Question on Prapti Siddhi

Question: For most of my life I have been able to feel objects in my left hand that aren’t there and manipulate their texture and shape, etc. Do you know anything about this?

Thank you very much for your question. What you are experiencing is the residual effects of prapti-siddhi from your previous life. One of the sadhakas at our ashram had similar experiences when he was young. He would feel something like an itching sensation in his hand and he would feel the subtle presence of some object. When he would close his eyes, he could see what object was there. Later by mantra upasana he was able to revive the siddhi to the extent that he could materialize things within his hand.

The prapti siddhi enables one to acquire any object one desires by transfering it from one location to one’s hand. As mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita, there are eight material elements:

bhumir apo ‘nalo vayuh
kham mano buddhir eva ca
ahankara itiyam me
bhinna prakritir ashtadha

“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego – all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.”

The Sankhya system of philosophy explains how each element telescopes out from the previous element. The first physical or gross element is the ether. Within the ether all the other four gross elements are present (earth, water, fire and air) in a subtle form. The subtle quality of ether is sound, and from the sound expands the air. The subtle quality of air is touch (movement), and from the touch expands the fire. The subtle quality of fire is sight, and from the sight expands the water. The subtle quality of water is taste, and from the taste expands the earth. And finally, the subtle quality of earth, the last of the physical elements, is smell.

Thus you have a telescoping effect of the elements and their subtle qualities beginning from ether down to earth. Since each element is manifesting from the previous, each new element contains all of the qualities of the previous elements. The ether element, being the first, only possesses the quality of sound. One cannot touch, see, taste or smell ether. The air element, having expanded from the ether, possesses both the qualities of sound and touch. One can feel and hear the movements of air, but one cannot see, taste or smell the air. The fire element’s added quality is sight. Thus one can see, touch and hear the fire, but one cannot taste or smell fire. The water, having expanded from the fire, can be heard, felt, seen and tasted, but not smelt. And earth, being the final element, contains all the five qualities of sound, touch, sight, taste and smell.

This sequence is the natural sequence of manifestation of gross matter. The prapti siddhi enables one, through mantra, to reverse this process and transform gross physical objects into ethereal objects by merging the respective elements into their source element. Thus one takes an object located in a particular location, and by utilizing mantra siddhi, one merges the earth element into the water element, the water element into the fire element, the fire element into the air element, and finally the air element into the ether element. As you merge each element into the previous, the corresponding quality disappears (being merged back into the source element). In this way, a physical object is transformed into an ethereal object with no quality other than sound. This ethereal object can be transferred over space by mind, and then the entire process is reversed to remanifest the original object in one’s hand.

What appears as a mystical feat to most is actually manipulation of the subtle laws that govern physical nature. There are eight major siddhis and ten secondary siddhis, all of which are based on manipulation of the subtle laws of nature.

To revive this latent siddhi you will need to take up mantra upasana very seriously. At present we are shifting our library from one location to another, so all of our manuscripts are in trunks. After one or two weeks, when the shifting is over, I will be able to provide you with the necessary mantra and yantra for prapti siddhi.

You must rekindle your spiritual pursuits. In your previous life you had undertaken much sadhana. Now continue from where you left off and perfect your life. These siddhis are not important at all. They will arise in anyone who takes seriously to spiritual practices. For the weak minded they are an obstacle on the path of self-realization. Their use is only to reaffirm one’s faith that one is progressing on the path.