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Yogic Levitation

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 New Enlightenment Papers 2023
…………………………………………………………………………………………
M.Ivankovic, Institute for Illusionism, Verschez, RS

Yogic Levitation

The so-called Yogic levitation was first popularized in the West by Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi through his form of transcendental meditation. After Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi de-levitated in 2008 there has appeared another young yogic guru called
Nithyananda Paramashivam who also has been selling numerous siddhis or magical
and miraculous powers to his followers, inclusively of yogic levitation.

New Enlightenment Papers

© 2023
…………………………………………………………………………………………
 Ever since the appearance of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his TM system in the
1960’s selling of the mantras has become a very lucrative business for him and many
Hindu gurus in the West. The mantra meditation allegedly provides the practitioner
with siddhis viz. magical or miraculous powers, among them even the power of
levitation. The same abilities claims a contemporary and much younger yogic guru
called Nithyananda Paramashivam (born 1978) who initiates his followers into
numerous siddhis, including yogic levitation. There is a number of video footages by
Nithyananda posted on youtube featuring so-called yogic levitation, actually the same
as with Maharishi.
However, what all those video footages show is NOT levitation at all but only a
few of consecutive hoppings or jumpings (like a frog or grasshopper) performed by
the practitioners sitting cross-legged onto the sponge mats in order to soften the
contact with the concrete and prevent damage to their legs and bones. Thus, there is
NOT even “L” of Levitation, but only FROG-ation, the urge of mimicking frogs at
jumping, viz. aping of the frogs (only the Apes can delight in such a Nonsense of
Frog-like jumping or hopping falsely called Levitation). Actually the practitioners
involved into that nonsense look like criples unable to move like healthy people do. It
is sad to see many naïve people who though being lucky to be born as humans, but
lacking in intelligence DEGRADE themselves willingly to an inferior degree of low
organisms like FROGS on the scale of evolution. Even if they succeed in awakening
the Kundalini and oppening the Third Eye, as claimed by Nithyananda, it is to NO
avail, since without Brain, Intelligence, and Wisdom, the activation of the Third Eye
and Kundalini per se is worth nothing and can NOT make anyone intelligent.
As for mantra, there is a myriad of mantras but there’s NO Mantra that can make
any one to levitate. In fact, mantra-sādhana viz. the practice of repeating mantras is
one of the destroyers (viz. hurdles, obstacles) on the path to the attainment of siddhis
in yoga. The most authoritative yogic scripture Dattātreya Yoga-śāstra (lines 100-
102) declares:
prathamābhyāsakāle tu praveśas tu …
at the time of starting yoga discipline viz. the entrance (into yoga),
ālasyaṃ prathamo vi-ghnaḥ dvitīyas tu pra-katthanam
idleness is 1st de-stroyer; 2nd is (excessive) over-boasting
pūrvokta-dhūrta-gos ̣t ̣hī
(by those false yogins, deceivers, conmen) as already stated (lines 92-98),
ca tr̥tīyo mantra-sādhanam
rd
and the 3 destroyer is the practice of mantra-repetition !
 By repeating mantras, without logical and critical thinking, one can only become
(and remain) a dumb stupid person. Thus mantras are used only as a means of
calming the mind while preparing for further more complex practices. Mantras
themselves have NO power per se and hence can NOT provide anyone even with the
ability to jump like Frogs, leave alone Levitation.
The Dattātreya Yoga-śāstra (lines 146-155) is perfectly clear on that point, for it
specifies explicitly that the mastery of kumbhaka viz. holding of breath or breath-
retention (and NOT any mantra) is condition sine qua non the attainment of siddhis:
kevale kumbhake siddhe …
when the whole breath-retention is attained …
tato ‘dhikatara-abhyāsād dardurī jāyate dhruvam
then by additional practice (of breath-retention) a FROG-ation (viz. Frog-like action)
is produced for sure
yathā tu darduro gacched utplutya-utplutya bhūtale
just as a Frog jumps having sprung up from the ground.
And how to perform properly the holding of breath (kumbhaka) is explained thus
by Dattātreya (lines 118-121):
tato daks ̣iṇa-hastasya aṅgus ̣t ̣henaiva piṅgalām
then by his right hand’s thumb the right nostril
nirudhya pūrayed vāyum iḍayā ca śanaiḥ śanaiḥ
shutting up the yogin should fill-in the air through his left nostril very quietly
yathāśaktyanirodhena tataḥ kuryāt tu kumbhakam
without suppression then he should hold the breath
tatas tyajet piṅgalayā śanaiḥ pavanavegataḥ
thereafter he should expel through the right nostril quietly the air-current
Next the yogin should repeat the same process reversibly, inhaling through the right
nostril, holding the breath in the belly (udara) as long as he can and exhale through
the left nostril (lines 121-123).
The Dattātreya even specifies pecisely the number of repetitions and breathing
sessions throughout the day-night period of practice (lines 124-128):
evaṃ prātaḥ samāsīnaḥ kuryād viṃ śati-kumbhakān
evaṃ madhya-ahna-samaye kuryād viṃ śati-kumbhakān
evaṃ sāyaṃ prakurvīta punar viṃ śati-kumbhakān
evam eva-ardha-ratre ‘pi kuryād viṃ śati-kumbhakān
thus the yogin in the morning at the same session should perform 20 kumbhakas,
thus at midday appointed time should also perform 20 kumbhakas,
thus in the evening should be performed again 20 kumbhakas,
and so exactly at midnight yogin should perform 20 kumbhakas.
 And because this form of kumbhaka is performed with recaka “exhalation” and
pūraka “inhalation” it is called sahita “attended by breath-out and breath-in”. After
three months of practice yogin is ready to attain the advanced level of kevala
kumbhaka or “whole breath-retention” performed without breathing-in-and-out.
The Chinese Daoist Yoga sources too emphasize the utmost importance of
breath-retention. Thus says Bao Pu Zi [Pinyin] or Pao P’u Tzu [Wade] (254-234
CE):
“…one should inhale a breath through the nose, stop up the nose by holding it with two
fingers and mentally count one's heart beats. When one has counted one hundred and
twenty (120) heart beats, the breath should be exhaled through the mouth. … When an old
man has arrived at that stage, then he will be transformed into a young man.”
The Dattātreya Yoga-śāstra claims even more siddhis attainable by the practice of
kevala kumbhaka (lines 154-155):
tato ‘dhikatara-abhyāsād bhūmi-tyāgaś ca jāyate
after further practice (of breath-retention) the ground-leaving (action) is produced
padma-āsana-stha evāsau bhūmim utsr̥jya vartate
the lotus-pose-dweller (yogin) indeed the ground having left rolls (moves) on.
Though the above lines may seem to describe the act of levitation, it is NOT so,
but actually it denotes the Yogic Flight, which belongs to the realm of Yogic
mythology.
Thus accordingly the Buddhist Mahā-parinibbāṇa-sutta I 33 [D. II 89] has this:
“But the Exalted One (viz. Buddha) went on to the river. And at that time the river Ganges
was brimful and overflowing; and wishing to cross to the opposite bank, some began to seek
for boats, some for rafts of wood, whilst some made rafts of basket-work. Then the Exalted
One (viz. Buddha) as instantaneously as a strong man would stretch forth his arm, or draw it
back again when he had stretched it forth, vanished from this side of the river, and stood
on the further bank with the company of the brethren.”
Good for Gautama Buddha and his (un)awakened followers, for they need neither
boats, nor airplanes, nor flying-saucers, nor ships of any kind whether sea-ships or
space-ships. For they (at least boast that they) can fly (like Flies) freely at will.
As M.Eliade (1958) observed, “the idea that saints, yogins, and magicians can fly is to
be found everywhere in India. For rising into the air, flying like a bird, traversing immense
distances in a flash, and vanishing are among the magical powers that Buddhism and Hin-
duism confer on arhats and magicians. The miraculous lake, Anavatapta, could be reached
only by those who possessed the supernatural power of flight; Buddha and the Buddhist
saints journeved there in the twinkling of an eye, just as, in Hindu legends, the seers (r̥ṣis)
soared through the air to the divine and mysterious northern land named Śvetadvīpa. …
Buddhist texts (e.g. Visuddhimagga) speak of four magical powers of translation (gamana),
the first being ability to fly like a bird.”
 By way of further practicing breath-retention Dattātreya Yoga-śāstra (lines 161-
164) asserts that the yogin attains bhūcara-siddhi the power over all the creatures
moving on earth, especially wild animals:
vyāghro lulāyo vanyo vā gavayo gaja eva vā siṃ ho vā
tiger, buffalo, wild ox, elephant, and lion
This is another siddhi that belongs to Yogic mythology. Thus the followers of
the great yogi Gorakhnāth “have a considerable reputation as healers and magicians, they
are supposed to be able to bring rain, they exhibit snakes. The ability to tame wild beasts is
also attributed to them; they are said to live in the jungle, surrounded by tigers, who
sometimes serve them as mounts. This motif is archaic and shamanic, for the tiger is the
‘master of initiation’; in central Asia, in Indonesia, and elsewhere the tiger or other wild
animals appear and carry the neophyte inte the jungle on their backs (symbol of the
beyond).” (Eliade 1958).

And their master Gorakhnāth, is believed to have been endowed with the power to
transform himself into a fly, a frog, and even into iron. The 17th c. CE Persian traveler
Mīr Du’lfiqār Ardistānī (formerly identified to be Muh ̣sin-i-Fāni) in his Dabistān or
School of Manners recorded some very instructive points on the subject: “As the
Sanyásis are also pious men, I will join an account of them to that of the Yogís. The Sanyásis
make choice of abnegation and solitude; … They are frequently holy men, and abstain from
eating flesh, and renounce all intercourse with women. This class follow the dictates of
Datáteri, whom they also venerate as a deity, and say that he is an incarnation of Naráyan,
and in the retaining of breath attained to such a degree that he is exempted from death.
When he came into the presence of Gorakhnath, who is the chief of the Yogis, ́ Datáteri, for
the sake of trial, smote Gorakhnath on the head, who took the appearance of iron. …
Afterwards, Gorakhnath disappeared in the water; Datáteri, having found and recognised
him in the shape of a frog, brought him forth. When Datáteri concealed himself in the
water, Gorakhnath, in spite of all his searching, could not succeed in discovering him…”

Naturally, all these phenomena belong to psychic powers, just like the rope-trick,
mango-trick or banana-trick, viz. to the realm of trickery, fraud, and illusionism.
Consequently the performers of such tricks are nothing but tricksters, fraudsters,
and illusionists.
As for the power of levitation, NO such thing exists. For NO one can levitate,
since Levitation is physically IMPOSSIBLE. NO one can defeat gravitational force of
Mother Earth. Thus jumping like Frogs, and hopping like Grasshoppers has nothing
to do with real Levitation, and is NO levitation at all.
 However, there reportedly existed (though it is questionable if it exists there any
more) a slightly advanced level of the yogic FROG-ation, viz. jumping like GOATS
(the yogins making longer and higher jumps than frogs can do it). For such a feat was
eye-witnessed by Alexandra David-Néel in the 1920’s on her travels across Tibet
while being performed (though not in the lotus-pose seated cross-legged but in the
standing posture instead) by the Tibetan Buddhist bLamas (the initial “b” in bLama
meaning “teacher or guru” is left unpronounced in modern Tibetan). This “feat” had
been possible to perform due to the fact that at higher altitudes the air density
decreases considerably (Tibet is over 4500 meters above sea level) and the gravity is
there much weaker.

References

Dattātreya Yoga-śāstra (Sanskrit text) at

https://archive.org/details/DattatreyaYogaSamhita_201808/page/n15/mode/2up

David-Néel, Alexandra. 1931. With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet. John Lane The
Bodley Head Ltd., London.

Eliade, Mircea. 1958. Yoga Immortality and Freedom. Pantheon Books Inc. New
York.
Mahā-parinibbāna-sutta in: Davids, T.W.Rhys. 1899. Dialogues of the Buddha. The
Sacred Books of the Buddhists, Vol.II, Henry Frowde, London.
The Dabistan or School of Manners, transl. from Persian by D.Shea and A.Troyer,
Vol.II, Allen and Co., London, 1843.

*****

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