Hariharananda Discusses Paravesha Siddhi
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 3 years before Aug 16, 2016
MiBeloved 3 years ago
On the astral side, Swami Hariharananda went over some details about what is called paravesha siddhi. He said that some persons seem to misunderstand this thinking that it means possession of another’s body as in the case of the possession of a person’s physical body when there is an epileptic fit, where people say that the person was possessed by a negative influence.
I supervised a session of breath infusion for one of his disciples, then the student went to meditate in the savasana corpse pose. Soon after about 7 minutes, I saw a streak of hazy could-like energy as the student’s astral body left the physical one. Then about 30 seconds after that the student’s physical form switched to a deep drone-sounding breathing.
The student was about to say something to me when suddenly his subtle body sailed off into the air. Some other influence pulled the subtle body. After this Swami Hariharananda said this:
The paravesha siddha is used during the shaktipat influence which is spread from a guru’s psyche to that of a student. It is not a possession of the student’s form. There are two ways of operating like this. One is when the guru enters the students form and deposits an energy into it. The other is when the guru enters the form and changes or redesigns the student’s energy.
In either case, as soon as the guru leaves the form, it will try to resume its usual configurations, which means that this type of entry is limited because of the reassertion of old habits in the student.
To cause shaktipat to work, the student should practice the procedure given by the guru and then this might cause the change to become permanent.
Para means another, and vesha means entry into. Paravesha is the entry into the psyche of another person, in that person’s subtle body. Subtle body is a housing compartment.
A guru from the kriya yoga tradition has no business playing games with students and should not enter a student’s subtle body whimsically. There is no reason to do it for the fun of it. It is only done to check to see why the student is not making progress and to see exactly what causes stagnation in the kriya practice.
This is very similar to exploratory surgery. In some cases, a physician, cuts into the body of a patient just to see what is happening within the body. Then the surgeon can better prescribe a cure. By entering into the subtle body of the student, the guru may find out what causes a certain student to be stagnant. But again it is left to the student to practice consistently. Nothing not even the grace of God can replace a consistent intense practice.
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In Chapter 3 verse 39 of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali Mahamuni explained the paravesha siddhi as it applies to the development of samadhi samyama practice.
This is from my book, Meditation Expertise:
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Chapter 3 Verse 39
बन्धकारणशैथिल्यात्प्रचारसंवेदनाच्च चित्तस्य परशरीरावेशः॥३९॥
bandhakāraṇa śaithilyāt pracāra
saṁvedanāt ca cittasya paraśarīrāveśaḥ
bandha – bondage; kāraṇa – cause; śaithilyāt – due to relaxation, collapse; pracāra – channel flow; saṁvedanāt – from knowing; ca – and; cittasya – of the mento-emotional energies; para – another; śarīra – body; āveśaḥ – entrance, penetration.
The entrance into another body is possible by slackening the cause of bondage and by knowing the channels of the mento-emotional energy.
Analysis:
The slackening of the cause of bondage is done by a yogi, when he reaches the causal level mentioned in verse 35. From the causal plane, he is able to slacken the cause of having to take the current body. Then he leaves that body temporarily while it stays in hibernation in samādhi. He enters the forms of others. A spiritual master may also do this after his body dies. He enters into the forms of his disciples on earth and speaks to small or large audiences, giving instructions. This prevents him from having to take a new material form. In that way he remains in the astral world for many years, avoiding physical rebirth.
A word of caution:
Some great yogis like Śrī Ādi Śaṅkarācārya and Mahāyogin Śrī Matsyendranāth entered the bodies of others, while their disciples maintained their gross forms. They did this for special purposes. Over all, a student yogi should not endeavor for this paraśarīrāveśaḥ siddhi since it is very risky. It is said that recently in our era, T. Lobsang Rampa who was a Tibetan mystic yogi in the past life, entered into an Englishman’s body after the said occupant agreed to contribute his form in exchange for some merits of Rampa. Generally such a course is not recommended for a student yogin.
If one gets in the causal plane and stays long enough one may develop an ability to adjust one’s resultant reactions which are left in a particular dimension and which would forestall liberation. Thus one may do so and not have to exhibit the paraśarīrāveśaḥ siddhi.
If one enters the form of another, one has to go through the channels of that person‘s mento-emotional energy. That entails adopting part of the person’s disposition and assuming some of the person’s responsibilities. That is dangerous since one may forget one’s cultural identity and may begin to feel as if one is the other person. Śrī Matsyendranāth, even though he was a siddha at the time, was rescued by his most advanced disciple, the mahāyogin Śrī Gorakșnāth. Matsyendranāth entered the body of another person and forgot his identity after adopting the stranger’s psyche. In the case of Śrī Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, he did not forget himself, but the queen of the King’s body whom he adopted, wanted to kill Śaṅkara’s yogi body. She wanted him to stay as her husband and not return to his body. These examples warn of the dangers in adopting the body of another.
It is interesting that a great yogin as Śrī Ādi Śaṅkara had to enter the almost near-dead body of a king, just to experience sexual intercourse with a female, because a yogi can have such experiences on the astral planes near to this world or he may enter a parallel world and get such experiences. It is unnecessary to enter any other person’s physical body for this reason. We must conclude therefore that destiny corrupts a yogin at specific stages, in order to tempt him to take certain dangerous and risky actions.
Śrī Ādi Śaṅkarācārya is rated as an incarnation of Lord Shiva. From what I learned in association with siddhas in the higher astral world, he is Skanda Kūmara, the celibate son of Shiva. Due to insubordination to Devī, Lord Shiva’s wife, he had this difficulty in that incarnation. If one plans to be celibate, one should not expect much help from Devī, Goddess Durgā, but all the same, she is in a position to disrupt one’s advancement.
Application:
The entrance into another’s body is possible by slackening the cause of bondage to cultural activities and by knowing the channels which the mental and emotional energies use to entertain and dominate the self. This status is attained through mastership of kuṇḍalinī śakti. Since kuṇḍalinī is the system which operates and sponsors transmigration, the core-self cannot move from form to form in various species, except by being hosted by kuṇḍalinī. One serious mistake of spiritual seekers is to neglect the study and mastership of this life force.
Alfredo 3 years ago
Michael Wrote: [The student was about to say something to me when suddenly his subtle body sailed off into the air. Some other influence pulled the subtle body.]
Alfredo’s Reply:
I can attest to this, as I was about to, indeed, say something, but thought was inappropriate in the middle of the meditation and also remember, faintly, the deep breathing, which I thought I corrected within seconds, as I was embarrassed, but apparently it went on for a longer time.
Naad sound was very strong all along, and led the meditation most of the time, towards the end, I observed blue/white forms in the area of ajna chakra/3rd eye.
By the way, yesterday, the same occurred in that area and Hariharananda's bearded face appeared momentarily.
