Welcome to Day 26 of our 40 Day Retreat.
We have been speaking about the Parama Guru, the highest of the Gurus and the Guru Gita advises us to follow such ones. Over the last few days I have been speaking about the qualities of these Gurus. How do you know them? What are the characteristics that they express? We spoke about having an unshakable mind, being ever established in bliss and happiness inside. We spoke about not adhering to one belief or another, but in living beyond beliefs where every trace of ignorance is removed. Parama Gurus operate from direct perception or direct realization and that gives them a certain kind of authority. We spoke about when they ‘look’ at you, the power of their intentions, their love and their caring.
Be Careful of Gurus Who Show Unnecessary Displays of Siddhis
Today Guru Gita gives us another mantra that tells us about such Gurus and speaks about siddhis; powers that are developed by Yogis or those on the path by developing mind power and mantra power. It is very interesting to hear what the Guru Gita says about siddhis because on the path you are going to meet this, in teachers and within your own sadhana, within your own discipline.
Guru Gita tells us how to treat this when we meet with Gurus who display siddhis or powers openly and unnecessarily. It also tells us how to treat siddhis when they come, when we are on the path and we develop more of the Guru power.
Let us listen to this verse from Guru Gita that has so much wisdom:
Sidhi jaalam samaalokya yoginaam mantra vaadinam
Tucchaakaara mano vrttir yasyaasau paramo guiruh
“Beholding a network of siddhis of the Yogi’s and the Mantravaadins (mantravaadins are those who deal with the wonders and power of mantra) one who has the determination, all this is nothing but straw. (Of course you know straw is dried grass, considered waste) Such a person is a Parama Guru.”
This is very important to understand because it is telling us how to avoid Gurus on the path who unnecessarily displays siddhis for their own show of power as an ego play. It is telling us to be careful of such Gurus.
Developing Siddhis of Your Own
Let us speak about this subject and how it may concern you. As you begin to use the power of the mind and develop more mind power and as you begin to repeat mantras (mantras are formulas of power), you become more and more powerful. As the brow chakra develops, as the throat chakra develops, as the heart chakra develops and as you keep on repeating mantras with determination, you develop powers. The power to perceive and read thoughts in another’s mind and some people with the power of mantra can materialize things easily.
The True Journey - Mahaa Siddhis – Self Realization
There are all kinds of siddhis that people can develop using mind power and mantra. These come to you on the path as you develop more and more, if you become carried away by this new found power, then this can stagnate you, because the true journey is what one might call the “Mahaa Siddhis” which is self realization, the greatest of all powers.
It is said that when someone is self realized, when someone is fully immersed in the divinity, when someone is a perfect instrument of the divine, they don’t want to unnecessarily interfere with the karma of life around them just for play. They enter into the lives of people only with the sanction of the divine power.
The Mahaa Siddhis are so beautiful. When such beings, who live in complete surrender to the divine and live as an instrument to the divine, when they give a blessing “go and be healed” they don’t have to think otherwise, that blessing comes with the power of the infinite. When a person comes for healing, the hand comes automatically, they are drawn, and when they say it, they are drawn to say it. When they say “you are healed” the healing takes place automatically. When they say “be blessed,” whatever your wishes are they begin to bear fruit. All the master does is say “may you be blessed may your desires be fulfilled in God’s perfect way.”
It is said that siddhis are attendant to the one who lives in that consciousness. They don’t have to go about displaying miracles. Miracles continuously happen around them and people will report that. They will say “I went and all he did was touch me, all that I got from him was a look or a blessing and then my wishes started to come true.” So that is the real siddhis.
The greatest of all siddhis is the transformation of another human being, not the diversion into powers. Some Guru will teach you how to get powers; they will teach you how to use mantra to develop powers. But one great teacher, one Mahaa Guru said that “all this is dust (sab-mitti).” Guru Gita says “it is nothing but straw”.
Using Siddhis unwisely and incurring Karmic Debt - 1st story
There was a Yogi, who in a great display of his power, so full of his ego, because he had attained the power to stop the wind over a lake. Little did he know that there were boats on the lake that were having great difficulty without the wind. He had all these people under great distress and he wasn’t aware of that, he was so concerned about stopping the wind. So he was incurring karmic debt. In thinking he was doing a powerful thing, he was doing something with bad consequences.
When we cut trees down on this earth and think we are going to build big houses and do so much with the wood, we forget that trees are the lungs of the earth and they are breathing oxygen into the atmosphere. Or with all these internal combustion engines pouring their impurities and dangerous emissions into the atmosphere, we have all this fast moving equipment and cars, but they’re polluting the atmosphere. When we breathe that air, it is destructive.
In the same way, when siddhis are used without thinking, we can unnecessarily interfere with the order of life and that is incurring negative karma.
When Siddhis are used for Selfish Reasons they are not Worth Anything - 2nd story
How important are these siddhis on the journey? Listen to this story.
At a river bank there were 2 people waiting for the ferry, a businessman and a Yogi. They were sitting there waiting. The businessman was waiting to cross quickly; the Yogi was sitting there waiting for people so he can display how he could teleport himself over the river. He was boasting with this business man. “Do you want to see how I can go across the river, just by teleportation? I can fly across the river.” He was so boastful that the business man said “okay, go ahead.”
So he practiced exercises for a few hours, the breathing exercises, repeated his mantra, getting his body into a different state of vibration. The businessman had crossed the river with the ferry and he was waiting for the Yogi. After some hours the Yogi came across and the Yogi said to him “Do you see, do you see how powerful I am? I crossed the river, no boat was necessary!” The businessman said “You foolish man. It cost me 10 cents to cross the river, look at what you had to do to cross the river. You had to spend hours of practice and for 10 cents I crossed the river. What is the value of what you are doing? – 10 cents.”
If you understand this story you will see that when these powers are used for selfish reasons, they are not worth anything. That time could have been spent in going deeper into the consciousness, lifting the consciousness to a new place, rather than becoming caught up with the powers.
Parama Guru – Goal is Mahaa Siddhis
When chakras open up more and more, you gain powers, you begin to know what is happening to people, you begin to know what is happening inside of them. Sometimes your words are prophetic, what you say comes true. Then you get caught up and want to do more, interfering in peoples lives, you may do this not in alignment with the Universe, but in accordance with your own ego.
Parama Gurus go beyond these kinds of display of siddhis, and their goal is the “Mahaa Siddhis”. They say “How can I transform people from within, change their lives”, rather than getting them caught up in the display of powers and in the pursuit of these powers.
When these qualities are developed, or you find them in you, give no attention to them. Go deeper inside, use the mind power that you are developing to go inside. The highest most supreme goal is Self Realization, becoming one in your consciousness with the supreme. That is the highest goal and this is what the “Parama Guru” teaches you.
I will leave you with that wisdom from Guru Gita that says “In the search for the Parama Guru be careful of unnecessary displays of power and diverting or moving into that area, where we try to develop powers”.
