Yogi Pullavar – Self Levitation
Yogi Pullavar’s attendants erected a small tent in an open area. Yogi Pullavar began by ritualistically pouring water in a circle around the tent. Shoes were prohibited within the area marked by the circle. Yogi Pullavar then entered the tent where he remained hidden from view for a few minutes. The attendants then removed the tent. Yogi Pullavar was seen suspended horizontally several feet above the ground. He was in a trance, lightly resting his hand on top of a cloth covered stick. He did not exert pressure on the stick. He apparently used the stick as a point of reference rather than for support. Many photographs were taken from various angles of this exhibition. Witnesses were permitted to thoroughly examine the levitation. They thoroughly searched for strings, props and any means of possible support above, below and around the levitating Pullavar. Nothing was found.
After four minutes the attendants erected the tent around Yogi Pullavar to shield him as he made his descent. P.Y. Plunkett positioned himself so that the sunlight enabled him to discern Pullavar through the thin cloth tent walls. Plunkett said that he noticed Yogi Pullavar gently swaying for a short time while still in mid-air. Then, he slowly sank in a horizontal position to the ground. The process took around five minutes to complete.
When the tent was again removed, Yogi Pullavar was laying on the ground, still in a deep trance. Volunteers were asked to try to bend Pullavar’s limbs. His arms and legs could not be bent from their position. Attendants had to splash water on Yogi Pullavar and rub him down for five minutes before he came out of his trance and was again able to use his limbs.
Swami Lakshmanjoo – Master over Nature
Lakshmanjoo is a highly developed spiritual master who devoted his life to the study and mastery of the relatively unknown system of philosophy called Kashmir Shaivism. By the age of nineteen he had his first clear glimpse of God Consciousness. It was that touch of the Divine that impelled him to take a vow of lifelong celibacy and dedication to the realization of the highest truth. At an early age, as a result of his intense spiritual practice, Lakshmanjoo had achieved the eight great siddhi powers, mentioned in the ancient literature of Indian philosophy.
Devraha Baba – 250+years old
An Indian saint named Devraha Baba, who passed away in 1989, was a yogi who lived just such a lifestyle. Devraha Baba was from the spiritual heritage of the Avatar Ramanandacharya, and lived beside the Yamuna river in Mathura. He lived on a 12-foot-high wooden platform where he usually remained stark naked. He never ate food. He only drank water from the Yamuna river. He claimed he could be in two places simultaneously (a siddhi described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras). He was observed to have stayed underwater unaided for half an hour. He always radiated love. He was a Premaswarupa, an incarnation of love. He gave darshan (spiritual blessing) to devotees who came to pay homage. Many came to visit this great illustrious saint. People came from all over India and from all walks of life. He was a favorite among India’s senior politicians, and was visited by Mrs. Indira and Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. Ministers, saints, yogis, priests, rich and poor all came for Baba’s darshan.
It was rumored that Devraha Baba claimed that he had lived for over 700 years. Until I can substantiate this rumor I need to consider it just a rumor. Nevertheless, I make mention of this rumor because Devraha Baba’s family tree records place his age to be at least 250 years when he took mahasamadhi (relinquished his body) in 1989. If he was able to live to be 250, then it is possible that he lived for 700 years as well. Baba was called, “The Ageless Yogi.” Devraha Baba gained mastery over the khecheri state of yoga whereby he was able to control his hunger and the time of his death. Dr. Rajendra Prashad, who was the first president of India, verified Devraha Baba’s old age. He said that he personally attests to Devraha Baba being at least 150 years old. He said that when he was 73 years old, his father took him to see Baba, who was a very old man, and that his father already had known Baba for many years before that. An Allahabad High Court Barrister had stated that seven generations of his family had sat at the feet of Devraha Baba. Incidentally, Devraha Baba had predicted the time of his death five years in advance.
Prahlad Jani – No Food 65 Years
“I feel no need for food and water,” states Prahlad Jani, a seventy-six year old Indian ascetic who lives in a cave near the Ambaji temple in the state of Gujarat. Mr. Jani claims that he has not had food or fluids to drink for the last sixty-five years. At the age of seven years he left home in search of spiritual unfoldment. Jani states that at the age of eleven years he was blessed by a goddess. He claims that since that blessing he has gained his sustenance from nectar that filters down through a hole in his palate, and has not passed urine or stools since then. Mr. Jani explained, “I get the elixir of life from the hole in my palate, which enables me to go without food and water.” Almost daily Mr. Jani enters a state of Samadhi characterized by extreme bliss and enormous light and strength. He says that he has never experienced medical problems. He says that he did not speak for a period of forty-five years.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba – Man of Miracles
No book about amazing supernatural abilities would be complete without including a treatise about Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Man of Miracles. Sai Baba is considered to be Divinity in human form, an incarnation of God, an Avatar. Tens of millions of people from 160 countries have experienced his Divinity. He has performed many supernatural miracles. His supernatural powers defy description. He has raised people from the dead. He resurrected Walter Cowan, who died from a heart attack and was pronounced dead by doctors. As a result of the resurrection Walter’s diabetic condition and diseased kidneys were also cured. A detailed account of this amazing miracle as told by both Sai Baba and Mr. Cowan is reported in Dr. John S. Hislop’s Book, My Baba and I. Sai Baba also resurrected Mr. V. Radhakrishna, who was dead for several days. Rigor mortis had set in. The body had turned blue and had begun to smell in the normal course of decomposition.
Sai Baba has healed many people; the lame, blind and those suffering from a variety of diseases, both minor and terminal. Also, he always knows peoples’ minds and thoughts.
However, Sai Baba is best known for his routine materializations of vibhuti and any objects desired by him. Such supernatural materializations are produced out of the elements by Sai Baba’s will as evidence, not as exhibition of powers, in order to help bring people to faith, devotion, and inquiry and realization of their own reality. Hundreds of thousands of people have witnessed Sai Baba make a gentle wave of his hand and produce vibhuti (a white ash) for them to place on their tongue and forehead. The supernatural curative power of the vibhuti is well-known to devotees.
Tat Wale Baba – Youthful at Age 85
Tat Wale Baba was born of spiritual parents who were middle-class farmers in Punjab, India. Tat Wale Baba received little formal education, spending most of his early childhood assisting his parents with farm work. At about the age of eight or nine years Tat Wale Baba’s innate spiritual nature led him to begin meditating. This he did ardently whenever time permitted between chores. As he grew into his teenage years Tat Wale Baba took on a mesomorphic stature. Because of his physical prowess his friends encouraged him to join the Army, which he did. He did not like military life. Therefore, after just two months of military service he left and sought the reclusive, sadhu life-style for himself. His search for a guru to guide him was fulfilled when he met Sri Jagannath Dasji at Ayodhya. This guru named him Sri Mahavir Dash Ji. However, later, when Tat Wale Baba started wearing jute people called him Tat Wale, meaning “one who wears jute.” The sobriquet stuck.
Tat Wale Baba lived at the ashram with his guru for about three months during which time he was initiated into Raja Yoga. He then left in search of a reclusive retreat for himself. He was intutively led to Manikut mountain where he came upon an old, emaciated man with very long gata (hair) living in a secluded cave. Tat Wale Baba approached the man and was invited to sit and talk. At the conclusion of their talk the old man left saying that his time was finished, and that he was going to the Himalayas to take mahasamadhi. He left the cave for Tat Wale Baba to occupy.
The cave was conveniently located near a fresh water spring. Tat Wale Baba lived off kandamulo leaves and roots, and fruits he found in the ambient forest. He preferred spending time in long meditations instead of doing asanas. His schedule of meditating was from 2:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. From 10:00 a.m. until noon he would eat and rest. Then, from noon until 4:00 p.m. he would again meditate. He would exercise for about two hours, until 6:00 p.m. For exercise he usually took long walks of about ten kilometers, collected firewood, and worked hard at expanding the dimensions of his cave.
People coming into the forest to gather leaves and sticks for sale in Rishikesh occasionally spotted Tat Wale Baba emerging from his retreat. Word soon spread that a yogi was taking long periods of silence in a cave. As a result, pilgrims began to come by the hundreds to try to visit Tat Wale Baba. Because of the demand for his time he altered his schedule to include some visitor time.
Tat Wale Baba had a cobra for a pet. He regularly fed it milk from a cup. The cobra liked to stay in the cave where Tat Wale Baba meditated. Tat Wale Baba is said to have contacted the King of the Cobras and asked that no cobra harm any of the people passing through the nearby jungle foothills. It is said that there have been no accounts of people being bitten by cobras in the area since then.
Tat Wale Baba was credited with performing miracles. There were three couples that could not bear children. Each couple came to see Tat Wale Baba, and from his blessings each had a child born to them. He also gave pilgrims darshan, performed healings, and gave spiritual guidance. Further, Tat Wale Baba predicted his own death. He said that he would be shot to death. He said that a rogue, who was very jealous of him, and living nearby in the forest, would sneak up and shoot him in the back. He told this to his closest disciple on June 22, 1971, several years before he took his mahasamadhi. Also, just two days before he was shot, Tat Wale Baba reminded his disciple of this prediction.
On December 2, 1974, as he went to take his bath at 4:00 a.m., Sri Tat Wale Baba was murdered by a crazy gunman. He was killed by a man operating a small ashram near Tat Wale Baba’s cave.
No known records exist of Tat Wale Baba’s age. However, a man who was a classmate of Tat Wale Baba’s in elementary school, and who had seen Tat Wale Baba later in life, commented that Tat Wale Baba had stopped aging when he was about thirty-five years old. By assuming that Tat Wale Baba was of equal age as this classmate, Tat Wale Baba’s year of birth was about 1890. That would place Tat Wale Baba’s age at about eighty-five years when he was killed. Had he not been killed perhaps he would have lived to his rumored age of 120.
What gave Tat Wale Baba his youthfulness and stopped his aging at mid-life?
Perhaps research done on long-term meditators provides a hint. According to a study published in theInternational Journal of Neuroscience 16 (1): 5358, 1982, the longer people had been meditating the lower their biological age became as compared with their chronological age (as measured by blood pressure, and visual and auditory performance). As a group, long-term meditators who had been practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique for more than 5 years were physiologically 12 years younger than their chronological age. Short-term Transcendental Meditators were physiologically 5 years younger than their chronological age. The study controlled for the effects of diet and exercise.
Another study, which researched elderly meditators, was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57(6): 950-964, (1989). It reported that people in their eighties showed a marked improvement rather than deterioration in their mental and physical health and well-being over a three year period of practicing Transcendental Meditation. Benefits for the meditating elderly included: reversal of aging; increased longevity; increased cognitive flexibility (including increased learning ability and greater perceptual flexibility); increased word fluency; improvements in self-reported measures of behavioral flexibility and aging; greater sense of well-being; improved mental health; and reduction of blood pressure to more ideal levels.
Since Tat Wale Baba was an advanced meditator who spent most of his time in extended deep meditation, this may explain how he retained his youthfulness.
RaT tAiLeD BoY 