Are possessions by the goddess genuine?

From: Anita Iyer

I have come across people who when they chant some devata mantras, experience what they call “devi coming into their bodies” and often some questions are answered and ailments cured. I know genuine people who go through this and think it is a spiritual experience. How do we understand this phenomenon?

Future sessions thank you question from Anita Iyer Mataji I have come across people who when they chant some devta mantras experience what they call Devi coming into their bodies and often some questions are answered and ailments cured I know genuine genuine people who go through this and think it is a spiritual experience how do we understand this phenomena answer yes it can be a genuine experience but it is not necessarily a spiritual experience the phenomena of possessions has been reasonably well documented even by secular scientists since the start of the 20th century a little before that there was the British there was a British psychical society when the word psychical often has negative connotations nowadays when we see the word psychic you mean crazy but this was a very serious society of eminent scientists who studied phenomena that couldn’t be explained by mainstream science and one of those phenomena was possessions so of course they use the word possessions in a slightly different sense in the sense of somebody who has passed away and then that person seems to enter the body of some other person so in the sense it’s like possession by ghosts so Dr. Michael Kramer with the Karma program in his book human devolution used quite a systematic analysis of well-documented cases of possession basically the departed soul sometimes communicate in three ways there is what we call as planchette through which there is communication when nobody is seen but some voices are heard and some messages are given so that’s an elaborate phenomenon I won’t go into then second is apparition apparition means some image of a form is seen and the form resembles the person who has died and that image or form it seems to just walk through walls and go through closed doors and suddenly appear and disappear and there are people who are mentally sound and intellectually respectable who have observed such thing and third is possessions when a person suddenly starts behaving in an entirely different way and not only behaves in a way different from that person’s normal behavior but also starts claiming to be somebody else so not only does the behavior and identity of the person change but even the voice the overall personality the nature everything changes and this may stay for a short or long time depending on how long the person gets possessed so all this is the background for the third question that you have asked of possession by the goddess so basically these examples illustrate that there is much more to the world than what we are taught by the tunnel view of materialistic science materialistic science has its own successes but there is a much bigger world beyond that which is not known now unfortunately because that world is not known very clearly so everything outside that world is considered spiritual but the vedic culture is quite vedic philosophy and vedic culture are quite clear that what science calls as materialism or materialistic is actually only one aspect of materialism that is gross materialistic aspect and beyond that there is subtle materialistic aspect and beyond that is the spiritual aspect so the vedic scriptures tell us that there are a wide variety of personalities who are in charge of various aspects of the universe and when they are in charge of various aspects of the universe various departments like the cabinet ministers of a government so they can also because of their controlling power interact in extraordinary ways and occasions so that means that those people who worship the goddess may in certain exceptional circumstances become possessed by the goddess that means the goddess enters into those people and those people suddenly started dancing in abnormal ways and start speaking and behaving in very high energy and strange ways and those who have experienced it are persuaded that this is not just a show this is not just a hoax there is something very peculiar unexplainable happening over here so in an academic book published from the university of california press edited by the respected scholar Vasudha Narayan called the life of hinduism there a western scholar a lady scholar she comes to india to study hinduism and this kathleen angel she has written an essay in this book called possession by turga the mother who possesses and she gives her own eyewitness accounts of how actually people who were normal suddenly became extraordinary and she herself concludes that there is something extraordinary happening and she says it’s likely the goddess is possessed in academic language one cannot give a conclusive understanding that’s the most reasonable hypothesis so now here there always has to be the caution that not everybody who starts dancing in a paranormal way or starts speaking in a unusual way is possessed so some people may be possessed so from the intellectual framework that we get from the various scriptures the phenomena of possession is possible and is explainable but that doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody who claims to be possessed is actually possessed some people may be possessed by their own egos and by the desire to become a center of attention when they are living in a culture where anybody who gets possessed becomes a center of attention and even a center of reverence sometimes so in those cases when this is not the case when the person is actually possessed then it is possible that the goddess may speak through such people and certain medicines may be given certain diseases may be cured so these things are possible although it’s not necessary that really a blanket endorsement for all such phenomena as being authentic but the authenticity of such phenomena is accountable for within the vedic paradigm but more importantly as i said these are not spiritual phenomena because the goddess herself especially when she is interacting with people who are who may be devoted in the sense of being religious but most of the worshippers of the goddess they are called some variety of shaktas are generally materialistic and the goddess turga and her various forms are in charge of giving material benefits to people so because it is interaction of a goddess in charge of an aspect of the material world with people who are materially motivated and there is very little spiritual advancement in terms of realization of one spiritual identity or development of pure love of god this is not because of the absence of all these factors it is not a spiritual phenomena it is a phenomena that may happen but it is not a spiritual phenomena and in general shila prabhupada kindly excuse that so in general shila prabhupada did not emphasize these sort of paranormal events too much for the simple reason that they can easily be hoaxed and they can easily be a cause of misdirection of believing or gullible people ultimately a real spiritual advancement is about transforming our desires about choosing to love god instead of loving material things and that happens primarily by reforming our desires it’s the act of exerting our will and such paranormal displays when they happen they just fascinate and delude the mind and sometimes even the intellect but whether they actually lead to a lasting transformative effect among people who witness them is debatable ultimately the transformative effect in our lives comes primarily by cultivating and practicing the process of bhakti yoga of chanting Hare Krishna and cultivating remembrance of Krishna and when we do this then we go beyond the material realm and we develop our spiritual love for Krishna and that uses the lasting attainment of returning back to the spiritual world to be eternally with Krishna so therefore to summarize the answer yes positions do occur positions can occur by from departed souls who have not yet got their next bodies as has been documented by some respected researchers and positions can certainly occur from the higher devtas and devis so these are not spiritual they are basically acting on the subtle material platform through which the gods and goddesses interact with and regulate the human world that we live in and these phenomena are largely materialistic because the consciousness of the worshippers is primarily materialistic and the goddesses who are interacting are also materialist are also in charge of these material requirements so we neither endorse all such phenomena as authentic nor reject all such phenomena as hoaxes we recognize their possibility and validity but we focus on the practice of devotional service which transforms our hearts and helps us to gain the ultimate spiritual achievement that is love for Krishna which takes us to eternal spiritual existence with him thank you