[Advaita-l] The "adharma" of a Jnani...The inscrutable Miracles of Krishna

[S Jayanarayanan via Advaita-l]

There are two extremist positions:

1) Any action that goes against the dharma of ordinary people is adharma.

2) Any action of a so-called "master" who has gained followers among ordinary people must be dharma.

For reasons already stated in the original post, both the positions are WRONG.

The key phrase where they both stumble is "ordinary people".

A dharma shaastra only gives rules and regulations to govern ordinary people. It does not lay down the rules for Masters of Yoga, since they are extraordinary people who CANNOT be governed by dharma shaastras.

How can one know a true Master of Yoga?

I don't know. (When I become a Master of Yoga, I surely will let everyone know ;-) )

But I have my personal opinions. The scriptures speak of those who are aligned to the path of dharma in virtually every way - speaking the truth, abiding by the rules of the society, respecting the elders, etc. But when these people encounter challenging situations or circumstances, they exhibit their Mastery over Yoga so that those around them are left awe-struck.

These are known in English as "Miracles" - that are perfomed by Saints. The closest Sanskrit equivalent is Yoga Siddhi.

If one is to prove his or her mastery of Yoga, then one should show the ability to perform what I would call a "Über-Miracle" - something that cannot possibly be explained by any natural agency that is commonly known.

Examples of Über-Miracles include:

1) Reviving a dead person who is declared dead by all experts in medicine (Krishna and Sankara).

2) Drinking up the oceans (Agastya).

3) Lifting a mountain with one's bare hands (Krishna).

4) Raining gold from the sky (Sankara).