The Powers of the Rishis
What Dandamis explained to Alexander the Great in life, and Kalyana showed him in death, is that those who reach the highest level of consciousness in life – the state of Pure Awareness – lose their fear of physical death.
They are no longer subject to the physical limitations of the body that govern those who spend their entire lives at the lowest level of consciousness that is known as “physical reality”. They are eternally free from the cloying grasp of the flesh.
Through the examples of their lives the “Rishis” demonstrated what they taught, and that is that within each one of us there exist many levels of consciousness, and that it is possible in this lifetime to transcend the lowest level of physical reality, and ascend to the highest level of Supreme Awareness.
Those who have achieved this God-like state, like Dandamis, Kalyana, and countless numbers of “Rishis” before them, not only acquire freedom from the limitations of the body, but also complete fearlessness in the face of death. As Dandamis replied when Alexander threatened to kill him: “Brahmins neither love gold nor fear death”.
But the accomplishment of this Supreme State of Consciousness does not just lead to the enlightenment of the soul. It carries with it the power to transform life and manipulate matter. This transformation manifests in the form of powers that have traditionally been referred to by their Sanskrit name of “Siddhis”.
These “Siddhis” can be achieved either as a result of arduous sffort and concentration, under the guidance of a qualified teacher, or they can manifest spontaneously once the necessary spiritual level has been attained. These powers include:
- The power to choose the moment of one’s death
- The power to be undisturbed by hunger or thirst
- The power to be undisturbed by heat or cold
- The power to hear things far away
- The power to see things far away
- The power to teleport the body
- The power to be in two places at once
- The power to assume any outward form
- The power to enter into any other form
- The power to raise the dead
- The power to manifest any thought-form
- The power to overcome the forces of nature
- The power to understand the thoughts of others
- The power to know the past and the future
The feats that have been performed by “Rishis” throughout the ages are so far beyond the experience and imagination of common men and women, that those who have performed them have come to be regarded as “Gods” or “Divine Beings”. This was as true during the time of Alexander as it was at the time of Christ.
There is almost no limit to the power of these “Sidhis”, or to the circumstances in which they can be applied. Yet few people today are prepared to believe that such powers exist. Modern science simply rejects the possibility of anything that threatens to defy “the known laws of physics”.
The “Rishis” themselves were never troubled by the ignorance of the masses or the derision of their critics. They were content to use their powers whenever suitable circumstances arose, either to relieve suffering or to inspire understanding. They never used these powers to draw attention to themselves in a boastful or ostentatious manner.
Yet whether or not common people believe in the existence of these powers, they carry a sombre warning for all mankind.
For just as the Jedi Masters in the “Star Wars” epic could use the power of “The Force” for good or evil, so the dragon-like entities that were witnessed by Michael Harner during his drug-induced vision are able to use all of the above “Siddhis” to pursue their own diabolical ends.
