post pics or stories of people who have attained perfection in yoga

Lingasana Naga Baba
Caption: Pagalananda demonstrates the Naga practice of tapasya in his den near the cremation grounds of Pashupatinath. This practice is based on the complete transcendence of sexual impulses, and involves a preliminary period of self-imposed celibacy for nine years. After this, the yogi is truly initiated during a ritual in which certain nerves of the penis are broken, thus enabling him to "lift" rocks weighing over one hundred pounds.

 

I've heard a story about a guy in India who could lift bricks with just a normal erection, like a rope attached to a lever, no injuries or self-mutilation involved...possibly an ISKCON urban legend, or maybe a real yogi with mystic siddhis.

 

Think I'll forgo that particular type of 'perfection'. It reminds me a bit of a character in 'Naked Lunch' by William Burroughs - a 'bull dyke' ie masculine type lesbian who had a vaginal grip capable of crushing a one inch steel tube.

Burroughs was just joking - this freak is for real.
Insane.

 

This is kind of like what buddha said once...
One day buddha was talking to a monk, and he asked the monk if there was any progress spiritually on the monk's part.
The monk very enthusiastically announced "Yes, I can finally walk on this body of water [points to a lake]"
Buddha then said, "Oh why did you waste your time on that when you can cross the same body of water with a boat?"

You say this guy attained perfection in yoga, but all I say that he is now able to lift rocks, which he could also do before.

One gains perfection in yoga when he controls his senses and he acts to improve society, to improve himself [Not make his body do unnatural things] , the acts of sacrifice on his part enable him to reach enlightenment.

Lifting bricks with penises will not equal to the "perfection" in yoga, this ofcourse is my opinion.
There is no evidence he has gained knowledge of the self or God, therefore, he cannot be thought as a perfect yogi.

 

I agree Jedi.

And really, what is the use of it?
Just a kind of warped egoism if you ask me.

This 'penis breaking' phenomenon is simply a sick form of self-harming.

 

Srila Prabhupada preached very strongly against "yogic" self-mutilation and this type of exhibitionism...he had seventy years of observation time before coming to the USA.

Jedi...you're right...swami...a title commonly given to enlightened or spiritually-elevated persons...means "one who has mastered the senses".

Bill, youre right as well...it's sick, and SP would concur.

I read "Naked Lunch" as kind of a forbidden thrill when I was 10 or so...don't remember that part!

 

Spook - I know SP was very much against this sort of thing - as are most of the more enlightened Indian gurus and sages.

I actually saw a tv documentary about a group of so called sadhus of this type, and many of them are entirely ignorant of the basics even of the Shastras.

 

I'd like to see that documentary...was it on cable, just BBC, or both?

 

I'm afraid it was a few years back - around 2000, and was actually about the Maha Kumba Mela. It was on BBC at the time.

 

Mmm...this thread reminds me of Autobiography of A Yogi...when Yoganandaji was younger and he met all those men who could do interesting things (like make you permanent perfume...) but how none of them were truly enlightened...they just learned enough to be able to play around with the matter...

 

Is he required to give you proof of this in order to be certified as a perfect yogi? How do you know that he is not a great enlightened master having a laugh? Never underestimate anyone, especially not based on a photograph.
Having never heard what he has to say or teach, to simply dismiss a person of such tremendous discipline (which, however misdirected it may seem, is in itself something to be admired) or indeed anyone at all, is folly in my opinion. Buddhas hide in the strangest forms.

And what evidence is possible of transcendental knowledge anyway?

 

As opposed to what we are doing here in passing judgement.

How do you know it is self harming? How do you know his health and physical conditioning didn't greatly improve (which evidence would indicate)? Just because it is not for you or me, we have no right to pass judgement on others.
I am not supporting these practices, but at least I am not dismissive and judgemental despite not really knowing the fullness of what is going on here.

To someone who doesn't know, a surgery would seem like the most brutal kind of stabbing and mutilation.

 

repost.

 

More enlightened? Is there a more and less enlightened? Is someone partly elightened living semi-blissfully, revelling in his one-and-a-halfness with the universe? And how, pray tell, do you know if someone is enlightened?

Of course, since everything we see on TV is gospel truth, it can be extended that not only the few in the documentary, but all such sadhus are total ignoramuses.

Even Amritanandamayi amma, one of the "most enlightened" and deeply loved saints of our time. has never read a line of scripture. She speaks from spontaneous experience rather than learning of shastras. How ignorant!

 

Yes. I'm being judgemental here. I think we have to judge things, or very soon, we'd be totally lost.

As far as I am concerned, self-mutilation is what this is, and no-one with any basic intelligence even would practice such actions, let alone so called realized people. It is a from of neurotic illness. And it also reprersents the final fruits of an anti-life, anti-sex philosophy which I reject utterly.

To compare this sort of thing with surgery is simply not valid. Surgery is to cure illness - having a functional penis is not an illness.
Sex is NOT A SIN. There is little to convince me that those who supress their sexual desire are more likely to be enlightened than anyone else. In cases like this, I suspect mental imbalance even.
As a way of overcoming desire, this is equivalent to thinking that if everyone had their hands chopped off there would be no more theft.

Imagine if you mutilated someone else's body in this or a similar way - it would be a serious criminal matter. Do you think we have the right to torment our own bodies? Are the bodies 'ours' even?

 

I think there are indeed levels of so-called enlightenment.

.

I don't think you can comment on the film I mentioned unless you'd seen it. It featured other holy men too of a different type than thses primitive morons, many of whom become sadhus simply in order to be able to beg legitimately, and smoke ganja (which is often mixed with Datura, an extremely dangerous deliriant herb).
Generally, I think BBC documentaries are relatively well balanced and accurate. This film was sympathetic to Hinduism, and I just don't think they'd falsified it.

 

He is required to give me proof that he is a perfected yogi if he is to be included in to the context of perfected yogis because that is what this thread is about... hopefully.
Bhaskar, there are characteristics of a yogi that are given by Sri Krishna in Bhagavad Gita.
I said there is no evidence that he is a great enlightened master. Just because some one can lift 100 pounds with their penises does not mean they have all the qualities of a perfected yogi. I did not say he is not a perfected yogi.
I do dismiss it because it does not matter if he can lift bricks with his penis, he will still have to die just as I have to die at the end and he will be born into another womb, just like I will be born in another womb.

kurute gaN^gaasaagaragamanaM
vrataparipaalanamathavaa daanam.h .
GYaanavihinaH sarvamatena
muktiM na bhajati janmashatena

One may go to gangasagar, observe fasts, and give away riches in charity ! Yet, devoid of jnana, nothing can give mukthi even at the end of a hundred births.

punarapi jananaM punarapi maraNaM
punarapi jananii jaThare shayanam.h .
iha saMsaare bahudustaare
kRipayaa.apaare paahi muraare


Born again, death again, birth again to stay in the mother's womb ! It is indeed hard to cross this boundless ocean of samsara. Oh Murari ! Redeem me through Thy mercy.

I am not saying that he is ignorant, but with out evidence of his jnana, I cannot think he is enlightened. This does not however mean that I do not respect his capabilities, and besides if he is self realized, he does not need my approval .

 

And presumably, if he was enlightened he wouldn't need to engage in stuff like genital mutilation - or if he became enlightened after the deed was done, he'd now renounce it and admit it was a mistake.

No - this sort of thing is just egoism that's got twisted up into something very nasty. It couldn't apply to the whole human race, or we'd cease to exist within a generation.
People like this are more to be pitied than emulated or admired.

 

"Those who undergo severe austerities and penances not recommended in the scriptures, performing them out of pride, egoism, lust and attachment, who are impelled by passion and who torture their bodily organs as well as the Supersoul dwelling within are to be known as demons. "
Bhagavad Gita Ch.17.

 

Bill...that's the relevant BG quote I was trying to remember.

Bhaskar...I appreciate your devil's-advocate position. However, this idea of actually having destructive surgery so one can lift bricks with one's penis is very extreme, no matter how you look at it.

There are passages in the Bible that have been misinterpreted in favor of self-mutilation of a sexual nature...numerous early Christian ascetics castrated themselves, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear about it happening on occasion today.

If the ISKCON urban-legend story I mentioned in an earlier post is true, and a person exists who can actually lift a pallet of bricks with a natural erection, unaided by nerve-destroying surgery and a hand holding the end, then I would say that person had attained some true mystic siddhis...but it still wouldn't mean he was self-realized or a saint.