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India The Most Ancient Land - Brahminical Order - Whence Derived - Forest Anchorites - Foundation of the Priestly Order and Caste - Rites of Initiation and Method of Preparing for the Magical Powers.
The very name of Hindostan, with its long descended lines of Guroos, Brahmins, Yogees and Fakeers; initiates all into the highest and most potential of nature's occult powers, is itself suggestive of Magic, and few there are who have glanced superficially at the subject, or read the extracts from popular literature in the periodicals of the day relating to it, who do not regard India as the birthplace of all that is wild, weird and wonderful in the occult side of man's nature.
The immense antiquity of the Hindostanee dynasty, the invincible tendency of the Hindoo mind to regard the scheme of being as fixed and unchangeable, and the belief in "Yugs" or cycles of time, through which mankind must inevitably pass, in the fulfillment of a destiny as immutable as the Will of Deity, have paralyzed all effort at advancement, hence the basic principles of the Hindoo's belief, nay, most of their practices of a Theosophical character, are as much the stereotyped copies of what their ancestors believed and did five thousand years ago, as are their wonderful temples and colossal images the expression of the same far distant period of time. It is almost impossible to separate the magical practices of the Hindoos from the elements of their religion, and the changes which time has wrought in the aspect of nature and the political institutions which have been shattered by every description of national calamity, have failed to affect the deep metaphysical characteristics which soil, scenery, climate, and the doctrines of fatalism have engrafted on the Hindoo mind.
Since the tone of ancient metaphysics has changed but little then with the onward march of the ages, the following brief summary may be regarded as a transcript of Hindoo magic both in antique and modern times. Passing over the more sublime principles of Theism, the doctrines of the Trinity, Incarnation, Emanations, the Transmigration of the Soul, etc., etc., we come to the direct practices which the highest forms of religious belief imposed upon Hindoo Priests and Devotees.
The laws of Caste assigned to the ancient Brahmins the supreme control over all other classes, and the direction not only of spiritual ideas and teachings, but also gave them prerogative rights of succession, by which, through the assumed transmission of hereditary virtues, their sacred Caste was to be preserved in certain families and entailed upon long lines of posterity. There can be no doubt that the Brahminical order itself sprang from the natural endowments of those ancient Anchorites, who at the very edge of historic times, and perhaps long before, had retired from the busy hum of the cities, and in the depths of the wildest solitudes, held communion with Nature and Nature's God, and by the practice of excessive devotion and rigid asceticism, disciplined both soul and body into communion with the invisible worlds of being. The following graphic description of these ancient Forest priests is given in the charming and truthful language of Mrs. L. M. Child. This gifted authoress says:
"In times Ancient beyond conjecture, there were men who withdrew altogether from the labors and pleasures of the world and in solitary places devoted themselves to religious contemplation. This lonely existence on the silent mountains, or amid the darkness of immense forests, infested by serpents and wild beasts, and as they believed by evil spirits, also, greatly excited popular imagination. The human soul, unsatisfied in its cage of finite limitation, is always aspiring after the good and the true, always eagerly hoping for messengers from above, and therefore prone to believe in them. Thus these saintly hermits came to be objects of extreme veneration among the people. Men traveled far to inquire of them how sins might be expiated, or diseases cured, for it was believed that in thus devoting themselves to a life beyond the tumult of the passions occupied solely with penance and prayer, they approached very near to God, and received direct revelations of His divine wisdom."
"In the beginning, these anchorites were doubtless influenced by sincere devotion, and made honest efforts to attain what seemed to them the highest standard of purity and holiness. Their mode of life was simple and austere in the extreme. They lived in caverns, or under the shelter of a few boughs, which they twisted together in the shadow of some great tree. Their furniture consisted merely of an antelope skin to sleep on, a vase to receive alms, a pitcher for water, a basket to gather roots and wild berries, a hatchet to cut wood for sacrifices, a staff to help them through the forest, and a rosary made of lotus seeds, to assist in repeating their numerous prayers. The beard and nails were suffered to grow, and to avoid trouble with their hair, it was twisted into peculiar knots, resembling the close curls of an African."
"In later times they shaved their heads, probably from motives of cleanliness. However high might have been their caste in the society of the world, they retained no ornament or badge of distinction. They wore simply a coarse yellow-red garment made of the fiber of bark. Their food consisted of wild roots, fruit and grain; and of these they must eat merely enough to sustain life. They might receive food as alms, or even ask for it in cases of extreme necessity; but they must strive to attain such a state of indifference that they felt no regret if refused and no pleasure if they received it. They were bound to the most rigid chastity, in thought as well as deed. So far as they coveted the slightest pleasure from any of the senses, so far were they from their standard of perfect sanctity."
"Some made a vow of continual silence, and kept a skull before them to remind them constantly of death."
"In addition to this routine, they prescribed to themselves tasks more or less severe, according to the degree of holiness they wished to attain, or had courage to pursue. Some fasted to the very verge of dissolution. In summer they exposed themselves to the scorching sun, or surrounded themselves with fires. In winter they wore wet garments, or stood up to the chin in water. They went forth uncovered amid frightful tempests. They stood for hours and days on the point of their toes with arms stretched upward, motionless as a tree. They sat on their heels, closing their ears tight with their thumbs, their eyes with the forefingers, their nostrils with the middle fingers, and their lips with the little fingers; in this attitude they remained holding their breath til they often fell into a swoon."
"These terrible self-torments resulted from their belief that this life was merely intended for expiration; that the body was an incumbrance, and the senses entirely evil; that relations to outward things entangled the soul in temptation and sin; that man's great object should be to withdraw himself entirely from nature, and thus become completely absorbed in the eternal Soul of the Universe, from which his own soul originally emanated."
"Penances undertaken for sins committed were supposed to procure no other advantage than the remission of future punishment for those sins; but sufferings voluntarily incurred, merely to annihilate the body, and attain nearness to the divine nature, were believed to extort miraculous gifts from supernatural beings, and ultimately enable man to become God."
"Aiming at this state of perfection, they gradually attained complete indifference to all external things. They no longer experienced desire or disappointment, hope or fear, joy or sorrow. Some of them went entirely naked, and were reputed to subsist merely on water. The world was to them as though it did not exist. In this state the words they uttered were considered divine revelations. They were believed to know everything by intuition; to read the mysteries of past, present and future; to perceive the thoughts of whoever came into their presence; to move from one place to another by simply willing to do so; to cure diseases, and even raise the dead. Some of this marvelous power was supposed to be imparted even to the garments they wore, and the staffs with which they walked. The Hindoo Sacred Writings are filled with all manner of miracles performed by these saints. There are traditions that some of them were taken up alive to heaven; and impressions on the rocks are shown, said to be footprints they left when they ascended. By extraordinary purification and suffering, some were reputed to have attained such power, even over the Gods, that they could compel them to grant whatever they asked."
"Thus something resembling monasteries, or theological schools, was established in the forests of Hindostan, at a very remote period of antiquity. Seven of the most ancient of these hermits, peculiarly renowned for wisdom and holiness, transmitted their privileges to descendants, and thus became the germ of seven classes in an hereditary priesthood still existing under the name of Brahmins."
It has commonly been supposed that the strong temptation to assume unlimited power and acquire unlimited wealth which the reverence paid to these old anchorites opened up to them, induced the formation of a Priestly order, and the institution of the law of Caste, by which the immunities and privileges they enjoyed in their own persons might be secured to their posterity. Be this as it may, the result was that in process of time, the Priests, under the title of Brahmins (a name derived from Bramah, the first person of the Hindoo Trinity), exercised unlimited sway over the entire nation, not even exempting princes or rulers of armies.
The Brahmins are still the conservators of scientific lore, political influence and religious knowledge to those who have not protested from their form of belief. Many sects have arisen, however, dividing up the religious world of India into almost as many shades of opinion as Christianity itself; still it is a curious and significant fact that no class of the community, not even the famed Buddhist Priests, ever attained as an order, to such remarkable powers in the realm of magical achievements as the mighty Brahmins of India.
It is not that their creed teaches any special devotion to magical art, or aims to develop miraculous powers as an essential of Brahminical life. In this respect Brahminism differs from Christianity, whose Founder repeatedly demanded the performance of wonderful works as a sign of Christian faith.
No such charge is enforced in the education of the Brahmins; neither are all Brahmins wonder workers; but the truth is that the ascetic lives practiced by the strictest devotees of the order, their profound study of nature, and obedience to nature's laws; their contemplative habits, purity of diet, simplicity of dress, and perhaps the inherited tendencies bequeathed to them by a long line of spiritualized ancestors, all tend to endow this caste of men with the rare and peculiar gifts that distinguish so many amongst their ranks.
The sacred writings of the Hindoos, which are very numerous and rich in sublime ideality, contain many directions for invoking spirits, controlling the inferior orders, and soliciting the aid and protection of the superior.
Instructions also are given for the preparation of the body by fasting, chastity, ablutions and self-mortification. The spirit is to be disciplined by prayer, the singing of hymns, long periods of silent contemplation, solitary communion with God, nature, spirits and perfect soul abstraction from all external things. Seated in peculiar and far from luxurious attitudes, with the eyes fixed, and the very respiration regulated by abstract methods, the Atma, or soul within, is to be continually trained to complete absorption in Deific ideas to the exclusion of all worldly aims, desires, pursuits or scenes.
Directions are given in the sacred books for the use and preparation of the Soma drink, of napellus, hasheesh, opium and other narcotics by which ecstasy and trance are to be induced. Fumigations, also, and the use of spices, gums and aromatic herbs, are described; still a large portion of the initiatory rites by which magical powers are to be evolved, are not committed to writing; but from time immemorial have been orally communicated by Adepts to initiates and students.
Being versed in those oral traditions, and sufficiently informed upon the methods of initiation to know how far these rites can be disclosed without fear of misunderstanding, we may venture to state that every temple of ancient or modern India abounds with crypts and secret chambers, where devotees may pass their time absorbed in silent communication with God and Angels, or engaged in waging fierce mental warfare with the Evil Spirits who ever beset the path of the Neophyte, and strive to win him from the kingdom of light to the realms of darkness, in which their own unblest natures most delight.
To combat these subtle but ever-present enemies and guard their wandering thoughts against the intrusion of vain desires, also to regain that "internal respiration," which tradition teaches was once the privilege of humanity, enabling God to fill the interior man, and preserve the breath from pollution by admixture with the outer air, the devotee is required to suspend his respiration and inwardly repeat sixteen times the sacred syllable A U M - the ineffable word, which contains the name and attributes of Deity - and thus, by such methods of mental introversion, it is believed complete absorption in Divine things may be attained. Directions are often given for the attitude to be assumed in these exercises. Sometimes the vision is to be directed towards the end of the nose; sometimes to the region of the heart, liver or umbilicus. In each of these points it is assumed special virtues reside; these are under the government of certain planets, and the spirits who inhabit them.
By sitting square on four points, that is resting on the heels, and so fixing the thumbs and fingers as to exclude the action of external sight and hearing, the soul concentrated on these several centers of life and Astral influence, will call down the spirits of the planets who govern such regions of the body, and thus will be stimulated into supermundane force, the virtues which abound in those mystic centers of creative force.
Towards the middle ages, a strange, peaceful sect arose, who, from their methods of completely abstracting the senses from all external objects and concentrating their soul powers in certain regions of the body, were termed Hesychiasts. They took up their abode in the region of Mount Athos, where, under the direction of an Abbot, and laws founded upon the rigid discipline of monasticism, they devoted themselves to acts of charity, the curse of the sick, and the complete abstraction of all the senses from mundane things. Their mode of effecting this mental absorption is thus stated by one of their writer:
"Sitting alone in a corner, observe what I tell you. Lock your door, and raise your mind from every worldly thing. Then sink your beard upon your breast, and fix your eyes upon the center of your body. Contract the air passages, that breathing may be impeded. Strive mentally to find the position of the heart, where all the mind's powers reside. At first you will discover only darkness and unyielding density, but if you persevere night and day, you will miraculously enjoy unspeakable happiness, for the soul then perceives that which it never saw before, the radiance in which God resides; a great light dwelling between the heart and the soul."
The parity between these instructions and those which occupy a portion of the Hindoo sacred books, has suggested the idea that this order of ascetics drew their ideas from the Vedic writings, especially those directions communicated to the Neophytes aiming to attain to the exalted condition called Nirvana (the peace of God). The Hindoo teachers say:
"It is necessary, nay due to the soul, to free it from every human desire; to cut off all sources of delight save those which it finds in Nirvana."
"Avoid contact with those of an inferior caste, the indulgence of vain thoughts, or the ascendancy of any habit which draws the soul down to earth, and away from companionship with God. Obey without questioning thy teachers, and follow out each point in thine initiations, though they seem to lead thee to the feet of Siva. Abate not one moment of thine hours, nor let they sight wander from the points where they planet rules, or the beneficent spirits of the stars do dwell in thee."
Such exercises as these, with incessant periods of fasting, abstinence, self-mortification of every kind, the severest penances for the most trifling offenses, especially the least infraction of probationary discipline, lasted for years ere the devotee was deemed fit for admission to the higher rites of initiation. These, too, were communicated very gradually, and occupied months or years, according to the Neophyte's aptness and willingness to endure more personal suffering than the amount prescribed. in these, as in the preliminary rites, oral communication preserved the Temple secrets from the supposed dangers of entrusting them to writing. Amongst the higher methods of preparatory discipline, the scholar was required to listen to recitations from the most occult portions of the Vedas, to commit many of them to memory, and repeat them constantly. He was also instructed in the principles, as far as they were known, or algebra, geometry and mathematics, astronomy and astrology. The Hindoos, though not so expert or devoted to the latter science as the Chaldeans, taught the influence of the planets on certain days, months and periods of time. They reduced the configurations and constellated order of the sidereal heavens to a stupendous system, or at least laid the foundations of that belief in Astral and planetary order, which subsequently expanded into the magnificent astronomical religion. They were especially attentive to the phases of the moon, and attributed benign or malignant influences to the use of herbs, or the wearing of certain colors or precious stones during different phases of lunar increase or decrease.
All herbs gathered for magical purposes were to be prepared during the moon's increase. No great undertakings were deemed successful unless the order of the planetary bodies was consulted, and their configurations pronounced favorable. Another of the higher stages of study in Priestly discipline was instruction in the use and preparation of narcotics as means of procuring trance and divine ecstasy. Still another, the exercise of will in subjugating the lower order of spirits, and the occult forces in nature.
They were taught the magnetic virtues of plants, minerals, precious stones - especially the loadstone - the influence of colors, the methods of healing by touch, will, charms, amulets, and spells; the virtue of words, the methods of invoking spirits, and finally the form of manipulation called Tschamping, which imply signifies magnetism, or the infusion of "Akasa," the Astral Spirit of powerful Adepts, into their subject by passes, touches, and contact, exactly on the principles of modern mesmerism.
When the last rites of initiation were effected, it was found that the most stupendous physiological and psychological changes had been effected in the Hierophant's system. He had commenced as a human being - he was now an Ecstatic; he had been a creature of parts, passions, emotions, he was now a machine, bearing about an emaciated frame and an organism in which the possessor moved, breathed, spoke, but only in a dream - yet he found himself endowed with a soul whose perceptions were as keenly alive to impressions from the invisible world, as his external senses had become blunted to all earthly things.
An Initiate of many years standing, just emancipated from training, having faithfully fulfilled all that is required of him, and elevated through powerful magnetism, into the position of an Adept, is less of a man than a monomaniac, one who deems himself dead, a Soul doomed to carry about with him a lifeless body. From this supreme condition of ecstasy, it is the duty of his teachers and leaders to arouse him far enough to confer upon him a special mission in life. If he is of the highest order of Ecstatics, he becomes a Yogee, a degree which excels all others in magical power. He may become a Brahmin admitted to the first order or Priesthood, and be permitted to marry, and rear offspring, entering into all the uses and duties which belong to the priestly class. If his choice inclines him to still higher realms of spiritual absorption, if he feels that the last stage of divine union with Deity, called "Nirvana" - is yet to be reached, he must continue his ascetic practices, nay double and treble their severity, retire to some dim forest solitude, deep cavern, or temple crypt, and there continue in the performance of the most terrible austerities, until his purified spirit is no longer of the earth, until he has elevated himself above the necessity or desire for food, the habitues of physical being, and then will the triumphant spirit spurn the dungeon walls of a material existence. The Angels of Siva will respond to the Soul's cry for liberty, the gates of the emaciated body will fly open, and let the purified Soul go free!
The narcotics chiefly used by Eastern Ecstatics, to elevate them to the highest conditions of somnambulism, are first, the Soma drink, or Asclepias acida.
The plant is prepared by expressing out the juice either between two stones, "braying it in a mortar," or pounding it in prepared vessels; - the liquid thus obtained is then carefully strained, mixed with clarified butter, laid for a season on fine fresh dewy grass, then gathered up and swallowed as occasion requires. In preparing this drink, many magical ceremonies are used, the value of which will be discussed in their appropriate place. Still it is deemed necessary to use exorcisms to evil spirits, invocations to good, and lunar and astral observation in the preparation of all materials employed in magical rites. The Soma juice, hasheesh, opium, the napellus, and distillations procured from two or three spirits of acrid fungi, are considered the most effective narcotics appropriate for inducing the trance condition. A great variety of anaethetics are now in use in the East, unknown to the ancients. The fumigations made use of were and are very numerous. Myrrh, cassia, frankincense, different preparations of lime, aloes, aromatic woods, gums and spices, as well as amber, ambergris, and other delicate perfumes, constituting a large portion of the medicaments used.
The "Law of Manu," one of the Hindoo sacred books, alleges that there are only three states in which human souls can exist whilst inhabiting the mortal tenement; these are alternations of "waking, sleeping and trance." The waking state of the body is the soul's period of darkness - material light always being deemed, in Oriental Theosophy, the opposite of Divine light.
In this condition, all the evils which belong to a material state are perceived and have power to operate. In sleep the soul oscillates between the attractions of matter produced by the relations it sustains to the body, and its natural tendency to ascend to its true home in a spiritual state of being.
The more perfectly the senses of the sleeper have been subdued by discipline, the more does the soul recede from the body and gravitate to the Divine light; hence arise those healthful slumbers from which so much strength and refreshment proceeds; but where the body is indisposed, or binds the soul in the chains of earthly attraction, unquiet dreams bear witness to the struggle between the opposing forces of matter and spirit, and unless guardian spirits induce the dream for purposes of their own, the sleeper awakes but little refreshed from the mental strife.
Much is written concerning the philosophy of sleep which we have not space to quote. Trance is considered to be the complete liberation of the soul from the chains of materialism, as - except a small portion of the Astral fluid, which inheres to the body, and maintains the action of instinctive life - the fetters of matter now become so loosened, that the soul can go forth, and wander abroad in space. Its spiritual senses have free exercise. It is all eye, all ear, all perception. It can ascend to the "third heavens," traverse the spheres, wander over the earth, read the hidden things of the heart, penetrate into all secrets behold the past, present and future outstretched as in a vast panorama, in short, Atma (the Soul), then becomes the true spark of Divinity, and enjoys unfettered powers and unlimited functions.
The full perfection of the trance state is very seldom reached until Death sets the soul at liberty; but even an approximation to this divine condition is eagerly coveted by illuminated minds.
Much stress is laid upon lunar influence in seeking to enter the trance state, and hence the real effects which the moon exerts on material bodies, especially in sleep, in lunacy, and in producing rapid growth in plants, and decomposition in dead matter, form the subject of much scientific speculation, and afford matter for highly suggestive thought.
Besides the processes necessary to prepare a true Brahmin, the Priesthood admitted other devotees to certain initiatory rites. There were many classes of ascetics in India, ranging from the High Priests or Gurooes, down to the begging Fakeers, who clamor for alms in every populous city.
The highest class of the Brahminical order, the princely Gurooes, are educated in all the learning the age can bestow, and besides being practiced in the rigid school of asceticism above described, are disciplined in the noblest of moral virtues.
The severe discipline and frightful self-mortifications inflicted by fanaticism upon the much-abused body, must not be understood as enjoined by the sacred writings of India. These, in many remarkable passages, deny the efficacy of such outward observances, sternly rebuke those who rely on them for salvation, and abound with beautiful hymns, admirable precepts and recommendations to the practice of deeds of charity, kindness, purity and truth. The excessive tendency to asceticism and self-mortification which has obtained for thousands of years in India, results from obedience to traditional law, and customs which have increased in stringency by the imitative habits of the people, and the examples of certain notable Saints and imaginary Avatars. Besides the Brahminical Priesthood, and often excelling them in Spiritualistic endowments, are classes of Saints and Ascetics known as Sanyassis, Nirvanys and Yogys, or Yogees.
These are emphatically the creme-de-la-creme of Indian Spiritism, and their wonder-working powers resulting from the most horrible self-inflicted tortures and probationary sufferings are almost beyond belief. In a free translation from the Dhammapada, the work of a Brahmin writer, who flourished in the first century B.C., the following description is given of the status of the Nirvany, or one of these ascetics who had attained to the inconceivable bliss and purity of Nirvana - the state of peace almost amounting to absorption in Deity.
"Patience is the highest Nirvana. This is the world of the Buddhas."
"If, like a trumpet when broken, thou art not roused to speech, thou art near Nirvana. Anger is not known in thee, or there is no noisy clamor in thee."
"He who has deepest insight - who knows all right and all wrong, who has attained to the highest - Him call I a Brahmana."
"He who has given up all pain, all pleasure, who is without ground for new birth, who has overcome matter and all worlds - Him call I a Brahmana."
Many writers are still more enthusiastic in praise of the Yogees than the Nirvanys. the latter are more speculative, the former the most accomplished in miraculous gifts of the Hindoo ascetics. The most exalted of the Yogees are selected as a council of Elders, and their decrees reverenced as the voice of Deity.
They form no inconsiderable portion of those fanatics, who like the Fakeers, wander over the east, subjecting their bodies to every description of unnatural torture, that their heated imaginations can devise.
It is claimed by Hindoo metaphysicians that there exists in the Universe, a pure, all-pervading fluid, invisible, fiery, radiant, wholly divine, free from the taint of matter, purer than ether, stronger than the loadstone, mightier than the thunderbolt, swifter than the winged lightning. It is heat, light, motion, force; the Soul principle of being - not Soul, but its power of life, being and motion. It connects Gods and Men, Heaven and Earth. It is the strength, that is, cohesive element, in minerals; the growing power of plants; the life of men and animals - it is Akasa, or, in other words, the Astral fluid, so frequently described in former sections, which is nature is Astral light, in animated bodies the Astral spirit - in substance, Astral fluid. The theory upon which asceticism is so largely practiced is, that the more the Soul isolates itself from sensuous habits and earthly surroundings, the greater becomes its power of freeing Akasa, and of attracting to itself this divine fluid from all things in nature. Thus the action of the Soul, using Akasa as its instrument, becomes freed from the entanglements of matter; whilst the quantity, power and quality of this mighty essence is increased until the Saint becomes all Akasa. He may, for a short period on earth, carry about with him a poor, emaciated body; but he only uses this as a vehicle to enable the Soul to come in contact with matter- it is the last end of the staff by which the divine hand of spirit touches earth.
"it is through the abundance, power and prevalence of Akasa over matter that the Bokt can rip up his abdomen, withdraw the intestines, and inspect them as calmly as the Priest examines the entrails of the sacrifice to discover oracular meanings. It is by Akasa that sensation in the slain body is made void, and wounds are instantaneously healed."
"This slain Bokt truly dies; but he feels nothing. Akasa is too potent. The senses are annihilated. He replaces the intestines in order to rebuild the body for another day's use. The Gods surround him. They infuse divine Akasa into his system. His hands stream with life fluid. His breath is all Akasa. he breathes on the blood; it is full of life; it instantly coheres; this severed parts re-unite. The Akasa, which has been displaced, is replaced. What more is needed? The body is whole again; it cannot be hurt, since Akasa makes, unmakes and remakes again."
In this philosophy be it remembered, Akasa, which is the Rosicrucian's Astral fluid, the Hebrew's Life, the modern magnetizer's Magnetism, plays the part of the creative principle.
It is pure force, cohesion, which divided by the knife can be replaced, causing the particles, fibers, and all the severed tissues to cohere again exactly as before they were severed.
It is the cause of growth in plants; hence if a heavy charge is poured out on a seed or germ, it can cause that growth in a few seconds, which a less quantity would cause in the slower processes called growth. A vast accumulation of Akasa can cause when projected by will, the heaviest bodies, even rocks, to move, transport them through the air, dissolve solids into fluids, fluids into airs, and recombine them again, for it is force. It can subdue the fiercest beasts by stupefying their senses; fascinate the serpent, charm the Boa, and palsy the Cobra de Capello. It can be diffused like a gauzy veil all through the atmosphere, and upon it, the will of a powerful magician can paint any images he pleases, and thus a whole assembly can see the objects created by that will at one and the same time. The magician can envelope himself in Akasa, and thus become invisible or visible at pleasure.
He can ride upon it, sail in it, stand upon it; use it as the chemist uses airs, fluids, solids; but these stupendous powers are only given to those who have utterly worn away all bodily impediments by the severest fasts and penances, who are freed from all entanglements of sense or sensuous attractions; whose souls can arise to ethereal spheres or sensuous attractions; whose souls can arise to ethereal spheres and communing with spirits, borrow their Akasa (spiritual bodies) to aid in those operations, strengthen their own powers by those of potent spirits, and thus become at once a man and a spirit.
A Soul having at command an earthly vehicle in which to approach matter, is yet, by the subjugation of matter and the exaltation of Soul, at once a man, a spirit - a God.
The reader will now understand the philosophy of the tremendous discipline enjoined and practiced by Hindoo wonder-workers, yet if they were not genuine wonder-workers, and the author of these pages had not for years proved them to be such, and partaken alike of their discipline and their powers, these enormous claims had never been made for them, and this exposition of their philosophy had never been written.
All Yogees, all Fakeers, all miracle workers of every age, country, and caste, summon to their aid the Pitris or spirits of ancestors. Bear this in mind, skeptics of every land, careless and unthinking Spiritists, who so lightly regard the privileges you have enjoyed, but will soon forfeit, if not more reverently used, and more intelligently appreciated. These Pitris are generally loving spirit friends, who delight to answer the summons of the Illuminee and aid him to ascend to their own divine height of beatitude, or to work those deeds of power which prove the ascendancy of spirit over matter.
The Fakeers, amongst whom are far more numerous grades than amongst the higher classes of ascetics, undergo like them, the most severe probationary discipline. Many of them, inspirited by ignorant rather than intelligent enthusiasm, far outlive the Yogees in the severity of their rites, the hideous and distorted attitudes they assume, and the life-long miseries to which they condemn themselves. Their revolting attitudes, mendicant habits, and disgusting appearance, have too often formed the theme of travelers' sketches to need description here. Still there are, as before intimated, many grades amongst them. Many perform years of initiatory services in the Temples, and accomplish themselves in the learning of the time, and speculative philosophy.
Many of them are intelligent and even handsome men, though most generally lean, emaciated and erratic. Some of these men become fire-eaters, serpent charmers, magicians, fortune tellers, star-gazers, strikers, dancers, thousand-eyed, finders of lost property, detectors of thieves - exhibitors of marvels, or mendicants. As to the wonders they perform, the greatest mistake in estimating them, is to attribute their acts to legerdemain. The true Indian juggler is a man of an entirely different class. A Fakeer in his most degraded condition may become a juggler, but jugglers are not necessarily Fakeers, and their marvelous powers are for the most part derived solely from the exaltation of their "mediumistic" or "magnetic" natures over their sensuous.
They perform by natural physical magic, marvels which make the myths of the Arabian tale-teller pale before them, from the act of burying themselves alive for weeks or months, to performing musical symphonies to an admiring audience of dancing Cobras and waltzing Boas.
These men, like the Yogees, perform their marvels through the abundance of the life fluid, their perfect control of it, and the aid of spirits whom they all insist they can summon at pleasure.
They emphatically allege this spiritual aid is always present when they perform. They deny that they can work without it, and though they are often urged by bigoted skeptics, pious missionaries, or puzzled materialists, to deny that they solicit or can obtain the aid of spirits, they one and all affirm and re-affirm it, and insist that without the Pitris (ancestral spirits) they can do little or nothing.
And now, reader, how like you the training necessary to become an accomplished East Indian magian? And which of our European or American aspirants for magical power will subject themselves to the discipline above described for half a life-time, in order that the other half may be spent performing deeds of glamour, deeds, too, that will wane in power, without a continual exercise of the same rigid asceticism by which the power has been procured? It will be urged that similar if not quite as powerful endowments exist in organisms that have not been thus trained, nor subjected to rightful processes of self-abuse and sensuous abnegation.
This is undoubtedly true of those in whom nature has already planted the seeds of "mediumistic" or magical powers. In those whom, as we have shown in earlier sections, nature has endowed with an abundance of the wonder-working Astral fluid, it only requires skill, some culture and intelligent direction, to turn its exercise to such account as the possessor desires. Still culture is needed, and where natural endowments utterly fail, or extra-mundane powers do not exist, art must supply the deficiency, and indicate the way.
We have only to add that in East Indian magic as in American spiritism, in ancient and in modern times, there are good and bad magicians, pure and impure media. These attract good and bad Pitris, high and low spirits. Magic no less than spiritism is divided into white and black, good and evil. The subjects always attract a class of spirits correspondential to the natures of the operators, and to the purposes designed.
The Hindoos, from the noble Gurooes, to the abject begging Fakeers, all believe in Elementaries, and all believe that they have special power to aid in such operations as their natures especially sympathize with.
There are spirits of the earth, air, fire and water. They vary in species, class and degrees of power just as mortals do; regard mankind as their Gods, and seek their aid as means of reaching higher spheres; desiring to serve them as opportunities of elevating them selves to the degree of immortality, which the souls of men alone enjoy. These poor embryonic beings range from the purely mischievous and evil, to the aspirational and good. They are the Ginn or Genii of the Orient, who serve mortals in proportion to their power to summon or command them, but we conclude with the assurance that - from the very heart of the secret crypts of initiation, from the lips of noble Gurooes, dreamy-eyed Purohitas, abstracted Nirvanys and tribes of Fakeers, the same tale is told.
The profoundest mysteries of initiation are the evocation of those called "dead," and the power of the magnetic touch, or the infusion of Astral fluid from one potent body to another. Both methods combined, form the keystone of the arch which unites the spiritism of ancient and modern India with that of the whole civilized world.