57. Are there fulfilled prophecies in the Hindu scriptures? If so, please explain them.

The Lord has given His ever-standing promise that He would appear on earth whenever there is a danger to Dharma, whenever Adharma tries to vanquish Dharma. To fulfil that promise He has appeared many times in the form of saints and sages who have protected Dharma from decay and from the onslaughts of foreign oppression. They have instilled new elements of vigour and perspective in Hinduism. Therefore, Hinduism continues to flourish. Whenever there is a necessity, saints and sages will emerge, not from the heavens, but from among the people themselves.

Hinduism does not believe exclusively in one prophet. The prophecies given in the Puranas about the state of affairs to come have also proved true.

58. If I love Jesus, must I love him alone, and not the lesser divinities like Mary and the Ikons?

No. There should be no exclusiveness to the love of Jesus, even though other Christian saints may not be equal to him. They also could be worshipped, if you have devotion for them, as expressions of the same Divinity which manifested itself in a most intense and complete way through Jesus. All messengers of God deserve our respect and adoration. Someone may be temperamentally and emotionally closer to an individual, but it does not mean that the latter should shut the others out. No single prophet or saint holds exclusively the mandate of God or the key to the heavens.

59. I am convinced that praying to saints and worshipping them is absolutely wrong. They prayed to God and found salvation for themselves, and in like manner, we also can take care of our salvation without depending on any saint.

No. It is not so. Saints and sages are worthy of our adoration and prayers, because they have shown us the ways to God-realization. The apprentice, who has just entered service in any field, is expected to have an attitude of submission and receptivity to his senior who trains him on the job, although the latter may be a man like himself. The same is applicable in the field of spirituality. By respecting saints and following their teachings, you grow in spirituality, you learn to love, and know God more adequately.

60. Someone tries to tell me that Nirvikalpa Samadhi is, to quote, "only a strange nerve-condition accompanied by paralysis of the critical faculties". What should I reply, if anything?

It is useless to convince a person about the validity of Nirvikalpa Samadhi when he cannot understand it. Logical arguments may be advanced, but a rank skeptic has to evolve further to be alive to this truth. The philosophical implications and mystic signification of experience must be studied well before one can attempt to answer such skeptics.

61. After one of the most complicated series of dialectics in "The Life Divine", Aurobindo finally concludes with a straight face: "And all these explanations explain nothing". Is there any point, then, any real benefit, in following through the thin thread of this tapestry?

In the ultimate sense, words do not explain Truth. But they give a hint by which one can know Truth directly in experience. Words have a relative value and they must be made use of, though they do not constitute our real aim. Relative obstructions to the knowledge of Truth can be removed through relative means and thus the absolute Truth can be realized.