Mircea Eliade YOGA IMMORTALITY AND ... - Brihaspati.net

is L. Massignon, Al HaUaj, MartuTmystique of Vlslam (Paris, 1922), vol. II,
p. 931. Referring to alchemy in its relations with ismaeliana gnosis, see Henri Corbin, Le
livre du Clorieux of Jabir ibn Hayyan. Alchimie et Archetypes (Evan Jahrbuch, XVIII,
Zurich, 1950, ps. 47-114).
CHAPTER VIII INDIAN YOGA AND ABORIGINAL
THE ROADS TO FREEDOM
We were able to distinguish, in this great spiritual synthesis is Tantrism, elements of
different origin and scope: first, the legacy of Vedic religion and Brahmanism, the
innovations of the Bhagavad-Gita and the current sectarian, and partly , the contri-tion of
medieval Buddhism, alchemy and indigenous spiritual. We acknowledged the central role
played by the techniques yogis in the tantric-synthesis: thanks to them, experience levels
so heterogeneous iconography such as the sexuality and alchemy have been approved and
built, eventually forming pianos equivalent of the same spiritual journey. As in the
previous synthesis (the epic, the Bhagavad-Gita, etc.) are specifically yogic disciplines
just-do-minion of the respiration and respiration-methods that have offered their basedown
to the new valuations. This process of integration has continued, with increasing
pace, even after the triumph of Tantrism, the decline of Vajrayana Buddhism and the
invasion of Islam. We do not intend here to trace its history, complicated times each, as it
refers to almost all sectors of the religious and cultural life of India. (Remember only that
but different forms of Yoga-of devotion, mystical, erotic or "magic" - Exer-rum
paramount influence on the birth of vernacular literature, and in a general way, the
formation of the spirit of India modern.) We intend to demonstrate through a series of
examples chosen in the most different from each other (folklore, popular devotion, sects,
superstitions, etc..) mul valuations
tiple and contradictory yoga at any level of culture. This brief informs planes will be
taken to more and more eccentric and archaic cos, to eventually encompass much of the
early history of India. The probing will be instructive: we see that the "yogi" and Saintnaijasi
can take countless forms, from the magician and fakir healers and producers of
"miracles" to the most noble ascetics and mystics high, not to mention the magicians
vamacari extremists and cannibals.
If the yogis have been able to ever be confused with all these types of magico-religious
behavior, is that all the techniques involved in Indian spiritual sense of Yoga. In the
popular atmosphere, yogis and magicians were always considered fearsome, endowed
with powers sobrenaturales.1 Despite the reservation of Patanjali and other forms of yoga
on the siddhi, it was almost inevitable assimilation of the yogi to magician. Because, for