I have a question here. If a person is a realised soul, will it be possible for him to do the same feats done by these extraordinary human beings in the outer world?
For example, Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, Sri Ramana Maharshi and so on. At least Jesus showed the world the greatest abnormal feat of coming back from the dead. Even Srikrishna showed himself more of a Superman than a yogi. Even Rama excelled everyone in His Valour, Strength and determination. So I think these people could impress upon humans better than a silent yogi or several Yogic types of literature.
So my question is: Is it not possible for an enlightened being to do these extraordinary human feats directly in front of the world, in the world’s language, if he wants? Or he can only go within and experience his own bliss and help the world silently, like Sri Aurobindo helped the world during World War times, by His Yogic powers?
I asked this question because these worldly great achievements will inspire youngsters to value the outer intellect, bodily capabilities, above the knowledge of the Self. So the Truth Consciousness of a yogi whose powers are hidden in him, doesn’t touch the common at all. Because according to them, these yogis either talk, write or preach, but do nothing to improve the quality of life here on earth or stop the sufferings. So they will highly grade the outer faculties and try improving them over the real purpose of finding Oneself.
In ancient India, there was no such dichotomy. Let me give a few examples. Arjuna and Bhisma both were yogis and had mastered the art and science of weapons that remains unsurpassed by anyone except perhaps Parashurama and Lord Rama himself. Many scientific discoveries, including the structure of the atom, were done by Sage Kanad, Vyasa and Valmiki in literature, Bharadwaj Rishi in aviation and Ayurveda, Janak in administration, Vikramaditya in rendering justice, Gurukulas in education many others in dance, music were all yogis. There existed vidyas such as holding the breath while underwater for a long period of time, taming wild ferocious beasts, the astasiddhis of Lord Hanuman, bringing the heart beats to a bare minimum, the art of rejuvenation or kayakalpa vidya, all originating from yogis.
Then came the downfall, and the creative genius of India suffered a downfall when yoga started confining itself to an other worldly moksha, declaring the world as a snare of Maya and asceticism as the path took over. It is this Illusionism and the discarding of Shakti in favour of the Purusha that led to the great decline, followed by the overpowering by the foreigners.
But even during the period of decline, or rather the first signs of its resurgence, feats of yogis such as Lahiri Mahasaya, Tailinga Swamy, Swami Ramalingam, Swami Vivekananda’s extraordinary memory and capacities to mesmerise the audience, and Sri Ramana, underwent surgery without anaesthesia. When we come to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother there are just too many superhuman feats to recount from bringing a cat who had died of scorpion bite to life, the Mother herself returning twice from the realm and state of death, thousands of cures (as the Ashram doctor himself recounted), of course the enormous writings of the highest kind including the longest epic in English language, creating a new kind of music and painting, giving a new education system, utthapana, bilocation, materializing human being, astral travel, intervention during the Apollo lunar mission in 1969, intervention during the Second world war, India’s freedom, Bangladesh war, and now splitting of Pakistan that She predicted 50 years back, prediction of nuclear energy and modern gadgets such as mobiles, many other things as the list is long. In fact, their everyday routine itself would be superhuman with barely a couple of hours of sleep, very little food, yet walking for 8 hours a day inside the room, writing directly on the typewriter from 9 pm to 6 am sometimes, the Mother remaining engaged in several different works besides.
As to Sunita Williams staying 8 months in Space, laudable though it is, yet it would fall into an extraordinary human possibility rather than superhuman. It is more a feat of science, machine and the many scientists behind it. People in the military, those travelling to Space, wrestlers like Rama Moorthy, with extraordinary feats, achieve it through rigorous training, which itself is a kind of tapasya, though done for material ends. Like all tapasya, it bears its own fruit. A yogi who breaks through the barrier of human capacity and achieves superhuman capacity does so by another kind of tapasya. With some like the scientist Ramanujam or geniuses like Beethoven, Jasraj, Da Vinci, etc, it is a special Grace. In other words, God is behind all this, as much with the ascetic in a cave as with the warrior on the battlefield. So why create the division?
One last thing about Jesus’ story of the Resurrection. It is not exactly a coming back to life after death, though that is possible too, as we see with Satyavan and Priyamvada and others, but a story of reviving the near dead as described with enough evidence in the book. Jesus lived in India.
In simple terms, there are extraordinary capacities and feats in the realm of nature, and there are others in the realm of the soul, less visible and tangible to ordinary eyes yet much more far-reaching in their impact upon humanity. Sri Krishna, the warrior and administrator, is extraordinary, but Sri Krishna of the Gita has a much more far-reaching impact in moulding the destiny of mankind. The first is Vibhuti, the second is Avatara. Behind both, it is the same Divine Consciousness that works seen and recognised in some, unseen and unrecognised in others. Nature gives certain extraordinary capacities, but if a person takes up yoga, their natural capacities usually undergo a higher transmutation. Equally new capacities of nature may emerge in a yogi, as in the case of Rishi Valmiki.
However, in all these comparisons, we should not forget the difference between two types of superhumanity, – the asuric, where all these extraordinary capacities and superhuman feats are under the domination of the ego aggrandising itself and the daivic, where the high divine qualities dominate, and the extraordinary capacities are placed at the service of the Divine in humanity. Both Rama and Ravana, Arjuna and Karna are superhuman, but one line of human advancement leads to the destruction of the race, whereas the other kind leads to its endorsement and ascension. Man must choose which way he wants to evolve, the extraordinary feats that mastery of technology might provide or along with it, the mastery over his nature, the technology of his inner self and the evolution of godlike qualities along with capacities.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
