Mircea Eliade YOGA IMMORTALITY AND ... - Brihaspati.net

fellows, because from the moment that "dominates within "a notion, the yogi sees on a
screen as all states of consciousness that this notion is likely to cause the soul of the other
men. See a myriad of situations that this notion may be a sub-drar, as it has assimilated
not only the contents of the "noci6n. but besides that it has entered into its internal
dynamism, has endorsed the human destiny that had that notion, and so on. Some of these
powers are even more wonderful. Patanjali mentions in his list of siddhi, all the "powers"
that legendary obsession-nan, with equal intensity, mythology, folklore, and the
metaphysics of India. Unlike the folk texts, Patanjali gives al-gunas summary
clarifications thereon. So, trying to explain why the samyama concerning body shape
may make it invisible to the practice, Patanjali says that the vol-ago samyama see the
body imperceptible to other men, and "the absence of and direct contact with the light of
the eyes, the body disappears "(YS, Ill., 20). Is this the explication Patanjali gives us aja
concerning appearance and disappearance of yogis, milaero mentioned in countless
religious texts, alchemical and Hindu folk. Let Vacaspati Misra's commentary: "The body
is composed of five essences (tattva). It becomes an object visible to the eye thanks to the
fact that it has a form (rupa, which also means" color "). It is through This rupa that the
body and as they become the objects of perception. When the yogi exercises samyama
concerning the shape of the body, destroys the visibility of color (rupa) is the cause of the
perception of the body. Also , when the possibility of perception is suspended, the yogi
becomes invisible. The light engendered in the eye of another person, no longer makes
contact with the body, which has disappeared. In other words, the body of the yogi is not
object of knowledge for any other man. The Yogi is gone, when you want to avoid being
seen by anyone. " Misra Vacaspati This text tries to explain a phenomenon yogi by the
theory of perception, without recourse to the miracle. Moreover, the general trend of the
Yogic texts of some importance is the metaphysical phenomena explain everything and
make-do hidden basis of "power" acquired by the practitioner, and exclude any
supernatural intervention.
Patanjali also mentions other "powers" that are obtained by samyama such cdmo
knowing the time of death (YS, Ill., 21) or extraordinary physical powers (III, 23), or the
knowledge of things "subtle "(III, 24, etc.). By practicing on the moon samyama obtained
knowledge of the solar system (III, 26); on umbilical plexus (nabhicakra), knowledge of
the body system (III, 28); on the cervical canal (kanthakupe), the disappearance of hunger
and thirst (III, 29); on the heart, knowledge of the spirit (III, 33). "Whatever the Yogi
wants to know, must comply with samyama relation to that" object "(Vacaspati Misra, ad
YS, Ill., 30). This "knowledge" obtained through techniques samyama is in fact a
possession, a take-up of the realities on which the yogi meditates. All that is "thought" isby
virtue of meditation magic-absorbed, possessed. It is not difficult to understand that
the profane have always confused those "powers" (siddhi) with the vocation of yoga. A
yogi was always regarded in India as a mahasiddha, a holder of occult powers, a
"sorcerer" 14 That this opinion
** Bhqja (ad YS, Ill., 44) gives the following list of eight "great powers" (tnahasiddhi)
the yogi: 1. animate (reduction), ie the lowest power vofverse as atoms, 2. Laghima
(lightness), the power of becoming so lightweight wool CCMO 3. gunman (weight) tf.
mahima (cualkier of ilimitaprofana not completely mistaken, makes us see the whole
spiritual history of India, where the sorcerer has always represented, if not the leading
role, at least an important role. India could not ever forget that man can become, in