Yogic Potentials and Capacities, or siddhis, in Hindu-Buddhist Psychology

Note: A siddhi perceived as a revelation of ultimate truth or reality is termed a vibhuti; perceived as fully actualized abilities, sometimes they are known collectively as aisvarya, spiritual wealth and glory.

A. Monosiddhi, cittasiddhi. Extrasensory perceptions; extraordinary mental capacities.

B. Kayasiddhi, dehasiddhi. Bodily powers and perfections.

C. Jnanasiddhi, brahamsiddhi.Transpersonal Being-cognitions, including knowledge of Brahman, Atman, Dharma, Purusha, etc.

D. Anandasiddhi, lilasiddhi. Yogic beatitudes born of extraordinary self-integration or psychocosmic integration.

MANOSIDDHI, CITTASIDDHI

Extrasensory perceptions; extraordinary mental powers

1. Subtle knowledge of distant stars and other heavenly bodies, their interrelations and configurations.
2. Knowledge of other planes of existence (lokas).
3. Paracitta-jnanas. Telepathic knowledge of the minds of other people.
4. Citta-samvit. Knowledge of the workings of one's own mind.
5. Tathata-jnana, visista-jnana. [[Knowledge individual things and beings in respect of their suchness or being-ness (also called Nama-Rupa-Jnana).
6. Kayavyuha-jnana. Knowledge of one's internal organs, physiological processes, anatomical structures, energy centers, nervous and cerebrospinal systems.
7. Jatismarate, Purvajnama-jnana. Remembrance of one's past lives or incarnations]].
8. Adrista-jnana, Bhavitavya-jnana. Pre-cognition of coming events, as well as of one's future destiny. Precognition of the exact time, place, and circumstances of one's own death.

9. Sphota-jnana. Knowledge of the revealing light (sphota) inherent in spoken or written words of people, or in the sounds made by animals, birds, and other living things. This enables the yogi to understand the precise significance of human language and the language of animals, birds, trees, flowers.

10. Akasa-vani-sravana, Daiva-vani. Supernatural auditory knowledge of ethereal records representing the accumulated knowledge of humankind]]. The tapping of these sources may provide glimpses of the future.

11. Siddha-darsana, or Siddha-sravana. Seeing the sights or hearing the voices of the world's master minds, whether contracted through living communication or through activation of their wisdom deposited in the records of the Vinanja loka.

12. Viprakrista jnana. Experience of normally invisible processes of nature, or very remote obscure things and treasures, e.g. objects hidden in far-off caves or ocean bottoms.

13. Alaukika Vedana. Registering in one's emotional sensibility the feelings of other people, animals, birds, and even tiny insects.
14. Alaukika Asvada. The ability to enjoy the flavors of distant delicacies.
15. Alaukika Vata. The ability to enjoy the fragrance of distant and hidden perfumes, flowers, incenses, etc.

KAYASIDDHI, DEHASIDDI

Bodily powers and perfections]].

(Among the various psychic powers discussed in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali's, the eight mahasiddhis or perfections of the body are probably the best known. They are the first eight in the section below.)

1. Anima. The ability to reduce the body (or the center of consciousness) to the size of atom.
2. Mahima. The ability to expand one's body (or consciousness) to and enormous size.
3. Laghima. To make the body as light as a feather.
4. Garima. To make the body enormously heavy, like a mountain.
5. Prapti. The power to reach the moon (or any object in remote space) and grasp it or touch it with the tip of one's finger.

6. Prakamya. The yogic power of instant wish-fulfillment. The ordinary will power is a function of the mind, a phenomenon of time. In ordinary life there is always a greater or lesser time gap between an effort of will power or the formation of a definite wish and its fulfillment in the realm of actuality. But an advanced yogi, when he becomes united with the timeless creative energy of Being (Paraprakriti or Braham-Sakti) is believed to become a master of time, considerably reducing the gap between his focused will-force and actual accomplishment. He attains what is known in Tibetan Buddhism as Amoghasiddhi, power in the field of action.

7. Isatva. Creative lordship.

a. The power of materialization, i.e. producing visible material things or invisible physical sensations (food, smell, color, etc.) out of the raw material of subtle energy.

b. The power of physical transformation, e.g. transforming water into wine, iron into gold, etc.
c. Rupanirmana. The power to assume different forms and project entirely divergent images of oneself. This is also known as Bahurupitva.

d. Cittanirmana. The power of creating different minds as variously effective means of gaining different perspectives and different means of knowledge and self-expression.

e. Atmarupantara. The power of transforming the physical, instinctual and mental aspects of personality into channels of expression for spiritual values.
f. Pararupantara. The ability to transform other people into what they essentially are, namely images of the Divine.

g. Yugasristi, or Navayugapravartana. The ability to create a new order of civilization, a new era of cultural efflorescence, a new life style, a new system of values. This enables one to function as a figure of history or a person of destiny.

8. Vasitva. Control and mastery over nature, both external and internal, physical and mental. Such control may assume various forms, such as:

a. Control over one's internal bodily organs, endocrine glands, energy centers, autonomic nervous system. This enormously increases one's power of resistance to disease, decay, and degenerative processes. One gains access to the secrets of rejuvenation and physical charm, vitality and longevity. One attains what is known as Icchamrityu, i.e., the ability to die or leave body at will.

b. The ability to control the mind and behavior patterns of other people by projecting powerful suggestions into bioenergetic existence-field.
c. The ability to subdue the savage impulse, wrathfulness and aggressiveness of other living beings, human or animal. This is known as aridaman.
d. Mastery over one's own instinctual drives and urges, passions and motivations. This is known as Atmasamyama.

9. Saktipata. The ability to transmit spiritual energy of the power of illumined existence to others who are sufficiently receptive or ready in their personal growth. This is also known as Gurukripa, Saktisancara, or Diksai.e. spiritual initiation. People can be spiritually initiated and awakened in various ways, e.g. by the Guru's compassionate look, touch, loving embrace, or by spiritual formula or sound-symbol.

10. Vyakhinasa, Rogavimochana. Spiritual healing by transmitting harmonizing vital energy or illuminating psychic energy, or by opening the inner being of a person in suffering to the free current of the universal life force.

11. Vayubhaksana. The ability to draw nourishment from air by turning the elemental forces of nature into food.

12. Amritasevana. The ability to drink the heavenly ambrosia or nectar of immortality. This happens when the awakened psychonuclear energy goes up to the highest energy center at the top of the skull. Out of this union flows a stream of joy and rapture flooding the entire organism. This stream of blissful energy, which has a revitalizing and rejuvenating effect, is known as the nectar of immortality (amrita). Also known as sanjivani suddha.

13. Punarujjivana. The power to bring a newly deceased body back to life.
14. Indrajal vistara. Power of mass hypnosis such as climbing up a rope, assumption of illusory forms of angels, animals or other persons, etc.
15. Indra Sakti. The power of rational will or organized purposive energy carried to the highest limit of development.

16. Rudra Sakti, Kundalini Sakti, Kalimahima. The most powerful cerebrospinal energy, dark yet luminous, like flashes of lightning in dark clouds, originally beyond all control of the rational will.

17. Brahmajyoti. Attainment of the self-shining light. In the Kena Upanishad, Indra receives this Being-cognition by the grace of Uma, the golden goddess, the self-revealing power of Being.

18. Purnajnana Sakti. This is what Sri Aurobindo calls the supra-mental power (Atimanasa Sakti, Ritacit Sakti), in which all the powers of consciousness are integrated.

BRAHMASIDDHI, JNANASIDDHI

Transpersonal Being-cognitions

1. Virat Jnana. Synoptic vision of Being in its visible manifestation, i.e. knowledge of Being manifesting itself in and through the phenomenal world and color, sound and rhythm. In the Bhagavadgita, Arjuna had the cosmic vision known as Viswarupa Darsana, the vision of Krishna as all the forms of the visible world.
2. Suksma Brahman Jnana. Knowledge of Being as the unmanifest background, or as the invisible all-sustaining medium of subtle forces and vibrations. The ordinary world is the visible manifestation of this invisible energy matrix. (The unmanifest energy matrix is also known as the cosmic seed, the golden egg, the Hiranyagrabha).

3. Karana Brahma Jnana. Knowledge of Being as the original undifferentiated cosmic energy from which the cosmic manifold springs into existence, in which it abides and endures, and in which it dissolved again. At this level the infinite Being-Energy (Mahasakti) is not yet differentiated into distinct forms but holds within itself endless diversity as the cosmic seed capable of sprouting and blossoming into the varieties of name and form (nama-rupa). (Spinoza's Natura Naturans?)

4. Nirguna Brahman Jnana. Knowledge of Being as infinite, indefinable, indeterminable, unfathomable Mystery. In other worlds, knowledge of ultimate reality in its transrational, unspeakable, numinous aspect. The same kind of experiential knowledge is described in Buddhism as knowledge of the absolute void or emptiness (sunyata). Christian mystics have variously described it as "the dazzling darkness," "the absolute nudity of pure Being" or "the dark night." Bhuma jnana, Taraka jnana, Turiyatita are other Sanskrit words for awareness of pure transcendence.

5. Purna Brahma Jnana. Integral knowledge of Being as the indivisible unity of the temporal and the nontemporal dimensions of the universe - the evolutionary and nonevolutionary aspects, the multitudinous and the absolutely nondual aspects of the real. One implication of this all-comprehensive understanding is that the nontemporal and transcendental aspect of the universe must not be metaphysically converted or reified into an eternally self-existent substance, absolute Idea, absolute Spirit, all powerful God, universal Mind, or absolute Suchness.

6. Dharma Jnana. Knowledge of the cosmic law which controls all operations of Nature and guides destinies of human history and civilization. It is the law that sustains the cosmic whole as an energy-conserving, balance-maintaining, self-adjusting, self-recuperative, creative-destructive, evolving-devolving system of energy.

7. Tattva Jnana. Knowledge of the fundamental structural principles of the universe, the archetypal masculine principle (Siva, Purusa, Yang, Logos, Yab), the archetypal feminine principle (Sakti, Prakriti, Yin, Eros, Yum), the ontological relation of dual-nonduality, or bipolar unity (Dvaitadvaita), the dynamic interplay of opposites (Lila), the laws of identity-in-diversity and diversity-in-identity (akhanda vaicitrya), the psychocosmic correspondence (deha-citta-abhinnata), the circular movement of creation-destruction as the rhythm of the cosmic process (Sristi-Samhara Cakra), the cosmic law of dynamic harmony (sasvata dharma), the natural law of the equality of action and reaction (kriya-pratikriya samatva), the ethical law of the recoil of all moral actions (Karma phalatva), the psychoevolutionary law of energy mobilization (Urdhagami tapahsakti), the creativity of the union of opposites (milana-nihita sristi rahasya). Metaphysics as the science of first principles consists of this kind of knowledge.

8. Jati Jnana, Samanya Jnana. Knowledge of eternal forms, essences, ideas, class differentia.
9. Pradhana Jnana. Knowledge of ultimate reality (Being) as the primordial neutral energy or matrix of the world.
10. [[Anna[Brahman Jnana]]. Knowledge of ultimate reality (Brahman, Being) as universal matter, or cosmic physical energy.
11. Prana Brahman Jnana. Knowledge of ultimate reality as the universal life force, the élan vital.
12. Mano Brahman Jnana. Knowledge of ultimate reality as the cosmic mind, or world of Ideas.
13. Vijnana Brahman Jnana. Knowledge of ultimate reality as the universal gnosis.
14. Sabda Brahman Jnana. Knowledge of ultimate reality as the cosmic Sound, the primordial Word, the Music of the Spheres, the symphony of original vibrations.

15. Sphota Brahman Jnana. Knowledge of articulate sound structure composed of intelligently organized symbols. Sphota is the luminous potency of words and propositions to reveal the eternal verities of existence. So language conceived as truth-revealing light is perceived as the essence of the ultimate.

16. Prema Brahman Jnana. Knowledge of ultimate reality as absolute love.
17. Sakti Brahman Jnana. Knowledge of ultimate reality as supreme and absolute power. Supreme power may be conceived as the cosmic will to power, as unchallenged social or economico-political power, or as all-good, all-loving cosmic creative energy (Mahasakti).

18. Ananda Brahman Jnana. Immediate and intuitive awareness of the ultimate as indescribable and unfathomable bliss.

19. Atma Brahman Jnana. Knowledge of ultimate reality as non-different from the boundless light of pure consciousness that shines at the inmost center of every human's own individual being. This gives rise to the experience of perfect self-sufficiency and everlasting nontemporal self-existence (Kaivalya, or the Atma Pratistha of Raja Yoga).

20. Ksana Brahman Jnana. Knowledge of the ultimate as the eternal Now. Knowledge of the entire expanse of time with its three dimensions of past, present and future simultaneously present to the knower in a flash of intuition.
21. Mahakala Jnana. Knowledge of ultimate reality as the cosmic process, as the beginningless and endless creative advance of Time. The Dancing Shiva (Nataraja) whose dance manifests the rhythm of the multidimensional cosmic process. The cosmic dance of Kali, dancing in self-oblivion on the tranquil bosom of Siva, the radiance of eternity.

22. Loka Jnana, Bhuvana Jnana. Knowledge of the different planes of existence-consciousness or psycho-cosmic spheres established by the creative evolutionary dance of Time (Mahakali, Nataraja).

23. [[Parabindu[Jnana]]. Knowledge of the ultimate as the indivisible sound-light-seed-energy. Here vision, audition, and tactual are rolled into one supreme experience. This shows how our divergent sensations are differentiations of the same indivisible nondual reality.

24. Satya dristi. The vision of the Supreme Being as Truth which is inseparable from the supreme Good and the supreme Beauty (Satya-Siva-Sundara). Which means that the direct knowledge of the ultimate is simultaneous fulfillment of the deepest longing of our intellectual, volitional, and emotional nature.

25. Kundalini or Kali Darsana. Awareness of the awakening of the dormant psycho-nuclear cerebo-spinal energy.
26. Adrista Jnana, Divya Adesha Sravana. Audition of the Divine Command, the categorical imperative of the Supreme.

27. Visyakalyana Jnana, Sarvamangala Jnana. Vision of the cosmic welfare, or of the ultimate good of humanity evolving earth. Such vision of the summum bonum of the terrestrial process is born of the integral experience of the indivisible unity of the timeless transcendence and the creative advance of time in and through planetary evolution. Such a vision is reflected in ideals of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

28. Akhanda Sattajnana. Undivided awareness of the physical, the physical and the spiritual, the subjective, the objective and the transcendental aspects of the universe. Ancient Vedic sages of India laid special emphasis upon such integrated knowledge of reality. Agni was for them simultaneously the physical fire, the psychological fire, and the spiritual or numinous fire of transpersonal Bieng.

ANANDASIDDHI LILASIDDHI

1. Visoka, Klesanasa-ananda. The joy born of elimination of mental disturbances, sensory distraction or deprivation, emotional agitation or fluctuation.

2. Swatahsphurta-ananda. The delight of spontaneous self-expression without any hindrance, inhibition or obstruction.
3. Sadananda. The kind of delight which is intrinsic to being and wells up from the depths without any extraneous cause.
4. Cidananda. The delight of pure undifferentiated consciousness which abides in the midst of all changing emotional moods such as sadness and cheerfulness.
5. Vivekananda. The delight inherent in fundamental value distinctions.
6. Nirvananda. The joy born of the liquidation of the empirical ego-self.
7. Bhumananda. The delight of immediate contact with the depth dimension of existence, the ultimate ground all that is.
8. Gunatita-ananda. The delight arising from nature-transcendence, abiding in the midst of all changes and reverses of fortune.
9. Mahanada. The delight of glimpsing the cosmic energy which originating, sustaining, and consummating all things, beings, events, and processes.

10. Kalinrityananda. The delight born of the dance or rhythmical movement of the awakened spiritual energy within one's own being resulting in the circulation of light (prabhamandala).

11. Sarvatma-ananda. The delight of perceiving the whole universe within one's own Self, and the Self within the universe.
12. Sristi-ananda. The delight of illumined creativity.

13. Amritananda. The delight of union of the energy aspect and the consciousness aspect of our being - the union of Sakti and Siva, Yin and Yang, Prakriti and Purusa, Eros and Logos, Yam and Yab.

14. Rasananda. The all-pervasive delight of perceiving the infinite variations of existence as crystallized expressions of the One.
15. Lilananda. The delight of entering into different kinds of rapturous communion with, or dynamic togetherness with, the Supreme Being.

a. Salokya. The delight of dwelling in the same place of consciousness with God.
b. Samipya. The delight of existing perpetually in the immediate presence of the Divine
c. Sarupya. The delight of acquiring the divine form or appearance.
d. Sdrisya. The delight of growing steadily into the likeness of God.
e. Sadharmya. The delight of living in accord with the divine law of action.
f. Sarsti. The delight of acquiring the supernatural powers of God.
g. Sayujya. The delight of being absorbed in the abysmal depths of divine existence.
h. Seva. The delight of placing the service of the supreme Godhead above even the soul's deepest and most secret personal longing-the longing for complete liberation.

16. Mahamaya Lila. The delight of worldly affairs in the spirit of sportsmanship or divine playmanship which is born of perfect liberation (moksa).
17. Rasalila. The delight of dancing and singing together with kindred souls in the spirit of common dedication, and total self-giving.
18. Yajna Lila. Atmotsarga Lila. The delight of unconditional self-giving and joyful sharing with other people out of genuine love for man and God.
a. Sampattidan Yajna. The beatitude of sharing one's earthly possessions with other people out of altruistic love or compassion.

b. Atmadan Yajna. The beatitude of sacrificing personal comforts and pleasure with a view to serving the Divine Presence in the social have-nots and untouchables, in the poor and down-trodden.

c. Jivandan Yajna. The beatitude of sacrificing one's own life for the manifestation of divine glory in human society - for the freedom of one's own country, for the elimination of ignorance and injustice, for the restoration of the moral balance of the world.

d. Kamadan Yajna, Brahmacharya, Tapasya. The beatitude of sacrificing ego drives and desires, impulses and motivations with a view to awakening the Divine Energy (Sakti) which lies dormant in the human psychophysical system.

19. Bodhisattva Lila. The beatitude of dedicating oneself, even after the attainment of full enlightenment, to the service of the entire living creation toward the collective liberation of all.

20. Dharma Lila, Jivanmukti Lila. The beatitude of dedicating oneself to worldly activities with a view to maintaining the ethical order of the world (Lokasamgraha), regardless of the fruits of action.

21. Jugantar Lila. Inspired by the vision of new and better world order, an enlightened person may engage in revolutionary action for the ultimate good of humanity in utter indifference to personal, communal, racial, or parochial vested interest.

22. Navayuga Lila. The beatitude of participating in planetary evolution in tune with the superconscient energy of Being

Siddhis or Miraculous Powers

By practicing the great mantras, you will come across certain tremendous powers called the siddhis. They invariably come to you. (The other, higher meaning of siddhi is perfection or attainment.) It is very important to know about the siddhis because sometimes you can become so flooded with the spiritual energy that you will be at a loss to know what to do with it. Just as a man who obtains but doesn't know how to operate a gun can be a source of danger to himself and those around him, a person who has attained the siddhis without a corresponding wisdom in their use can be equally dangerous. This has been true in the lives of many Masters in the past and in the lives of many gurus in the present.

Not only in the spiritual realm but also in the political, religious, social, historical, and scientific levels, when man gets power, that power corrupts unless he has the humility to receive the blessing and use it for the service of mankind in the service of God. This why the Masters always encourage us to go beyond the siddhis and dwell in nectar. Power used selfishly will kill you or drive you crazy unless you use it for service.

Though there are many siddhis, such as clairvoyance (supernormal vision), clairaudience (supernormal hearing), extrasensory perception, psychometry (matter moving by the power of the mind), eight important ones are described below:

Anima means you know the subtlest of things [Anu: Atom] around you and just by mere will, you can make yourself appear very small to everyone. Or you can become so subtle that you can enter into the dreams of people and guide them or if you misuse the power, you can misguide them, which is dangerous. Or even though all the doors to a room are locked and the walls are solid, by assuming a subtle form, you are able to penetrate those walls and doors. So anima means very subtle, to be atomic in size or to assume the minutest form with which you could go anywhere you like.

Garima is to be able to assume a mountainous size which means your form appears colossal, mountainous or cosmic.

Laghima means to be very light. By practice of the mantra, no matter how weighty you are, you have the power to make your entire system very light, like cotton or flower petals. That is the secret of levitation and reaching anywhere.

Mahima means to be very, very, very heavy. These are only the surface meanings. There are so many other celestial meanings to these most practical powers which come to you. Prapti means that whatever you wish for, either for yourself or for others, immediately you obtain the same.

Prakamya means, among other things, that if a soul is not resurrected, that is, it is caught somewhere in the astral worlds, it is visible to you, and you can use that prakamya power to send that soul to a higher dimension. Or if someone is asking for help in conquering the prarabdha karma, the incurable karma, and he remembers the guru, the guru is able to cure that karma and see that the person is healed, restored to his health or pristine purity or lifted from any fall and raised to a higher height. With prakamya, you even have the power to create new dimensions or to ask a special favor from God for certain souls for their enlightenment. This applies not only for individual wishes, but for the collective wishes of mankind.

Ishitva means lordship. You are the lord of your senses, the lord of your mind. It means you conquer and wherever you go, that lordship is there. That is why you call Jesus 'Lord Jesus,' or Krishna 'Lord Krishna." Often these powers come to a social, political or religious leader and all too often, we see how this power is misused. You have to develop humility and remember that God alone is Lord. If you allow the ego to operate this siddhi, then definitely there will be brainwashing and the killing of the spirit of others. You must be very careful to remain humble. All great Masters fall on their knees when this siddhi manifests and pray again to the Almighty to bless them with humility. "Blessed are the poor in spirit ..." it is said, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Otherwise, you will get lordship over certain things, such as continents or wealth, etc., but you'll lose the Kingdom.

The eighth power, with almost the same connotation, is called vashitva. It means attraction. Wherever you go, you are the magnet, the center of attraction. You attract everything--all the angels, all the human beings, all the species--towards you.

In the 1950s, a cow called Lakshmi would part thousands of people gathered around Ramanamaharshi to go to the guru every day for a blessing. The guru would not eat until he had personally fed that cow. All animals, all creatures are attracted toward such Masters. You have heard in many stories how the cat and the rat, the tiger and the deer, the snake and the mongoose will forget their enmity in the presence of such a saint and play together. Vashitva means that. Everything is attracted towards you, but you are not attracted towards them because you keep God as your central attraction. You look to God and they look to you. Then you are safe.

If you are attracted by the things which are attracted to you, then very soon the power will be gone, for it is God which dwells in you which is the source of attraction for the whole humanity. Bless them, make them stand on their own two feet and give them the Light so that they may walk in the Light and not in darkness. But at the same time, tell them that these blessings come from God and not from you.

If you take the credit, you'll have a large following for a few years before that very following becomes the instrument of your downfall. History proves that. Be careful acknowledging that the blessings are from God. Somebody said, to Jesus, "How good you are!" Immediately he said, "Why do you call me good? There is only one who is good and that is my Father in heaven!" This form of humility should be there constantly. You may not have a large following and you should not be attracted towards that either. It comes to you when you don't want it.

Everything comes to you when you transcend the desire for it. This is the one lesson which you and I have to learn eventually. It is very tricky for it teaches 'if you want a desire to be fulfilled, just conquer that desire.' At that very moment, the desire is fulfilled. That is food for thought. Think about it. Anything you want to have, go beyond that want, and then it will be there at your feet.

It is taught that we should strive to go beyond all desires other than the desire to attain enlightenment. That desire is not included in the baser, lower, egotistic selfish desires for this one is an aspiration. Like the lotus blossoming by seeing the sun, like the river dancing down into the ocean, similarly, the soul has to reach God from where it has come. It is that aspiration--I won't call it a desire--it is that longing alone which will make you reach the Truth.

In the meantime, by the practice of mantra, there might be several other forms of siddhis which will come to you, including the higher siddhis such as walking on water or going to any loka, or entering into another's body (parakaya pravesha), or blessing an individual.

A poor lady, when Shankaracharya came to beg for alms, had nothing except one fruit. Yet she brought that amalaka fruit and with tears in her eyes gave it to the guru in his begging bowl. Immediately, he uttered the kanakadhara stotra, which means invoking the supreme Lakshmi, and showered all kinds of wealth and riches on her. There are many more, such as restoring the dead, or enabling a childless couple to have a baby. All these blessings and more are possible by the proper use of siddhis. If you maintain humility, then you will use the siddhis for the service of humanity and in the eyes of the Kingdom, you will be considered as sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father.

So this is the knowledge and the warning about the powers which might come to you. Ganesha and Hanuman, especially, give the siddhis immediately. These two aspects are quick siddhis. But when the king wants to give you the kingdom, if you beg for a few cents (pray for the siddhis), that would be foolishness. That is what the siddhis are. Do you understand? A parable will clarify this point.

Once there was a king traveling in a golden chariot and he met a beggar who was on his way to ask the king to make him become super-wealthy overnight. But before the beggar could beg of the king, to his wonderment, the king began begging of the beggar. Descending from his chariot, the king asked the beggar to give him something. At that, the beggar began pushing his knapsack behind him, saying, "I don't have anything, I don't have anything at all!" He had seven or eight handfuls of rice in that sack but he said, "I have nothing."
The king replied, "Well, whatever you have, give a little bit of that to me."
But the beggar was not willing. He said, "You are the king, I am the beggar and you are begging of me? Then both of us should go together as beggars!"
The king insisted, so the beggar, much against his will, put his hand into the knapsack and pulled out seven or eight grains of rice from the seven or eight handfuls which he had. And the king accepted that very gladly and in his golden chariot, returned to the palace.
The beggar was very unhappy thinking, "not only did the king not give me anything, but he took from me also! How unfortunate I am!" Thinking thus, the beggar with great agony came back to his mosquito-infested hut and emptied the sack. Lo! To his surprise, among the seven to eight handfuls of rice, there were seven to eight grains of rice which had been converted into gold. Now he began beating his forehead, lamenting, "how foolish, how dull-witted I am! Had I known what I gave to the king would return to me in pure gold, I would have given all seven to eight handfuls of rice. I would have emptied everything there so that I would have been filled here!"

We are all like beggars. We have something and we go to God to ask Him for more and more. Instead, God asks us to give what we have. But our ego says, "I don't have anything, I don't have anything!" We try to hide the knapsack behind us. God insists, but still we don't agree to give our time or our breath for meditation. God has given us our whole life to realize Him and we say "We have no time, we have no energy. We are very busy, we have no money, we have no health, we don't have this, we don't have that." Yet God insists. Still, when you do not behave, then God 'kicks,' throws bricks,' sends difficulties, problems, ill health, headaches, etc., to make us give something to Him so that we could be blessed. Then, much against our will, we give seven to eight minutes of meditation in twenty-four hours, or seven to eight hours in a month. Some people do not even give an hour in a whole lifetime. Then the time comes to empty the sack, to depart from this body, and you realize that those days, those minutes, those hours, those breaths which I spent with the Lord or in the company of saints--those moments alone are the golden moments of my life, like the seven or eight grains of rice converted into gold. At the time of death, you beat your forehead and cry with agony, "Had I known that this would be completely golden and I would be basking in that yellow, healing light and God Himself would come with His messengers to take me to the immortal kingdom of Truth, I would have dedicated all my breaths and all my time for God!"

But, by then, it is too late. You'll be reborn again. Still, with that lament as your last thought, when you are reborn, you'll come as a yogi to end your evolution. This parable is a great parable, related to every one of us. Life has value only relative to the time you have spent in realization of your great Self or doing any action with the spirit of God. All the rest is, compared to the immortal Truth, worthless. The moments which we spend with God are golden moments which will be returned to us as golden moments. So make the whole life a golden moment. Get initiated into the Truth and represent God in every work which you do. A little more kindness added to our work, a little more selflessness, is an expression of that love for God. That is what will make on earth the Kingdom of Heaven.

Do the sadhana (spiritual discipline). Never eat your breakfast without doing sadhana. Never go to sleep unless you pray and conduct your sadhana daily, without fail. Because that alone is life. That alone is divine. Morning prayer gives you energy throughout the day to work with all alertness in healing and helping. All those who come to you will take with them that kindness and compassion which you manifest by the power of the prayer. Just as you take time for sleep, time for food, time for recreation, time for everything else, you must take, similarly, time for meditation until you make the meditation or prayer constant in the midst of all activities, and in every breath. Then you shall not be reborn, and if you do come back, you'll come back with compassion in order to help humanity reach that higher state.

Each one of you, along with your other works, kindly bring this potential healing power in you to the surface and bless people around you who really require these great mantras and ashirvada (the benediction). Become the great healers of humanity. It is neither caste, creed, color, country nor anything else that counts nowadays, other than the power to heal, the power to love, the power of God to manifest in each and every one of you. It is potentially in you, but hidden. The guru invokes it and brings it to the higher level. Do not allow it to go back. Instead, recite the mantra, get those powers and, with humility, heal humanity

Source

By: Haridas Chaudhuri 2002. v-age.travelblog.fr