The term Yoga is held to mean unity or communion with God, and the Yogi
by virtue of his painful discipline and mental and physical exercises
considered himself divine. "The adept acquires the knowledge of
everything past and future, remote or hidden; he divines the thoughts
of others, gains the strength of an elephant, the courage of a lion,
and the swiftness of the wind; flies into the air, floats in the water,
and dives into the earth, contemplates all worlds at one glance and
performs many strange things." [194]
The following excellent instance of the pretensions of the Yogis is
given by Professor Oman: [195] "Wolff went also with Mr. Wilson to see
one of the celebrated Yogis who was lying in the sun in the street,
the nails of whose hands were grown into his cheeks and a bird's nest
upon his head. Wolff asked him, 'How can one obtain the knowledge
of God?' He replied, 'Do not ask me questions; you may look at me,
for I am God.'
"It is certainly not easy at the present day," Professor Oman states,
[196] "for the western mind to enter into the spirit of the so-called
Yoga philosophy; but the student of religious opinions is aware
that in the early centuries of our era the Gnostics, Manichæans and
Neo-Platonists derived their peculiar tenets and practices from the
Yoga-vidya of India, and that at a later date the Sufi philosophy
of Persia drew its most remarkable ideas from the same source. [197]
The great historian of the Roman Empire refers to the subject in the
following passage: "The Fakirs of India and the monks of the Oriental
Church, were alike persuaded that in total abstraction of the faculties
of the mind and body, the pure spirit may ascend to the enjoyment
and vision of the Deity. The opinion and practice of the monasteries
of Mount Athos will be best represented in the words of an abbot,
who flourished in the eleventh century: 'When thou art alone in thy
cell,' says the ascetic teacher, 'Shut thy door, and seat thyself
in a corner, raise thy mind above all things vain and transitory,
recline thy beard and chin on thy breast, turn thine eyes and thy
thoughts towards the middle of the belly, the region of the navel,
and search the place of the heart, the seat of the soul. At first
all will be dark and comfortless; but if you persevere day and night,
you will feel an ineffable joy; and no sooner has the soul discovered
the place of the heart, than it is involved in a mystic and ethereal
light.' This light, the production of a distempered fancy, the creature
of an empty stomach and an empty brain, was adored by the Quietists
as the pure and perfect essence of God Himself." [198]
"Without entering into unnecessary details, many of which are simply
disgusting, I shall quote, as samples, a few of the rules of practice
required to be followed by the would-be Yogi in order to induce a
state of Samadhi--hypnotism or trance--which is the condition or state
in which the Yogi is to enjoy the promised privileges of Yoga. The
extracts are from a treatise on the Yoga philosophy by Assistant
Surgeon Nobin Chander Pal." [199]
"Place the left foot upon the right thigh, and the right foot upon the
left thigh; hold with the right hand the right great toe and with the
left hand the left great toe (the hands coming from behind the back
and crossing each other); rest the chin on the interclavicular space,
and fix the sight on the tip of the nose.
"Inspire through the left nostril, fill the stomach with the inspired
air by the act of deglutition, suspend the breath, and expire through
the right nostril. Next inspire through the right nostril, swallow
the inspired air, suspend the breath, and finally expire through the
left nostril.
"Be seated in a tranquil posture, and fix your sight on the tip of
the nose for the space of ten minutes.
"Close the ears with the middle fingers, incline the head a little
to the right side and listen with each ear attentively to the sound
produced by the other ear, for the space of ten minutes.
"Pronounce inaudibly twelve thousand times the mystic syllable Om,
and meditate upon it daily after deep inspirations.
"After a few forcible inspirations swallow the tongue, and thereby
suspend the breath and deglutate the saliva for two hours.
"Listen to the sounds within the right ear abstractedly for two hours,
with the left ear.
"Repeat the mystic syllable Om 20,736,000 times in silence and meditate
upon it.
"Suspend the respiratory movements for the period of twelve days,
and you will be in a state of Samadhi."
Another account of a similar procedure is given by Buchanan: [200]
"Those who pretend to be eminent saints perform the ceremony called
Yoga, described in the Tantras. In the accomplishment of this, by
shutting what are called the nine passages (dwara, lit. doors) of
the body, the votary is supposed to distribute the breath into the
different parts of the body, and thus to obtain the beatific vision
of various gods. It is only persons who abstain from the indulgence
of concupiscence that can pretend to perform this ceremony, which
during the whole time that the breath can be held in the proper place
excites an ecstasy equal to whatever woman can bestow on man."