The Divine powers act in unison and harmony with the Divine Will and not as a mechanical wish fulfilling agency. Though they may do so (grant a desire) if they see its deeper necessity for our growth. But generally the divine powers and the divine forces act in two main ways. First is to rectify the disorders due to the action of the adverse forces, that is to say curing an illness, correcting our mistakes, helping us see our errors and giving us the strength to remove them. Secondly and more importantly they change our consciousness, illumine our thought and understanding, create an inner detachment towards things that have little value, alter the pattern of our thoughts and feelings towards truth and beauty and harmony. They help align our will towards the Divine, give us the power to go through the purifying ordeal of suffering, awaken in us hope, faith, aspiration, courage, compassion and various other divine qualities that make us not only better human beings but also more than human into a spiritual being. Besides these, the Divine Powers can awaken certain latent faculties and capacities in us such as true creativity, illumined and spiritual speech, gift of healing, power of expression, power of communicating divine wisdom, power of poetic, artistic, music, scientific and other creative capacities. They can awaken in us the faculties of inspiration, intuition, revelation, right discernment, right action, all that turns the mind of man into a seer.
The occult powers are generally powers of the vital worlds and the beings of that plane, including the powers of the inferior gods and the titans. These powers seem like dazzling miracles but often trap the soul further in the mud of desires, satisfy ambitions, sometimes even creating an illusion of being great, a guru or a specially gifted person fanning his vanity thereby opening the doors to his fall by taking him up through a slippery slope. Some of these powers are quite deceptively dangerous. They may help us win a court case even where we were on the wrong side, harm or hurt maliciously. There are here also certain powers that may be useful even though they belong to the occult subliminal and not the proper spiritual plane. These include the ability to read thoughts, to transmit one’s thoughts into others, cure an illness (though not at the roots as the divine powers do) The classical asta siddhis and nidhis such as laghima, garima, anima, mahima, vyapti, prakamya, all belong to the vital occult domains. The power of hypnosis, of materializing things out of thin air, walking on water, making others agree to what we say or want, bring immediate success in a venture, say for making money, winning in a tournament etc and many others belong to the occult vital and mental domain rather than the higher spiritual and divine powers.
In a summary way, the divine powers invariably help us grow and progress while shielding us against adverse influences and evil forces. The occult powers keep us tied to the ignorance of earth nature and are mainly engaged in fulfilling our wishes and desires even if they are eventually going to be harmful to us. Of course the Divine can do and grant all that the occult forces, – the titans and the gods do, but the divine action is always in largeness and freedom taking into account all the interconnected elements of our life and generally not as an instant wish fulfilling machine.
Hope this clarifies.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
