I think [I]Living Enlightened [/I]are ganging up on us. 
Don’t worry that most of us do not believe you, hopefully one day we will see it for ourselves!
[QUOTE=Atma;37094]I am one of the participants of the 48day course that is being offered by the Living Enlightened Master, Swami Paramahamsa Nithyananda. I, along with my husband and son and 200 other participants from about 10 countries are attending. We watched some of the participants levitating, not jumping ! with our own eyes. [/QUOTE]
Hi Atma,
Its jumping/levitating issue is something I can clear out and I’m interested in specifics. What exactly do you mean by levitation? What exactly did you see? Were those levitating participants suspended in the air for some time? If yes, for how long? Were they totally still or oscillated around this “equilibrium” point?
Thanks
[QUOTE=lostontheway;37052]The video was extremely boring. I was expecting some action!
Anyways, whereas a part of me wants to believe that these siddhis of levitation might be possible, there has not been any modern day video recording of it. All I have seen is this hopping around.[/QUOTE]
You’ve just perfectly summed up why people believe in things like levitation, karma, reincarnation, enlightenment etc… because part of them wants to believe. Everyone has a want to believe there could be more to life then what we can see, and unfortunately a lot of us give in to these irrational cravings. This is exactly where religion comes from. I desire for there to be more. Unfortunately, wanting to believe something obviously doesn’t make it true. I’m sure most cancer victims want to believe that they didn’t have cancer.
For those interested in Yoga, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are a must read. You’ll be able to understand levitation and other yogic powers. Nithyananda is currently discussing the Yoga Sutras and there are videos on YouTube you can watch. He is giving much greater clarity to the sutras than I have ever seen before.
Some other resources are Osho’s commentaries and a commentary by Sri Brahmananda Saraswati entitled “Textbook of Yoga Psychology”.
Patanjali and other masters caution against the misuse of powers and the potential of getting distracted by them before enlightenment is complete. Enlightened masters use them with discretion on an as needed basis, but rarely demonstrate. Nithyananda used to demonstrate teleportation of objects, but he said it drew the wrong crowd. Now, it is his unbounded compassion that is the best indicator to me of his enlightened status.
One benefit of experiencing higher powers is the encouragement it brings that enlightenment is indeed real and the stories of great enlightened sages then become even more inspiring.
[QUOTE=Sarvasri;37115]For those interested in Yoga, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are a must read. You’ll be able to understand levitation and other yogic powers. Nithyananda is currently discussing the Yoga Sutras and there are videos on YouTube you can watch. He is giving much greater clarity to the sutras than I have ever seen before.
Some other resources are Osho’s commentaries and a commentary by Sri Brahmananda Saraswati entitled “Textbook of Yoga Psychology”.
Patanjali and other masters caution against the misuse of powers and the potential of getting distracted by them before enlightenment is complete. Enlightened masters use them with discretion on an as needed basis, but rarely demonstrate. Nithyananda used to demonstrate teleportation of objects, but he said it drew the wrong crowd. Now, it is his unbounded compassion that is the best indicator to me of his enlightened status.
One benefit of experiencing higher powers is the encouragement it brings that enlightenment is indeed real and the stories of great enlightened sages then become even more inspiring.[/QUOTE]
I have read it, and learnt a lot form it. That does not mean I believed everything I read in the Sutras. On the flip side, I think we are conditioned to only believe in things that we can see with our own eyes…from this perspective there is no room for faith/ God, so I guess I am a sceptic but I also have ‘blind faith’ in God.
Patanjali is not God, so from my perspective, I take some, I leave some, when it comes to the Sutras.
Namaste,
It is true that Patanjali describes levitation in Chapter 3 of the Yogasutras. It it also true that the description Patanjali gives of causing levitation is similar to how modern physicists have worked out how to do levitation.
It is definitely possible according to the most reliable authorities in Yoga. I am going to go with what they say, than what some random skeptic online says
I will repeat my question, seems it was lost. But to you all: has anyone seen real levitation? With someone suspended in air for longer than second?
I checked out the video of Swami Nithyananda levitation. It was not levitation, but Yogic flying, something already done to death by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi™:
It is claimed that this is a spontaneous hopping movement. I tried hopping in full lotus myself. I could not do it on the ground. However, when I did it on my bed, I could bounce up and down like the best of them.
I think Swami Nithyananda, who claims to be enlightened, should be able to demonstrate proper levitation himself. If he cannot, he obviously is not enlightened.
On the three occassions I went to India so far in my life, I have made it a mission to see and experience many of the weird and wonderful claims we see in the West about yogis doing this or that. I have seen many amazing things such as a yogi buried with his head in the sand and standing like that for a full day, walking over hot coals myself without burning my feet etc, but levitation, NO, all I saw was the so called lotus hop. I haven’t seen any person doing levitation where the person was suspended in the air for longer than a few seconds. I have watched the clip and this is unfortunately the same lotus hopping I have seen so many times in India and where they claim it to be levitation. I will remain a skeptic until someone can stay suspended in the air for longer that a minute without any help but the power of will and mind.
Surya Deva,
I think Swami Nithyananda, who claims to be enlightened, should be able to demonstrate proper levitation himself. If he cannot, he obviously is not enlightened.
Does that mean that you are of the opinion that only those who are able to demonstrate “proper levitation” may be considered “enlightened”? If so, please elaborate. (Or did I miss the sarcasm there?)
I do however like this notion of en-lighten-ment, becoming lighter and lighter until gravity loses its effect…
Namaste Nomad Kamda,
If you watch the discourse of Swami Nithyananda he says the 4 siddhis, of which levitation(laghima) are by products of meditation. As he is claiming to be a living master who is already enlightened(I have seen him state this explicitly on many occasions) he should be able to demonstrate these powers. If he cannot demonstrate them, what hope do his students have? If he cannot, he should not make these claims he is making.
I do not think he is enlightened personally. I see him more as a spiritual teacher, but a flawed one. This was recently shown by the sex scandal. If he was really a pious spiritual man he would not have done this. Moreover, when he was exposed, he should not have lied on national television constantly. First he said the video was morphed, then he said he was doing a spiritual experiment.
When Swami Vivekananda first approached his guru Ramakrishna he said only one thing, “If you are real, show me god” If Swami Nithyananda is real he should be able to show these siddhis he is teaching others about. Otherwise, he just like you and me, somebody who has read Patanjali’s Yogasutras, but no direct experience of the theory.
Paramahamsa Nithyananda?
Why pay attention to charlatans when real avadhut’s like Bhagawan Nityananda never needed to do anything but sit in silence.
Thanks for clarifying your position, Surya Deva.
I agree.
That was just a kundalini yoga practice and Nityananda is now in jail I think. I was in Bangalore when Nityananda sex scandal happened. Narendra, what is his status now?
for those who have disappointed be satisfied with this
Swami Nithyananda is no longer in jail. In fact he seems to be back to normal.
[QUOTE=Surya Deva;37443]Swami Nithyananda is no longer in jail. In fact he seems to be back to normal.[/QUOTE]
Well… Normalish… Normal isn’t really a word I’d use for a guy who is delusional and wears orange pyjamas.
[QUOTE=YogiAdam;37453]Well… Normalish… Normal isn’t really a word I’d use for a guy who is delusional and wears orange pyjamas.[/QUOTE]
and is normal a word you would use for yourself?
[QUOTE=YogiAdam;37022]OK, no one is stupid enough to think levitation is a plausible.[/QUOTE]
no one is stupid enough to think existence is plausable.
I will say this from my own expeience, second hand, about nithyananda. I have a friend who went to his retreat last summer, since then he has become a bigger part in his, not nithyananadas, community. he seems more at peace, more happy, more light, etc… Yeah, maybe some people can sit in silence there whole life, but does that mean they add to the collective whole as much as someone like nithya? I am not saying I agree with what he did, and I especially do not if it involved any woman who were married, but if his collective good outweighs his collective bad, then I say him or any other person as such, is a holy man. just my perspective,
brother Neil