Can anyone levitate, reduce to the size of an atom or enlarge to fill the universe, read thoughts or predict the future, become invisible, or live underwater? Can anyone come out of his body or enter into someone else body? Can anyone bring someone back to life?

For the common man this may sound queerly but there are holy men, sadhus, fakirs, gurus, living in mysterious Himalayas, who have reached the highest degree of spiritual development. These yogic superpowers are called siddhis and the yoga teachers consider that siddhis are an inevitable stage in spiritual development. The gurus warn of the dangers of using these superpowers and advise not to announce after their acquisition.

What are siddhis or yogic powers?

Patanjali, in his Yoga Sutras, describes the effects of concentration, meditation, and samadhi (the highest state of mental concentration that people can achieve) on the consciousness of the individual and the control he can apply to the forms and forces of the universe. When a yogi can achieve simultaneously all three states – concentration, meditation, and samadhi, – the phenomenon called Samyama appears. Samyama is a practice by which the yogi can gain tremendous knowledge and power.

Traditionally the most major siddhis are eight according to yoga.

Anima – the ability to reduce the body size to the size of an atom.
Mahima – the opposite of Anima. The ability to become so large to fill the whole universe.
Laghima – to be light as a feather. The body becomes air so it can fly or levitate.
Garima – the ability to become very heavy as a mountain.
Prapti – this siddhi is the superpower to read thoughts, to predict the future, to understand all languages, even the language of the animals, to heal diseases.
Prakamya – the ability to live underwater, to become invisible, to enter the body of another person, and look forever young.
Vasitva – this is the siddhi that can overpower all beings in the universe – people, animals, and objects – using only our will.
Isitva – One of the greatest siddhis, Isitva is about the power of absolute lordship over the entire creation. Achieving divine power that allows you to bring life back.

Has anyone ever seen a holy man perform miracles (siddhis)?

I have never seen a real holy man, yogi, fakir, or sadhu that can perform any of the siddhis. Like many western people, I’m skeptical about the existence of people who have superpowers and can perform any of these miracles. Rather, there are crooks and wizards, who skillfully deceive the audience.

Levitation

The trick of levitation done by godmen and street magicians is to prove that they have “Ashta Siddhis” practicing Patanjali Yoga. They do not levitate visibly but hide their complete body with cloth except their head. If they are levitating, why do they hide their body unless it is a trick?

I remember one day when I was on a trip to Krakow (Poland) and I saw a man who has levitated. He was sitting in the lotus pose (Padmasana) in the air. I was stunned and to be honest I had no idea how he is doing it. Until today…

Walking on water

Another trick that many spiritual leaders claim to perform is walking on water. There was a yogi called Hatha yogi L. S. Rao, who assured that he can walk on water and was forced to demonstrate this ability in front of his followers. The feat was scheduled near Mumbai at his ashram campus in front of 500 persons including some VIPs. After Rao placed a foot in a specially constructed tank a few minutes later, he landed on the bottom. Rao explained his failure was due to a “malfunction of his rectum” and therefore he couldn’t create a vacuum inside the body.

According to experts, there was an installed glass plate below the water surface that just broke down under the pressure of his weight.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba Miracles

Materialization of things – magic trick or divine ability?

Another very popular miracle performed by these spiritual leaders is the materialization of objects. Some wonderworkers materialize watches, rings, pendants, or gold medals. One of them is the famous Sathya Sai Baba who had many followers from all over the world. This petite man with big curly hair performed many miracles (healings, levitation, materialization of fruit, sweets, pencils, pictures etc. and clairvoyance). One of the materializations he made was of “sacred relics” which he gave to the believers.

Some magicians claim that materialization is a well-executed trick. Hundreds of illusionists around the world can do it. Even Sathya Sai Baba was caught on camera in fraud.

His materializations turned out to be just a magic trick.

Still Sathya Sai Baba has many devotees who claim that the holy guru appeared in their dream and save their lives or healed them.

Resurrection

There are many stories about the miracles he performed. Honestly, some of these stories are shocking. Such is the story of a couple from the United States. Walter Cowan and his wife have long been devotees of Sai Baba. One morning while traveling to India to see their beloved guru, Walter Cowan suffered a heart attack and died. His wife sent a telegram to Baba, who showed up at the hospital eight hours later. Sai Baba wanted to see the death man. Five minutes later Walter Cowan and Sai Baba appeared to Walter’s wife and his friends. All of them were shocked.

Making the holy ash called Vibhuthi

One remarkable miracle in India and around the world is the creation of holy ash – Vibhuthi. Sai Baba creates it by waving his hand. This ash is used for healing and blessing. People all around the world claim that Vibhuthi comes out of Sai Baba’s photos.

According to B.Premanand The Indian Skeptic, no one can create any matter from nothing or air except by physical and chemical reactions of a matter which can only transform one matter into another. This phenomenon of creating anything from nothing is against the theory of conservation, “That matter and energy are two sides of the same coin and they can neither be created nor destroyed.”

The godmen like Satya Sai Baba claim to create anything from nothing. When they produce vibhuti or some other thing, it has to be hidden in their hands or the body, as they make the same movements of the hands and the body like a magician. No godman so far in the history of Mankind has created anything without the movements of hands and body and by clearly showing their hands empty and then creating something without any movement.

The existence of holy man in past epochs is much more acceptable.

Magic and Miracles in the Himalayas. What can we learn from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda?

One of the most famous book introducing Indian spirituality and gurus is Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. Yogananda, known today as the founder of the Self Realization Fellowship, is one of the most respected spiritual leaders to bring Eastern traditions to the West. His biography Autobiography of a Yogi describes the holy men, yogis, fakirs and sadhus, wandering around “old” India. These holy men were often able to perform miracles of a sort, or siddhis. The picture painted by Yogananda of “old India”, of wandering sadhus with spiritual powers, is one that has disappeared to a large extent in modern “India”.

The epoch of Kali Yuga

This epoch is called Kali Yuga (A Yuga Cycle is a cyclic age (epoch) in Hindu cosmology). Kali Yuga is the epoch of degradation. Nowadays people have a short life and they are not interested in self-knowledge or spiritual life. Most the people are unhappy and even if someone is interested in self-knowledge, he is deceived by many fraudsters.

Here is what is written in Bhagvada Gita about Kali Yuga. Though these predictions were made more than 5,000 years ago by Lord Krishna, they appear to be so accurate that you can’t deny any of them.

– Religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength, and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the age of Kali.

– In Kali Yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behavior, and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only based on one’s power.

– Men and women will live together merely because of superficial attraction, and business success will depend on deceit. Womanliness and manliness will be judged according to one’s expertise in sex, and a man will be known as a brahmana just by his wearing a thread.

– A person’s spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to external symbols, and on that same basis, people will change from one spiritual order to the next. A person’s propriety will be seriously questioned if he does not earn a good living. And one who is very clever at juggling words will be considered a learned scholar.

– As the earth thus becomes crowded with a corrupt population, whoever among any of the social classes shows himself to be the strongest will gain political power.

Do you agree that this is the truth?