Baba then further explained:
A person wanting to possess such powers makes a small circle [ chilla-nashini ] around himself and sits within its limits for 40 days and nights repeating a particular mantra. If he succeeds in sitting there for the full 40 days without a break, he gains certain powers. But it is not easy to go through such an ordeal and do such penance, as the person often sees weird and terrifying sights and is practically forced to leave the boundary of the circle due to fright. If he leaves the circle, he gains no occult powers and would have to start the process again.
Regarding miracles, Baba narrated the tale of Baba Farid Shakkar Ganj:
Baba Farid did a lot of penance in order to gain powers. He did not eat for days on end and developed a severe gripping pain in his abdomen. As a last resort, he hung himself upside down deep inside a well. After several days, he was miraculously brought out of the well and found to his utter astonishment that he had derived some great powers. He at once began using them. Some birds were sitting on a nearby tree. He uttered: "Let the birds fall dead," and all the birds fell to the ground dead! He then said: "Let the birds come to life and fly away," and immediately the whole flock was alive and flew away!
He went from village to village, showing off his powers and thus feeding his ego. At a particular village, he saw an old woman drawing water from a well and splashing it just outside the well. The woman continued this monotonous procedure for a long time. Farid, desperately disgusted with the seeming madness of the woman, confronted her and asked her why she did such a foolish, time and energy-consuming action. She replied, "Son, by splashing water here, I am trying to put out a fire raging in a village ten miles from here! This action is not as easy as making dead birds fly away again!"
Farid realized at once that the woman was not an ordinary person and asked for forgiveness for his past deeds. She directed him to a Perfect Master sitting underneath a tree some distance away. Farid approached him and found that the tree he was sitting under was totally dry, and the hot sun was beating fiercely upon him. At once, he made use of his powers, turning the tree's branches full with green leaves.