What supernatural things have happened in Hinduism?

Question

What miracles or other supernatural concepts have happened in Hinduism?

Answer 1

I am posting passages describing Swami Vivekananda's supernatural experiences with Sri Ramakrishna (who is regarded as an Avatar by millions).

In a state of mental conflict and torture of soul, Narendra (Swami Vivekananda) came to Sri Ramakrishna (Sri RK) at Dakshineswar. He was then eighteen years of age and had been in college two years. He entered the Master's room accompanied by some light-hearted friends. At Sri RK's request he sang a few songs, pouring his whole soul into them, and the Master went into Samadhi. A few moments later Sri RK suddenly left his seat, took Narendra by the hand, and led him to the screened verandah north of his room. They were alone. Addressing Narendra most tenderly, as if he were a friend of long acquaintance, the Master said: "Ah! You have come very late. Why have you been so unkind as to make me wait all these days? My ears are tired of hearing the futile words of worldly men. Oh, how I have longed to pour my spirit into the heart of someone fitted to receive my message!" .. Then, standing before Narendra with folded hands, he addressed him as Narayana, born on earth to remove the misery of humanity. .... Narendra was startled,"What is this I have come to see?" he said to himself. "He must be stark mad. Why, I am the son of Viswanath Dutta. How dare he speak this way to me?"

... In answer to Narendra's question, "Sir, have you seen God?" the Master said: "Yes, I have seen God. I have seen Him more tangibly than I see you. I have talked to Him more intimately than I am talking to you." .... Narendra was amazed. These words he could not doubt. This was the first time he had ever heard a man saying that he had seen God. But he could not reconcile these words of the Master with the scene that had taken place on the verandah only a few moments before. He concluded that Sri RK was a monomaniac, and returned home rather puzzled in mind.

During his second visit, about a month later, suddenly, at the touch of the Master, Narendra felt overwhelmed and saw the walls of the room and everything around him whirling and vanishing. "What are you doing to me?" he cried in terror. "I have father and mother at home." He saw his own ego and the whole universe almost swallowed in a nameless void. With a laugh the Master easily restored him. Narendra thought he might have been hypnotized, but he could not understand how a monomaniac could cast a spell over the mind of a strong person like himself.

But during his third visit Narendra fared no better. This time, at the Master's touch, he lost consciousness entirely. ....

A few more meetings completely removed from Narendra's mind the last traces of the notion that Sri RK might be a monomaniac or wily hypnotist. ...

..Narendra, because of his Brahmo upbringing, considered it wholly blasphemous to look on man as one with his Creator. One day at the temple garden he laughingly said to a friend: "How silly! This jug is God! This cup is God! Whatever we see is God! And we too are God! Nothing could be more absurd." Sri RK came out of his room and gently touched him. Spellbound, he immediately perceived that everything in the world was indeed God. A new universe opened around him. Returning home in a dazed state, he found there too that the food, the plate, the eater himself, the people around him, were all God. When he walked in the street, he saw that the cabs, the horses, the streams of people, the buildings, were all Brahman. ..... It took him a number of days to recover his normal self. He had a foretaste of the great experiences yet to come and realized that the words of the Vedanta were true.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Introduction by Swami Nikhilananda

In the mean time Vijay had become engaged in conversation with the other devotees.

Vijay: “I feel as if someone were always moving with me. He shows me what is happening even at a distance.”
Narendra: “Like a guardian angel.”

Vijay: “I have seen him [meaning Sri Ramakrishna] in Dacca. I even touched his body.”

Sri Ramakrishna (with a smile): “It must have been someone else.”

Narendra: “I too have seen him many a time. (To Vijay) How can I say I do not believe your words.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Chapter 46, The Master and Dr. Sarkar, October 25, 1885

Vijay is the future saint Vijaykrishna Goswami. Narendra is the future Swami Vivekananda. Narenda is supporting Vijay’s claim that both have seen Sri Ramakrishna far from Dakshineswar even when he was in Dakshineswar.

Answer 2

One arguably supernatural occurrence that fits with the Hindu worldview is the relatively very recent appearance of transmissible cancers.

The ascent of the soul through greater lifeforms should be proof enough of the soul growing in power (the alternative is a God with the contradictory qualities of obsessively caring about human sensibilities, but not other human welfare). However, to clear all doubts, the existence of the many talking animals in Hinduism, who remember their previous lives proofs this without a question. Despite being born as an animal, lower than a human, they often outdo humans, showing their soul's strength makes up for their body's weaknesses. The dog that speaks before Rama is a good example. He is shown as figuring something out that the human ministers of the court did not.

Hearing the words of the ministers, Rama said:—•“You do not know the secret of the matter, the dog knows it well!” Thereafter, questioned by Rama, the dog said:—

...

In its former birth it had been high-minded but was born in a degraded state in that existence. Repairing to the holy City of Kashi, that dog, desiring to leave its body in a sacred spot, thereafter undertook a waterless fast.

While transmissible cancers appear to not be supernatural, one thing profoundly odd is that they are all very young for immortal beings. Animals have been around 800 million years old as hosts for cancers but the oldest transmissible cancer seems to be CTVT, which is estimated to be only 6000 to 11,000 years old.

Hinduism can explain the reason for the recent appearance as due to karma in successive lives gradually strengthening a soul, which means as time passes souls would be able to do more impressive things like build a human or turn into a transmissible cancer.

My guess is that all the transmissible cancers are from religious humans that somehow reincarnated in lower organisms before reincarnating again as a transmissible cancer. That's why they are all don't appear before very modern humans (who already had domesticated dogs) and are rare.

P.S. Since the dog story ends in a cliffhanger, with the dog not dying, we can safely assume we will be hearing from him again.

P.P.S Cancers do not forget their previous lives, as I explained here.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4698198/

https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/life-science/early-life-earth-animal-origins