Patanjali has written a whole chapter just to make you aware that these things are possible. There are possibilities hidden in you, undreamt by you; they can become manifest when you go inwards. But don’t get in any way involved with them; remain a witness. Remain untempted and go on moving inwards. And the temptation will be great. There are no devils or Satans tempting you; it is your own mind and its inner capacities which tempt you.

For the same reason I deny miracles. I don’t want you to become interested in any sort of thing that can become a distraction from your real search. I know perfectly well that if the fish can swim in the water and the bird can fly in the sky, there is a possibility that through certain yoga practices your body can start levitating. You can lose gravitation’s grip on you, you can be free of it, through a certain process of breathing. You can become almost weightless, and then you can walk on water or fly in the sky.

But I deny all these things for the same reason that Patanjali mentions them, because my own experience has been this: that Patanjali’s mentioning them has not been of help. If he had not mentioned them it would have been far better, because people are so foolish. In fact, people read that chapter more. Patanjali’s Sutras contain only four chapters. Three chapters have to be practiced and the fourth has to be avoided. But people become interested only in the fourth, and if they are interested in the three they are interested in the three only as a means towards the fourth. Patanjali’s purpose is completely lost.

After five thousand years of spiritual search and groping in darkness and observing millions of people, this is my conclusion: that if Patanjali had not mentioned those miracles, many more people would have been benefited.

It is the same story…God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge – and they became interested in it. In the Garden of Eden there were millions of trees; they were not interested in any other tree anymore. They were tempted more and more by the Tree of Knowledge. “Why has God forbidden it?” The forbidden fruit becomes more appealing. We all know the forbidden kiss is far more sweet – and the stolen kiss can give you diabetes! It is pure white sugar.

The day God told Adam, “Don’t eat from this tree,” from that day Adam must have dreamt of the tree again and again. He must have gone for a morning walk, evening walk, night walk around the tree, many times a day, to see whether the tree still existed or not and how the fruits were growing. You can imagine how much he must have thought about it again and again.

And this is just nonsense to say that the devil came in the form of a snake to tempt him – God was enough. His forbidding him was enough to tempt him. There was no need for the devil, no need for any snake to come in.

Say to any child, “Don’t do this,” and there is every possibility that he will do it.

My father told me, “Before it is too late I want to tell you, don’t smoke.”

And I told him, “Now it will be difficult for me!”

He said, “What do you mean?”