There is a story of the mystic Madhusudan, and his meeting with Gorakhnath, the saint of Gorakhpur, where my body was born. When I heard this story, that cured me of any wish for miraculous powers. Gorakhnath had attained all the eight powers, or aiswaryas, of a fully enlightened yogi. At the time of his departure from the body, he wanted to bestow his powers on some worthy soul. The masters can do that, even as the mantle of Elijah’s power was passed to Elisha. One day Gorakhnath saw in vision a young man, a very spiritual soul, standing by the Ganges in Banaras. Having the power to transport himself astrally from one place to another, Gorakhnath appeared before the young man, Madhusudan, who looked up and, seeing the saint, said, “Please do not stand in front of me. You are obstructing the sun.”
The saint replied, “Do you not know who I am? I am Gorakhnath.”
“I know,” the young man said, “but I am busy now with my devotions.” After some time the devotee inquired of the saint, “What is it you want of me?”
Gorakhnath explained, “I have eight powers; and the one to whom I give this chintamani [a mystical gem that grants all wishes] will have these powers. I wish to offer them to you.”
Madhusudan said, “All right, give them to me.” Whereupon, to the great astonishment of Gorakhnath, he took the mystical gem and threw it far out into the waters of the Ganges.
“Why did you do that?” Gorakhnath demanded.
Then the young man said, “Delusion still, delusion still. Those powers were given to me to do with as I wished, were they not? Well, that is the only use I have for them. Compared to That which I already have, they are nothing.”
The great Gorakhnath bowed down to him and said, “You have rid me of the last delusion that was keeping me from God.”
Even the great ones sometimes get distracted from the Goal. Gorakhnath was so enamoured with his powers that he had not gone beyond them to God. But when at last he renounced attachment to that treasured possession, he attained God-union. You see, delusion takes many forms; but the divine devotee is like the single-hearted Madhusudan in this story. “When you love God, you do not desire anything else, because God is the most lovable of anything you could possess. The devotee will accept no substitute for God. He knows that God is all in all, that He is ever present, and that He alone is a sure refuge from the travails of life.”
Excerpt From
Journey to Self-realization
Paramahansa Yogananda
This material may be protected by copyright.
