Were mysticism a transmitted principle we should be able to trace it through successive translations to a form which might be termed primitive. We might mark and throw off, as we ascended, the accretions with which it has been invested, till we reached its origin—the simple idea of mysticism, new-born. The mysticism of India, the earliest we can find, shows us that nothing of this sort is possible. That set of principles which we repeatedly encounter, variously combined, throughout the history of mysticism, exhibits itself in the Bagvat-Gita almost complete. The same round of notions, occurring to minds of similar make under similar circumstances, is common to mystics in ancient India and in modern Christendom. The development of these fundamental ideas is naturally more elevated and benign under the influence of Christianity.
Summarily, I would say, this Hindoo mysticism—
(1.) Lays claim to disinterested love, as opposed to a mercenary religion;
(2.) Reacts against the ceremonial prescription and pedantic literalism of the Vedas;
(3.) Identifies, in its pantheism, subject and object, worshipper and worshipped;
(4.) Aims at ultimate absorption in the Infinite;
(5.) Inculcates, as the way to this dissolution, absolute passivity, withdrawal into the inmost self, cessation of all the powers,—giving recipes for procuring this beatific torpor or trance;
(6.) Believes that eternity may thus be realized in time;
(7.) Has its mythical miraculous pretentions, i.e., its theurgic department;
(8.) And, finally, advises the learner in this kind of religion to submit himself implicitly to a spiritual guide,—his Guru.