Section the sixth: on the Jogís and their doctrines.—This sect believe that Isvára, or the necessary being exists, one, the principle of intellect, without an equal, without decrease nor increase. In the language of the Hindus Is a[176] signifies “lord,” and without Iśa all is but jíva,[177] that is “casualties;” in their language jiva means “life;” they hold Is a to be the maker of the whole world, and the creator of all the elements; his holy being is free from care, sickness, and want, and placed out of the circle of work and agency; that is, that this holy being neither wants nor urges any religious rites, such as ablution and the like; his knowledge soars above and comprehends all being; he is the Lord, and none besides him invested with supreme power; death and pain never approach his existence, which has no limits. Jíva, “life,” they call what is in the fetters of cares, in the bonds of infirmities, under the pressure of pain, and in the prison of works and doings, and subjected to the control of others, without command over itself. This life is in truth not material nor corporeal; it is by ignorance only that it is thought to be one with the body; and the body is supposed by them to be revolving in the circle of material forms: by the necessity of times and seasons, life abandons the works of the body, and passes into another frame: and in this manner it migrates. Without the abhásayóga,[178] the soul cannot be freed of the bonds of the material world, and from the prison of what is corporeal, and yóga,[179] in the language of the learned Hindus, signifies “union,” or “acquisition;” and abhyása,[180] “the dominion of the eternal sphere,” that is, possessing the enjoyment of a desired object; and the purport of the yóga is, that the heart be constantly kept in the remembrance of God, and that no foreign object be permitted to enter into that Jerusalem, that is, the house of God. The professor of this union with the desired object reckons eight parts, which are: 1. yama;[181] 2. niyáma;[182] 3. ásana;[183] 4. pránáyáma;[184] 5. pratyáhára;[185] 6. dháraná;[186] 7. dhyána;[187] 8. samadháraná.[188] Yama is composed of five parts: the first is Ahinsá,[189] that is, doing injury to nothing, and to kill no other but the great wild beasts; 2. Satyam,[190] or “truth;” 3. Astéyam,[191] that is, not stealing nor robbing; 4. Brahma tchárí,[192] or to keep away from women, and all intercourse with them, and to sleep upon the bare ground; 5. Apragraha,[193] which is, not to ask any thing from any body, and never to take but what is brought unasked. Niyáma, the second of the eight parts, is divided also into five kinds: the first, tápasa,[194] that is, “devout austerity;” 2. japa,[195] or “devotion by means of beads, stripes of cloth, ejaculations, mental or loud repetition of the names and attributes of God;” 3. Sama,[196] which is, “tranquillity and satisfaction;” 4. Suchi,[197] or “purity, sanctity, perfection;” 5. Iśa-pútcha,[198] “worshipping and praising God.” Asana, the third of the eight parts of the yoga, means “sitting in some particular posture,” various kinds of which are used among them. Pránáyama, the fourth part, consists in “drawing in and letting out the breath, according to an established mode and fixed rule.” Pratyá hára, the fifth part, signifies “withdrawing the heart from all the desires and attractions of the five senses; and keeping away from all sorts of lust, the sight of beauty, the odor of the rose and of sandal, and from all material and exterior enjoyments.” Dhárana,[199] the sixth part, implies that, “in the heart of the cone-bearing tree, which is the centre of the bosom, and which the people of India have compared to the flower of a pond (lotus), the heart holds a fixed habitation; that is, they guard it in that place.”
Dhyána, the seventh part, is the remembrance of God the Almighty. Samadhárana, the eighth part, signifies that the heart, attached to the work of God, forgets the work of the world, in such a manner that in his presence, turned towards him, it remains absorbed in him, and feels itself lightened of all exterior sense and satisfied. The wise, who carries these eight parts to a high degree of perfection, hears and sees from afar; his pure knowledge elevates him; and he becomes strong in the science of Yog, which is the science of the union with the desired object; the all-bounteous God regards him with pity, and discards all pains, all sicknesses, all wants, and all deficiencies from his existence. According to this sect, it is by attaining to these eight conditions, that Mukt, which signifies “emancipation,” is acquired.
This is the substance of the doctrine of the Yogís; now, I will relate something of the opinions and actions of these sectaries, who have been noticed in this time as professing the doctrine of the Yog. The Yogís are a class well known in India, and yóga, in the Sanskrit language, means “union;” they believe that they unite with God, whom they call Alíka,[200] and according to their creed he is the divinity by excellence; moreover his being is to be venerated under the name of Gorakhnáth;[201] in like manner, Mach’henáernáth[202] and Chórengínáth[203] are great personages or saints.
They believe Brahma, Vichnu, and Mahadeva to be subordinate divinities, but they are, as followers and disciples, addicted to Gorakhnath; thus, some devote themselves to the one or the other of the deities.
This sect is divided into twelve classes, which are as follow:[204] Satyanath, Ayípanthi, Kaśyapa, Vairag, Nátírí, Ardhanarí, Náyari, Amara nath, Kam-híbdás, Jóli handi, Tarnaknath, Jágar prarág: these are called panthi nék, “good sects,” and panthi signifies “a tribe, a sect.”[205] According to their opinion, the chiefs of all religions, sects, and creeds proceed as disciples from the prophet and saint Gorakhnath, and what they found, they have found it from him. Their belief is that Muhammed (to whom be peace) was also a pupil and disciple of Gorakhnath, but, from fear of the Muselmans, they dare not declare it; they say, that Bábá Rin Háji, that is, Gorakhnath, was the foster-father of the prophet, who, having received the august mission, took the mode of Yog from the sublime road of true faith; and a great many of them agree with the Muselmans in fasting and in prayers, and perform several acts according to the religion of that people. The sect of Yogís know no prohibited food; they eat pork as the Hindus and the Naźárains, and cow-flesh, like the Muselmans, and so on; they also kill and eat men, according to the custom of the Akmían, as will be related hereafter; and they drink wine like the Guébers. There are some of this sect, who, having mixed their excretions and filtered them through a piece of cloth, drink them and say, that such an act renders a man capable of great affairs, and they pretend to know strange things. They call the performer of this act Atílía and also Akhórí. Although they have all originated from Gorakhnath, and adhere to him in the generality of their faith, yet some follow the road of those who attached themselves to the twelve divisions of the Yoga.
Among them, the restraining of the breath is held in great esteem, such as it was practised among the Parsian by Azar Hushang, and by the kings of that people. It is stated in the Bastán namah, that Afrasíab, the son of Pashang, was strong in restraining his breath, and it was on account of this qualification that, when he had escaped from the sling of Aâbid, he kept himself concealed in the water. This history is known.[206] Among the Hindus and the Parsian Yezdanián, nothing is esteemed higher than this. I have said something of this custom in the article upon the Parsian Sipasían: in this place I shall state more of it.
This science of the breath is an imaginary one. The Yogis, the Sanyásies, the Hindus, and the Tapasís, say that, when one has the intention of mastering his breath, he most strictly abstains from intercourse with women, from eating salt and any thing bitter and sour, as well as from toil; then, tending towards this purpose, he will know that from the place of sitting to the summit of the head there are seven divisions of the body, which the Azarián call haft khán amèkhi, “the seven places of union,” and the Yogís, sapta chakra,[207] “seven circles.” The first is the region about the pubis, similar to a flower with four leaves; the Hindus call it muládhára.[208] In the middle of this originates a member, which the Hindus call manthar,[209] and the Arabians ذكر zicker, and this is the second region. The third is the navel, from the centre of which proceeds a fire-colored vein, entitled by the Hindus nábhi chakra.[210] The fourth region is that of the heart, called by the Hindus manipuram,[211] and that is like a flower with twelve leaves. The fifth is the windpipe, in the language of the Hindus kant´a.[212] The sixth comprehends the interval between the two eyebrows, in Sanskrit bhruva.[213] The seventh region is that of the head, which is called by the Hindus brahmanda.[214] It is to be known that in these regions there are many veins, among which three, as the principal, are to be distinguished: the one is on the right side, “the solar vein;” the other in the middle, “the earthen;” the third on the left side, “the lunar;” these veins are named in the language of the Hindus áditya, pankila, and somana;[215] in the Persian language, mahna, míná, and máná.[216] One of the three veins is the greatest, that, namely, which running from the middle of the back to the right of the back bone, divides beyond it into two branches, the one of which attains to the right, the other to the left of the nostrils; the breath and the wind comes from them, and the air which proceeds from these veins extends, during a man’s being awake, to twelve, during sleep to thirty-two, and during coition to sixty-four fingers: this air and breath they hold to be the foundation of life, and a great importance is attached to this subject by the learned Sipásian and Hindus. They believe the wind to be of ten kinds; but what according to them is essential to know, is the superior and inferior winds, which by the Hindus are called Prána and Apána;[217] by the Persians, Alayi and Pásáyi. These two winds attract each other mutually, and in pronouncing “han,” the breath goes out, in pronouncing “sa,” it goes within; and this takes place during prayers, without the aid and the motion of the tongue; when they fix upon a name, it becomes hansa, and they say also hamsa: the Hindus call it ajapa,[218] that is, it is pronounced without the aid of the tongue; and in Persian it has the name of damáníbád, or “sound of the wind.” Thus there is, above the channel of the region of the pubis, a most subtile vein; from the summit of the shank a flower, bright and similar to gold in redness, expands itself from eight roots, and after having from this origin raised its head, and taken the high direction to the top of the head, it is there closed: this the Hindus call Kundelí,[219] “a snake;” and the Persians Ruhen mar, and Ráushibár: and the path of the vein of the head is a middle one. When the Kundeli awakes to draw breath from a high feeling, it rises to the summit of the head; in like manner as a thread passes through the eye of a needle, it goes through the said opening to the top of the head. If thou knowest this mode well, thou understandest the modes of sitting; of these we mentioned one in the section upon the Sipasián; in this place we shall give a further account of this subject. The most approved mode of sitting is that which in the Hindu language is called Maha ásana,[220] and Sáda ásana,[221] that is “sitting as the High, the mature of age, and the accomplished,” which in Persian is termed sánishín. The mode of this is as follows: the heel of the left foot is placed at the orifice of the anus, and the heel of the other foot raised up straight to the pubis, and to the bust; the eyes, without twinkling, are directed to the middle of the eyebrows, then the part about the pubis is put in motion; the inferior wind is drawn with the superior towards the upper parts, and raised by degrees until it reaches the head. We have explained the mode of drawing up the breath in the section upon the Sipasían. At the time of drawing it up, the beginning is made on the side of the left, for emission through the right, of the nostrils; when drawn up on the right it is also passing through the right, and the inferior wind emitted: this performance is called Pránáyama,[222] by the Hindus, and Aferasdam, that is, “raising of the breath,” by the Persians. The devotee, on drawing up the breath at the left side, forms the image of the moon; that is, he places the disk of the moon to the left, and to the right that of the sun. Some of the Sipásian place the image of one of the seven planets at every stage of their devotion. This mode is held in great esteem among the Hindus at all prayers and religious exercises; they say, the adept in it has the power of flying; he never falls sick, is exempt from death, and from hunger and thirst; it is stated in the Ramzsitán of the Persian, that by means of this power Kái Khusro is still alive. The Sipásían and the historians relate, that whoever carries this process to perfection, rises above death; as long as he remains in the body, he can put it off and be again reunited to it; he never suffers from sickness, and is fit for all business. They say that Kaí Khusró, when he had acquired perfection in this devotion, felt his heart estranged from existence in this world; he chose retirement from men, and having separated from this body, he associated with the incorporeal beings, and found eternal life. The Hindus hold that, whenever a man has perfected himself in this act, Brahma, Vichnu, and Mahadéva have no command over him, but he rules over them. According to a great number of the Hindus, it is this perfection which is personified in the three deities, namely, Brahma, Vichnu, and Mahadéva; and it is the belief of many, that whoever becomes master of this process of devotion, coalesces with God himself. Much has been said and written upon this subject by the Hindus and by the Persians. The Sipásíans have a book entitled Sányal, which contains a great deal on this subject, and there exists no better book about it. Other writings are those of Zardúsht, as well as the Sarud i-mastan, and the like, in great numbers, which I have seen. Among the Hindus similar works abound, such as that composed by Atmá Ráma, a Yogí, who is known under the name of Bahet Barváng, and the book of Gorakh Singh, which has been composed by Gorakhnath, and that of Ambaret Kant. The author of the Dabistán says: “I saw Ambaret Kant, who has also translated his work into Persian, under the title Huz ul Hayat. Therein are the sayings of Gorakhnath, supposed to proceed from the prophet Khizar, and Machinder Yónas; but these speeches, pursuant to Ambarat Kant, are not original; they are in fact those of Gorakhnath; as, according to the Yogís, Brahma came and went some hundred thousand times, but Gorakhnath remained.” Relatively to the Yoga, this book gives no further explanation.
Balik Nátha, they say, a penitent, was of royal extraction, and attained great perfection in the Yoga; he restrained his breath during one week, and after having passed one hundred and twenty years of his life, he had not lost his strength. I have heard from the Mobéd Hushíar, the author of several books, that in the year 1028 of the Hejira (1618 A. D.), he brought me to him, and requested him to bless me; Balik nath pronounced then upon me: “This boy shall acquire the knowledge of God.”
Serud nath, descending from Humayún, was of a noble origin. Having in his youth attained to the mastership of that sect, he could restrain his breath for two days. In the year 1048 of the Hejira (1638 A. D.), the author of this work saw him in Lahore.
Sanjá náth, of the sect of Ayí, was a man accomplished in restraining the breath; the people numbered him among the saints, and said, that seven hundred years of his life had elapsed without his hair having yet become white: he was, in the last mentioned year, seen in Lahore.