Spiritual quest for Siddhas
 

Hey guys

A friend and me are currently planing an adventure to India. Our rough sketch is to visit the Isha ashram, attend a few programs and then head out to find Siddhas (people who attained Siddhis). Timespan: 1,5~3months
Although I did experience quite a lot of basic-level telepathy and other paranormal stuff, I want to totally eradicate the last pieces of doubt in my mind questioning the master-level siddhis. I want to experience these things for myself, I want to see them, learn how to -at least in theory- achieve them and generally ask the people who obviously achieved higher understanding than me a few questions about the nature of reality. Since I cannot gauge my current level of understanding in relation to siddhis, I leave open whether or not I want to stay there to achieve some of them myself. First and most important step: experience these things with my own eyes.

The big question is only: how can I find these Siddhas (that also speak English)? I totally do not intend to waste my time on people who just talk. I know there is a general attitude to not exhibit these skills in public and most definately I do not want to meet a black magician or someone with low (e.g. money) intentions. Are you aware of areas which are said to have a lot of siddhas?

If any of you could help me finding the real masters, that would be most appreciated :hug3:

no replies? .__.

Hey there!

Lol well you can meet my teacher and see :biggrin: Or you can follow a teacher's instruction and attain during your own path too if you so chose. Sometimes you might develop siddhis on your own depending on where you're at on the path. I'm unsure if there is a specific area in which any multitude congregate.

I can attest these things exist, if that helps to know, and in the beginning allot like yourself I wanted to approach it in a way not only to see if I could unravel the mysteries but also get some sort of evidence.

Safe to say I myself have 100% absolute veridical proof in my own sadhana but wanted to reitterate that this itself isn't the point. We prove to our self these things are real but then never take up the actual path of self realization by asking "who am I?" or "what am I?" What are we to these secret powers that seem so tantalizing to the part of our mind that isn't the real us?

Most siddhis can be learned at a specific juncture in the spiritual path, after breaking through a certain point. This very special point MUST be reached first. To seek it out just to see if it's real, I do totally understand as well as urge people to lol, but to continue chasing them will absolutely send one off on a huge tangent and cost someone potentially many many lifetimes of reincarnation and suffering they could have cut allot shorter. The grace I've personally earned was the kind which kept me from doing this very thing.

This among other reasons are the reason why nobody shouts it from the rooftop "hey guess what!" lol. But should you find what you're looking for I assure you the siddha will likely be compassionate towards your query and should it be the case that they oblige you I strongly suggest have something with you to offer back. Do not EVER go to someone like that empty handed ever. :love9:

I found some of the Siddhas by myself.
I never could find a teacher to teach me and I lived in Asia for 8-10 years.

The key seems to be riveted in that of going in to deeper, silent meditation.
Being able to quiet the mind seems to be the hardest part to accomplish what you want.

Those who market Indian spirituality to westerners like to prop up the mystical powers because it is what people from our culture generally respond to, with money.

In my religion, siddhis are considered to be worldly achievements, not evidence of spirituality. In fact, they are warned about as one of the possible distractions from the true end. It would be embarrassing to show off or brag about a thing like that.

If you are familiar with stories from the Puranas, you will know that asuras often win powers through meditation. But asuras (typically) are not even aware that true divinity is real. They believe that the Self is the body.

What I'm getting at is, the sort of person who wants to show off powers would, at best, be the sort of person who wants you to pay to see the show. You might be better off doing the work yourself.

I also want to share this short Indian story, just so that you are not blindsided by this attitude when you meet with it in real life:

Two friends grew up in the same village; one went off to study with a spiritual master, while the other remained home. When they met up again a few years later, they took a walk together. On their walk, they reached a river and one paid the ferryman, the other used powers to walk across the water. When they reached the other side, the one who had taken the boat said, "Is this what you have to show for your hard work? Something worth no more than two cents?"

Great story Aditi.

One thing to understand so you are not confounded or confused is the term Siddha. A Siddha is someone who has attained full accomplishment on the Spiritual Path they are practiced. Full Spiritual Attainment.

If they have siddhis - or show them is something related, but also different. In most true traditions or paths, or individuals - gaining of the 8 major and minor siddhis is only a sign of certain stage of attainment and are not to be proud of, nor stuck in. Generally speaking, Siddha is what we want, not siddhis.

I have seen siddhis in action, except it was not promoted by the Siddha. This is what happens - they happen on their own for the benefit of a person or persons, or nature, etc. I hope you think about this a bit.

Otherwise, I have seen westerners go to India searching this way and who knows where they end up. With ego attachment to siddhis, usually, (not always) comes lower ego stuff, deceit greed desire for power or praise, maybe, etc - who knows.

Kindly look for a Siddha - one who is Illuminated by and KNOWS, Dwells in, IS, the Divine Light / Love of God/ Truth. Anyway, best of luck to you.

Thanks, a lot of useful content.
1) yes maybe - who is he and where is he situated?
2) yes, that helps :)
3) I did not understand the meaning of your last sentence there
4) can you elaborate a bit more on this juncture point and how I might be able to estimate how far I am from this point or how to reach it?
5) "hey guess what" :D :D :D yes, I hope the Siddha would understand that I am not searching these things to brag about them or stuff. This truely is more about understanding the nature of reality. Plus I would never use a siddhi to cause suffering. What do you deem reasonable in terms of "not empty handed"?

@BigJohn
oh yes, definately. My meditation sucks most of the time. If I am lucky, I get a few minutes per week of absolute stillness during my meditation. This may be the hardest thing I ever worked on

@Aditi
as mentioned already, I am far from getting stuck with them for lower reasons. The most important thing is just to know without the shadow of a doubt that these things can be achieved - and then also to understand why nobody seems to use them. What I mean is: there is so much good that could be done with siddhis - but why is nobody (?) doing it? Politicians and corporate greed destroy our planet and it would be rather easy for a siddha to change something about that.
I know the story of the two friends and the ferryman :) but to fully understand I think one has to experience the "this is better than what you did"-part. Because without having reached it, how can anyone know that attaining enlightenment if far far better than "just" attaining a siddhi? I imagine someone who never fell in love. How are you gonna describe to him what he misses? I think it's impossible. It's like describing colors to a (color-)blind.

@BlueElephant
Why should one not be proud that one has achieved this stage? What's wrong with being happy that all the hard work has finally paid off?

@all
Which siddhis did you experience? Please tell me :hug3:

I was able to bi-locate twice.

............ and a few other things.

Siddhis manifest quite naturally for the "pure of heart" when the situation commands it.

Having met many siddhas at the Khumba Mela in India as well as at other places, I realized that virtually anything is possible. I also realized that siddhis are rarely displayed without a trace of ego.

Like I said - it is considered a trap and can easily block one from attaining the True Goal - whatever form of Liberated Realization the Tradition or Holy person has to offer, and where you might take it beyond that, or along side of that.

Otherwise, of course you have choices in what you do or not do, once that lower level has been accomplished by you. (Happy Face).

I have never seen it displayed.

I don't think siddhis have anything to do with enlightenment, but I can see that you do and I am happy to agree to disagree. It's not like I know what it's like to be enlightened.

In regards to changing things, I can relate to the spirit of what you are saying. I can't stand unfairness either. But it might come back to whether you believe in something like divine order or not. If I had powers, I would not change the things you mention because I am very aware that I don't know enough to know what, if anything, needs to be changed. If you believe in karma, all kinds of unpleasantness are necessary because they help us learn what we need to in order to get through our own karma-induced messes and our general immaturity. The ideal would be that we outgrow the dualistic viewpoint altogether (in this case - wanting life to be pleasant and not unpleasant) and experience the world with an equal mind.

So, I wouldn't think of it so much in terms of how a person could use powers to do things. I think it should be about whether God wishes to work through that person.

More than anything, I actually don't think it's possible to love God with all your heart, and at the same time reject how the world works. Devi is my only constant. If she wants to destroy something, it should be destroyed. If she wants to change something, she has infinite ways to change it. She responds favourably to surrender, and I would not like to have to tell her what to do. I think the best thing anyone can do is try to live by their own basic dharma.

After seeing many siddhis displayed and having directly experienced some myself, I actually lost interest in them ... knowing that whatever is needed manifests in the appropriate moment.

I agree with you completely on both of the above points. My impressions are also that siddhis most assuredly do not imply enlightenment. As a matter of fact, it has been my experience that, more often than not, the display of siddhis are rarely done without a trace of ego.

As in your second point, I simply surrender to that which lies beyond it all and it guides me unerringly in the best interests of all with no expectation of a reward. If siddhis are necessary, they simply manifest when appropriate with one simply being an instrument with no ego whatsoever (or as little ego as possible :D ). One eventually completely avoids the attention that siddhis inevitably attract and, if some people ask how certain "miraculous" things happen, I simply respond as my teacher used to respond, "I don't know". :biggrin:

I like what Still Waters has said on the matter. :icon_sunny:

I concur. lol.

Can you say something about the circumstances of that? How long did it last, did you have control over it, why did it happen? Bi-locate as in really physically being in two places at the same time? That's hard just to imagine how that would be.

I've still not completely come to terms with the duality of "do nothing - universe will do/give everything necessary" vs "you have to do some work / sadhana". So --- which one is it? Why not play computer all day? Or completey ignore the spiritual way? If nothing can be achieved but only given by grace or surrender (I do not yet completely understand this concept).

If siddhis have nothing to do with enlightenment, then why is it that some people say siddhis come under way anyway so it's no use to strife for them? Why will only so little people have siddhis? For example what about Baba Lokenath who used to fulfill every wish he was asked for? He certainly did not hold back his powers as most people pray; and from what I read he was the most advanced embodied being I can imagine and that I heard of.

Since this isn't the Hindu section ---where I think you could get more notice - here is a definition:
siddhi
1. complete understanding and enlightenment possessed by a siddha.
2. a paranormal power possessed by a siddha.

Blue Elephant: ''Kindly look for a Siddha - one who is Illuminated by and KNOWS,
Dwells in, IS, the Divine Light / Love of God/ Truth.'' :wink:


Btw, welcome deLord. :smile:

I understand some of your confusion: ( I hope this might clear up some of this).

First do extensive study and practice for 10 to 12 years, then even more practice day and night for 30 years, and then one might be in the company of God 24/7 and then ones life changes - it is all spontaneous, etc etc...

Baba Lokenath did extensive practice (Sadhana) extreme discipline under the guidance of his Guru for 40 + years. Just for example under the subject of Fasting: one meal a day, then after whatever time: one meal every other day.... after months and months and years this continued until he was having a light meal once each month. but also engaged in various yogic spiritual practices day and night.

Other things to discuss, but in time.

Sure.

If you can get your mind to be quiet...... that is when the magick begins.

One thing that helped me to get to that state was getting 1-4 hours worth of massages per day. The deeper the massage the better. One woman would brace her self against the wall so as to get 'deeper' and I would feel 'nothing'.

Then sometimes I would go down to the Rive and sit or stand on one of the floating docking piers. The up and down motions would easily put me into a deeper altered state.

Something else that would help is the Buddhist walking meditations. I would go up in the mountains and generally after 8 hours, the magic would begin.

Being in 'special places' would help.

As far as having control over what was happening..... very little control.

Excellent points, Big John ! :hug3:

If there is someone telling people to do nothing, I don't know anything about that. My religion's teachings say that we should try to do the right thing, which is not always the pleasant thing, in whatever situation life hands us -this is what I meant when I used the word dharma. If someone follows this advice, they will always have plenty to do. And, of course, there is further instruction if you want to know about God/Brahman.

If you can surrender the things that are out of your control or beyond your current ability to understand, at the very least it will save you from worry. Your inner state is important.

Reputable teachings say they are not something worth striving for. We can see from scriptures that it is not an indication of how wise or good someone is, it is only an indication of someone's ability to focus on one thing for great lengths of time. Some people interpret parts of Yogasutra as being about powers, but I maintain it is more useful when those verses are read as metaphorical.

We do not know how many people do, I gave some reasons for this in my first post.

I really like this question, I had never thought about it before.

Maybe this was his enacting karma yoga*. I imagine it like, if I could see everyone who came near me as vision of Jagadamba (God), I would feel irresistible compulsion to serve. In which case he might have experienced every encounter on the level of God interacting with God, whereas here we think it was a person doing something for another person.

This would be different to showing off or wanting to change the world, because those people had to go to him, which one could take to mean that they were already part of his existing karma. In contrast, if someone is making decisions based in a sort of 'I want this and I don't want this other thing' way of thinking, even if they have good intentions, they are initiating goodness knows what new karma.

*Karma yoga is where you do everything as offering to God. They say, actions done in service to God, in an attitude detached from all outcome, will burn through existing karma and will not create new karma. That last part is open to different interpretations, but it is still all good, because even if it did create new karma a bhakta would not mind, because they are detached from all outcome and still in service to God, their beloved.

Thanks for all the replies so far. I have read and heard many of the things you are writing here, yet I cannot help but sometimes think "how do they know?", since I can never tell -at the very least on the internet- when someone is paraphrasing book-knowledge or speaking from real, correctly interpreted experience. My path led me deep into many lies of this world so I came to question absolutely everything. EVERYTHING :tongue: but that's totally not to discredit anyone or any statement. It's just an epistemic program that I had to install at some time.

I mean sure, I am relatively new on the spiritual path but still I always feel there is something wrong with "you have to dedicate your whole life (30 years+) to achieve these states". Why would the intelligence that created us employ such difficult circumstances in which you basically miss all the rest creation has to offer? Plus I don't know how enlightenment feels vs having a good LSD trip for example (which is the closest I can say I came to pure bliss). That of course would be a completely new topic in itself; just saying that maybe there are other, quicker ways of achieving the same state. But only someone who experienced both states can judge that :)

Anyone has any idea on why stillness is THAT important? For the rational mind this is not understandable. I am working on stillness of the mind but it's so hard :icon_eek:
Interesting, I also decided to get some massage sessions recently, trying to get rid of deep tension. Will massage help because it dissolves blockages which then in turn leads to a better stillness of the mind or energyflow or what's the rationale behind that?
So with the walking meditation you mean making each step consciously? I did that in a room but I will try it out in nature some time then :)
How do I recognize a 'special place'? And what do you mean to do there - meditate?

Lastly, maybe someone can give me advice on why it is worth investing many hours per day on sadhana instead of living an "ordinary" life. How can I convince myself that meditation is worth doing? I mean, I do meditate daily but you see, this is one of the reasons I started this thread: right now, I just believe that it will lead somewhere beyond material bounds. No one has shown me. I have no idea whether it helps for telepathy, healing abilities, anything useful or permanent bliss. It's not like muscle training where I can tell "yeah I can see my muscles growing BECAUSE OF the training". With meditation, I do it based on blind belief. I cannot tell whether it helps for anything - and this is after a few years of already doing it.

Could you ask this in the Mediation section?
Boy, will you get responses! :thumbsup:
(Or see if someone has asked it already by scanning topics.)

Taking LSD, etc. can help but what you get is mostly visual 'things' like being able to see Auras. Siddhas as you have been talking about, I would say, can not be achieved by drugs. From what I have seen, it can only be accomplished by quieting the mind.


When I was a child, I used to get whipped almost everyday by my Step-Father. Sounds terrible except after I would say less then 1 year of getting whipped, all of a sudden, I no longer felt the pain. When I was 17/18 years old, he took a hand selected 2 X 4 which was 8' long and broke it over my back. I felt nothing. Even to this day, I can still see his astonished face. When I was 18 years old, the school bully 'beat me up' in the locker room. I did not raise a hand, not even to defend myself. I 'won'. He never picked on another person again........


For me, if I could find a person who could do extremely deep tissue massage, it would help me to get 'there'. But then, who can get 1-4 hours of massages in a day?


[quote=deLord]So with the walking meditation you mean making each step consciously? I did that in a room but I will try it out in nature some time then :)[quote]

For the walking meditation 'to work', it mean just walking and not thinking. I would normally get lost. Before I started, I would turn around and look at the mountains. When I would come back, I would look for those mountains.


To me, a 'special place', is a place where you are alone without any distractions.


As for Siddhas, I can not say they are worthwhile. That is a personal choice. When I experience it, I am there basically for 'the ride'.

Being that Buddhism seemed to come out of Hinduism, you will find the word also in Buddhism.

That basically all I know about the subject.......

the magick begins when the mind is quiet.

One of my favourite things about Vedanta is seeing how the sages engage critical debates of each other's theories. It wouldn't be possible to agree with all of it, we each have to come to our own understanding. And many of them have laid out how we can know the subtler experiences for ourselves. It is such a great privilege to have access to any of this information, it might be the most precious thing in the entire world, and the thought that anyone would want to be given a shortcut past it is baffling to me.

If you have better things to do with your time, that's what you should be doing.

@BigJohn What you said about your step father is sort of like what I meant when I said we can't know enough to know what is for the best. No decent person would ever wish that abuse on anyone, but when you have come out the other side of a hell like that, you have this strength and resilience that others can't imagine, and that you know would never have developed if life had been all roses. There are so many ways life breaks us so we have to grow back stronger, and when you know you can cope, you are less likely to live in fear, which is a different sort of hell.

Nice comments.

When some people relate their story to me...... the first thing that comes to my mind is 'they would have probably experienced more if they were beaten a little bit more...........'

Some say that was terrible, but it didn't take long before I didn't experience pain. I can still see my Step-Fathers face when one day when I was young, he was whipping me and when the leather strips wrapped around my body, I yanked the whip right out of his hand.