"Action is the means to the sage who wishes to rise to yoga;
But to him who has risen to it, tranquillity is said to be the means."
Patañjali has thus defined the practical yoga: "Practical concentration is mortification, recitation of texts, and resignation to the Lord" [ii. 1]. Yájñavalkya has described "mortification"—
"By the way prescribed in sacred rule, by the difficult chándráyaṇa fast, &c.,
"Thus to dry up the body they call the highest of all mortifications."[429]
"Recitation of texts" is the repetition of the syllable Om, the gáyatrí, &c. Now these mantras are of two kinds, Vaidik and Tántrik. The Vaidik are also of two kinds, those chanted and those not chanted. Those chanted are the sámans; those not chanted are either in metre, i.e., the ṛichas, or in prose, i.e., the yajúṃshi, as has been said by Jaimini,[430] "Of these, that is a ṛich in which by the force of the sense there is a definite division into pádas [or portions of a verse]; the name sáman is applied to chanted portions; the word yajus is applied to the rest." Those mantras are called Tántrik which are set forth in sacred books that are directed to topics of voluntary devotion;[431] and these are again threefold, as female, male, and neuter; as it has been said—
"The mantras are of three kinds, as female, male, and neuter:
"The female are those which end in the wife of fire (i.e., the exclamation sváhá); the neuter those which end in namas;
"The rest are male, and considered the best. They are all-powerful in mesmerising another's will, &c."