Q: If someone has a clairvoyant skill on the level of a siddhi, is it an impediment to one’s progress if indulged in? Or is this a God-given talent that can be put to use for humanity if it can be used constructively? In your experience is it difficult to strike a balance or should one focus on clarifying Awareness in the knowledge that all things are added at the proper time?
Since our sole purpose for existing is the attainment of liberation through conscious union with God, that is what must be the center of our life. Such a centering is impossible if there are any distractions, and psychic matters are distractions.
They are also on a very low level when compared with our true goal. I have never known of a psychic ability that did not eventually prove faulty and therefore misleading and distracting as well.
Spiritual clairvoyance vs. psychic clairvoyance
When someone evolves to a certain point, spiritual clairvoyance, which is not at all psychic clairvoyance, arises naturally. Even then, the wise yogi keeps focused on the goal of complete liberation.
However in some cases the occasional–very rare–use of spiritual clairvoyance may be used. However it will only deal with the spiritual life of the individual and will only be directed to their liberation. In other words it will only relate to the process of sadhana–nothing else.
Only after enlightenment can spiritual clairvoyance be safely exercised, and then only at the will of God. In great Masters such as Yogananda and Sivananda this “clairvoyance” is really divine consciousness, a glimmer of omniscience.
The maze of the psychism
People, including yogis, can wander for countless lifetimes in the psychic realms, whether in or out of the body. Just as a rocket only has the necessary fuel to reach the target, so the human being has only the requisite shakti (inner power) to reach union with Brahman.
If any of that power is used for another purpose, no matter how benevolent or altruistic, another lifetime will be wasted and the wheel of rebirth will keep turning.
More Questions & Answers:
- Question: Who Sows and Who Reaps Karma?
- Reincarnating Backwards in Time, the Mother-God, and Other Questions
- 3 Factors for Maintaining Brahmacharya