What siddhis are achieved when one attains turiya?

Question

Can someone list siddhis one achieves when one attains turiya? Are all Ashta siddhis achieved when one attains turiya or does it only exist at six Chakras below sahasrara, is siddhis like spaceshifting or teleportation like narada or creating copies of oneself to be at faraway places, like yogi described in autobiography of a yogi, possible in turiya?

Answer 1

According to Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, various Siddhis can be achieved by making Samyama (संयम​) on subtle things or quantities. First of all let's clear what is called Samyama:

(Quoting from Swami Vivekanada's Rajayoga: Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms : Chapter III - Powers)

The combination of Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi is called Samyama:

त्रयमेकत्र संयमः ॥४॥

4. (These) three (when practiced) in regard to one object is Samyama.

When a man can direct his mind to any particular object and fix it there, and then keep it there for a long time, separating the object from the internal part, this is Samyama; or Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi, one following the other, and making one. The form of the thing has vanished, and only its meaning remains in the mind.

तज्जयात् प्रज्ञाऽऽलोकः ॥५॥

5. By the conquest of that comes light of knowledge.

When one has succeeded in making this Samyama, all powers come under his control. This is the great instrument of the Yogi. The objects of knowledge are infinite, and they are divided into the gross, grosser, grossest and the fine, finer, finest and so on. This Samyama should be first applied to gross things, and when you begin to get knowledge of this gross, slowly, by stages, it should be brought to finer things.

Read Sutras from 16^th onwards which mentions various Siddhis (Listing of Siddhis as follows):

• knowledge of past and future
• knowledge of all animal sounds
• knowledge of past life
• knowledge of others' mind
• power of disappearing the body
• receiving strength of animals
• knowledge of the fine, the obstructed, and the remote things
• knowledge of cluster of stars, of motions of stars
• ceasing hunger without eating food!
• fixity of body, indestructible body
• entering to another's body
• waking on thorns, stand in fire, die at will
• divine hearing, go through skies
• mastery of elements
• by the power of Prâtibha, all knowledge is gained.
• omnipotence and omniscience

But these siddhis are actually obstacles for yogi to attainment of highest goal which is Kaivalya Mukti.

ते समाधावुपसर्गा व्युत्थाने सिद्धयः ॥३८॥

38. These are obstacles to Samadhi ^§ ; but they are powers in the worldly state.

To the Yogi knowledge of the enjoyments of the world comes by the junction of the Purusha and the mind. If he wants to make Samyama on the knowledge that they are two different things, nature and soul, he gets knowledge of the Purusha. From that arises discrimination. When he has got that discrimination, he gets the Pratibha, the light of supreme genius. These powers, however, are obstructions to the attainment of the highest goal, the knowledge of the pure Self, and freedom. These are, as it were, to be met in the way; and if the Yogi rejects them, he attains the highest. If he is tempted to acquire these, his further progress is barred.

तद्वैराग्यादपि दोषबीजक्षये कैवल्यम् ॥५१॥

51. By giving up even these powers comes the destruction of the very seed of evil, which leads to Kaivalya.

He attains aloneness, independence, and becomes free. When one gives up even the ideas of omnipotence and omniscience, there comes entire rejection of enjoyment, of the temptations from celestial beings. When the Yogi has seen all these wonderful powers, and rejected them, he reaches the goal. What are all these powers? Simply manifestations. They are no better than dreams. Even omnipotence is a dream. It depends on the mind. So long as there is a mind it can be understood, but the goal is beyond even the mind.

So, as explained in the Sutra-38, when a yogi rejects all the siddhis and has no desires, s/he reaches to the highest goal which is to know the pure/true self beyond mind and intellect. Here knowing this pure/true self is identical to attaining Turiya as per the definition of Turiya from Mandukya Upanishad:

7. The Fourth is thought of as that which is not conscious of the internal world, nor conscious of the external world, nor conscious of both the worlds, nor dense with consciousness, nor simple consciousness, nor unconsciousness, which is unseen, actionless, incomprehensible, un-inferable, unthinkable, indescribable, whose proof consists in the identity of the Self (in all states), in which all phenomena come to a cessation, and which is unchanging, auspicious, and non-dual. That is the Self; that is to be known.

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^{§ For more information about Samadhi: Visit Types and stages of Samadhi.}