- By performing Samyama on the relation between the body and Akasa and
at the same time bringing about coalescence of the mind with light (things like) cotton
down (there comes the power of) passage through space.
Akasa-gamanam refers to the well-known Siddhi of transferring the body from
one place to another via Akasa. This does not mean, as is generally imagined, flying
through the sky bodily as a bird does. It involves resolving the particles of the body
into space at one place and then reassembling them at the destination. The physical
body is made up of innumerable particles of matter held together by forces of cohe-
sion, these forces being resident in Akasa the universal medium. In fact, the existence
of the body depends upon this relation between the particles of the body and Akasa
from which they are ultimately formed.
If the Yogi performs Samyama on this relation of the physical body with Akasa
he acquires knowledge of these forces of cohesion and the power to manipulate them
as he likes. If after gaining this power he brings about coalescence of the mind with a
fluffy substance like cotton down he causes the dispersion of the particles of the body
and their resolution into Akasa. Laghu-Tula-Samapatteh is a very expressive phrase
which means concentrating the mind on the process by which cotton down is produced
from cotton wool, namely, dispersion. This shows that if the Yogi exerts his will-power
keeping in mind a particular process he can bring about that process provided that he
has the capacity to perform Samyama. To reassemble the particles at the destination all
that is necessary is to withdraw the force of will. It was the force of will which kept
the particles in a resolved state and as soon as this force is removed the forces of cohe-
sion, reassert themselves and the body materializes instantaneously, apparently from
nowhere.