Wood Apples And A Mirror Of The Moon

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WOOD APPLES AND A MIRROR OF THE MOON

Early on 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 the forest. Everyone got out. Baba was in a
delightful mood, moving about among the party and cracking jokes with
the men.

Beside the picnic area was a wood-apple tree with a few large wood-
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 wood-apple, about two inches 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
object in his hand for a moment, and when his hand opened, the wood-
apple had disappeared, and in its place there was a most
extraordinary object.

The object was a translucent disk (of stone?) thin at the edges
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
colour; there were specks and dots of colour 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, 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 varicoloured minerals were
additional features of the moon's landscape.

Indeed, the visual modifications to be seen in the disk were so
complex that we did not readily understand them. Baba 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
would at once recognize all the landscape features with which they
were familiar.

At this point, food taken from the cars was ready, and the ladies of
the party served a delicious breakfast. I had the moon-disk in my
hand, so I put it in the pocket of my jacket and kept it there. After
breakfast, with a smile, Baba held out his hand, and I reached in my
pocket and returned the moon-disk to him. He again held the disk up
to the sun, and all along the edge of the disk there was the rich
golden light. Baba said, "See there is the sunrise!."

After every one admired the golden light, Swami again closed his
hand, the moon-disk was gone, and in its place was the original small
wood-apple.