Reading section 11

This practice is opposed to the above, and it is by the same process of swallowing great draughts of air, and compressing them within the system, that the yogi acquires an increase of his specific gravity or _garimá_ (गुरोगरीयान्). Krishna is said to have assumed his बिश्बम्भर मूर्त्ति in this way, which preponderated all weights in the opposite scale.

[Sidenote: 5. Success or _Prápti_.]

This is the obtaining of desired objects and supernatural powers as by inspiration from above. The yogi in a state of trance acquires the power of predicting future events, of understanding unknown languages, of curing divers diseases, of hearing distant sounds, of divining unexpressed thoughts of others, of seeing distant objects, or smelling mystical fragrant odours, and of understanding the language of beasts and birds. Hence the prophets all dived into futurity, the oracles declared future events, Jina understood _pasubháshá_, and Christ healed diseases and infirmities. So also Sanjaya saw the battles waged at Kurukshetra from the palace of king Dhritaráshtra.

[Sidenote: 6. Overgain—_PraKámya_]

Prakámya is obtaining more than one’s expectations, and consists in the power of casting the old skin and maintaining a youth-like appearance for an unusual period of time, as it is recorded of king Yayáti (Japhet or Jyápati); and of Alcibiades who maintained an unfading youth to his last. By some writers it is defined to be the property of entering into the system of another person; as it is related of Sankaráchárya’s entering the dead body of prince Amaru in the Sankara Vijaya.

[Sidenote: 7. Subjection _Vasitwam_.]

This is the power of taming living creatures and bringing them under control. It is defined also to be the restraint of passions and emotions as रागादि बशित्वं, and likewise the bringing of men and women under subjection. This made Orpheus tame the wild animals and stop the course of rivers by the music of his lyre, and gave Pythagoras (who derived it from India) the power of subduing a furious bear by the influence of his will or word, as also of preventing an ox from eating his beans, and stopping an eagle in its flight. It was by this that Prospero subdued the elements and aerial spirits with his magic wand, and Draupadi and Mahommed obtained the powers of stopping the courses of the sun and moon. The Magis of Persia are said to have derived their magical powers from the Máyis of India who first cultivated the magical art.

[Sidenote: 8. Dominion or _Ishitwam_.]

It is the obtaining of universal dominion either in this life or next by means of yoga, as it is recorded of Rávana, Mándhátá and others in the traditions. It is also said to be the attainment of divine powers, when the yogi finds himself in a blaze of light.

XV. THE STATE OF A PERFECT YOGI.

[Sidenote: Authority of H. H. Wilson]

When the mystic union is effected, he (the yogi) can make himself lighter than the lightest substance, and heavier than the heaviest; can become as vast or as minute as he pleases; can traverse all space, can animate any dead body by transferring his spirit into it from his own frame. He can render himself invisible, can attain all objects, become equally acquainted with the present, past and future, and is finally united with Siva, and consequently exempted from being born again upon earth. (See Wilson’s Hindu Religion p. 131).

[Sidenote: Ditto of Plato.]

We find the same doctrine in Plato’s Phaedrus where Socrates delivers a highly poetical effusion respecting the partial intercourse or the human soul with eternal intellectual _Realia_. He says moreover that, all objects which are invisible can be apprehended only by cogitation (yoga); and that none but philosophers (yogis), and a few of them can attain such mental energy during this life (जीबन्मुक्ति); nor even they fully and perfectly in the present state. But they will attain it fully after death; if their lives have been passed in sober philosophical training (ध्यानज्ञान). And that all souls enjoyed it before birth, before junction with the body, which are forgotten during childhood, but recalled in the way of reminiscence by association. The revival of the divine elements is an inspiration of the nature of madness (trance or ecstasy of the yoga). The soul becoming insensible to ordinary pursuits, contracts a passionate tendency to the universal. (Baine on Realism. pp. 6 and 7).

[Sidenote: Authority of Plotinus.]

“It is ecstasy the faculty by which the soul divests itself of its personality. In this state the soul becomes loosened from its material prison, separated from individual consciousness, and becomes absorbed in the Infinite Intelligence from which it emanated. In this ecstasy it contemplates real existence; and identifies itself with that which it contemplates.” (Lewes. Hist. of Philosophy Vol. I. p. 389).

XVI. CRITICISM ON YOGA PRACTICE.

[Sidenote: Disbelief in yoga.]

Notwithstanding all that we have said and the authorities we have cited in the preceding article on the efficacy of yoga, we find some scholars in Europe and many educated men in this country, are disposed to discredit the efficiency of yoga to effect supernatural results or to be good for any thing. We shall state some of these objections which will be found to bear their own refutation on the grounds of their misrepresentation and self-contradiction.

[Sidenote: Its painful practices.]

Professor Monier Williams says that, “yoga system appears, in fact, to be a mere contrivance of getting rid of all thought, or at least of concentrating the mind with the utmost intensity upon nothing in particular. It is a strange compound of mental and bodily exercises consisting of unnatural restraint, forced and painful postures, twistings and contortions of the limbs, suppression of breath and utter absence of mind”. (Indian wisdom p. 103) (so also Wilson’s Hindu Religion p. 132).

[Sidenote: Its questionable Features.]

He then starts the question, “How is it that faith in a false system can operate with sufficient force upon the Hindu, to impel him to submit voluntarily to almost incredible restraints, mortifications of the flesh and physical tortures? How is it that an amount of physical endurance may be exhibited by an apparently weakly and emaciated Asiatic, which would be impossible to a European, the climate and diet in one case tending to debilitate and in the other to invigorate?” (Ibid p. 104).

[Sidenote: Their Illegitimacy.]

Professor Monier’s statement of the existence of the aforesaid self mortifications and voluntary contortions of the limbs of the yogis for two thousand years or since the invention of yoga philosophy, is open to refutation on the ground of there being no mention of them in the old systems of yoga inculcated either in the Vedánta or Patanjali’s philosophy, or even in the yoga Vásishtha, as it is evident from the practices and processes of yoga we have already given before. Those processes are seen to be simply moral restraints, and no physical torture of any kind, and such moral restraints must be acknowledged on all hands, to be indispensable to the concentration of the mind on any subject of far less importance than the contemplation of the inscrutable nature of the Divinity.

[Sidenote: Abuses of Hatha yoga.]

The abuses he speaks of must be those of the arduous practices of the Hatha yoga, which have been in vogue with pseudo yogis of the later times, from their superstitious belief in bodily tortures as their best penance and only means, (as the author himself avows), “of their fancied attainment of extraordinary sanctity and supernatural powers.” (Ibid). But such practices as have degenerated to deceptive tricks in this country, and are carried on by the cheating and cheated fools under the false name of yoga, present their counterparts also in the trickeries of the fanatics and fakirs under every form of faith on earth, without affecting the true religion or creating any misconception of the yoga doctrine.

[Sidenote: Sacrifice of the spirit.]

In vindication of our spiritual yoga we have to say that it is no exoteric religion, and requires no bodily mortification or sacrifice in any shape whatever, as it is the usual practice of all forms of religion among mankind. The yoga is the speculative training of the human soul, and concerns the castigation of the spirit and not the mortification of flesh. It has nothing to do with the body which is of this earth, and which we have to leave here behind us.

[Sidenote: Sacrifice of the Body.]

The universal doom of death pronounced on the original guilt of man, is not to be averted by physical death or any deadly torture of the body, as it is commonly believed by the bulk of mankind, to consist in bodily mortifications and sacrifices; but in the contrition and penitence of the spirit, and sacrifice of the soul as the only sin-offering for the atonement of our original and actual transgressions. The _Purusha medha_ sacrifice of the Veda which is misunderstood for the offering of a _male-being_, a man, a horse, a bull or a he-goat or male of any animal, meant originally the sacrifice of the human soul, or self-immolation of the _purusha_ or embodied intelligence to the Supreme Spirit, by means of its concentration into the same through the instrumentality of yoga abstraction. Dr. K. M. Banerjia’s interpretation of the _Purusha medha_ as typical of the crucifixion of Christ, is more conformable with his Christian view of the mysticism, than the spiritual sense of _self-sacrifice_, in which it is generally understood by the speculative Yogi and the philosophical Vedantist.

THE OM TAT SAT.

[Sidenote: 1. Preamble of Om tat sat.]

After consideration of Yoga the title of our work, and all its component parts tending to the exercise of meditation, together with an investigation into the nature of _Átman_ or soul, as the agent of the act of meditating and procuring its salvation, we are led by a natural and coherent train of thought to an inquiry into the nature of that grand object of our holy and profound meditation, which is the only means of our emancipation, and which is presented at once to our view in the exordium of the work in the mystical characters of _Om Tat Sat = On Id Est_.

[Sidenote: 2. Ambiguity of the word _Om_.]

The word _Om_ forming the initial of the said epigraph standing prominent at the top of the opening page of the work, and being more than a multinymous term and ambiguous in its acceptations, requires to be treated at some length, in order to discover the hidden meaning lying buried under that mystic emblem of the grand arcanum of Brahmanical and Universal religion, from amidst a variety of significations which are heaped upon it in the sacred writings and holy speculations of the early sages of India.

THE SRUTI SAYS:—

[Sidenote: 3. In the beginning was the word _Om_.]

ॐमित्येवमग्रमासीत् । प्रथम मोङ्कारात्मकमासीत् । तस्माच्च निःसृताः सर्ब्बे, प्रलीयन्ते तत्रवै । So saith the Holy scripture:—

“In the beginning was the word, the _word_ was with God, and the _word_ was God. All this was made by him, and without him was not anything made, that was made and” St. John 1.1-3.

[Sidenote: Om, the light of the world.]

And again says the Sruti दीप्यतोँ ज्योतिः । तत्तेजोऽनेनैवोमित्येव तदुद्बुध्न्यति । मैत्री उप ७ ।११

“That _Om_ shone forth as light, but they received it not, and hid it in darkness.” So the Scripture:—

“That was the light of the world, and the light shone upon the world, but the world knew it not &c.” St. John, Ch 1, V. 5. 9. 10.

[Sidenote: 5. Its Revelation to mankind.]

Again says the Scripture:—“God sent one to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe.” Id 1.7. So Brahmá the god revealed its meaning to his first begotten son _Atharvan_, and Atharvan, the Prajápati, gave instruction on the subject to _Pippaláda_, _Sanatkumára_ and _Angira_ (Weber A. S. L., p. 164). Again _Angiras_, who communicated it to _Saunaka_, had obtained it from Bharadvája Satyaváha, and the latter again from _Ángira_, the pupil of _Atharvan_, to whom it was revealed by _Brahmá_ himself (Weber A. S. L., p. 158).

[Sidenote: 6. Works on its Disquisition.]

Hence it is the _Atharva Sikhá Upanishad_ in which the investigation of the sacred word _Om_ is principally conducted apart from those of the _Mándukya_, _Maitrí_ and _Táraka_ Upanishads. (Web. Id., p. 164). These together with their Bháshyas by Sankara, the Kárikás of _Gaudapáda_, and the commentaries of _Ánandagiri_ on them, are chiefly devoted to the scrutiny of the sacred syllable, beside the partial disquisition of every other Upanishad and theological work into the hidden sense of this mystic word. Weber points out the Saunaka and Pranava Upanishads among the number (A. S. L., p. 165).

[Sidenote: 7. Mode of our Investigation.]

We shall proceed in this prolegomena first to investigate into the orthographical character and structure of this syllable, and then to inquire into the designations and etymological synonyms or the word, with the lexical meanings that we can get of them, and lastly to treat of the many mystical interpretations which this single word is made to bear as a common emblem of them.

II. ORTHOGRAPHY OF OM.

[Sidenote: 1. The letter ॐकारः]

Firstly: Om with respect, to its name and utterance is called Onkára, that is, the nasal _On_ in combination with the adjunct kára (signifying a sound) and meaning the letter _On_. For all sounds whether vocal (स्वरबर्ण) or sonant (व्यञ्जन), nasal (सानुनासिक) or not-nasal (निरनुनासिक), articulate (ब्यक्तस्फुट) or onomatopoeia (अब्यक्तास्फुट), are denominated letters; as the letters _a_ &c. (अकारादि) are called vowels, the letters Ka &c. (ककारादि) consonants; so the nasals _Án_, _in_ (आं इँ) &c., as also the inarticulate ones (फङ्कार) &c., are all letters; but the Onkára is the root of all; thus ॐकारेण सर्ब्बबाक् सस्तणोति । माण्डुक्योपनिषद् । Manu calls it a letter in the passage:—“This one letter is the emblem of the Most High”. II.83. _Vide_ Dr. Mitra’s Ch’hánd Up, p. 4.

[Sidenote: 2. A conjunct Letter युक्ताक्षरः]

But here a question is raised as to whether a conjunct vowel or consonant may with propriety be styled a single letter or not. To this says Dr. R. L. Mitra in a foot-note to his translation of the _Ch’hándogya_ Upanishad that—“It is true that this emblem conveys two sounds, that of _O_ and _m_, nevertheless it is held to be one letter in the above sense; and we meet with instances even in the ancient and modern languages of Europe that can justify such privileges, such as _xi_ and _psi_, reckoned single letters in Greek, and Q. W. X. in English and others.” (Ch 1. Sec. 1. p. 4). So is _lámálif_ in Persian &c. The Sanskrit conjunct _ksha_ (क्ष) is considered a single consonant, when they say, ककारादि क्षकारान्तं ब्यञ्जनं परिकीर्त्तितं ।

[Sidenote: 3. The Syllable Om ओमक्षरं ।]

It is also like every other single or conjoint letter of the alphabet (युक्तायुक्त बर्ण) termed an _akshara_ (अक्षर) or syllable, which forms either a word by itself when standing alone, or part of a word followed by an adjunct as ॐ, ॐकार, ओमक्षर &c.; where the first is a word of one syllable or monosyllabic term एकाक्षर, and the others as dissyllabic and trisyllabic words (द्ब्यक्षर, त्र्यक्षर शब्द), according as they are uttered by the help of one or more articulations of the voice. _Om akshara_ apart from its other signification of the _Imperishable_ and the like, and its symbolism of the Supreme Spirit, is also used in the sense of a syllable in the original writings and their translations. Thus says the _Kathopanishad_; एतद्ध्येबाक्षरंब्रह्म एतद्ध्येबाक्षरंपरं । एतद्ध्येबाक्षरं ज्ञात्वा ब्रह्मलोकेमहीयते ।

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Manu says:—“That which passeth not away is declared to be the syllable om, thence called _akshara_.” He calls it also a triliteral monosyllable. II. 84. So says Mon. Wm: “_Om_ is a most sacred monosyllable significant of the Supreme Being.” (Indian Wisdom p. 103 note 1).

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