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

in the transformation of the Epic in an encyclopedia.
Broadly speaking, we can distinguish three kinds of events are open to an interest: 1)
episodes of asceticism (tapas) that reveal practices and theories of solidarity to the Vedic
asceticism and without referenda to Yoga itself; 29) episodes and speeches in which
Yoga and caps are considered synonymous and the two as magical techniques, 3 °) and
didactic discourse episodes that Yoga is presented with terminology and elaborate
philosophically. The documents in this third category-largely contained in the
Moksadharma-are the most interesting, they reveal some forms of Yoga insufficiently
recorded in other texts. For example, we found practices "magical" ancient, that yogis
used to subdue the gods and even to aterrorizarlos.4 The phenomenology of this magical
asceticism is archaic: silence (mauna), torture, excessive (ativatapas), the "drying the
body, "are not only means used by yogis but also by the kings (Mahabharata, I, 115, 24,
119, 7 and 34). To subdue Indra (ariradhayisurdevam), Pandu persist for a day in -
3 Yoga technique in The Great Epic (Journal of American Oriental Society, XXXII,
1961, ps. 333-379.
* Hauer, Die Anfang der Yogapraxis, P. 98 and ff. Ejtmplos found similar in certain
kinds of wandering ascetics.
tero standing, leaning on one foot, and ends up getting in this way the samadhi (I, 123,
26). But this does not reveal trance nin-gun content yogi, it is rather a hypnosis caused by
physical means, and the relationship between man and God standing at a level necen
magic. Elsewhere, Yoga confused with pure asceticism, tapas (eg., XII, 153, 36). Yati (an
ascetic) and Yogi become equivalent terms and come to appoint, without differences, all
being "willing to concentrate his mind" (yuyuksat) whose object of study is not the
Scripture (Shastra), but the syllable my-cal OM. We realize that the "study of the syllable
OM refers to the mystical audition techniques of repetition and" assimilation "of certain
magical formulas (dharani) dQ enchantment, and so on.
But whatever the method chosen, these practices are crowned by the acquisition of a
force that our texts Hainan "power yoga" (yoga-balam). Its immediate cause is the "fimount
golf's espiritn (Dharana) obtained both through" the calm and equanimity "(the"
sword "6 Yoga of equanimity, XII, 255, 7) and by the decrease progresfva respi-ratory
rhythm (XII, 192, 13-14). In later passages interspersed in the Mahabharata, * summaries
and diagrams abound mnemotec-tails of yogic practices. Most of them reflect the
traditional cliches: "The yogi, dedicated to the great vote (Mahavratasa-mahitah) lays his
soul cleverly subtle (Suksma atman) in sipuientes places: the navel, neck, head, heart,
stomach, hips, eyes, ears and nose, burning apri-s to all the good and bad actions,
although they resemble a coati (by tamafio) and strive for the supreme yoga, is released
(from the ambushes of existence) if such is his will "(XII, 301, 39 et seq.).
Another text (V, 52 et seq.) Enhances the difficulties of these practices and calls attention
to the danger that threatens it fails. "Testing is the great way (mahapantha) and small in
number are those who walk up to the end, but very guilty (bahudosa) is 11a -
5 Hopkins, The Great Epic of India, p. 181, gives some lists of the "five sins" that the
yogi must "cut". Let one of them (XII, 241-3): the sex drive (kama), anger h (krodha), \ a
gluttony (lobha), fear (Bhaya) and suefio (svopna). Variations abound as the had of the
"five sins" is very popular in India (also known by Buddhism, for example:
Dhammapada, 370).