--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, t3rinity <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajranatha@> wrote:
> 
> > Actually the way it's taught by lineal Patanjali masters is that  
> > siddhis are not to be cultivated via samyama but instead are  
> > spontaneous side-effects of samadhi. Swami Brahmananda Saraswati  
> > emphasized this as well.
> 
> Hey there. While in India, I bought a book which was recommended here
> to me, the Bhagavad Gita with commentary by Madhusudana Saraswati, who
> was in the 16th century, a contemporary of Akbhar and a renovator of
> the Dasanami Order. It is because of him that Non-Brahmins are
> accepted into most Dasanami Orders. he was also a great Bhakta who
> synthezised the bhakti philosophies with Shankara Advaita. Here in
> verse 21 he calls samyama "strongest of all disciplines" 
> 
> 
> This is what he says in his Invocation to the Gita.
> 
> 20 Through the power of knowledge of reality (tattva-jnana) the
> results of actions (done in past lives) that have not commenced
> bearing fruit (anarabdha or sancita) get wholly destroyed, to be sure,
> and the results of actions (done in the present life after the dawn of
> knowledge) that are to bear fruit in the furure (agamini) do not accrue.
> 
> 21 But because of disturbances created by the results of actions that
> have started bearing fruit (prarabdha), vasana (past impressions) does
> not get destroyed. That is eliminated through samyama, the strongest
> of all (the disciplines).
> 
> 22. The five disciplines, viz yama (restraint) etc. (P.Y.Su 2.29)
> practised before become conducive to that samyama which is a triad
> consisting of dharana, dhyan and samadhi (see ibid. 3.1.4)
>

I asked Vajranatha about this as he is over his posting limit.

Samyama is not a bad practice by itself. It is when it is used to manifest 
siddhis that it 
causes obscuration of the natural state.

In the context quoted it refers to the triad of yogic absorptions and not to 
cultivating of 
siddhis. Different context, different meaning.

Other more specific references refer to the Gita and explain that samyama used 
for siddhis 
will lead to emotional and mental obscurations.

Please be careful of your context as it is not a good idea to be encouraging 
people to use 
samyama to manifest siddhis!


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