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Mahāprabhujī, in his biography Līlā Amṛt, which my master wrote, performed acts that will make you exclaim, "No, I cannot believe this," when you read it. For instance, he restored life to a person who had been dead for several hours. Mahāprabhujī simply said, "Okay, get up and go," and that person is still living. Medical science states that if someone dies and returns to the body after even one minute, the brain is damaged. Yet in that case, there was no damage at all. The siddhis (perfections) we can achieve in life will take time; they are not for now. This is because now we are filled with ambition and ego. Where ambition and ego exist, perfection is absent. You must die in order to live again. What does it mean to die? It means to kill your ego and kill your ambitions. On the day you can say, "I do not want anything; I have no desires. I only wish for good things and to help others, that is all," then the siddhis will run behind you. If you run behind the siddhis, they will run away from you. Furthermore, if you chase after siddhis, they will become māyā for you. Who does not know about māyā? Māyā means temptation. Māyā means illusion. You think something is there, but there is nothing. You become disappointed; it is a temptation. This temptation leads you in the wrong direction. Therefore, do not be a slave to māyā. Māyā appears to us in such a way that we think, "This is beautiful, and this is all I want," and afterward, māyā will destroy you and depart. All desires in which the hidden qualities of māyā are present—if you have not freed yourself from this, you will achieve nothing of the spiritual qualities we are discussing, not money or business. Money, business, and all such things are worldly matters. Here, Mahāprabhujī or Gurujī is describing the kinds of siddhis Mahāprabhujī possessed. The first siddhi is known as Aṇimā, the ability to make one's body as small as one likes. The second is Mahimā, the ability to make one's body as large as one wishes. How nice, is it not? When the room is small, we can all squeeze together. If someone has read the holy book Rāmāyaṇa and the stories of Hanumānjī, he possessed these siddhis of aṇimā and mahimā. But we do not have these siddhis. Every day we struggle to make our bodies more slender, yet we cannot even achieve that. There are some people who do not eat; they only look at food, and their bodies expand. Since we cannot manage even this, how can we claim to already possess siddhis? Yet these are the hidden powers within you. That is what I wish to discuss. These abilities are within you, but we do not know how to access them. It is like a combination lock with 108 numbers. If a lock has only three or four numbers, we must struggle for a long time to discover the combination. With many numbers, 108, to find all combinations is a master's work, is it not? Or one could take a hammer. The third perfection is called Vaśiṣṭha, which is control over the elements and not being enslaved by them. You can walk through fire. You can walk on water. Many such things are described further in the book: Aṇimā, Mahimā. Another siddhi is the quenching of hunger and thirst. Here we come to a point. They say that in the Himalayas, there are yogīs who do not eat or drink. Yes, they exist. I know some persons; there is one lady who does not eat or drink, and for about 15 years now, she has not eaten or drunk. She preaches, talks, walks; she is healthy, not lying in a coma. Some people train in this technique; it is also called cosmic nourishment, and there is training for it. Some have truly tried this. In Austria, where I live in Vienna, there was one lady whom I did not see for two to three months. One day she came to me and said, "You know, Swāmījī, I do not eat and I do not drink." I said, "That is a joke." Then she said, "You know, I took a training course." I asked, "What, energy food, energy nourishment?" I said, "Okay, anyhow, sit down and have a cup of tea." She replied, "No, no, I do not drink. Did you not realize, Swāmījī? I do not drink any liquid; I do not eat any food." Then I said, "Aha, sit down, please. Come near and tell me, what is that?" She told me the whole story of how her trainer instructed them. For a few days it was not easy, but then suddenly a boundary was crossed, and energy began to develop in the body again. She went for two years without eating or drinking. Then she said it became so boring; friends would invite her, they would eat, and she would not, which made them feel unpleasant, and she felt the same. So she began to eat again. In any case, if you wish to train yourself in this way, there is a possibility. This ability is within you. Suddenly, a chakra will awaken in you, and through those chakras you will be able to receive cosmic light in such a way that the cosmic mother nourishes her child. We are also a plant, you know; we are a movable plant. In the desert, there are plants that walk; there are plants that move and live on energy from the air. You can also live that way. At that time, your body becomes very pure, with less mala (impurities), less urine and stool, and you do not lose weight. In the initial phase, you may lose many kilos, but then your body gains strength, and your muscles become strong. You can walk for 15 hours without any tiredness. This is a siddhi. It is a hidden power within you. It is not given to you from outside; it is within us, but we have forgotten and neglected it. That chakra lies dormant because we live for eating, rather than eating for living. Therefore, prāṇāyāma, saṅkhaprakṣālana, and purification—there are Haṭha Yoga kriyās. Haṭha Yoga is different from the Haṭha Yoga you may practice, which involves āsanas and prāṇāyāma. That is not Haṭha Yoga. Haṭha Yoga has six kriyās: neti, dhautī, basti, naulī, trāṭaka, and kapālabhāti. They are described in your yoga book, or Adidas and his wife Mukti, who are here, can teach you these purification kriyās. Then you will see how clean and fine you feel. You walk on the ground, on the earth, but you will feel as if you are flying. This is a purification of the body, but you must again follow the principles. After performing saṅkhaprakṣālana, for how many days must you follow a strict diet? Otherwise, on one side you cleanse, and on the other side, someone comes and throws dust on it. That is how it is. Purification, everything, is realized through a pure mind and pure consciousness. Recording location: Australia, Perth, World Peace Tour 2005