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| He also targetted, to put it in his own words, ''preachers and priests of dubious religions and ]s, ], ]s, ]s, ]s who claim that they have acquired ] through ] or penance; ]s, ]s, ]s, ]s, ]jis and ]s who claim that they have obtained ] powers through ] practices or as from boons from gods; ]s, ], ], ], fortune-tellers and all types of ]ists who claim that they have developed their special powers through spiritual exercises, ], ], ], ], ], ] (]), ], ], ] etc'' | He also targetted, to put it in his own words, ''preachers and priests of dubious religions and ]s, ], ]s, ]s, ]s who claim that they have acquired ] through ] or penance; ]s, ]s, ]s, ]s, ]jis and ]s who claim that they have obtained ] powers through ] practices or as from boons from gods; ]s, ], ], ], fortune-tellers and all types of ]ists who claim that they have developed their special powers through spiritual exercises, ], ], ], ], ], ] (]), ], ], ] etc'' | ||
| ===Exposing ''Satya Sai |
===Exposing ''Satya Sai Baba''=== | ||
| One of the main targets during his miracle exposure campaign was ] of ] in ] state, India. ] is perhaps the most prominent ] in India today as it was during Kovoor's time. This self-proclaimed godman claimed and still claims to ] ''vibuthi'' or holy ash. Kovoor believed that the Baba did this alleged materialization through ]. There is a tendency among gullible ]n masses to throng to the ]s of holy men who performs such miracles. To expose this godman and others of his ilk, Dr.Kovoor produced holy ash from nowhere and distributed it amongst the audience. He would explain to the audience later that it was just a sleight of hand and anybody with some rudimentary knowledge of ] could perform it. | One of the main targets during his miracle exposure campaign was ] of ] in ] state, India. ] is perhaps the most prominent ] in India today as it was during Kovoor's time. This self-proclaimed godman claimed and still claims to ] ''vibuthi'' or holy ash. Kovoor believed that the Baba did this alleged materialization through ]. There is a tendency among gullible ]n masses to throng to the ]s of holy men who performs such miracles. To expose this godman and others of his ilk, Dr.Kovoor produced holy ash from nowhere and distributed it amongst the audience. He would explain to the audience later that it was just a sleight of hand and anybody with some rudimentary knowledge of ] could perform it. | ||
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| Once he wrote to Sai Baba to have an audience to discuss on his miraculous powers. When there was no response from his side in spite of numerous reminders, Dr. Kovoor decided to meet him in person and communicated this to him. When Dr. Kovoor reached one of Sathya Sai Baba's ashrams at ], near ], Sathya Sai Baba escaped to his other ashram at ], ]. | Once he wrote to Sai Baba to have an audience to discuss on his miraculous powers. When there was no response from his side in spite of numerous reminders, Dr. Kovoor decided to meet him in person and communicated this to him. When Dr. Kovoor reached one of Sathya Sai Baba's ashrams at ], near ], Sathya Sai Baba escaped to his other ashram at ], ]. | ||
| After his numerous encouters with godmen, ] and other people who claimed to have psychic powers, he came to the conclusion that there was no objective truth behind such claims. He wrote : ''Nobody has and nobody ever had supernatural powers. They exist only in the pages of scriptures and sensation-mongering newspapers''. |
After his numerous encouters with godmen, ] and other people who claimed to have psychic powers, he came to the conclusion that there was no objective truth behind such claims. He wrote : ''Nobody has and nobody ever had supernatural powers. They exist only in the pages of scriptures and sensation-mongering newspapers''. | ||
| ==Published Works== | ==Published Works== | ||
Revision as of 10:52, 30 November 2004
| Abraham Kovoor | |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth: | April 10, 1898 |
| Date of Death: | Sepember 18, 1978 |
| Place of Birth: | Tiruvalla, Kerala |
Abraham Thomas Kovoor (April 10, 1898 - September 18, 1978) was an eminent rationalist and atheist from the Indian sub-continent.
Birth
Dr. Kovoor was born at Tiruvalla in Kerala, India on 10th April, 1898 in a Christian family. His father was Rev. Kovoor Eipe Thomma Katthanar, the Vicar General of the Mar Thomma Syrian Church of Malabar. To quote Dr. Kovoor: Over three quarters of a century ago I was born in the beautiful land of Kerala in a Syrian Christian family as the son of a Christian priest as the result of a geographical and biological accident, over which I had neither control nor choice.
Education
He completed his basic education at the Syrian Christian Seminary in Kerala and received his higher education at the Bengabasi College, Calcutta, where he specialised in botany and zoology. He was awarded a doctorate for his research by the Minnesota Institute of Philosophy of U.S, for his thesis on psychic and para-psychic phenomena. After completing his education he migrated to Sri Lanka where he spent the rest of his life. He was the president of the Rationalist Association of Sri Lanka.
Miracle Exposure Campaign
After retiring from his service as a Professor of botany at Thurston College, Colombo, he travelled across the breadth and length of India and Sri Lanka, challanging and exposing the so-called miracles performed by godmen of various hues. He also targetted, to put it in his own words, preachers and priests of dubious religions and cults, mystics, saints, arahants, siddhas who claim that they have acquired enlightenment through meditation or penance; gurus, babas, anandas, rishis, swamijis and yogis who claim that they have obtained miraculous powers through yogic practices or as from boons from gods; oracles, exorcists, charmers, soothsayers, fortune-tellers and all types of occultists who claim that they have developed their special powers through spiritual exercises, astrology, palmistry, numerology, telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis (Psychokinesis), precognition, necromancy, spirit possession etc
Exposing Satya Sai Baba
One of the main targets during his miracle exposure campaign was Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh state, India. Sathya Sai Baba is perhaps the most prominent godman in India today as it was during Kovoor's time. This self-proclaimed godman claimed and still claims to materialize vibuthi or holy ash. Kovoor believed that the Baba did this alleged materialization through sleight of hand. There is a tendency among gullible Indian masses to throng to the ashrams of holy men who performs such miracles. To expose this godman and others of his ilk, Dr.Kovoor produced holy ash from nowhere and distributed it amongst the audience. He would explain to the audience later that it was just a sleight of hand and anybody with some rudimentary knowledge of magic could perform it.
| Kovoor distributing holy ash | |
|---|---|
Once he wrote to Sai Baba to have an audience to discuss on his miraculous powers. When there was no response from his side in spite of numerous reminders, Dr. Kovoor decided to meet him in person and communicated this to him. When Dr. Kovoor reached one of Sathya Sai Baba's ashrams at Whitefield, near Bangalore, Sathya Sai Baba escaped to his other ashram at Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh.
After his numerous encouters with godmen, astrologers and other people who claimed to have psychic powers, he came to the conclusion that there was no objective truth behind such claims. He wrote : Nobody has and nobody ever had supernatural powers. They exist only in the pages of scriptures and sensation-mongering newspapers.
Published Works
His books Begone Godmen and Gods, Demons and Spirits about his encounters with people having so-called psychic powers are even today the best-sellers in India.
Death
Dr. Abraham Kovoor died on September 18, 1978 in Colombo, Sri Lanka at the age of 80. After his death, his eyes were donated to two blind persons in Tamil Nadu, India and his body to a medical college in Colombo.
The Challenge of Dr. Kovoor
In the year 1963, Dr. Kovoor declared an award of Rs. 1, 00, 000/- for anyone who could demonstrate supernatural or miraculous powers under fool-proof and fraud-proof conditions. This was his challenge:
I, Abraham T. Kovoor of "Tiruvalla", Pamankada Lane, Colombo-6 do hereby state that l am prepared to pay an award of 1, 00, 000 Srilanka rupees to any one from any part of the world who can demonstrate supernatural or miraculous powers under fool-proof and fraud-proof conditions. This offer will remain open till my death or till I find the first winner.
Godman, saints, yogis, and siddhas who claim that they acquired miraculous powers through spiritual exercises and divine boons win this award if they can perform any of the following "miracles"
- Read the serial number of a sealed up currency note.
- Produce an exact replica of a currency note.
- Stand stationary on burning cinders for half a minute without blistering the feet.
- Materialise from nothing an object I ask.
- Move or bend a solid object using psychokinetic power.
- Read the thought of another person using telepathic powers.
- Make an amputated limb grow even one inch by prayer, spiritual or faith healing powers, Lourdes water, holy ash, blessing etc.
- Levitate in the air by yogic power.
- Stop the heart-beat for five minutes by yogi power.
- Stop breathing for thirty minutes by yogi power.
- Walk on water.
- Leave the body in one place and reappear in another place.
- Predict a future event.
- Develop creative intelligence or get enlightened through transcendental or yogic meditation.
- Speak or understand an unknown language as a result of rebirth or by being possessed by a spirit. holy or evil.
- Produce a spirit or ghost to be photographed.
- Disappear from the negative when photographed.
- Get out of a locked room by, spiritual power.
- Increase the quantity by weight of a substance by divine power.
- Detect a hidden object.
- Convert water into petrol or wine.
- Convert wine into blood.
- Astrologers and palmists, who hoodwink the gullible by saying that astrology and palmistry are perfectly "Scientific", can win my award if they can pick out correctly - within a margin of five percent error - those of males, females, and living and the dead from a set of ten palm prints or astrological charts giving the exact time of birth correct to the minute, and places of birth with their latitudes and longitudes.
I invite miracle performers like Satya Sai Baba, Pandrimalai Swamigal, Neelakanta Tathaji, Nirmala Devi Srivastava, Pujya Dadaji, Dattabal, Triprayar Yogini. Gtirudev Anandamurthi, Kamubhai, Chinmayanand, Acharya Rajneesh, Muktanand, Swami Rama, Swami Haridas, Sivabalayogi, Bhagavan Gnanananda, Gurumaharaj-ji, Maharshi Mahesh Yogi, Hazarath Ali, Dr. Vadlaimudi, C. S. Teerthangar, R.P.Tiwari, Uri Geller, Ne1iya Michailova, Jeane Dixon, Sybil Leek and the numerous "professors" of astrology and palmistry, in India and numerous other gurus, swamijis, mahatrnas, acharyas, andas, babas and bhagavans who have found fresh pastures and wealthier gullibles in Western Countries, to take up my challenge and prove to skeptics like me that they are not hoaxers.
Dr. Kovoor died in the year 1978. Unitl his death none could claim the award amount. Some fraudsters who sought publicity by taking on his challenge had to forefeit the initial deposit amount.
The Challenge Today
After the death of Dr. Kovoor, Basava Premanand continued his challenge by offering Rs.100,000 (One Hundred Thousand Indian Rupees) to any person who will demonstrate any psychic, supernatural of paranormal ability of any kind under satisfactory observing conditions.
A similar challenge, One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, from James Randi of James Randi Educational Foundation also is in force offering a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.