Are Siddhis Or Special Powers Important In The Spiritual Path?

By Staff

Friday, July 24, 2009, 17:47

On one's embarkment in the path of spirituality, somehow one gets ensnared in the fancy of acquiring Siddhis or special powers. Siddhis or powers actually if not avoided deftly in the spiritual path could deviate one from the actual purpose of one's pursuit. Indulging in siddhis is a great pit fall in one's path, cautions Ramana Maharshi. They are a superimposition on the natural state that one is actually trying to realise in its bareness.

As recorded by Suri Nagamma in "Letters From Ramanashram,"once in the presence of Ramana Maharshi, a discussion was going on between the devotees regarding the attainment of siddhis and how a person had attained it. Ramana was visibly annoyed about the discussion and pulled at them with words of wisdom even then, saying that they were engaging in meaningless topics of acquiring something from somewhere by doing sadhana and tapas. He further drew their attention to the essential formless nature of a being. He said that it is a special power or siddhi for formless beings in truth they are, to be endowed with a body comprising of eyes, legs, hands and ears? Further more they also get the necessity requirements like food and drink to maintain the body, which itself is a siddhi. What more is required?

Ramana Maharshi often says "To know oneself and to be able to remain true to oneself is Siddhi and nothing else. If one's mind is absorbed in the self, the truth will be realised sometime or the other. This is the best siddhi" Suri Nagamma draws reference to the mention of siddhis by Bhagavan in one of His prose writings, " The Forty Verses" on reality or existence, called "Ulladhu Narpadhu" in Tamil :

Siddhi is to know and realise that which is ever real. Other
siddhis are mere dream siddhis. Would they be true when
one wakes up from one"s sleep? Those who are wedded to
truth and who had got freed from maya, will they get
deluded by them? Please understand.

(Reality in Forty Verses, verse 35)

Bhagavan thus disregarded the aspect of acquiring special powers or siddhis on the spiritual path which are actually impositions on the natural state which is already misidentified with the imposition of the body and the mind; the sheath comprising of the body and the mind which one is to peal off to realise the ultimate bareness of truth or existence, is the mission for which one has actually set out.