10 The Nectar of Devotion

activities can be compared with the spiritual activity of Krsna
consciousness.

The mystic perfections achieved by actually successful yogis
are eight in number. Anima-siddhi refers to the power by which one
can become so small that he can enter into a stone. Modern scientific
improvements also enable us to enter into stone because they provide
for excavating so many subways, penetrating the hills, etc. So,
anima-siddhi, the mystic perfection of trying to enter into stone,
has also been achieved by material science. Similarly, all of the
yoga-siddhis, or perfections, are material arts. For example, in one
yoga-siddhi there is development of the power to become so light
that one can float in the air or on water. That is also being performed
by modern scientists. They are flying in the air, they are floating on
the surface of the water, and they are traveling under the water.

After comparing all these mystic yoga-siddhis to materialistic
perfections it is found that the materialistic scientists try for the
same perfections. So actually there is no difference between mystic
perfection and materialistic perfection. A German scholar once said
that the so-called yoga perfections have already been achieved by
the modern scientists, and so he was not concerned with them.
He intelligently went to India to learn how he could understand his
eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord by means of bhakti-
yoga, devotional service.

Of course, in the categories of mystic perfection there are certain
processes which the material scientists have not yet been able to
develop. For instance, a mystic yogi can enter into the sun planet
simply by using the rays of the sunshine. This perfection is called
laghima. Similarly, a yogi can touch the moon with his finger.
Though the modern astronauts go to the moon with the help of
spaceships, they undergo many difficulties, whereas a person with
mystic perfection can extend his hand and touch the moon with his
finger. This siddhi is called prapti, or acquisition. With this prapti-
siddhi, the perfect mystic yogi can not only touch the moon planet,
but he can extend his hand anywhere and take whatever he likes. He
may be sitting thousands of miles away from a certain place, and if
