Sūtra 4.1

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of sūtra 4.1:

जन्मौषधिमन्त्रतपःसमाधिजाः सिद्धयः ॥ ४.१ ॥

janmauṣadhimantratapaḥsamādhijāḥ siddhayaḥ || 4.1 ||

(1) Supernormal powers come with or are attained by birth, or through herbs, incantations, austerities or concentration.

Ancient and Modern interpretation:

[Read sūtra 3.15 first]

[Read sūtra 4.1 above]

Vyāsa explains^[1] that these powers arise by birth or by herbs (e.g. chemicals in an asura’s abode) or by mantras (powers like reducing size, flying) or by tapas (power of fulfilment of wishes and by concentration.

Bhāsvatī says^[2] that supernatural powers described in Vibhūtipāda, which are attained through saṃyama are far more potent and remain under full control of practising yogī.

Osho says,^[3] that this is a pregnant sūtra, so unless you penetrate in the core, one will not understand it. The first experience of samādhi is revealed at birth. But one is not aware about same. Through drugs, one can have lower level siddhis. Mantra is kind of drug without medicine. People with austerities loose grace and become ugly, but have a step higher than earlier. But samādhi is a growth of total.

Some people get siddhis by birth. As per karma-siddhānta, siddhis are attained due to sādhanā of previous birth. Vāmācārī people too get siddhis.

Secondly, due to consumption of drugs, they get siddhis or out of body experience. But consumption of drugs is a dangerous path as it has extremely bad effect on body. Carlos Castaneda ^[4] went to Mexican yankee Don Juan. This Don Juan used to experiment with plants. He says ‘piot plant gives out of body experience.’

He also tells him to stop inner dialogue and secondly do defocussing. Defocusssing should be almost 360 degrees. Thirdly, mantra chanting gives siddhis. Mantras are prevalent in all religions. Fourth one is tapas—like one purifies a metal by heating, in the same way one purifies body by heating it with tapas. We need to conserve our energy and channelize it for our purification. Tapas creates channels for the energy in body in right path.

Last important aspect is samādhi. This sūtra gives siddhis attained in ascending order. Siddhis attained by samādhi are the highest siddhis.

This sūtra gives different methods of acquiring siddhis. Siddhis in Vibhūtipāda are result of performing saṃyama. They are product of evolutionary growth and mastery over all-natural laws. But siddhis due to samādhi are based on direct knowledge of laws of nature.

Siddhis or supernatural powers can be classified in following categories—

[Read “Siddhis—Supernormal powers” here]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Araṇya, op.cit., p.346

[2]:

Bhāsvatī, op.cit., p.602

[3]:

Osho, Yoga - The Alpha and Omega, Vol X, p. 5-10

[4]:

Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui way of Knowledge, University of California Press, 1998.