Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-04-12
YOGI PHILOSOPHY SCHOOL
ASCetiCism Reaches Its Height
in India.
STOOD ON ONE GREAT TOE
Queer Oriental Practices by Which Bodily Sen
satons Are Rendered Subservient to
the Human Will.

A contributor to the Chicago Daily
News writes thus on the practice of self
torture:
Theosophy merely as fad is one thing,
but the evolution of an adept, at least as
practiced in India, is another. The full
fedged Brahmin acquires his wonderful,
transcendent powers only by undergoing
penance and by subsection to austerities
of most heroic character.
Nowhere has aseeticism been carried
to such lengths as in India in the past,
and even at the present day by the San
yass and Yogis The Yogi school of phil
osophy maintains the practicability of
acquiring even In life entire command
over elementary matter by means of GER
tain ascetic practices. These consist
chiefly of long continued suppressons of
the breath, of inhaling and exhaling In
particular manner of sitting In eighty
four different attitudes, of fixing the eyes
on the tip of the nose and endeavoring,
by the force of mental abstraction, to eff
feet union between that portion of the
vital spirit residing in the body and that
which pervades all nature and is identi-
cal with silva. When this mystic union is
effected the Yogi is liberated In his living
body from the clog of material incum-
brance, and acquires an entire command
over all worldly substance. He can make
himself so light as to rise along a sun
beam to the solar orb, possesses unilmlt-
ed reach of organs (sueh as touching the
moon with the tip of his finger), or ire
sistible will (for instance, sinking into the
earth as easily as in Water). He becomes
as vast or as minute as he pleases, can
traverse all space can animate any dead
body by transferring his own spirit into
it. can render himself invisible, can at
tain all objects, because equally ac-
quainted with the past, present and flu
ture and is finally united with silva and
hAt re
born upon earth. In a religion which
teaches that the wicked are punished by
succession of rebirths in vile animals,
besides intermediate tortures in terrible
hels exemption from metempsychosls is
naturally the great end sought for
The Lotus Seat.
In the sacred books directions are given
to the devotee as to his mode of life. He
must move about the world like worm,
his path being directed by the sun; he
must walk carefully, 50 as not to destroy
any crawling thing. Sometimes he car
ries a broom to sweep them out of his
path. The first thing necessary is to re-
duce with medicines prescribed the appe-
tiles of the body Then the proper pos
ture is studied; after that the proper
method of breathing. Next the ascet1c
as directed to select a seat on some sacred
spot, sitting on kooshu grass or the skin
of a deer or tiger. He must keep his
head erect and sit motionless, with his
eyes fixed on the tip of his nose. This
position is called padma ASIAN, or the To-
tus seat" 1t consists of sitting cross
legged, with each foot over the other
thigh and arms crossed behind the back,
holding the great toes. The suppression
of breath Is the most helpful to medita-
tion on the attributes Of the divinity and
to mental abstraction. Moshan, the au-
thor of the Dabistan, cites many exam
pies. He says Khoda .Joi could do it for
twelve hours and the Mobed Paristar
kept his head under water for six hours
This breathess meditation places the
devotee in practically in a state of sus-
pended animation.
The Austerities of Tarika.
OF these forms of religious auterities
called tapisayas, some books describe
eighteen varieties, though 1t Is doubtful
If any one man practiced more than Ia
rika and he confined himself to eleven.
, With these he forced Brahma to promise
him any boon he might desire Each
modification lasted 100 years. They
were as follows. l. He stood on one foot
holding the other and both hands up
toward Heaven. with his eyes fixed on
The sun. 2. He stood on one great toe.
3. He took nothing but water as susie
nance. 4. He lived on air alone. 5. He
>remained in the water. 6. He was buried
in the earth, but continued in incessant
alteration as under the last infection.
z. The same in fire. 8. Stood on his head,
with his feet in the air 9. Stood on one
hand 10. Hung from tree by Ine
hands. II. Hung face downward from
tree by the feet.
Such merit was naturally irresistible.
His demand was that he should gain
unrivaled strength and that no hand
should STAY him but that of son of silva.
He became so arrogant that India was
forced to yield to him the white eight
headed horse. Cochisrava; CuVera gave
mp to him his thousand sea horses; the
Rishis resigned the all-yielding COW;
Caindenu's rivers and seas gave up the
riches of the deep; the sun. in dread,
gave no heat, and the MOON in terror.
remained always at full; the winds blew
as he dictated. and, in short, he usurped
the management of the universe. silva
soon had to beget a son to kill Mr. Tar
ika.
Besides the self-inf1icted penances emu
merated there are others quite as afro
Cious.
The serseja consists in lying on bed of
iron spikes day and night. Another is
called panshagni, or five fires, one at
each cardinal point close to the devotee,
and over his head the sun, at which he
constantly looks. He stands with up
lifted arm on his right toe, not moving
day or night. Another practice consists
in swinging head downward over
half an hour a a time. Hook-swingtng
is another of the rites with which silva
worshiped The hook Is inserted in the
dorsal muscles and the ascetic is sus-
pended at the end of a pole, Which is