On Jun 4, 2007, at 2:55 AM, cardemaister wrote:
Why is it, that some "sour grapes" svaamiis think Patañjali advises people not to practise siddhis? The reason might well be that the Sanskrit skills of many of them are not too good.
The more likely reason is the almost universal insistence that siddhis are impediments to spiritual growth from numerous scriptures and sages.
The jivanmuktiviveka, the primary text on enlightenment in the Shankaracharya tradition is an excellent example because Shankaracharya Vidyaranya gives us numerous quotes from sages explaining this. Swami Brahmananda Saraswati shares the opinion.
The basic reason often given is that cultivation of siddhis thru samyama causes one to become "vyuthana" or "outward" and attached to the outer world.
The more precise, yogic reason has to do with *where* the siddhis manifest in the subtle body. The siddhis, these perfections, all relate to various petals or dalas in the sahasara-chakra. Normally, in the process of spiritual unfoldment as shakti awakens and unfolds, these dalas are activated as a side effect of that unfoldment. However, when the siddhis are cultivated directly, as in the TM sidhi pogram, what it can do in some people is force the kundalini-shakti up the vajra or saraswati nadi, diverting it from the sushumna, the central samadhic channel of unification. In such a case one cannot access bindu, the point of return for the shakti. Instead the shakti remains trapped in ascending nadis which do not culminate in an experience of unity or unification. Thus the student is left in a sort of "limbo".
Some disreputable pseudo-masters will even utilize this fact to make dependent, slave-like students who hang around waiting and waiting.
