Anavopaya Sutra 6

[Kapalika]

Siva Sutras: The Yoga of Supreme Identity [Jaideva Singh translation] (page lxii):

"By Pranayama, dharana ect. one acquires Supernormal powers over the elements, but such powers are the outcom of moha (delusion about the essential nature of the self) which draws a veil over the Highest Reality. By these means, one cannot realize the Highest Reality."

(page 143):
[GALLERY=media, 8322][/GALLERY]

"Supernormal power is due to a veil drawn by ignorance."

(From another translation I have: )

mohāvaraṇāt Siddhiḥ ||

 

[DeviChaaya]

Siva Sutras: The Yoga of Supreme Identity [Jaideva Singh translation] (page lxii):

"By Pranayama, dharana ect. one acquires Supernormal powers over the elements, but such powers are the outcom of moha (delusion about the essential nature of the self) which draws a veil over the Highest Reality. By these means, one cannot realize the Highest Reality."

(page 143):
[GALLERY=media, 8322][/GALLERY]

"Supernormal power is due to a veil drawn by ignorance."

(From another translation I have: )

mohāvaraṇāt Siddhiḥ ||

I wonder if this is in reference to my Swami Nithyananda post? He claims he can give people shaktis, which honestly just sounds like siddhis by any other name.

 

[Kapalika]

I wonder if this is in reference to my Swami Nithyananda post? He claims he can give people shaktis, which honestly just sounds like siddhis by any other name.

I honestly hadn't seen the post so rest assured it's not a response to anything anyone has posted... This is just something from the Shiva Sutras that always stuck out to me. I had posted it just as is with no thought of my own to see what people would say about it.

 

[Aupmanyav]

mohāvaraṇāt Siddhiḥ ll

That is beautiful and has a very deep meaning. Just two words can be enlightening. As I understand it:

Say 'I have achieved siddhi'. I can get all the money in the world, I can be the most powerful, live in a palace more beautiful than Versailles, marry a woman more beautiful than Liz Taylor (Haha, just saying), but this all is but an illusion. What is at the back of it all 'Shiva', does not ever change, though we see things as change. I hope you get my meaning.

 

[Kapalika]

I hope others reply as I'd like to hear more of what people think.

Personally I've had some different feelings about the implications of sutra for a good while (not all of which I'm prepared to get into here).

It might seem more straight forward to others but seeing through the lens of all of Trika and my own beliefs of which this is one of our important texts I see so many layers to this. For example we believe in a concrete physical reality (shuddhashudda tattvas) of which our limited selves experience through the shuddha tattvas. So when the commentaries speak of mastery over the elements, it stems from the senses (tenmatras) which comes from the mind. So what I'm saying is, these supernormal powers come from ignorance, not because the world is illusion (we think it's concrete), but because it's "down stream" from the flow of shuddha to ashudda, of which we are to swim up. It's like trying to find the source of a river (Shiva) by going downstream. The supernormal powers might be illusion, but to us the world which we percieve them to interact with (shuddhashudda) is very real although of course not the Highest Reality,more of a middle reality and the siddhis below our normal perceptual low reality.

Also as another example, in many schools of trika there is no pure or impure (same as with the Aghori whom share the same roots of us with the Kapalikas, but they are not Trika as I understand it). It would consider the entire river Shiva, not just the mouth of it. As many other Hindu religions have remarked, illusion can wake someone from a dream. Perhaps those waking things are "up stream", and Siddhis "down stream", but at the moment I don't know how that's reconciled with the no pure or impure view. Maybe it's obvious and I'm just missing it.

EDIT: small clarification added on "highest" "middle" and "low" reality (shuddha, shuddhashudda, ashudda)

 

[Shantanu]

Siva Sutras: The Yoga of Supreme Identity [Jaideva Singh translation] (page lxii):

"By Pranayama, dharana ect. one acquires Supernormal powers over the elements, but such powers are the outcom of moha (delusion about the essential nature of the self) which draws a veil over the Highest Reality. By these means, one cannot realize the Highest Reality."

(page 143):
[GALLERY=media, 8322][/GALLERY]

"Supernormal power is due to a veil drawn by ignorance."

(From another translation I have: )

mohāvaraṇāt Siddhiḥ ||

I am not familiar with the technical terms but will say this: supernormal powers of endurance, intelligence, action to stave off dangers to the self, obtaining the wherewithals for survival with dignity, crushing the evil enemy that you may be engaged in a battle with, etc all come naturally to a person who has perfected the Yoga of Supreme Identity. What do I mean by the Yoga of Supreme Identity? This is the yoga of surrendering to God who guides one through the generation of truth that wipes away all ones ignorance and delusions. One attributes everything that happens to one to God's blessing or doing. One therefore performs yoga to determine and find God and then one surrenders to God on a daily basis so that the yoga could last for decades as a way of life. In this mode one has become a purna-avatar because every thought and action is performed in total surrender and bhakti-devotion. Nothing is done that does not seek out God's blessing as a desirable action. He then provides the thoughts into the mind and the action is performed in total faith that it is the right thing to do and will lead to all the good things that are important in life. The Yoga has to be perfectly executed amid all distractions.

I used the word God because I personally do not regard Shiva as the Supreme God. I regard Sri Krishna as the Supreme God, but this may not be important. What is important is the principle of Yoga Sutra that takes one to the Highest Reality of God's existence and nature.

Is this relevant to what you were thinking?

 

[Aupmanyav]

EDIT: small clarification added on "highest" "middle" and "low" reality (shuddha, shuddhashudda, ashudda)

Nice, Kapalika, quite like the three realities of 'advaita' - Paramarthika, Vyavaharika and Pratibhasika. How a person will understand is a personal thing.

 

[Islington]

I'll try to share my small understanding too, then.


Ultimately, everything is a matter of perception, from perception comes understanding (if you have a teacher, the opposite is true also).
When I understand something, the illusion of it being magic, amazing, fearful is lost, a small truth is discovered, knowledge is achieved. I obtain the possibility of using this knowledge and gain power on this thing.

Now there is a question of power. For a power to be active, to exist, it has to be used, to be born from one will. It also has to be used on something else. If I use this power (superpower, even) over that (the element), then I separate myself from that. My will dominates that and so we can say that I is stronger, the ego reinforced.

But this use of power is not the Highest Reality since there is this idea of separation between I and that (element on which I exercise power).
Furthermore, through continued practice of this power, he will concentrate his will more on perceiving his own self separate, than on the seeking of the Reality, the understanding that all is One.
Thus the veil of ignorance could become thicker and thicker just as a fog would.

That is not to say that the understanding (and power) gained through practices listed above is bad or that it should be avoided. It happens and it is probably bound to happen. One should just keep in mind that this is not the end and not become distracted by it like child with a newfound toy.