How to find fulfillment through yoga

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

---

 The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams
​- Eleanor Roosevelt

---

This blog post is part of our Yoga Sutras series.  
​Want to start at the beginning?
Yoga Sutra 4.1
जन्मौषधिमन्त्रतपःसमाधिजाः सिद्धयः
Janmausadhi mantra tapah samadhi jah siddhayah
Accomplishments in yoga can come through birth, medicinal plants, mantra repetition, intense spiritual practice or by samadhi.

Patanjali returns once more to the siddhis, which we are calling “accomplishments” here for simplicity and readability.  Siddhi implies something much more than simple accomplishments.  

A siddhi is a spiritual phenomenon that is a “superphysical” (Satchidananda, 237) sense.  Much like we can see, hear, smell, touch, taste, and even sense ourselves in space and from within, some yoga practitioners also achieve sensory phenomena that don’t seem to align with the laws of physical science that we observe with matter.

This makes perfect sense.  The mind is not like matter and as Patanjali has already explained to us in pada one, the mind has lots of states (dreaming, imagining, remembering) that produce mental phenomena that don’t correspond with physical reality and yet, physical reality is shaped by it.

A simple example is waking from a nightmare.  It seems so real while you are sleeping that when you wake up, your heart is pounding, you may be sweating and sometimes it’s hard to calm down and go back to sleep, even though you know the monsters you saw in your dreams are not physically present.  But they are mentally present - subconsciously, yes -  and affect our interactions in the waking world with other people who have mental monsters in their own subconscious.

So while these siddhis may seem like weird mysticism, we already have experiences that show us the mind goes rogue from physical reality sometimes.  A spiritual adept has put time and energy into controlling their mind and sometimes develop these “supernatural abilities.” (Stiles, 112)

With all this preamble about “supernatural powers” (Stiles, 47), now to Yoga Sutra 4.1.  More than what he explained about siddhis in book three, Patanjali tells us how exactly these siddhis appear.
There are five ways he outlines:

1. Janma (birth) - some people are born with the ability to tap into the superphysical.  According to Vedanta, this is due to some karma that has been carried over from previous births that the soul has gone through.  Patanjali (and we) will discuss more about the laws of karma later in the year.
2. Ausadhi (herbs) - this one is always good for a giggle when reading it in a group.  Certainly, certain plants can produce reactions inside our mind to create an awareness of the superphysical world.  Both Satchidananda and Iyengar mention drugs as a way to have “spiritual visions.” (Iyengar, 246)  But Ram Bhakt brings up another possibility for this word.  “Medicinal formulas called rasayanas that are taken to make the body super healthy and allow for powers to awaken.” (187)  The Shoshoni Retreat Center’s handbook also indicates “Ayurvedic herbs” (45) here.  Iyengar mentions this word could mean elixir or even incense. (246)
3. Mantra - Repeating mantras can bring the mind into the right state to achieve siddhis.  Sanskrit is an incredible language that I am only beginning to explore.  When I’ve had the opportunity to learn from one of my fellow YAA program teachers, SriDevi Denisa Denova (who is a Sanskrit expert) I’ve learned that by correct pronunciation of Sanskrit, we hit the palates of our mouth in such a way that it actually produces brain waves associated with calm focus.  So repeating mantras creates an environment for the practitioner to go beyond the physical and reach the spiritual level. 
4. Tapah (self-discipline) - Everyone’s favorite niyama, tapah (or tapas) is one of the three parts of kriya yoga.  Tapah includes the physical austerities one uses to prepare the body and mind for enlightenment.  These practices are not indicated by Patanjali directly but I think it's safe to say that things like asana, pranayama, mudras, bandas and kriyas (different from kriya yoga, kriyas are cleansing practices for the body, such as using the neti pot) would be part of them.  Tapah also means to face the spiritual challenges brought to us by karma with the same “burning desire to reach perfection,” (Iyengar, 108) with which we practice hatha yoga.  This might include developing the qualities of acceptance, fortitude, resilience and a zeal to do what is for us to do.
5. Samadhi (enlightenment) - We have already spent much of last year discussing samadhi and its various stages, so I won't go into much about it here.  Reading various commentaries, it seems this way is the most reliable way to attain and retain siddhis.  The other four ways Patanjali describes above all require outside things to produce the effect.  The happenstance of which body-mind you're born into, availability of medicinal plants, even the repetition of mantra or practice of spiritual austerities are things we may one day lose the ability to do.  Thus, we are liable to lose our ground with outside things.  But once attained, samadhi wipes out all other impressions. (Yoga Sutra 1.51)

​
<< PREVIOUS BLOG POST IN YOGA SUTRA SERIES
NEXT POST IN YOGA SUTRAS SERIES COMING IN 

---

Have you ever had any superphysical experiences spontaneously, by taking herbs or doing your sadhana, or personal spiritual practice?   “What are some abilities that you easily acquired in this life?  How can you use them to help others?” (Bhakt, 187)