Levitation
The word ‘levitation’ is derived from Latin word ‘levitas’ meaning lightness. Levitation is the process by which an object is held aloft without mechanical support in a stable position.
Physics
Fundamentally, levitation on Earth requires an outward force that counters the massive gravitational force of the Earth.
In physics, levitation of objects has been performed using magnetic forces, electrostatic forces, gas, etc.
One of the known techniques uses materials called diamagnetic materials, which induces a magnetic field in a direction opposite to an externally applied magnetic eld. This is an aspect of quantum mechanics, whose effect occurs in all materials.
The concept of diamagnetics has also been applied to small, water- containing biological systems like mice, which have been levitated at NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras describe the mystical process of Levitation in Vibhuti Pada, Verse 39:
udāna-jayāat jala-pankha-kantakādisv-asango-’tkrāntiśca ॥39॥
Upon mastering the upward- owing energy (udana-vayu), the yogi severs attachment to the lower aspects of life (mud, water, thorns and the like), and therefore levitates. || 39 ||
As anyone who has tried it will attest, levitation is not a joke. It is the science of defying the massive gravitational force of the earth. As a first step to preparing the body and mind for initiation into higher levels of consciousness, the five major life-energies (panchaprana) are balanced through intense processes.
The first process that the participants undergo is balancing the samana energy in the body. A by-product of this process is physical levitation.
As Paramahamsa Nithyananda observes, Breathing with thought is prana; breathing without thought is samana. Samana is the prana or life-energy stored in tiny air sacs beneath each pore of the skin. If these air sacs are filled, the body can experience levitation. Only when samana happens in you, the body levitates.
If you are breathing but there is no thought, the air sacs under the air pores will get filled. Unfortunately, these air sacs cannot be filled by the gross prana that is taken in through the nose. You literally have to learn to breathe through your skin! This can be done through intensive yogic techniques, or it can happen through initiation.”
Levitation is Raising the Consciousness
(Excerpts from Paramahamsa Nithyananda’s talks on Levitation to various audiences)
The Yoga Sutras declare: anityāśuciduḥkhānātmasu nityaśucisukhātmakhyātiravidyā
Please understand: the process that makes you levitate also leads you to the deeper and deeper reality, and it cannot leave you. By nature, you are always travelling towards the deepest reality of your existence. If you mistake the source of happiness as connected to outer world happenings, then there is a possibility of pain being mistaken as pleasure. But if you catch the root of happiness, which is the higher possibility of existence, the higher form of reality, it will never leave you. I am not even bothered about levitation as such. It is just a by- product. We are working towards raising your Consciousness, and in the process, sometimes your body and mind also will also rise - that’s all.
Patanjali says clearly in his Yoga Sutras:
te samādhav-upasargā[ḥ]-vyutthāne siddhayaḥ ॥3.37॥
These powers are of secondary importance to those who have attained knowledge (samadhi), but are nonetheless feats for materially oriented individuals. || 3.37 || When I was a child, my yoga Guru Raghupati Yogi used to train me in levitation. He used to pile mattresses on the oor and make me sit on top of them. Then he would ask me to inhale and hold the breath. This is called kumbhaka.
Then, one by one, he would start removing the mattresses! I had to remain in the air even without the mattresses! I had to remain in that space for 60 seconds. And even when I land, I know I needed to land slowly, because the door beneath was a hard cement door! So I don’t want to risk making a hard landing and breaking my back. A balanced samana will help you land on the ground slowly.
Even in the people who are levitating here, there is so much joy. Joy is being pumped into the body! But try not to land in a hurried way – that is the insecurity. When you try to land, you think, maybe this bliss will go away.
As I explained, breathing with thoughts is prana; breathing without thoughts is samana. Only when samana happens in you, the body levitates. If you are breathing, but there is no thought, the air bag under the pores of your skin get filled and the body starts levitating.
Consciousness is lighter than anything in nature. It is lighter than the ether. So it always levitates, pulls you up. Matter, earth, pulls you down. Gravitation and levitation both are constantly happening in your body, in your nervous system. The friction between your gravitation and levitation is your thoughts. Thoughts are nothing but the friction between them. If the friction is felt in the muladhara chakra, it means there are a little more thoughts, and more gross thoughts; if it is felt in the swadishthana chakra, it means a little less thoughts, if it is felt in the manipuraka chakra, it means still lesser thoughts; if it is felt in the anahata chakra , you are more pure, with even lesser thoughts.
Levitation is not just a siddhi. What is there in flying? You have so many flights! It is sacred because it is a side-effect that happens when your consciousness rises. When your consciousness rises, with whatever it is connected, that object also rises.
Anima, mahima, laghima, garima are the ripple-effects created in your body when the conscious breakthrough happens. They are just by-product, not the main product. Breakthrough in consciousness means, a new conscious opening, a new conscious happening. Levitation is just a candy to excite you and the world. But the conscious happening, the conscious opening, is the main goal. Enlightenment is the main goal.
Vedic Science of Levitation
Levitation, kundalini awakening, everything happens just through this great truth of entanglement; nothing else. When this entanglement happens, I just give my inner space to you, which is lighter than the outer space.
I will explain the science of levitation.
See, there are three kinds of spaces: ghatakasha – your inner space, chidakasha – the space in which your body is sitting, and paraakasha – the cosmic space. If your inner space is heavier than your outer space, you will be grounded, very strong, xed, glued to the ground. All I do is, for a few minutes, I make your inner space lighter than the outer space by removing the mass, the dirt. For those few seconds, you are in entanglement with my inner space, which is purest consciousness. Because your inner space loses its mass, its dirt, the body just starts hopping, levitating. After a few times, your inner space starts believing, ‘Oh, God! Thoughtless space is possible for me, but because of my habit, I am habituated to live in a heavy, crowded, loaded space. I can be in thoughtless space. That is my nature. That is my original nature.’
If you are constantly initiated and exposed to the pure inner space, that will become experience in you. Once you are exposed to that, by and by your bio-memory and your muscle memory begin to enjoy that space, live in that space and it becomes Living Enlightenment. This is the way entanglement becomes your muscle-memory and bio-memory. Entanglement is initiation. Now you need to live it to make it into ‘Living Enlightenment!’
Modern scientific understanding of Levitation
It is now important to understand the above terms in connection with modern scienti c understanding.
The Ghatakasha comprises the entire human body, which in turn is made up of 50 trillion cells containing mostly water (70% of the body is water). At a molecular level, all structures of the human body are composed of atoms and subatomic particles. Up to this, the structures can be classi ed under Ghatakasha. At atomic and subatomic levels, all atoms are 99% space and 1% mass. However, the space is not empty, but contains energy in the form of strong interactions and electroweak forces.
These vast, apparently empty but energy-containing spaces, constitute the chidakasha. Infusion of Kundalini energy into the apparently empty space within the atom (chidakasha) changes the electron orbital into a higher orbital, increasing the apparent empty space of each atom. This creates a larger volume for the same mass, allowing the body to become relatively lighter than before - like the expansion of a helium- lled balloon. The more helium is lled, the lighter it gets, and it ies away.
The Chidakasha is ultimately the same as the Parakasha, and hence the only dividing line between form and formlessness is the Ghatakasha, the body boundary. Levels of Levitation
Infusion of Kundalini energy, by the Avatar, allows the following effects to occur in the disciple.
In the rst level, due to the phenomena of quantum entanglement, a state of thoughtlessness is created, which produces an intense sense of lightness. This is because thoughts especially emotions are packets of energy which tend to weigh down a person.
In the second level, as the disciple is able to hold more and more energy, an expansion of the Chidakasha takes place which lightens the body allowing intermittent levitation to happen.
In level 3, the energy of Kundalini now works on the Ghatakasha to counteract the forces of strong interaction and electroweak force, allowing the body to remain levitated in a steady state.
Water is a diamagnetic element, and is influenced by the same forces of nature like the electromagnetic force (electroweak interaction) as well as dark energy, which though relatively weak, also counteracts gravity.
Deeper Truths about Levitation - Revelations from the Avatar
Please understand: your individual consciousness (jiva) is nothing but a reflection of the Cosmic Superconsciousness (Shiva). It has no separate or individual existence from the original.
The mirror on which the Superconsciousness reflects is your body.
In your body, brain and muscles, there are different levels of re ectors or mirrors of Consciousness.
The original Superconsciousness which is in you does not feel the individual identity. Your individual identity is experienced only by re ection on these mirrors. So the quality of the reflecting mirror is going to directly affect the quality of the identity you feel as you.
The lower-level mirrors you have may be dusty or scratched or misshapen, they may be concave or convex, so the reflection of Consciousness in those mirrors will not be the highest and true to the original.
You also have more pure, stable deeper, stable layers of reflectors. If the mirror is pure and clean, naturally the quality of you that you experience will not only be deeper and higher, but it will be more true to the original.
During levitation, the deepest reflectors of your Consciousness are awakened.
In your brain, there are trillions of cells. The reflection happens in trillions of places. For example, both logic and intuition are possibilities carried by your brain. When your logic mirror re ects the Superconsciousness, you feel that your logic is your identity. Unfortunately, it is not a complete or total identity. But when your intuition mirror is mirroring the Superconsciousness, you naturally feel that your intuition is your identity, and you have tremendous joy and respect for yourself. When your intuition reflects Consciousness, that is what I call the highest coherence.
So the quality of the mirror decides the quality of the identity which you are carrying, which you are feeling. That is why, after the Energy darshan, you feel so good - because your very identity feels good. A simple exercise like unclutching makes you feel so good, because the mirror in which you are re ected is now higher. Essentially, one part of your being is centered on the Source from which you are re ecting, while the other parts are turned outwards towards the world. The 72,000 nadis or channels of subtle energy can be considered as rays owing from the reflection which is you.
Of the 72,000, if fewer nadis are flowing outward, you can change your body at any time, easily. The re ection can change the mirror! It can simply say, ‘Enough! This mirror is too tired, too old; let us go to the next mirror.’ Because the reflection does not identify much with that particular mirror, it can just go to the next mirror; that’s all.
A powerful way to measure how many of your nadis are centered on the Source, is through weight-lifting. When levitation happens, if you are able to lift twice your weight, that is called two bala; it means that both the ida and the pingala nadis are active, alive. If you are able to lift thrice your weight, then it means that all three nadis (including sushumna) are alive. That means at least 10,000 of your nadis among the 72,000 are turned towards the Source from where you are reflecting; they are centered on Superconsciousness.
Levitation does not mean you have reached the end. It means that your highest-level mirrors are now re ecting the Superconsciousness. But your muscle-memory needs to alter itself and prepare itself for that radiation. Your body and mind also need to go through the necessary changes to retain the same highest coherence. For the highest consciousness to become muscle- memory, you need to constantly think and align and move your body in a particular way. That is why I tell you, along with the intense dosage of levitation every morning, make sure you are working intensely the whole day, using your mind to iron out your stress with understanding. Then you will see that the energy that gets awakened during levitation will simply be digested and will become part of you!
Paramahamsa Nithyananda’s Experience of Levitation with Yogananda Puri
Yogananda Puri was one of Paramahamsa Nithyananda’s biggest spiritual influences as a child. He was trained in the Natha sampradaya in Burma for many years until he migrated back to Thiruvannamalai where he was born and brought up. Yogananda Puri gave Paramahamsa Nithyananda initiation after initiation into new powers. He used to make the young incarnation do Surya Namaskar from sunrise to sunset without a break. Because of this, Paramahamsa Nithyananda laughingly describes his relationship with Yogananda Puri as a love-hate relationship.
“For few days, I would refuse to see him. Then suddenly, I would feel love for him and just go and sit on his lap” he said.
No matter what, Paramahamsa Nithyananda always recognizes how much Yogananda Puri gave him. That is why he was given the title by Paramahamsa Nithyananda, “The Yogi that made me a Yogi”
Paramahamsa Nithyananda once told Yogananda Puri, as a thirteen year old, “When you attain samadhi, I’ll build a big temple for you!”
“No, no, no” he refused in response. “I will see to it you aren’t there when I leave the body. I don’t want anything from you. If anything, just promise me you will go on making yogis like I made you”
Paramahamsa Nithyananda promised. Today, he declared that he was keeping his word through his Gurukal students. As the rst to receive and express these shaktis, they are the fulfillment of his promise to Yogananda Puri.
He has said, “They are the embodiment of Yogananada Puri”
This technique took the most time to perfect in Paramahamsa Nithyananda’s body when he was a child. He didn’t stand for any less than the authentic levitation where the body lifts at least 2 feet off the ground, remains there for sometime and then gracefully drifts down. This was the standard to which he had to keep himself so that he could initiate people fteen years later, in a hall lled with devotees. And if not himself, he had Yogananda Puri to always keep that standard up for him.
One time, Yogananda Puri had drawn a mandala on the ground and told Paramahamsa Nithyananda to sit immediately. He began sounding out the Shodasi syllables to awaken the kundalini. Immediately, like disciples often do, eight year old Paramahamsa Nithyananda began moving around uidly, jumping in the air messily, rotating his torso in circles and so forth.
Suddenly, Yogananda Puri just snapped and told him to stop. Without wavering his voice, he told the future Guru, “Ay, you can’t move your body like this. In the future, millions will be jumping around you. You have to stay strong,”
Without a second thought, Paramahamsa Nithyananda sat completely] straight, as if something was pulling his spine up. Just as he sits during Shivoham processes and every disciple tumbles and turns around him in the Shivabodha of Oneness. Paramahamsa Nithyananda recounts what his experience and training with levitation was like. He shares how it took him six years of training with his yoga Guru to levitate, and the subtle processes he went through for perfecting the science of levitation.
Six Years to Levitate
For Yogananda Puri it took six years for him to make me levitate. He would make me inhale and hold. Inhale and holding is called Kumbhaka. Then he would remove the beds. I had to remain in that space for sixty seconds, and the oor beneath was hard cement oor. Then my landing would be slow because I know, if not, my back would break. Your balanced samana will make you land on the ground slowly.
He was sitting on a wooden plank. I was sitting on some four, ve pillows because he was trying to make me levitate. That’s the way he would do it. He would put some four, ve pillows and a bed. I had to sit on that and continuously do the pranayam. Once I had intensely done the pranayam and stabilized, he would remove the pillows one by one. I had to remain in the air. That is the way he taught levitation.
If I was going down when he removed the pillow, he would stop and ask me to do more pranayama and kumbhaka. Then after he removed all the pillows, if I was stable in the air, he would get his pet dog to sit under me. That fellow will be sitting under me so I would have to be holding on to that air. I cannot release. I will have to completely lock the kumbhaka because if I released I would fall on the ground and I will fall on that fellow and that fellow would bite me.
So I will have to be just holding on or even if I land, I have to land in a very slow way. Very slowly in a very subtle way I had to release the air not even through the nose. I had to release the air through the kurma nadi. This means such sensitive prana; through the middle ngers I had to release the air, only then I could land very smoothly. If you release the air through the nostril itself you will just fall because nostril is too big a hole. So that has to be locked. The releasing has to happen through the kurma nadi. I had to balance and land on the dog so that he wouldn’t bite me.
Power of Psychological, Physiological & Physical Levitation
When breathing and thinking happen together, the process is called ‘Prana.’ When the person is breathing but not thinking, for example, during midnight deep sleep – when there are no dreams - that process is called ‘Samana.’ This makes the whole psychology so light that the person feels like it is owing. It is oating on the air. When psychological levitation happens, automatically physiological levitation starts happening. levitation rises and keeps it in the air for quite a few minutes. The body starts jumping, moving up and down on the ground. Then the physical
Understand, this is in three steps - psychological levitation; feeling so much of lightness. You will feel as though your whole being is floating. Second, physiological levitation: means your intra-organs will become light and will start jumping. Equivalent to your weight the Samana will get filled in you, so it will jump and in a few seconds will fall back. It will jump and fall back. That is physiological levitation.
Then comes physical levitation, means more than your physical weight the Samana energy will stay in you. So for that many seconds or minutes you will be in the air. You will literally have the Shiva Bodha, the joy of patternless-ness, the joy of auspiciousness.”
Levitation is the most visible indication that the grip of karmas is reducing; the willingness to let go of pain, fear and guilt has started to happen.
For the spiritual seeker, levitation can be experienced at a beginner’s level with the grace and initiation of Paramahamsa Nithyananda. When the Kundalini energy is activated, innumerable practical benefits will manifest in various dimensions of life; health, wealth, relationships, education, career and more are experienced. Levitation of the participant's body is often a tangible, side effect of the spiritual awakening.
Levitation is a result of balancing of the Samana. Samana is a process that is responsible for moving the air all over the body from the tips of ten ngers and toes to the Sahasrara (Crown) Chakra. The prana or life-force energy is stored in tiny air sacs beneath each hair of the skin. The air sacs get the life energy from the Cosmos. If these air sacs are lled and balanced throughout the body, levitation can be experienced.
Awakening Levitation
Burning all pain patterns by doing Samskara Dahana Kriya is important before this initiation. Psychological levitation and physiological levitation are two powers related to the Sahasrara chakra. When the air energy is equal to the body weight of the participant, the lifting of the body happens.
“When you breathe with thinking; means with the breathing, thinking is also happening. at is called prana. In the night deep sleep, your breathing will happen but thinking is not happening. at is called Samana. Now even when you are awake, I am going to infuse Samana in you.”
References
http://books.nithyanandatimes.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/12/ManifestingShaktisBook_WebRes_20Dec16_Preview.pdf http://articles.nithyananda.org/2012/09/levitation/ https://innerawakening.org/welcome-brochure-feb-2017-2/. http://articles.nithyananda.org/2012/09/levitation/ http://books.nithyanandatimes.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/07/AvatarShastra-Full_book_web-july21.pdf