by
H.H. Sri Swami Chidananda
World President
The Divine Life Society
Yoga Is Conscious Hastening of the Process of Evolution
Changes Upon Five Levels of the Yogi’s Being
Some Psychic Powers
Pure Occultism Which Is Not Yoga
Playing With Kundalini Is Playing With Fire
Persons Blessed with Mystic Powers
Occult Powers and the Spiritual Seeker
Uses of Occult Phenomena
Avoid All Occult Phenomena
The term "Yoga", unfortunately, has been connected with notions of strange and extraordinary experiences, mysterious occurrences and mystical powers. The term "Yogi" is popularly understood to mean not an adept in Yoga, but one capable of doing certain things which ordinary people are not able to do. In a way this is true, as a Yogi is capable of doing certain things which are not possible for many persons, but a Yogi should not be conceived of merely as one who is capable of flying through the air, going without food for months and being buried alive underground for several weeks, or of such other feats as are considered spectacular, extraordinary and unbelievable unless seen.
These notions have arisen more due to distance than anything else; for anything that is far away often seems mysterious. Also, they are perhaps due to the ridiculous stories that have been spread about such feats.
The popular conception of a Yogi, though very wrong and very mistaken, is not totally without basis; but that basis has been exaggerated, exploited, magnified, taken out of its context, and given a twist which makes it appear completely different from what it is.
There is an element of phenomena in Yoga, and undeniably, there are elements of mystical experiences too; but these are not what they have been built up to be. What are the bases and what are the explanations of these phenomena? What is the attitude of Masters towards these phenomena? These are points which are not only interesting to consider; but are also important for you, since you are all seekers, and at least one aspect of it all is something very personal to you.
In the title of today’s lecture, the subject is not just "Occult Phenomena", but "Occult Phenomena in Yoga". An occult phenomenon, we are told, is anything that is hidden, not easy to observe, something secret or mystic. And today we are concerned with a reference to these phenomena as occurring in Yoga, to teachers and seekers on the path of Yoga, during the practice of Yoga. Therefore, we shall try to consider this subject of occult phenomena as related to the Yogic way of life.
YOGA IS CONSCIOUS HASTENING OF THE PROCESS OF EVOLUTION
First of all, it is necessary for us to have a clear conception of what the Yogic way of life is. The destiny of the human being is evolution, and we are all progressing towards ultimate perfection, since we are all meant to realize once again our innate divinity. However, the normal course of human evolution is very, very slow — perhaps spread over countless years and requiring many lives, taking only a few progressive steps in each life. In this process of taking a few forward steps in each body, one undergoes untold suffering, untold sorrow, so much of pain, so much of misery due to the bondage of the body and the interplay of currents of like and dislike, of attachment and repulsion; one undergoes all the different experiences which this physical frame has to go through — growth, change, decay and death. To be brought into contact with anything that is unpleasant is sorrow; to be removed from the contact of anything that is pleasant is sorrow; to be deprived of that which we want is sorrow; not to get what we desire is sorrow; and to get that which we do not desire is sorrow; and ultimately, to part from all that is sorrow.
The great ones pondered over this life with its bondage and imperfections, its restlessness and peacelessness, its pain, suffering and sorrow. They ruminated over the various miseries characterising this earth-life and said, "No! We should not thus drag on through this earth-plane, life after life! There must be some method by which we can complete our great destined journey more quickly and find ourselves in that ultimate state of supreme blessedness and perfection".
The technique evolved to rapidly go through this process of achieving fulfillment and perfection is named "Yoga". The Yogic way of life is one that implies a great intensification of the process of evolution, since the Yogi does not want a slow, dragging process. In India, the achieving of "at-one-ment" with that wonderful Perfection (Divinity) is known as "Yoga". This then implies that if you take to this life of Yoga, you are trying to do within the short span of a given incarnation, a given embodiment, what perhaps would have taken you a thousand years or two thousand years, spread over several successive incarnations, to achieve. Therefore, Yoga means an intensification of evolution within a single life span, or perhaps even within just a few years of a single life span. If you look at the Yogic way of life from this angle, you will begin to understand many things that may be puzzling to you.
If a Botanist were to evolve some method in his floral laboratory whereby he could sow a seed of some fruit, have the tree growing in three months and yielding fruit in six months, it would be considered that he had accomplished a miraculous and extraordinary thing. He would doubtless become a man of the day with the whole world agog at such an accomplishment, with publications full of articles on his research and pictures of the product, and the radio and the TV carrying the story of his miracle, of what formerly took a much longer time having been accomplished, through intensification, in a relatively short period.
Yoga is intensification. During this intensified effort to pack into a short span all the experiences that the evolving individual would otherwise have had to go through over a much longer period of time, very unusual appearances, unusual phenomena, are frequently brought about. To one who does not realize what is taking place within the consciousness of the concerned individual, these things appear as extraordinary, but one who understands knows exactly why they have come about.
It is not in the lives of all seekers or all practitioners of Yoga that one comes across these phenomena, but only in the lives of those who go all out for Yoga with every cell and nerve fibre, with all their heart, mind and might, with an all-soul dedication to the life of Yoga.
CHANGES UPON FIVE LEVELS OF THE YOGI’S BEING
During the process of this evolution, this unfoldment, various transformations arise in the individual upon five different levels of his being. On the physical level, various changes and experiences are seen. Upon the psycho-mental level (the mind and the Prana), certain changes take place, certain abilities come in the natural course, and certain phenomena are witnessed, subjectively by some, and objectively by others. Thirdly, certain phenomena occur at the level of the astral plane, which is even more interior than the psycho-mental level. Fourth, you have your spiritual level, and with spiritual unfoldment, you begin to experience many inner experiences. Here it is more subjective, and it is the seeker who is aware of what is going on, and not other people who are not able to know, for it is a still finer realm, still deeper, in the depths of his being. The fifth is the highest level of Super-Consciousness. It is Universal Consciousness — God Consciousness — and upon this level, the phenomena that are witnessed are the true miracles, as we know them. Christ operated upon this level, and whatever was witnessed in His life was the manifestation of the glory and the power of this supreme level of Cosmic Consciousness, of Divine Consciousness. He performed the miracles not as an individual, but as a Divine Being.
So, upon all five levels of the Yogi’s being, occult phenomena are witnessed. When the practice of Yoga is started in earnest, even the physical processes like the Yogic postures and breathing exercises, or a little concentrated attention on the breath in Pranayama, may bring various mystical experiences.
If one honestly tries to practise the Yogasanas (Yogic postures) and keeps on with this practice until one acquires what is known as Asanajaya or "Victory over posture", extraordinary sensations may be experienced from time to time. You may feel that you weigh a ton, that you are pressing into the earth and the earth itself is being depressed with your weight, that you are so heavy that nothing can move you from that place. At times you may feel the very opposite of this and feel feather-light (absolutely weightless) and you may not even be aware that you are sitting. Both of these experiences come when one attains Asanajaya, but they are subjective experiences. At other times, when sitting in one of the meditative poses, one may get ‘jerks’; and it is not uncommon, when one of these poses is held for quite some time, for the aspirant to find himself seated several feet away from where he was at first seated. This is not actual levitation; there is no injury to the aspirant, nor is the aspirant aware of the movement. This is something that anyone who has been doing asanas for a long time may experience in the course of a year or two. This is why many Masters ask aspirants not to sit in any high place, on boulders, etc. Rather, the aspirants are asked to sit in a room with something covering the floor.
How does this come about? In Hatha Yoga, much insistence has been placed upon purification. Yoga means, "the ascending into purity". When this purification process is at work, there come about changes in the body cells, and also changes in the psychic energy through the various inner currents or channels ("Nadis" as they are called). When this happens, a new nerve current, which hitherto has been inactive, is set into motion by the prevalence of an excess of Sattva (purity) in the body, and the body reacts, and sometimes these ‘jerks’ are experienced.
On the psycho-mental level, it is the very common experience of those who have done a little sincere seeking (whether they have known it by the name of "Yoga" or just been seeking and practising certain physical exercises) to find that they have developed certain abilities. The most common of these abilities or inner occult experiences is thought reading. You may be talking to someone, and before the other person speaks, you know what that person will say. You may pick up a telephone and say something, and it happens to be exactly what the person at the other end is thinking; and when talking, you anticipate the other person’s conversation. You may begin to repeat what is in that person’s mind. It is telepathy, but it is spontaneous rather than developed telepathy. Even when you are exercising it, you are not aware of so doing. This spontaneous telepathy just happens, and it is the first and the most common of occult phenomena, and is on the mental level.
The second is clairvoyance, which is also common. Many people are able to see things that are far away. In clairaudience, you may suddenly be put into a state where you are able to hear someone who is talking two hundred miles away.
The three occult phenomena of telepathy, clairvoyance and clairaudience are all upon the lowest level. When one’s Prana becomes refined and one’s mind becomes purified, these phenomena come naturally and often one is not aware of them, and some, even though aware of them, do not know they are extraordinary and take these powers for granted. When a thing grows very slowly and gradually in a person, that person is not conscious that it is unusual and thus takes it for granted. These three powers are the primary powers in Yoga — the primary occult phenomena in the path of Yoga — and they come much more rapidly in Yoga than in other methods.
Personal magnetism comes when your evolution goes still further and when, from the psycho-mental level, a little unfoldment of the astral level also is started; and the development of other powers begins. One may lay hands upon someone who is ill and the person becomes well. One may enter a room wherein is a person in a terrible mood, and the person gets rid of that mood. The seeker may encounter someone who is violently angry with him, about to give him abuse, and upon nearing the seeker, that person is unable to say a word and just walks away. These things that begin to develop in one — the power of healing and the power of instantly subduing a person — are on the astral level. They are powers which are not exactly on the spiritual level, and they begin to develop even when you are progressing very little.
PURE OCCULTISM WHICH IS NOT YOGA
Here, I have to tell you a fact of which you had better take serious note. The first three powers upon the mental level, the psycho-mental level, and the astral level — all these powers one can have by sheer effort. If the necessary effort, with determination, is made, one can develop them. In Yoga, they come through purification, and in the second case, which I have just mentioned, they come through will power, practice and unceasing efforts. Telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc., are found to be actively present in certain hypnotists, practitioners of mesmerism, etc., and in some people whose lives are in no way ethical, who are not seekers and who are in no way the followers of the principles of Yoga, which principles are purity, self-control, devotion to God, faith, etc. Certain persons possessing powers such as hypnotism and mesmerism are plain and pure occultists who have made occultism their main vocation. The powers they have developed in this way do not indicate the evolution of their nature or any progress upon the spiritual line; for, if the powers are not acquired through an aspiration to realise the Truth based upon a deep and abiding faith in God as the only Reality, and as the goal and destination in life, then it is not Yoga.
Every one of us has contact with the Cosmic Mind, for we all belong to the Cosmic Mind. Our consciousness is a part of the Cosmic Consciousness and our mind is a part of the Cosmic Mind, but the link is not there. It is broken. Why? Because we are bound up with our own ego-personality. But when we try to rise above it, the channel which connects us with the Cosmic Mind and which connects our consciousness with the Cosmic Consciousness becomes clearer and we are able to feel our oneness. When this happens, knowledge hidden from ordinary minds comes into our possession — knowledge of distant events and objects and, sometimes, even the knowledge of the future. This is due to expansion of consciousness when a certain level of development is reached, and the spiritual being within is activated and the spiritual nature is awakened.
This whole projected universe has come out of the subtle elements, which were the first evolutes from God. The subtle elements are Fire, Earth, Air, Water and Ether — Ether being the most subtle. These subtle elements should not be mistaken for the gross elements — fire, earth, air, water and ether as we know them — for they are the most subtle principles or the basic supra-physical primal stuff out of which the gross elements have evolved. It is not this earthly fire or earthly air or earthly water or earthly ether of which I speak, but the subtlest essence out of which these grosser manifestations have developed to make up the visible universe. The source of these gross and material elements is invisible, purely subtle, cosmic. During the course of the practice of Raja Yoga, when the Yogi reaches the stage where he is able to concentrate, meditate, and go into trance meditation all at once upon one or more of these subtle elements, then he gains mastery over these elements. He is able to travel in space at lightning speed. He is able to withstand fire or water, because he has complete mastery over these elements at their very source. This is the extraordinary phenomenon that explains the immutability of certain Yogis. Even when passing through fire and water, they seem to come through unscathed, and this is on account of the Samyama which they did upon these elements.
PLAYING WITH KUNDALINI IS PLAYING WITH FIRE
When your spiritual practice takes the form of Kundalini Yoga and you begin the inner occult process of Hatha Yoga, then, with the rise of the power of the Kundalini from the lower mystical centres (Chakras) into the higher mystical centres, which are in the occult body of each being, there arise various extraordinary powers and experiences. Why? There are mystical spheres in the inner realm of the universe and each Chakra governs certain mystical spheres, and all the phenomena of those spheres become the experience of the seeker when he ascends upon this path of Kundalini Yoga, and operates upon that particular Chakra. Kundalini Yoga is something which I always condemn. In this Twentieth Century, to the vast majority of modern persons, Kundalini Yoga is unsuited. And unless one has the extraordinary good fortune of coming across a perfect Guru who has achieved his Illumination through Kundalini Yoga, I would not advise one to go near this science at all. When people question me about these inner centres, I invariably tell them, "It does not hurt you not to know". Some knowledge is better left to itself and it is better not to know. Kundalini Yoga is a violent method, a forceful method, a method to try to force into awakening certain dormant powers. Yoga is a method of intensified evolution; and Kundalini Yoga is a still greater intensification of this method, and therefore, it is dangerous. It is playing with fire.
In all paths of Yoga — whether in the Yoga of pure love for God (through prayer, through faith, through worship, through the Divine Name, devotion and surrender) or in the Yoga of the intellect (the philosophical Yoga of rationality, of hearing and reflecting over the words of the Guru and deep meditation upon the great Truth) or in Raja Yoga (the Eight-fold Ascent of a virtuous life, daily religious observances, steadiness of pose, control of breath, withdrawal of mind, concentration, meditation and superconsciousness) or in the Yoga of cosmic service (serving all with absolute humility, egolessness and total self-surrender unto the Divine Power, considering yourself as an instrument of God; selflessly serving God in and through man in this universe and worshipfully dedicating all your service at the feet of God) — the awakening of Kundalini and its ascent from Chakra to Chakra takes place spontaneously, until Kundalini reaches the highest occult centre. In the Jnani, in the Raja Yogi, in the Bhakta and in the Karma Yogi, in all of them, this activation and awakening of the Kundalini power and its gradual ascent from the lowest centre to the highest centre takes place within the hidden occult personality of the seeker; so it is something which comes about as a matter of course. But, if you deliberately try to bring this about by specific forceful techniques, there is always — and I say always — the danger of arousing powers when your personality is not pure enough to assimilate and absorb them, is not ready to withstand them. Whereas in the other paths of Yoga, as you progress you bring about a total change and perfection in all your personality, in this forceful Kundalini Yoga, what happens many times is one goes all out for the technique and neglects the prime preliminaries, neglects the essential preparations, and then, before the seeker is ready, these powers unfold. Kundalini Yoga is an exact science, and its techniques are unfailing if properly followed. Thus the seeker finds himself in a position with an excess of power and not able to manage it, not able even to bear it and then all Yogic life comes to an end for him.
It is in Kundalini Yoga that extraordinary powers, occult phenomena and all these occult experiences manifest most intensely, because it is the scientific technique of awakening the greatest power that is within you. In the other paths, through purity, the dormant powers in the various spiritual centres of your being manifest...right up to the end when through Cosmic Consciousness, you are endowed with all the divine powers, and then there is nothing which you cannot do! Through perfection, when you get to the end of Yoga, you are endowed with the eight major Siddhis (powers) such as "Anima" (i.e., the ability to reduce yourself to microscopic proportions), "Mahima" (the ability to expand to gigantic proportions), "Laghima" (i.e., weightlessness), "Garima" (i.e., extraordinary increase in weight), etc. For instance, Laghima. If one who has gained this Siddhi is taken to the top of the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building and dropped, he would not fall, but would just float to the ground like a wisp of feather-down. These powers have been demonstrated by Yogis under observation. I have heard that excessive heaviness was demonstrated by a Yogic Master in the West during the early years of his stay in the United States in order to make the people understand that he was not just ‘talking through his hat’, and that the subject of his talk was something which was based upon experience and upon fact. In public lectures, he sometimes used to demonstrate (as a token) the truth about Yogic power. He would, for instance, sit there and call upon anyone from the audience to try to lift him and there were instances when not one, but several together, tried unsuccessfully to lift him. Once a police constable, a very big and powerful man, tried to shake this young Yogi, who was not very big at that time, and the constable could not even budge him, not even by a hair’s breadth, and this was demonstrated before an audience of five to six hundred people in the city of New York. These phenomena are all a part of the Yogic ascent.
PERSONS BLESSED WITH MYSTIC POWERS
There is a totally different type of mystic phenomena and powers that come through the Grace of God, and a person who has not practised any of the Yogic techniques may just obtain all of these powers spontaneously. This happens only when God wants to make use of a person for some Divine purpose, and He has found a person who, through absolute life-long moral perfection, is found fit as a perfect channel, as an instrument which is fit and worthy. In such cases, the person is always characterized by an extraordinary humility and self-effacement and he never makes use of these powers of his own volition. The "I" (ego) always stands aside and this person is just used as a willing and egoless instrument. Such an individual is always absolutely desireless and does not go after anything which this world has to offer, but lives a life of the utmost simplicity, almost of poverty. Utmost humility and desirelessness become the chief characteristics of such a person. Such individuals are very rare, but I mention it just to let you know that such cases are not impossible. Such cases have been witnessed in India as well as outside of India, the powers coming spontaneously and being due to the fitness of the person and through Divine Grace.
OCCULT POWERS AND THE SPIRITUAL SEEKER
What is the place of these various inner powers in Yoga? What are their uses and abuses? What is the attitude of the true seeker to these powers? What are the attitudes of Masters towards these powers? What is the place of these powers and the various experiences in the life of the Yogi?
In the first place, one of the most important things you have to know about them is that they are by-products. They are not the quest of the Yogi. They are not the things for which the seeker has taken to the path. For him, they are just something to pass by on the way. Just as, when you are on a journey to the city, you arrive at and pass, for instance, the Eldorado Motel, and Simpsons-Sears, and then a bridge — all of which have to be passed by, since none of them is your destination, the destination for which you started. You may ask, "Why do these things come?" Well, because you are progressing, because you are moving onward, you must pass by these things that are on the way — by the side of the highway — and they are a sure sign that you are progressing, that you are moving along.
Secondly, they serve as encouragement. After all, a human being likes to know whether he is accomplishing something or whether all his efforts are just turning futile — whether they are proper and right or misdirected and useless.
These powers come as temptations to test your moral worth, and they are the greatest barrier to Self-knowledge. These powers gain entry into you so subtly, so insidiously, that unless you are extraordinarily introspective, extraordinarily watchful and extremely careful, even without your knowledge you may succumb to them and become vain. Then one begins to have a superior type of pride which is much worse than any gross pride, such as pride of position, pride of wealth, of youth, prestige and power; it is the pride of being high and above the rest of mankind.
"All the rest of mankind does not possess that which I have. I possess something which no one else has," — this type of subtle vanity and egoism is the greatest obstacle. It is the greatest danger to the seeker, for it goes to nourish the ego, which is his deadliest enemy. It is this "I" which has to die in order to get God, and anything which fattens this "I" is the very antithesis of God. You may conclude that the Devil or Satan enters you and gives you these powers, that Satan takes possession of you when you get these powers. To use a spiritual metaphor, the throne which you have prepared for God is then occupied by Satan. So these powers divert you from God, taking you away from the straight path and inflating your false ego.
The seeker has to be very careful that he does not encourage these powers at all, that he does not have any thoughts about them, and that he brushes them aside.
What is the attitude of Masters to these powers? All Yogic Masters — The greatest Master, my Master, Swami Sivananda, one of the greatest saints that India has produced in recent times, and Sri Ramakrishna, the great Master of Sri Swami Vivekananda who came and gave Yoga and Vedanta to the West in 1893, and many other saints — have been absolutely at one in their opinion regarding this matter. "Right from the beginning of the spiritual path," they say, "beware of psychic powers. Beware of occult powers." If you get caught in their fascination, you are lost. Your spiritual life is destroyed and all of your Yoga will simply go away. And once you lose Yoga, it becomes very, very difficult to regain it. It is almost impossible to regain it. Once you fall from Yoga, then you have indeed to work very hard to regain the lost status. The Masters are very strong in their terms of condemnation. They say, "Shun occult powers as you shun poison", and they are indeed poison to spiritual unfoldment. Kick them aside.
Sri Ramakrishna had this actual experience: he said that once these powers were brought to him in a basket. This was an inner mystical experience in which he was offered them, in which he was pressed to take them. At first glance they appeared as truths and he was about to look at them, when suddenly the whole thing became real to him, and in this reality he found them to be occult powers, mystic powers, lordship of the whole earth, and he immediately spat upon them. Spitting is the worst form of insult in India and he spat upon them and began to shout, "Take them away! Take them away at once!" People who were near came running and asked, "What is it? What has happened?" and then he kept quiet and controlled himself. Later on he told his disciples that the power of the whole universe was offered to him and for a moment or a split second, the mind almost looked at it, "but my Mother came to my rescue and I was able to shove it aside completely". So, the teaching of the Masters, from the very beginning, is "If you want God, shun ruthlessly all powers, all occult phenomena, as poison". Do not be fascinated by occult phenomena and do not be diverted by them. Or, before you know it, you will be caught in their coils. If you want God, do not want anything else but God, for if you have God, you have everything. Take it from me: if you have God, you have everything. There is nothing in this universe that you lack, and all things but God will appear to you like ashes, as they are not essentially anything.
If you want God, you go on to the greatest, the highest, the sweetest and the ultimate. Do not have the least desire for anything else, and if these occult powers come in the way, then just ignore them. One should not be diverted, for the Yogic ascent is something which has to be done with your whole being, with your entire personality. The whole heart, mind and personality has to go into it one hundred per cent, and any distraction in which you become lost causes your whole progress to be delayed.
Now I come to the last portion: what are the uses and abuses of occult phenomena? Its abuses have been made very clear. To use them, to get caught in them — this in itself is an abuse, because they are not meant to be used at all. A great danger is that what has been built up as moral structure, as humility, as goodness, as truth, as kindness, as love, as mercy, may be directly affected by these powers, if one does not become absolutely based in moral perfection, and does not surrender totally to the Lord and look to Him for guidance at every step, and does not sustain the spiritual life with constant prayer and constant recollection of Him. If one is still weak and in the making, and these powers come, they corrupt the mind, and one may begin to make use of them for obtaining those very things which had been renounced at the start of the spiritual life. One may become a slave to money, to sensual indulgence, to passion and to all that is base and animalistic in the human being, if these powers are used. It is said that a person may remain virtuous in the absence of temptation, but when temptation comes, then virtue flies. So, in the beginning, one has to be very careful, for these occult phenomena have the power to corrupt.
To seekers, to aspirants, to those who want God and are trying to make use of their life to attain God, there is no question of the uses of these powers, for the true seeker just ignores them, and for him they have no content or value, but are things which he passes by on the way. However, if I may speak of these powers independently of the seeker, then there are uses to which these powers can be put, in a limited way. Supposing a person is not in any way a seeker of God, and especially if these powers are in the nature of healing, or magnetism or of prophetic vision (where one is able to know of certain things before they happen, due to clairaudience or clairvoyance), then use may be made of them; but it has been observed that in such situations when these powers are made use of, after some time, they leave the individual.
Magnetism is something by which one heals and cures people, and prophetic vision is something which can be made use of to help people. Supposing one has come to know something about some person, some danger that is in the offing, then that person may be warned of such danger and thus helped. In these entirely limited ways, the person, who is not a true seeker in the real sense of the term, may use these occult powers selflessly — unselfishly — out of compassion, out of love, out of a desire to help others. Some persons have a sense of mission: "I have come here. God wants me to do such and such a thing. This has to be done by me". And if one endowed with this sense of a mission is also endowed with useful occult powers, it means that the powers have been given to him for a purpose, and so, such powers may be used for the purpose given, but such a person will not attain God. For that, one has to work.
And then, there is a use for these occult powers on a very superior level. These powers have their place in Masters who have the special task of guiding spiritual seekers and bringing people to God — bringing people to the path. Sometimes the Masters make use of these powers to induce faith in a seeker who is ready for the path, but whom a lack of faith is holding back. And sometimes Masters help even common people. They help them overcome the suffering of Karma. They cannot help them to overcome Karma, but they help them to overcome the sufferings of Karma by these powers. Upon a very high level, sometimes, these powers are used by Masters on a large scale, to help not just one individual, but a whole area with many people. There have been cases where Masters have used these powers to help areas stricken with famine, drought, etc., but we are not directly concerned with these, for such Masters are on a level by themselves. They know what is to be, and in the fulfillment of the Divine Will, they make use of these powers.
On the lower level, these occult powers can become the greatest of corrupters, the greatest of obstacles for all true seekers. Ultimately, seekers have to realize God, and once one has realised through his own discrimination that everything except God is just transitory, evanescent, just a shadow-play, a momentary thing with which one has no lasting connection - once one knows this - then everything except He, from the little speck of dust to the highest power, all occult phenomena, mystical experiences, become devoid of substance. They all partake of the same nature of this passing, transitory, evanescent world. They are not real. They are not true and they have no ultimate value, no inherent worth.
Therefore, do not run after shadows; hold on only to the substance. Do not go after the chaff; go only after the grain that nourishes and gives life. Do not be diverted from the path of truth by all that belongs to the realm of untruth. See only the real and do not be deluded by the unreal. All of these things except God — the highest, the greatest, the innermost centre of your being — are in the realm of unreality. Therefore, the only thing the true aspirant should do is to completely become blind to all these phenomena and think only of the Lord. Live only for the Lord. Love only God. And seek and be questing with absolute one-pointedness and whole-heartedness for the Great Reality — God and God alone. That is the message of the Masters — to avoid all powers.
Seek God alone and never allow yourself to be diverted even one whit towards anything other than God.
May the grace of the Divine illumine your intellect. May the love of the Divine fill your heart. May the blessings of all great Masters ever keep the light of discrimination and true awareness in your heart. May the Masters guide you on the path. May they give you the true understanding. May they give you the inner spiritual strength to resist all temptations and to overcome the lure of all occult powers, petty powers, which seek to divert you from the path. May they inspire you, strengthen you and lead you on to the goal of supreme blessedness and crown your life with the highest attainment of divine realisation, infinite bliss, eternal wisdom and light and the immeasurable divine peace that passeth all understanding. God bless you.
Footnote
This article has been extracted from the book "The Path Beyond Sorrow" which is a compilation of a series of lectures delivered by His Holiness Swami Chidananda in Canada in the year 1960.
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