


Sharanagati
Collected words from talks of Swami Tirtha
Dec
23
“The glorious Lord began again: “Siddhis, mystics powers of various kinds, wait upon a yogi of steady mind, who has subdued his senses and controlled his breath according to the procedure detailed before and concentrates his mind on Me.” Uddhava submitted: “Kindly say through what mode of concentration which and what kind of siddhi can be acquired and how many siddhis are there, since You are the bestower of such siddhis on the yogis, ah immortal Lord.”[1]
So, if you practice yoga, you will achieve something. If there is action, there is reaction; if there is some practice – some results, some fruits will come. If you practice some mystic yoga, then you will have some mystic powers. If you practice bhakti-yoga you will have some bhakti powers – achievements based on spiritual connection, on connection of divine love to the Supreme. But here the siddhis are discussed:
“The glorious Lord replies: “Eighteen in all are siddhis, as well as the modes of concentration leading to them, taught by those, who have attained perfection in yoga: the minor ones – such as insight into the past, present and future, being easily attainable by others, too. Of the former eight abide chiefly in Me and in smaller degree in those, who have attained similarity of form with Me. The other ten being attainable through the development of sattva-guna.”[2]
Eighteen siddhis are mentioned here. The perfected beings posses these siddhis of yoga; and it is said that the minor siddhi or the minor mystic power is to be able to perceive the past, present and future. Although from this again we can see how elaborate and how elevated this whole system is. Because usually people – if they think that somebody sees the future or the past – say that this is very high mystic power, right? If people are in insecure situation and they don’t know the future or they have some problem, they go to a fortune-teller, who will tell them the future; and who is reading the past, people think that he is a great mystic person. But here you can see that this is а minor thing.
And as we are all spiritual practitioners we shall also be able to see the past, present and future. How to do that? Devotees do not go too much for these mystic insights. So, they have mystic insight or they don’t have – what is your opinion? Usually others see with the eye of wisdom – gyana-chakshus. But devotees see with shastra-chakshus, with the eyes of scriptures. And here the past, the present and the future is also contained. Plus we have the conviction that whatever is given to us by the Lord Supreme it is for our benefit. In this way we don’t really have to search out the future too much, because whatever is coming we should accept it as a kind of blessing, as a kind of instruction from the Supreme. In this way the insecurity, resulting from the unseen future, disappears. Whatever life gives us this is a consecutive feature and necessary ingredient of our improvement, of our spiritual progress. So all depends on the consciousness, all depends on the attitude that we develop towards the things.
[1] “Shrimad-bhagavatam”11.15.1-2
[2] “Shrimad-bhagavatam”11.15.3
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