Friday, August 16, 2013

Another interesting read

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/essays/siddhas.asp

Flying Vidhayharas

The Siddhas are the inhabitants of Siddhaloka, wwhere all are born with fully developed mystic powers. There is aother planet inhabited by the Vidyadharas and Caranas, who are very expert in singing.

"Then Lord Brahma, by his ability to be hidden from vision, created the Siddhas and Vidyadharas and gave them that wonderful form of his known as the Antardhana.

Purport: Antardhana means that these living creatures can be perceived to be present, but they cannot be seen by vision."

Srimad-Bhagavatam 3:20:44

"It is said that the demigods never touch the surface of the earth. They walk and travel in space only. Like the great sage Narada, the Kumaras do not require any machine to travel in space. There are also residents of Siddhaloka who can travel in space without machines. Since they can go from one planet to another, they are called siddhas; that is to say they have acquired all mystic and yogic powers. Such great saintly persons who have attained complete perfection in mystic yoga are not visible in this age on earth because humanity is not worthy of their presence."

Srimad-Bhagavatam 4:22:48

"Beyond the region of ignorance [the material cosmic manifestation] lies the realm of Siddhaloka. The Siddhas reside there, absorbed in the bliss of Brahman. Demons killed by the Lord also attain that realm.

Purport: Tamas means darkness. The material world is dark, and beyond the material world is light. In other words, after passing through the entire material atmosphere, one can come to the luminous spiritual sky, whose impersonal effulgence is known as Siddhaloka. Mayavadi philosophers who aspire to merge with the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as well as demoniac persons who are killed by Krsna, such as Kamsa and Sisupala, enter that Brahman effulgence. Yogis who attain oneness through meditation according to the Patanjali yoga system also reach Siddhaloka. This is a verse from the Brahmanda Purana."

Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi 5:29

Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Excerpted from various texts and purports of HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.

Although theSiddhas (the liberated beings) are formless and without a body, this is how the Jain temples often depict theSiddhas

Ultimately all Arhatas and Tīrthankaras become Siddhas. A Siddha is a soul who is permanently liberated from the transmigratory cycle of birth and death. Such a soul, having realized its true self, is free from all the Karmas and embodiment. They are formless and dwell in Siddhashila (the realm of the liberated beings) at the apex of the universe in infinite bliss, infinite perception, infinite knowledge and infinite energy.

The Acāranga sūtra 1.197 describes Siddhas in this way –

“

The liberated soul is not long nor small nor round nor triangular nor quadrangular nor circular; it is not black nor blue nor red nor green nor white; neither of good nor bad smell; not bitter nor pungent nor astringent nor sweet; neither rough nor soft; neither heavy nor light; neither cold nor hot; neither harsh nor smooth; it is without body, without resurrection, without contact (of matter), it is not feminine nor masculine nor neuter. The siddha perceives and knows all, yet is beyond comparison. Its essence is without form; there is no condition of the unconditioned. It is not sound, not colour, not smell, not taste, not touch or anything of that kind. Thus I say.”^[2]

”

Siddhahood is the ultimate goal of all souls. There are infinite souls who have becomeSiddhas and infinite more who will attain this state of liberation. ^[d] According to Jainism, the Godhood is not a monopoly of some omnipotent and powerful being(s). All souls, with right perception, knowledge and conduct can achieve self-realisation and attain this state.^[e] Once achieving this state of infinite bliss and having destroyed all desires, the soul is not concerned with the worldly matters and does not interfere in the working of universe, as any activity or desire to interfere will once again result in influx of karmas and thus loss of liberation.

Jains pray to these passionless Gods not for any favors or rewards but rather pray to the qualities of the God with the objective of destroying the karmas and achieving the Godhood. This is best understood by the term – vandetadgunalabhdhaye i.e. we pray to the attributes of such Gods to acquire such attributes” ^[f]^[3]

Although theSiddhas (the liberated beings) are formless and without a body, this is how the Jain temples often depict theSiddhas

The Acāranga sūtra 1.197 describes Siddhas in this way –

“

”

Sidda







Sidda 






Sidda grew up on a farmstead far from any city or town. The only land 
available to the poor. Her parents followed no God or Goddess, but 

ide for 
right and wrong doing. They raised Sidda to appreciate hard work an
respected all equally, choosing to follow their own conscience as g
ud to 
rely on no one for what she could do for herself. Seeing only limited 

17 for New Lensmoor City. 
 
Sidda has had a bumpy road with many twists a
opportunities and paths available to her on the farmstead Sidda left home 
at
 nd forks in the road that she 
never imagined she would come to. When she was still quite young she met an 

or trusting anyone else, Sidda's bond with 
and affection for Frichte grew.
older man named Frichte. He was a good hearted man, kind, and unexpectedly 
generous with Sidda. Not knowing
  One night when Frichte returned injured, 
Sidda dressed his wounds and unexpectedly found herself in his embrace. The 

ly make themselves a family 
and asked Sidda to marry him. She said yes. Li
end result of this night was their daughter Vivi. Now with a child Frichte 
felt that the best thing for them was to rea
lttle did she know when she 
stood before the alter with Frichte giving her vow to him that a chance 
meeting from several years before would so completely alter the life she 

 next to 
nothing, having lived her w
believed she was making for herself. 
 
Deican. Demon. She had met him by chance when she first arrived in New 
Lensmoor, she had not known what she knows now, in fact she kne
whole life cloistered away on the farm. Deican 
offered to help Sidda out, give her a little nudge in the right direction. 
She had little money at the time, but still had offered to pay Deican for 

t this promise, but was 
quickly reminded of it several years later when 
his help. He refused her money, instead telling her that he would prefer 
she repay him with a favour and that he would come calling on her when it 
was time for that favour. Sidda had forgotten abo
uDeican came to collect. 
 
Frightened, Sidda obeyed the Demon's request to accompany him. But during 
her time with him, her fear was replaced by awe and curiosity. Deican 
opened Sidda's eyes to a world she never imagined existed. The passion with 

ll following the teachings of her parents, Sidda 
initially expressed in
which he spoke of The Lady filled her with a longing she had never felt 
before. An emptiness. She came to believe that it was not enough to simply 
follow ones conscience, but that to truly be happy, one must devote their 
life to a higher cause. St
iterest in the Eurekahn beliefs, speaking with clergy. 
Upon their advice Sidda continued to seek out knowledge of the faiths, to 
research, ponder and consult. After much reading and speaking with people 
of all faiths, Sidda sat down and pondered her options, plumbed the depths 

uld not 
in good conscience bind herself to the Goddess Eurekah. 
 
Now s
of her heart and soul searching for what she believed, her true path. In 
time she came to the belief that the only true path of pure faith and pure 
belief was the path of Darkness. Coming to this conclusion Sidda 
regretfully told the clergy of Eurekah that upon reflection she c
ohe sought Deican out, wishing to learn more about the Darkness and 
about the Lady. Deican always the devout missionary of the Lady welcomed 
her sincere inquiries. As Deican came to know Sidda and the depths of her 
heart and passion he struck a deal with her. His offer. She would become 


his apprentice, learning from his centuries of knowledge and in exchange 
Sidda would commit herself to the Lady for the rest of e ternity 




Whois

Good read

http://www.doveministries.com/content/deliverance-demons

The siddha pranali business and the spiritual form of the soul

To speculate on what your eternal position with Krishna is, or to have some one tell you what it is, is a sign of a prakrta-sahajiya. You will know when you get to that platform. It is irrelevant in the practice of bhakti yoga to speculate on this. Srila Prabhupada says: "That will be revealed when you are liberated. Why you are bothering now?"

The Spiritual Form of the Self

by Sriman Muralidhar das

Following is a critique of the philosophy of the Radha Kunda babajis who teach that when a disciple comes to a guru he should be "given" a spiritual body of a manjari. In this article, the author carefully presents the teachings of Prabhupada Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur who taught that this "siddha pranali" system of worship is a concoction and a deviation from the ways of devotion taught by Sri Rupa-Sanatana.

A significant aspect of the siddha-pranali doctrine as it is generally practiced nowadays is the proposition that a guru will assign a spiritual body to their disciple. Followers of this doctrine think the spiritual form of a liberated person is given by their guru to a devotee.

For example, in a book about manjari swarup written by Kunjabihari das Babaji he wrote:

"In the Lord's abode, there are an unlimited number of forms, all suitable for rendering service to him. Every one of those forms is non-different from him, being expanded from his effulgence; each one is eternal, full of consciousness and bliss. They are the crowning, central jewels of the spiritual world - its very life. These unlimited spiritual bodies are the perfected forms of the liberated souls which are awarded to an individual, according to his taste, when he reaches the state of absolute liberation. This state is called attainment of the spiritual body. All these spiritual bodies are eternal for they exist even before the liberated souls enter them and will continue to exist ever afterward. However, prior to the entry of the liberated soul they are in an inactive state."

As all of the unlimited souls are servants of the Lord, each one of them has a spiritual body in the Lord's abode just suitable for rendering service to the Lord. When an individual becomes qualified for direct service to the Lord by the grace of the Goddess of Devotion, then the Supreme Lord awards him that spiritual body.

According to this school of belief, a devotee must be “awarded” or “given” a spiritual body (siddha-deha) by their guru so they can practice the meditation that they are assisting Sri Radha in the divine pastimes of the spiritual world. If some disciple has not been given a spiritual body by their guru then how can the disciple engage in the practice of raganuga bhakti?

Yet it must be pointed out that according to the Vedanta Sutra (4.4.1) and Sri Sanatana Goswami (Brhadbagavatamrtam, 2.2), a soul never gets given a spiritual body at any time. The spiritual body is an eternal and inseparable facet of the individual soul, the jiva-atma. The spiritual form of the self is eternally and inseparably connected to the individual self. My spiritual body is inseparable from me and, though dormant, my spiritual body has been with me for all of eternity. When a soul desires to render service to the Lord in his spiritual form then the dormant spiritual body becomes fully manifest. This is clearly stated to be the case in the Vedanta Sutra and in more recent texts such as Sri Sanatana Goswami's book Brhadbhagavatamrtam. It is utterly wrong to think that a soul can be given a spiritual body. In the commentary by Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana to verse 4.4.1 (sampadyavirbhavah svena sabdat) of the Vedanta Sutra, Baladeva has written the following:

"The individual soul who, by means of devotional service accompanied with knowledge and renunciation, attains the effulgent Supreme, becomes free from the bondage of karma and attains a body endowed with eight virtues. This body is said to be the soul's original form. Why is that? The sutra explains, “svena-sabdat” (because of the word“svena”). The word “svena” here means, “in his own original form”. For this reason it cannot be said that this passage means, “the soul arrives there and then accepts a form which is an external imposition”. In that way it is proved that the form here is the original form of the soul."

In this section of Vedanta Sutra, the topic being discussed is: “When a soul attains liberation does the soul attain a body that is different from himself, as the bodies of demigods are different from their inner self, or does the soul manifest his original identity which is not different from himself?” In Baladeva's commentary, he emphatically declares that in his sutras Vyasa himself is saying that when a soul becomes liberated they realize their inner identity and see they are a purely spiritual self with an eternal body of full of spiritual consciousness and bliss (sat-chitananda).

Baladeva quotes the Chandogya Upanishad:

"Thus does that serene being, arising from this body, appear in its own form, as soon as it has approached the highest light, the knowledge of Self. He, in that state, is the highest person (uttama purusha). He moves about there laughing or eating, playing, and rejoicing in his mind, be it with women, carriages, or relatives, never minding that body into which he was born."

Chandogya Upanishad 8.12.3.

Baladev Vidyabhusan then quotes from the Padma Purana:

anur nityo vyapti-silas cid-anandatmakas tatha
aham artho 'vyayah saksi bhinna-rupah sanatanah

"The soul is atomic, eternal, is present by consciousness everywhere in the material body, is by nature full of spiritual bliss and knowledge, has a sense of individual identity, is unchanging, is a witness within the body, and is different from the Supreme."

Srila Baladev Vidyabhusan states that the spiritual form of bliss the liberated being attains is the original form of the soul that lay dormant within when the soul was in illusion. The Vedanta Sutra tells us that the spiritual body of the liberated being is the soul's original form. This form is a form of eternity, knowledge and bliss, as is mentioned in the verse above (cid-ananda-atma). It is not that the soul attains liberation and enters into a spiritual body or a form of existence which is an external imposition, an external state of being different from the self itsef. Not at all. The liberated soul realizes the spiritual nature of one's own inner being.

Srila Sanatan Gosvami has also presented the same conclusion. In his commentary to verse 2.2186 of Sri Brhadbhagavatamrtam, Srila Sanatan Gosvami quotes Shankaracarya's verse, “mukta api lilaya vigraham kritva bhagavantam bhajanta”, which he translated as “Even the liberated assume a form and worship the Lord in his pastimes”. Srila Sanatan Gosvami then quotes Srimad Bhagavatam 6.14.5 “muktanam api siddhanam narayana parayana”, that is, “The liberated and perfected souls are engaged in Narayan's service.” Then Srila Sanatan Gosvami asks himself: “If liberated souls didn't have forms then how could they engage in the Lord's service?” The answer:“Bhagavati layam praptasyapi nri dehasya mahamuneh punar narayana rupena pradurbhavah”. Even those who have merged into the Lord have dormant human forms.

The statement of Srila Sanatan Goswami is clear and unambiguous. Even those souls who have never known Krishna and are merged in the formless light of Brahman have dormant human forms.

In another part of Brhad Bhagatamrtam, the commentary to verse 2.2.207, Sri Sanatana Goswami also wrote:

"O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Narayana, or Krishna. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare. Impersonalists generally imagine themselves perfect and liberated, and among them a very few may actually attain impersonal liberation. But those rare souls, like all others, are eternal servants of Hari, the all attractive Lord. Out of millions of such rare liberated impersonalists, one very fortunate soul may realize this natural fact. Since intelligence is dormant in the “merged” soul, it can be reawakened. Even the liberated souls who have merged into the formless divine light of the spiritual sky retain their eternal spiritual bodies, complete with spiritual mind and senses. Nothing, not even liberation, can ever deprive a jiva of these assets. Thus when a liberated soul gains the favour of the Supreme Lord's personal energy, his spiritual body and senses are reawakened for hearing and chanting the glories of Lord Hari and acting in other ways for the Lord's pleasure."

The spiritual body and senses are reawakened, so that the soul returns to his original state of pure siddha perfection. This soul in its pure state, still merged in Brahman, can develop a mood of submission to the Absolute and begin moving towards the gates of the spiritual world. Or, awakening with a false sense of ego, the soul may descend into the world of duality, birth and death. Again and again the jiva may attain Brahman and then fall again, developing an “exploiting” mentality that drags the soul back into samsara. However the soul who enters the kingdom of Narayana attains real immortality.

Elsewhere in Brhad Bhagatamrtam, Srila Sanatan Goswami gives a beautiful description of souls entering the spiritual world of Vaikuntha. The form of one's self that someone contemplates during one's life of devotional practice, the stage of sadhana bhakti, is the form you will have in your state of perfection. And that state of being of a soul is capable of further transformation and development.

Srila Sanatan Goswami describes souls entering the spiritual world:

"Some came with associates, some with paraphernalia, and some with both associates and paraphernalia. Some merged their associates and paraphernalia in their own selves and became like penniless solitary sages plunged in the nectar of meditation. Some moment by moment manifested different wonderful and charming forms, each opulent with different and wonderful ornaments, features and pastimes. Some were humans, some monkeys, some demigods, some demons, and some sages. Others carried the marks of being initiated in the orders of varna and ashrama. Some were like Indra, Chandra or the other gods. Some had three eyes, some four heads, and some four arms, some eight arms, and some a thousand faces. I will tell you the reason for this great wonder: How can they who taste the nectar of devotion to Lord Krishna not be handsome? The glories of Vaikuntha's residents, who are all beyond the material world of five elements, the glories of Vaikunthaloka and of Vaikuntha's hero, Narayana, cannot be described with the examples drawn from the world of five elements. "