Such methods are very easy to be misunderstood, are bound to be misunderstood. For various different reasons. One is simply the social conditioning that has entered into one’s mind, another is that unless one has come to a certain direct experience, one is more or less going to be speaking out of ignorance, clinging to all kinds of short-sighted conclusions, beliefs, assumptions, and opinions.
It is important to understand something about the majority of the techniques in the yogic sciences, that not only as their effects cumulative, to be witnessed not directly - but over a stretch of time, through consistent discipline - but that most of the techniques are to be used in combination with a number of other techniques. A technique used alone by itself, may not seem to be doing much, but when a number of techniques are combined together in a systematic way - the sadhana becomes a tremendous force of it’s own. That is one approach of the yogic sciences, to gather your energies from as many different sources as possible - being mindful of even the minutest details from the way you sit, to the way you eat, to what you eat, to how often you eat, to the way you walk, to the way you talk, to what you are exposed to in the outer environment, to your sexual activity, to just about everything.
The technique of amaroli may reveal something to somebody who is simply trying it by itself. But for one who is already involved in other processes, it reveals a totally different face. Once your awareness has become sensitive and sharp enough, one will come to experience certain things which would have otherwise remained out of one’s perception. And depending on your present state of being, the effects of the technique are going to be different. One has to be aware that each person’s system is relative according to his own situation, and what may work very well for one person in one situation, may not work so well for another person who is in a different situation.
There are many things which are not ordinarily known about amaroli, which modern science remains absolutely unaware, and which can only be revealed out of direct experience. Once your sadhana comes to a certain intensity, the technique has a totally different dimension, as do most of the techniques. That is why in the tantric traditions, the technique was originally transmitted secretly to those who had already undergone certain preparation, so that the disciple can benefit the most from these kinds of methods. Without going into too much detail, when practiced in a particular way, the practice of amaroli awakens certain siddhis which can be used as a skillful means towards one’s awakening. This is another reason why the technique was transmitted in secret - because the very idea of developing siddhis is in most cases tremendously dangerous. If you are clinging after them, their capability to nourish one’s ego is enormous. Because to develop these siddhis does not mean that one has come to any insight into existence, nor that one has come to more awareness of oneself. It simply means that certain aspects of your own mind which were previously asleep have now become awakened. To trigger them is not much, it just requires enough mechanical training.
