{"id":2584,"date":"2013-07-13T01:42:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2584"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:42:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:35","slug":"05-the-siddhis-vol-12-essays-divine-and-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/12-essays-divine-and-human\/05-the-siddhis-vol-12-essays-divine-and-human","title":{"rendered":"-05_The Siddhis.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Siddhis <\/b><\/span><\/font>
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Some men sneer at the Siddhis because they do not believe in
\nthem, others because they think it is noble and spiritual to despise them. Both attitudes proceed from ignorance. It is true
\nthat to some natures the rule of omne ignotum pro magnifico holds and everything that is beyond their knowledge is readily
\naccepted as true marvel and miracle, and of such a temper are the credulous made, it is also true that to others it is omne
\nignotum pro falso and they cannot forbear ridiculing as fraud or pitiable superstition everything that is outside the reach of their
\nphilosophy. This is the temper of the incredulous. But the true temper is to be neither credulous nor incredulous, but calmly
\nand patiently to inquire. Let the inquiry be scrupulous, but also scrupulously fair on both sides. Some think it shows superior
\nrationality, even when they inquire, to be severe, and by that they mean to seize every opportunity of disproving the phenomenon
\noffered to their attention. Such an attitude is good rather for limiting knowledge than increasing it. If it saves us from some
\nerrors of assertion, it betrays us into many errors of negation and postpones developments of the utmost importance to our
\nhuman advance.
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I do not wish to argue the question of the existence or nonexistence of Yogic siddhis; for it is not with me a question of debate, or of belief and disbelief, since I know by daily experience that
\nthey exist. I am concerned rather with their exact nature and utility. And here one is met by the now fashionable habit, among
\npeople presuming to be Vedantic and spiritual, of a denunciation and holy horror of the Yogic siddhis. They are, it seems, Tantric,
\ndangerous, immoral, delusive as conjuring tricks, a stumbling block in the path of the soul’s liberation. Swami Vivekananda
\ndid much to encourage this attitude by his eagerness to avoid all mention of them at the outset of his mission in order not to
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startle the incredulity of the Europeans. “These things are true”
\nhe said, “but let them lie hidden.” And now many who have not the motives of Vivekananda, think that they can ape his spiritual
\ngreatness by imitating his limitations.
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There was no such weakness in the robust temperament of
\nour forefathers. Our great Rishis of old did not cry out upon Siddhis, but recognised them as a part, though not the most
\nimportant part of Yogic accomplishment, and used them with an abundant and unhesitating vigour. They are recognised in
\nour sacred books, formally included in Yoga by so devotional a Purana as the Bhagawat, noted and some of their processes
\ncarefully tabled by Patanjali. Even in the midnight of the Kali great Siddhas and saints have used them more sparingly, but with
\npower and effectiveness. It would be difficult for many of them to do otherwise than use the siddhis since by the very fact of their
\nspiritual elevation, these powers have become not exceptional movements, but the ordinary processes of their thought and
\naction. It is by the use of the siddhis that the Siddhas sitting on the mountains help the world out of the heart of their solitude
\nand silence. Jesus Christ made the use of the siddhis a prominent feature of his pure, noble and spiritual life, nor did he hesitate
\nto communicate them to his disciples\u2014the laying of hands, the healing of the sick, the ashirvada, the abhishap, the speaking
\nwith many tongues were all given to them. The day of Pentecost is still kept holy by the Christian Church. Joan of Arc used her
\nsiddhis to liberate France. Socrates had his siddhis, some of them of a very material nature. Men of great genius are usually born
\nwith some of them and use them unconsciously. Even in natures far below the power and clarity of genius we see their occasional
\nor irregular operation. The West, always avid of knowledge, is struggling, sadly hampered by misuse and imposture, to develop
\nthem and gropes roughly for the truth about them in the phenomena of hypnotism, clairvoyance, telepathy, vouched for by
\nmen and women of great intellectuality and sincerity. Returning Eastwards, where only their right practice has been understood,
\nthe lives of our saints northern and southern are full of the record of Siddhis. Sri Ramakrishna, whose authority is quoted against
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them, not only made inward use of them but manifested them
\nwith no inconsiderable frequency in His lila. I see nothing in this long record immoral, dangerous or frivolous. But because
\nEurope looks with scorn and incredulity on these “miracles” and this “magic”, we too must needs be ashamed of them, hustle
\nthem into the background and plead that only a few charlatans and followers of false paths profess their use. But as for us, we are
\nmen of intellect and spirituality, ascetics, devotees, self-deniers, Vedantins; for these things we are too high and we leave them
\nto Theosophists, immoral Tantrics and deluded pseudo-Yogins.
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Let us have done with cant and pretension in all matters.
\nThere are no such things as miracles in this world of divine processes, for either there is no such thing as a miracle or, if
\nwe consider more closely, everything in this world is a miracle. A miracle is, literally, a marvel, a thing to be wondered at\u2014
\nso long as the process is [not] known. Wireless telegraphy is a great marvel, the speechless passage of a thought from brain
\nto brain is a yet greater, yet it happens daily even in the most commonplace minds and existences. But when the process is
\nknown, nothing is left to be wondered at except the admirable greatness of wisdom, width & variety of conception & subtlety
\n& minuteness in execution with which this universe is managed. And even that wonder ceases when we know God and realise
\nthat the most wonderful movements of the cosmos are but trifles and “conjuring-tricks” compared with His infinite Reality. And
\nas it is with this siddhi of science which we call wireless telegraphy and with this other siddhi of nature which is exampled in
\nthe momentary or rapid spread of a single thought or emotion in a mob, a nation, an army, so it is with the Yogic siddhis. Explain
\n& master their processes, put them in their proper relation to the rest of the economy of the universe and we shall find that they are
\nneither miraculous nor marvellous nor supernatural. They are supernormal only in the way in which aviation is supernormal or
\nmotoring or the Chinese alphabet. Nor is there anything magical in them except in so far as magic, the science of the Persian Magi,
\nmeans originally & properly the operations of superior power or superior knowledge. And in that sense the occultism of the
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present day is magic precisely in the same sense as the scientific
\nexperiments of Roger Bacon or Paracelsus. There is a good deal of fraud and error and self-deception mixed up with it, but so
\nthere was with the earliest efforts of the European scientists. The defects of Western practitioners or Eastern quacks do not get rid
\nof our true & ancient Yoga.  
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