Theos-Talk Archives (March 1998 Message tl00125)

---"Dr. A.M.Bain"  wrote:

> .. or indeed in *any* path that claims a spiritual or theosophical
Truth
> as its objective.
>
> Alan

I may not be clear on what, exactly, siddhis are (although they seem
to be "super"human abilities), but couldn't they be used to gain
furthur insight to spiritual or theosophical truth, and not solely for
personal gain?  I, for instance, would find it much easier to explain,
and convince, others of the truth (although who would ever know that I
knew what the truth was) if I could show them how I obtained it,
rather than simply stating that I kinda thought it up or read it from
a book.

The latter, I think, is the main problem with most religions today.
Their followers say, "Tis true because it is written."  Hate to say
it, but I can write too.  I can write in allegory too.  I can make
washing my clothes sound like a religious experience.  It is very easy
actually.  People know this.  Religion is being lost today because
science proves what it discovers (for the most part) whereas religion
can only give what science calls a hypothesis.  The public knows that
more hypothesis are proven wrong than they are right.

In today's world, if you can't show that you know certain unknown
truths by "performing" acts of unknown things, you are a fraud.  I
would love to know the truth, but to me, it is kind of selfish to know
the truth and not pursue a way to show an unbelieving society that I
have found the true path.  So, in that sense, there seem to be two
reasons for developing siddhi's.  One, perhaps they will help one to
discover truth.  And two, they will help provide proof to the masses
once they are discovered.

Personally, I am not pursuing any kind of special powers, for I don't
believe that I am ready to take on that responsibility.  For that
would be, in my opinion, another side of the siddhi.  You would be
held more responsible, perhaps temporally and cosmically, for your
actions with access to such abilities.  In my opinion, you would also
have more responsibility for your fellow man, for you would no longer
have the excuse, "I had no power over that."  But at the same time,
does having such powers give you judgement over what should occur and
what shouldn't.  Perhaps it does, particularly if you know the truth.

There are a lot of paradoxes in this statement, for I was
brainstorming a little bit.  Just so Bart knows....:)

Karat.
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