Why does the list of eight siddhis not include garima?

From Anuj Agarwal:

In NOD 1 Srila Prabhupada mention the names and description of mytic siddhis. He mentions Anima and becoming so light as one can fly (part of laghima) as achieved by scientist. Then he mentions 6 other siddhis that are not attained Laghima, prapti, isita, vasita, prakamya and kamyavasiyata. He doesn’t mention mahima – becoming bigger than the universe which he does mentions in some other places in other books. Now if we search on internet (wikipedia and some other spiritual teachers) we find one more siddhi mentioned Garima – becoming heavier than the heaviest. Also kamyavasiyata is not mentioned in their list. So which is the correct list?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you question from Anuj Agarwal Prabhu Prabhupada in the Ennori Parport mentions the names and description of mystic siddhis he mentions anima and becoming so light as one can fly as achieved by scientists then he mentions six other siddhis that are not attained he doesn’t mention mahima becoming bigger than the universe which he does mention in some other place in his books now if you search on internet wikipedia and some other spiritual teachers we find one more siddhi mentioned garima becoming heavier than the heaviest also kama vashita is not mentioned in their list so which is the correct list answer Prabhupada basically quotes from the Bhagavatam the list of eight siddhis mentioned in the Bhagavatam in 11.15.45 by Krishna 11.15.45 by Krishna to Uddhava in the Uddhava Gita so here in this particular list also the garima siddhi is not mentioned so the same eight siddhis now Prabhupada when he mentions it in other places he is not necessarily giving a technical listing so that’s why sometimes six may be mentioned seven may be mentioned the technical listing comes in the Bhagavatam now here also we have to understand one important thing that as far as the siddhi of becoming heavier than the heaviest is concerned we see that Krishna exhibited that when he was being carried away by Trunavarta he went for a free ride and when he wanted to end the ride he just increased his weight and now Balramji when he was when he was being carried by a demon at that time that demon suddenly increased his size so that’s a different kind of siddhi so if you look at the basic point which is being mentioned over here the Bhagavatam does describe different kind of siddhis and in the Uddhava Gita itself Krishna mentions that when he is talking about analysis of material nature so he says that some sages classify the elements into 24 others classify them as 15 others classify them as 16 so he says that actually this is different modes of classification and in this by this kind of analysis the sages by showing their creativity please me so the idea is that yes there is a broad understanding of material nature as something which has to be transcended but the analysis, the analytical framework by which one works and then afterwards by one transcends that may vary so that’s why now we focus, Jiva Goswami has explained how Bhagavatam is the Sarva Pramana Chakra Vartibhuta, is the emperor among all Pramanas and that’s why we focus on the Bhagavatam and we focus on the list which is given in the Bhagavatam but the Bhagavatam itself mentions the other siddhi also of Garima of becoming heavy as I mentioned in Krishna’s pastime with Trunavarta so it’s not that the siddhi is not known, this is just one analytical framework by which the possession of mystic powers can be understood, now while working in action a demon may actually employ 2-3 siddhis together at one time also and at some other time the demon may actually be given certain powers which are extraordinary in some ways so we have to understand that we should not whenever there is any taxonomy taxonomy means a system of classification and nomenclature for that classification now taxonomy cannot give a complete one to one correspondence with reality because taxonomy is basic reality is often far more complex than the co-taxonomical system so therefore when we try to reduce reality to taxonomy there will always be borderline cases and there can be other ways of doing taxonomy also so for example when you draw a map of India, there can be a political map of India, there can be a transport road map of India, there can be a physical terrain map of India, there can be different kinds of maps and accordingly certain features will appear different so basically the focus is on whenever Prabhupada talks about the siddhis or even when Krishna talks about the siddhis in the eleventh canto, the focus is on understanding that such capacity to manipulate material nature although it’s impressive in the eyes of common people, from the transcendental perspective it is nothing very great because ultimately life and material existence is temporary and no matter how much one is able to control material nature still one stays in the bondage of material existence and cannot get out of that that’s why one should not get too enamored by this, that is the essential point of talking about the analytical framework which is given in any scripture, we accept of course the analytical scripture given by Bhagavatam and by Srila Prabhupada but that doesn’t mean that this list is right and other is wrong, that’s just another way of looking at the mystic siddhis