[Advaita-l] Siddhis

[Lakshmi Muthuswamy]

Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rama.balasubramanian at gmail.com> wrote:"But I also think all these siddhis are quite rare. Most of the miracle mongers are very likely cheats. That's what Mahasannidhanam has mentioned in one conversation (published in a book)."

Siddhis as such if we look for from Mahatmas, yes they are rare. Siddhis are rare because the Siddha purushas will not expose them. 

But according to vedanta human being has this capacity for siddhi. Any accomplishment is a siddhi.Siddhi is the result of an action. The source of action is a Thought. Thoughts have their own logic. There are thoughts galore and when a particular is thought is held on with focus, given its importance and we go by the thought,  it gets translated into an action. Then the result of the action is an accomplishment which is a siddhi.

So if we analyse all the accomplishments in our lives they are also siddhis.

This is at the level of manomaya kosha only. - Pancha kosha viveka - bhruguvalli of Taitariya upanishad. 
 
 - manobrahmeti vyajAnAt.manasA hi eva khalvimAni bhUtAni jAnte. manasena jAtAni jIvanti........
 
  Bhrighu understood  that  the manas as Brahman. verily from the mind all these things are born, by mind they live after being born, and to the mind they proceed and become absorbed into it. But Bhrugu, not being satisfied with this knowledge, he again goes  to his father requesting him to instruct on Brahman.
 
But what  one would look for externally, performed by another person, is generally called a siddhi. Because the internal accopmplishments stay internal to the person. 

The ashtama siddhis and all the siddhis mentioned  in Patanjali Yoga sutras which sage Patanjali calls as Vibhuti. We get a glimpse of Lord Krishnas vibhutis in Bhagavad Gita Vibhuti yoga.

Vibhutis are manifestions of Iswara.

MahAsannidhAanam has written a commentary on Patanjali Yoga sutras and the translation is available in English. Its available at Sringeri Mutt.

"For the layman, if the amazing James Randi did not advertise himself as a magician, he would look like a yogi with siddhis. He might just have to make his beard longer or act eccentric, with hopefully some mystic mumbo-jumbo thrown into the mix :-). 

Magic is a science and one gets trained into it becouse of some reason gets attracted towards this science or gets handed down ina Magicians parampara. Its called INDRA JAAL. For the Indian magician there ia a devata for Magic who is propitiated and they also have a parampara. I do not know about the western magicians. 

Magic is a career, a profession and they earn their livelihood. The siddha purushas lifestyle is completely different, he may work for the welfare of the humanity at large spontaneously.

One can distinguish this by studying the Vedanta sshAstra only.

"By paranormal phenomena, I mean obeying known physical
laws. I don't think these are transcended that easily."

Yes transcendance is possible only by  jnAna, when vedanta shastra gets deeprooted and permiates in every cell of the person. 

jnAnAt eva kaivalyam.

om namo narayanaya

Lakshmi Muthuswamy



 		
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