Siddha is a perfected human being who has gone deep in meditation. Siddha, Guru, Sadguru, that is the level. They are kept a step above the devas.

*Chapter 7 - The Universe Unveiled*

*Day 34*

When the creator has created such diverse fauna and flora, you think he would like to express himself in a single uniform? The spirit which loves diversity expresses itself in diverse forms. 

These diverse forms of that One Spirit are Devas. Similarly, when one white light breaks up through a prism, seven major colours emit, but then so many shades and mixtures of those seven colours gives you a multitude of colours. 

In the same way, one step higher from the yakshas are devas and devtas or devis. There are so many different types of devi devtas or types of spirits. 

You can call them angels, all only benevolent. Deva has several meanings : deva means benevolent, divine qualities, very playful, mischievous, effulgent, divine. 

The word Divine comes from the original Sanskrit root called deva. Deva has become divinity or divine in English. There led various qualities in us which are expressed. They are all a part of devas. 

Brilliance is a deva in you. Compassion is a blessing of deva in you. If you are happy, that is a blessing of a deva or the quality of the deva getting manifested in you.

Where are these devas? Are they hanging somewhere in the sky? Someone may look at the clouds thinking, ‘Oh someone will drop from the cloud’. No they are present in the consciousness and in every cell of your own body. 

In different parts of the body, different devas, or elements are present. And how are these devas managed? A mantra a particular sound invokes a particular deva and enlivens it. 

Like in the light when you want to bring out only a purple colour or only the green, you manipulate that and only that colour gets projected. If here is light, and you put a golden yellow foil here, only yellow light will come. 

In that yellow light all the other colours are also present, but you are now enlivening only that colour for a particular purpose. So these whole science got developed around this, in the ancient ages. 

For thousand of years people participated, meditated and found this, and you find it in the Mayan civilization as well. You find such a striking similarity a cord of that in the mayan civilization in Europe in the far east in China as well as in vedic Indian civilization. 

In the vedic Indian civilization, in fact they have gone very deep into it, analysed it and very scientifically, systematically organized and arranged it, and it was preserved. 

Fortunately for the planet, this knowledge has been preserved till recently, somehow though a lot of it is lost. When Nalanda University was burnt it was burning for six months and that was burnt around 1200 CE. 

A lot of those books were lost, so whatever is remaining is good enough. In the Vedas there were one thousand shakhas (branches) of Sama veda of which only three are available today. 

The rest are all gone. Similarly twenty one different branches of Rig Veda were there, but now only one is available. Twenty are gone. Out of 111 shakhas of yajur veda only 11 are available now. 

So most of these were burnt down in Middle ages by the invaders, but some people took to different corners and villages and memorized them overnight and somehow preserved them. 

Siddha is a perfected human being who has gone deep in meditation. Siddha, Guru, Sadguru, that is the level. They are kept a step above the devas. 

That's why in puja, when anything happens first Guru is honoured and then the devtas. Gurubhyoh Namah starts from that, in Hindi there is a saying Guru bina gati nahin.

Without Guru there is no further progress.This is the tradition. Guru and deva yaksha gandharva kinnara pits and human being. There are these many levels of spirits. Check your nostril, right how many?left? both? 

These angels and devas can give you many siddhis, many blessings or powers and if you get lost in them you will loose the powers also. A siddha is one who doesn't use those powers. He moves on. 

Even a Sadguru moves on. He says - "Never mind, I think it's okay" thank you. He says thank you, you came to help me. Thank you." All the devtas come and help Sadguru s work, they come and said “What can I do for you?” 

Because he wants nothing and because he knows the Brahman and doesn't arrest that I know the Brahman.

- Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Kena Upanishad