Baba’s Teaching as to Siddhis

The chapter

Konganava acquired the power to kill with a glance. While practising yoga under a tree, he looked at a crane and the bird fell dead. Proud of what he had done, he went to learn from a woman who was serving her husband and did not immediately attend to him.

Konganava became angry and used the same fierce look toward her. She calmly asked whether she was the crane he had killed in the forest. Her knowledge humbled him. She then taught him that calm performance of one’s primary duties was higher than anger and pride in a power.

Baba gave the same warning to a devotee who had developed clairvoyance through pranayama. The man saw from his puja room that his distant mill was on fire and felt proud when his peon confirmed it. At Shirdi, Baba called clairvoyance a “strumpet’s performance” and told him not to be fascinated by it. The devotee understood that Baba was speaking about the seductive attraction of siddhis.

The author adds Baba’s statements about devotees after death. Baba told M. B. Rege that his dead child was in Baba’s heart; he told Upasani that his deceased wife had already come to him; and he said that he protected devotees from evil spirits. These accounts support the same instruction: powers are secondary, calmness and concentration on God are primary, and a true Guru uses knowledge for the soul’s welfare.

Editorial note: This page is a concise paraphrase for web presentation and does not reproduce the complete chapter. Please consult the original PDF for the full account and wording.