes the form of a wave body, seen by five hundred lamas together. But the lamas have no part in it except that they present themselves on the said occasion. This is one difference between this encounter, this darshan, and the one that Arvind has.