Dwapara Yuga: Of men and supermen

Today, there are really two kinds of superheroes in popular culture: the modern variety such as Spiderman or Batman whose powers have biotechnological origins and the older, more spiritual variety found in the Hindu and Judao-Christian traditions such as Hanuman and the Nephilim. There has been a virtual media explosion in the last decade of this meme.

At the beginning of the last century, Nietzche's astrologer-sorcerer Zarathustra had more philosophical ideas around the superman and military leaders turned to "battle" or "go pills" to render their troops more alert, a practice that continues to the present day.

Yogananda's Autobiography documented feats of real world superheroes back in 1946 and stories from extraordinary strength, to seeing and tasting music, to resistance to cold are a current media staple.

From a purely textual perspective, the origins of the New York comic book heroes could be looked upon as transforming Old Testament heroes into modern day equivalents by Jewish immigrants substituting the old spiritual origins of powers with a biotech spin.

Similarly, in general Science Fiction, the likes of L. Ron Hubbard (of Scientology fame) drew inspiration from Aleister Crowley (early proponent of Yoga in the West, known for his Abbey in Sicily and influence on rock music), leading to once obscure ideas such as teleportation becoming commonplace.

If we use the Egyptian naming convention for the Yugas as ages of men, heroes, demi-gods and gods we can have an inkling of what the future holds for us and what capabilities we should see evidence of in the past. We are at the crossroads from men to heroes of extraordinary powers becoming more and more prevalent.

If we look to Yogananda's related commentary on reincarnation, we have Atlanteans being reincarnated who tune into the advancing Yuga thru technical and biological innovation in gene manipulation and also Yogis incarnating, manifesting various forms of Siddhis or "powers".

In the Mahabarata there are eight siddhis, most of which will be instantly recognizable in today's pop culture:

• Aṇimā: reducing one's body even to the size of an atom

• Mahimā: expanding one's body to an infinitely large size

• Garima: becoming infinitely heavy

• Laghimā: becoming almost weightless

• Prāpti: having unrestricted access to all places

• Prākāmya: realizing whatever one desires

• Iṣṭva: possessing absolute lordship;

• Vaśtva: the power to subjugate all

Yogananda taught that these are by-products of increasing spiritual advancement - both a measure of progress and a potential pitfall for the advancing Yogi since to borrow the classic line from Spiderman "with great powers come great responsibilities". Traditionally those who have sought powers for power's sake have great falls since the real goal is God communion rather than greater control in a material domain, itself a meme of demonic or mayic forces to distract potentially saintly individuals.

It's a testament to God's great creativity that these same themes come together through spectacular individuals, subtle changes in larger populations, litterature, technology, ancient religious texts and even folk tales of giants, flying witches and magic carpets.

In the commercial world, the ideas sell everything from Blu-Ray Batman, to television's Heroes series to How-to books (of doubtful quality) to would be sorcerers across a spectrum of archetypes from Harry Potter to Gandalf to Charles Manson.