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orlando
26 April 2006, 04:45 PM
Namaste all.
Coolbodhi wanted informations about supernatural powers (siddhis).I will give him informations here.
Please read the third chapter of the Patanjali's Yogasutra.
Please note that samadhi is the last stage of Raja-yoga.
16. By making Samyama on the three sorts of changes comes the knowledge of past and future.
l7. By making Samyama on word, meaning and knowledge, which are ordinarily confused, comes the knowledge of all animal sounds.
18. By perceiving the impressions, (comes) the knowledge of past life.
19. By making Samyama on the signs in another's body, knowledge of his mind comes.
20. But not its contents, that not being the object of the Samyama.
21. By making Samyama on the form of the body, the perceptibility of the form being obstructed and the power of manifestation in the eye being separated, the Yogi's body becomes unseen.
22. By this the disappearance or concealment of words which are being spoken and such other things are also explained.
23. Karma is of two kinds — soon to be fructified and late to be fructified. By making Samyana on these, or by the signs called Arishta, portents, the Yogis know the exact time of separation from their bodies.
24. By making Samyama on friendship, mercy, etc.,the Yogi excels in the respective qualities.
25. By making Samyama on the strength of the elephant and others, their respective strength comes to the Yogi.
26. By making Samyama on the Effulgent Light, ), comes the knowledge of the fine, the obstructed, and the remote.
27. By making Samyama on the sun, (comes) the knowledge of the world.

28. On the moon, (comes) the knowledge of the cluster of stars.

29. On the pole-star, (comes) the knowledge of the motions of the stars.

30. On the navel circle, (comes) the knowledge of the constitution of the body.

31. On the hollow of the throat, (comes) cessation of hunger.
32. On the nerve called Kurma, (comes) fixity of the body.
33. On the light emanating from the top of the head, sight of the Siddhas.
Siddhas are beings who are a little above ghosts When the Yogi concentrates his mind on the top of his head, he will see these Siddhas. The word Siddha does not refer to those men who have become free — a sense in which it is often used.
34. Or by the power of Pratibha, all knowledge.
35. In the heart, knowledge of minds.

36. Enjoyment comes from the non-discrimination of the soul and Sattva which are totally different because the latter's actions are for another. Samyama on the self-centred one gives knowledge of the Purusha.
37. From that arises the knowledge belonging to Pratibha and (supernatural) hearing, touching, seeing, tasting and smelling.

38. These are obstacles to Samadhi; but they are powers in the worldly state.
39. When the cause of bondage of the Chitta has become loosened, the Yogi, by his knowledge of its channels of activity (the nerves), enters another's body.

40. By conquering the current called Udana the Yogi does not sink in water or in swamps, he can walk on thorns etc., and can, die at will.
41. By the conquest of the current Samana he is surrounded by a blaze of light.
42. By making Samyama on the relation between the ear and the Akasha comes divine hearing.
43. By making Samyama an the relation between the Akasha and the body and becoming light as cotton-wool etc., through meditation on them, the yogi goes through the skies.
44. By making Samyama on the "real modifications" of the mind, outside of the body, called great disembodiedness, comes disappearance of the covering to light.
45. By making Samyama on the gross and fine forms of the elements, their essential traits, the inherence of the Gunas in them and on their contributing to the experience of the soul, comes mastery of the elements.
46. From that comes minuteness and the rest of the powers, "glorification of the body," and indestructibleness of the bodily qualities.
47. The "glorification of the body" is beauty, complexion, strength, adamantine hardness.
48. By making Samyama on the objectivity and power of illumination of the organs, on egoism, the inherence of the Gunas in them and on their contributing to the experience of the soul, comes the conquest of the organs.
49. From that comes to the body the power of rapid movement like the mind, power of the organs independently of the body, and conquest of nature.
50. By making Samyama on the discrimination between the Sattva and the Purusha come omnipotence and omniscience.
53. By making Samyama on a particle of time and its precession and succession comes discrimination.
54. Those things which cannot be differentiated by species, sign, and place, even they will be discriminated by the above Samyama.


You will find more information at http://www.yoga-age.com/sutras/pata3.html where there is the commentary of Swami Vivekananda.

Now please read the first two verses of the fourth chapter with the commentary of Swami Vivekananda.
By http://www.yoga-age.com/sutras/pata4.html

1. The Siddhis (powers) are attained by birth, chemical means, power of words, mortification, or concentration. Sometimes a man is born with the Siddhis, powers, of course, those he had earned in his previous incarnation. This time he is born, as it were, to enjoy the fruits of them. It is said of Kapila, the great father of the Sankhya philosophy, that he was a born Siddha, which means literally a man who has attained to success.

The Yogis claim that these powers can be gained by chemical means. All of you know that chemistry originally began as alchemy; men went in search of the philosopher's stone and elixirs of life, and so forth. In India there was a sect called the Rasayanas. Their idea was that ideality, knowledge, spirituality, and religion were all very right, but that the body was the only instrument by which to attain to all these. If the body came to an end every now and again, it would take so much more time to attain to the goal. For instance, a man wants to practice Yoga, or wants to become spiritual. Before he has advanced very far he dies. Then he takes another body and begins again, then dies, and so on. In this way much time will be lost in dying and being born again. If the body could be made strong and perfect, so that it would get rid of birth and death, we should have so much more time to become spiritual. So these Rasayanas say, first make the body very strong. They claim that this body can be made immortal. Their idea is that if the mind manufactures the body, and if it be true that each mind is only one outlet to the infinite energy, there should be no limit to each outlet getting any amount of power from outside. Why is it impossible to keep our bodies all the time? We have to manufacture all the bodies that we ever have. As soon as this body dies, we shall have to manufacture another. If we can do that, why cannot we do it just here and now, without getting out of the present body? The theory is perfectly correct. If it its possible that we live after death, and make other bodies, why is it impossible that we should have the power of making bodies here, without entirely dissolving this body, simply changing it continually? They also thought that in mercury and in sulphur was hidden the most wonderful power, and that by certain preparations of these a man could keep the body as long as he liked. Others believed that certain drugs could bring powers, such as flying through the air. Many of the most wonderful medicines of the present day we owe to the Rasayanas, notably the use of metals in medicine. Certain sects of Yogis claim that many of their principal teachers are still living in their old bodies. Patanjali, the great authority on Yoga, does not deny this.

The power of words. There are certain sacred words called Mantras, which have power, when repeated under proper conditions, produce these extraordinary powers. We are living in the midst of such a mass of miracles, day and night, that we do not think anything of them. There is no limit to man's power, the power of words and the power of mind.

Mortification. You find that in every religion mortification and asceticisms have been practised. In these religious conceptions the Hindus always go to the extremes. You will find men with their hands up all their lives, until their hands wither and die. Men keep standing, day and night, until their feet swell, and if they live, the legs become so stiff in this position that they can no more bend them, but have to stand all their lives. I once saw a man who had kept his hands raised in this way, and I asked him how it felt when he did it first. He said it was awful torture. It was such torture that he had to go to a river and put himself in water, and that allayed the pain for a little while. After a month he did not suffer much. Through such practices powers (Siddhis) can be attained.

Concentration. Concentration is Samadhi, and that is Yoga proper; that is the principal theme of this science, and it is the highest means. The preceding ones are only secondary, and we cannot attain to the highest through them. Samadhi is the means through which we can gain anything and everything, mental, moral, or spiritual.
2. The change into another species is by the filling in of nature. Patanjali has advanced the proposition that these powers come by birth, sometimes by chemical means, or through mortification. He also admits that this body can be kept for any length of time. Now he goes on to state what is the cause of the change of the body into another species. He says this is done by the filling in of nature, which he explains in the next aphorism.

orlando
26 April 2006, 04:46 PM
I hope you know what kind of hindu scripture is Srimad Bhagavata Purana.
By http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto11/chapter15.html

(1) The Supreme Lord said: 'The yogī who in Me fixing his consciousness, having connected, has conquered his senses and breathing, approaches the mystic perfections.

(2) Uddhava said: 'Please, You Giver of Perfection to All Yogīs, tell by what type of concentration or in what manner one is possibly of mystic perfection and, Acyuta, how many perfections are there?

(3) The Supreme Lord said: 'The masters of yoga speak of eighteen mystic perfections [siddhis] and meditations [leading to them], with eight of them abiding primary in Me and ten as [secondary] manifesting from the quality [of goodness]. (4-5) To get, to the form, into the smallest [animā], the biggest [mahimā] or the lightest [laghimā relative to garimā, the heaviest], to acquire whatever material object [prāpti], the ability to enjoy sensually whatever thing to see or hear [prākāmya], the supremacy setting in motion the forces [is'tā or is'itvā], to subdue, unobstructed by the modes, by means of magic [vas'itvā] and to answer to any desire that seeks [His] favor [kāmāvasāyitā] are the eight mystical perfections, o gentle one, to be understood as the ones original to Me. (6-7) In this body not to be plagued by hunger and thirst and such, to hear and see things far away, to be transported with the speed of mind, to assume any form at will, to enter into the bodies of others, to die at will, to witness the sporting [of the heavenly girls] with the gods, to be of perfect accomplishment to one's determination, and to have one's commands fulfilled unimpeded [are the ten secondary siddhis]. (8-9) To know the past, the present and the future, to be free from the dualities, to know the minds of others, to check the potency of fire, the sun, water, poison and so on and not to be conquered by others are the perfections also said to be illustrative for the concentrating in yoga; please learn now from Me by which means of meditation what perfections occur.

(10) The worshiper of Me animating all subtle forms of existence, obtains the perfection of animā [to enter the smallest] by concentrating the mind on that reality of the elements. (11) One achieves the perfection of mahimā [to enter the greatness] by fixing the mind on the total material energy animated by Me as also, depending the particular situation, on each of the material elements individually [to be the great of the sky, the fire, the water, the air and the earth]. (12) The yogī may obtain laghimā [lightness] by conciliating his consciousness in Me as being the subtle substance of the [natural division of] time to the material elements that are there in the form of atoms [see also cakra]. (13) He who with his mind fixed in Me concentrates the mind completely within the emotional of the I-principle, obtains the siddhi of prāpti [mystic acquisition] in proprietorship of the senses of all living beings. (14) To obtain from Me whose appearance lies beyond perception, the superexcellent siddhi of prākāmya [to enjoy whatever or whenever] should one fix one's mental activities in Me as the Supersoul that is the thread in the greater of matter [see also sūtra]. (15) If one concentrates the consciousness within Vishnu, the Original Controller of the Three [gunas, see also B.G. 7: 13] in the form of Time, will one obtain the siddhi of īs'itvā [the supremacy] to incite the conditioned body [the field] and its knower . (16) The yogī placing the mind in Me, Nārāyana as denoted by the word Fortunate [bhagavat] and known as the fourth [beyond the three planes **], may, being endowed with My nature, obtain the mystic potency of vas'itvā [to subdue by magic]. (17) With the mind pure in Me concentrating in the impersonal [brahman] free from material qualities, obtains one the supreme of happiness wherein desire finds complete fulfillment [kāmāvasāyitā].

(18) Concentrating the consciousness in Me, the Lord of S'vetadvīpa, the personification of goodness, the sum total of dharma, obtains a person freedom from the six waves [anūrmi-mattvam, see also shath-ūrmi]. (19) In Me, the personification of the sky, with one's mind concentrating on the transcendental sound in the prāna [see 11.14: 35], is there perceived the Swan [Lord Hamsa or the saintly person 11.13: 19] and hears one the words spoken by all living beings [dūra-s'ravana, see also divyam s'rotam]. (20) Merging one's eyes with the sun and the sun with one's eyes [thus doing so transcendentally and not staring physically] sees one, with one's mind in meditation, any distant thing [dūra-dars'ana, see also 2.1: 30]. (21) Completely absorbing the mind in Me will one by the wind [the breath, the subtle air], that follows the mind to have the body focussed on Me, as a consequence find the self to be going wherever the mind goes [mano-javah]. (22) When the mind embraces whatever form one desires to assume, may, with the power of My yoga [to assume any form] as the shelter, that very form appear that one had in mind [kāmarūpa]. (23) As a siddha desiring to enter another's body must one, giving up one's own gross body, imagine [project] oneself in that body just like the wind entering by the vital breath alike a bee switching flowers [para-kāya-praves'anam]. (24) With one's heel blocking the anus and carrying the vital air from the heart up to the chest and from the throat to the head, should one positioned at the top of the skull [the brahma randhrena], giving up the material body [to die], lead oneself to the spiritual world [svacchandu-mrityu, see also 2.2: 19-21]. (25) Desiring to enjoy the places of pleasure of the godly should one situated in Me meditate the mode of goodness and then see the by the goodness existing women of the demigods arrive by vimāna [devānām saha-krīdānudars'anam]. (26) When a man has full faith in Me or by means of his mind is of resolve in Me who am there to be true, will he obtain that way that what he set his mind to [yathā-sankalpa-samsiddhi]. (27) The person who achieved from the nature of Me, the Supremacy and the Dominion, is someone who no way can be frustrated as his order and command is as good as Mine [ājńāpratihatā gatih, see also B.G. 9.31].

(28) Of a yogī pure of character, who by devotion to Me knows [others] by concentration [dhārana], is there the intelligence to the three phases of time, including knowledge of [dualities like] birth and death [see tri-kālika]. (29) Of a sage versed in yoga whose consciousness is pacified can of My yoga the body not be injured by the fire and such, just as the aquatics cannot being of the water [see also 7.5: 33-50]. (30) He becomes unconquerable meditating upon the expansions of Me, decorated with the s'rīvatsa and weapons, flags, ceremonial umbrellas and different fans [see also B.G. 11: 32].

(31) The man of wisdom who worships Me thus by the process of concentrating in yoga will reach the mystic perfections as described, in every respect [according the nature of his practice]. (32) What perfection would be difficult to achieve for a sage who in Me bent on meditation got a grip in conquering his senses, his breathing and his mind? (33) One says that these [siddhis] to the one tying down in the supreme of yoga to be complete with Me, are, as obstacles, the cause for wasting one's time. (34) The many perfections one in this world has by birth, by herbs, austerities and by mantras are all obtained by yoga; by no other method will one achieve the actual perfection of yoga [***]. (35) Of all the perfections am I indeed the cause and the protector; I am the master of the yoga [the final union], the analysis, the dharma, and the community of vedic teachers. (36) The same way as the material elements exist internally and externally of the living beings do I Myself, the Soul, exist uncovered, within and without all the embodied beings [see also B.G. 2: 29-30].

orlando
26 April 2006, 04:53 PM
By http://www.radioramanuja.com/articles/2.html
Question: Some gurus are known for their wondrous miracles, such as being able to magically appear and disappear in locations far away from where they actually are, can produce objects at will, having sacred ash or elixir emanate from their photos on the other end of the world, etc. How do we explain these phenomena?
Answer: Some of the gurus of the day have gained siddhis, or powers to control nature, through their good deeds and penance of previous lives. The ability to acquire such siddhis is known to be part of the Vedas. But, our Acharyas teach us that these siddhis are regarded to be very dangerous, since the meditation required to acquire and maintain them requires tremendous physical and mental control; and could prove harmful to the person having these siddhis and the as well as those that they use them on, if not performed properly. Besides, all these powers belong only to this world, and really cannot save us from the endless cycle of birth and re-birth. The only One who can save us is Sriman Narayana. Consequently, instead of seeking miracles and miracle-workers, we should seek out the wisdom of a qualifed teacher who can not only help us make our life in this world better for ourselves and all those in our lives, but can also connect us to the Only Being in this Universe who can provide us with the Ultimate Miracle, Salvation.

Hope I helped you.
Regards,
Orlando.