Kaya Kalpa is the yogic technique to attain immortality or at least longevity of the physical body. From my limited research there are 2 trends of Kaya Kalpa:
Why do you want immortality? If you want longevity just go to bed when it gets dark out and do other healthy things.
why so scoldy, scott? when anyone gets to a certain age they want to feel more youthful. It is a completely natural desire. Don’t be so dismissive
A long time practitioner:
Maharaj: A Biography of Shriman Tapasviji Maharaj, a Mahatma Who Lived for 185 Years – by T. S. Anantha Murthy
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/091392217X/ref=ase_advancedyogap-20/103-4923313-7675054?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=advancedyogap-20
The guru is in you.
Victor,
I didn’t mean to seem dismissive or scoldy. I am still young and haven’t experienced as much as some others, so I apologize for hurting anyone’s feelings here due to my inexperience. I still ask why someone would want immortality, though. Hasn’t anyone seen the movie, Highlander? You have to watch your loved ones pass away as you continue on, not aging. What is there to live for, forever? Isn’t 80 years enough time?
I guess if you want it, you want it. I’m not here to convince anyone to stop wanting what they want. I’m just curious about why.
Also, my advice stands. Bliss asked for any useful info, and I definitely have some. If someone wants to feel more youthful, it’d absolutely help to go to bed when it gets dark out every night. In my experience, this has done more than any other practice.
The proof is in the practice. Try it out.
Well…in my opinion immortality is such a long shot that it is basically metaphor or hyperbole. On the other hand anyone who reaches a certain age regardless of their good health would wish to retain the vitality of their youth. It is generally inevitable to lose some energy or strength as one ages and the search for a remedy has been universal throughout the ages. Certainly any useful techniques and or medicines are always welcome.Yoga has often been touted to help quite a bit with this and specifically pranayama so we are not so far off the mark in using htis forum for this topic
We are already immortal. It is an illusion that we are not.
however, the closer you are to God, the better you will be able to control longevity.
P.S. It’s likely that eating anything with mercury in it will work against longevity! Google amalgam dental fillings.
Interesting that you mention that Ether because in Ayurveda there is a whole topic of “rasayana” which is rejuvination therapy. Most of these medicines (makaradwajja, Rasa Sindur etc.) contain mercury. In fact the compound of mercury and sulphur is integral to the rasayana series of substances
Some yogis claim that mercury is Shiva and gives them powers; others get mercury poisoning. Supposedly there is some spiritual way to prepare your body to recognize mercury as Shiva.
I think I’ll stay away from it.
It’s a guarantee that taking Mercury will have some damage your major organs, including your brain. So you don’t mind losing some intelligence and kidney function, try it.
But frankly, there may be a little hope (a tiny and unlikely one) that despite the damaged organs, you can live longer Though I think that in any case, the QUALITY of life would be lower, since you will have less brain cells to solve problems for yourself or for the others, and have a poorer memory.
I think that most who long for immortality do so through a fear of death. What an interesting world it would be if nobody were scared to die…but that’s a whole other topic. 
On the other hand, I can see quite a few reasons why an individual on the path would look toward immortality. For one, a spiritual practitioner wishing to attain the enlightenment in this lifetime certainly doesn’t want to be cut a year or two short of reaching the goal, and may likely do anything in their power to make sure the most time was available in order to acheive this.
Second, once one has acheived a major transformation, it may be in their best interest to hang around for a while in order to teach others from this perspective.
And last, it would be pretty cool to get carded at the store, only to pull out an ID which shows you were born in 1714. 
I definitely share Ether’s above thoughts that we are already immortal in consciousness. In my opinion, immortality on the earthly plane of existence only deals with the longevity of the human body, and anyone capable of acheiving bodily immortality would be just as capable of leaving that body whenever they felt that their work was done. In this respect, its not a bad choice to have at all.
Aye, I know the feeling exactly. I remember, if I think hard, last time I popped off just 47 seconds before enlightenment hit me. And coz of that, I’ve to go through Gawd knows how many more cycles now… all my bad karma has caught up with me finally.
This is a reply to Scott, Etherfish, Alvin Chan and Trip1 observations.
In case you guys don’t know Babaji as well as all the greatest yogis ever, practiced Kaya Kalpa and attained physical immortality. Kaya Kalpa is the ultimate test of the yogi, althoug liberation of the reencarnational cycle is possible without physical immortality. We can attain salvation without physical immortality and this is the reason that many yogis choose not to take that ultimate test.
So, why so much criticism to the exercise that is actually practiced by the greatest of the greatest yogis?
Scott wrote “Why do you want immortality?”
Because I believe yoga is the breaking of all the limitations imposed by nature, only then are we truly free from the prison of the physical matter. Because it is the ultimate test of the yogi.
You ask me why immortality and I ask you why do you ‘swallow’ your tongue? I think the reasons are very close.
Etherfish wrote “We are already immortal”
Well, that is the same kind of reply as ‘we are already enlightened’. So I ask you if we are already enlightened why do you practice yoga?
Alvin Chan:
I mentioned mercury just as an example of the non-standard components (like gold for exampl) used in siddha medicine. It doesn’t mean I will take it or not. I would only take siddha medicine from a very proficient guru.
Trip1 wrote “I think that most who long for immortality do so through a fear of death”
In some cases I think you are right but not all cases: do you think Babaji attained physical immortality because he feared death?
Bliss,
I don’t believe that. If you break a natural law, then it’s obviously not really a natural law. Nature’s true limitations can’t be overcome.
Bliss_ said:
In case you guys don’t know Babaji as well as all the greatest yogis ever, practiced Kaya Kalpa and attained physical immortality. Kaya Kalpa is the ultimate test of the yogi, althoug liberation of the reencarnational cycle is possible without physical immortality. We can attain salvation without physical immortality and this is the reason that many yogis choose not to take that ultimate test.
Bliss, it’s not really a case of ‘in case you guys don’t know’ – there are here people who have read Paramhansa Yogananda’s ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ and don’t believe everything Paramhansa Yogananda told us. I’m not saying PY was outright lying (though I do believe he could embellish a story), but rather that he believed things which are not true. Just as my parents and schoolteachers told me things about God and Jesus which I don’t believe are fact. I believe they are wrong, mistakes. And likewise I am not inclined to believe in PY’s account of Babaji.
So if people don’t believe what you believe about Babaji and Kaya Kalpa, take it easy.
Hi Bliss,
No, I don’t think that at all. Babaji’s physical immortality would be attained for something along the lines of the second statement that I made. The statement which you quoted was regarding non-spiritual seekers. My apologies for not being more clear on this in the post.
Also (and please correct me if I’m wrong), in Autobiography of a Yogi, it was written that Babaji is an avatar. This would mean that he would have no need to “attain” anything while on this plane of existence, as he arrived on this earth as divinity in flesh.
Thank you for your reply and best of luck on the path. 
Brett
Hehe me too!!
Well at least we are on the right track again! 
I shouldn’t have written the sentence: “In case you guys don’t know”, it sounds a bit agressive… my apologies for that. And it’s true that I’m assuming something to be true (physical immortality) that I’ve never actually seen with my own eyes and assuming that everyone here takes for granted what is written in Autobiography of a Yogi. You made a good point david_obsidian.
All in our stride. BTW, Don’t look to me for good example for not saying what I shouldn’t say, but I’m great example for bouncing back quickly afterwards.
bliss wrote:
“Etherfish wrote “We are already immortal”
Well, that is the same kind of reply as ‘we are already enlightened’. So I ask you if we are already enlightened why do you practice yoga?”
I didn’t say we are already enlightened. But they are both a matter of changing our perception, not achieving something. our ego gets caught up in trying to change the million illusions of maya, one at a time.
Every so often we think we’ve found a really important illusion to change. But all we have ever needed is sustained bhakti for God or whatever you call it in your belief system. Then things like immortality or enlightenment may or may not manifest, but they are watched along the way rather than trying to own them.