Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/315

Rh by concentration of the mind, by benevolence, by indifference to happiness or misery, and even by the regulation of the breath.

The first exercises in the performance of Yoga are asceticism, the muttering of a mantra, and devotion to God, which overcome all afflictions like ignorance, egoism, desire, and aversion, or ardent desire to live. These are the motives of work (karma), and works must bear their fruits in subsequent births, while the object of Yoga is to devise means to abstain from works, and so to preclude future births.

We have, then, the Sankhya definition of the soul and the intellect; knowledge finally severs the connection between the two, and thenceforward the soul is free, and an end is put to its reincarnation and its suffering. Knowledge passes through seven stages before it is perfect, and eight means (which remind one of the eightfold path of the Buddhists) are prescribed, by which this perfect knowledge can be obtained. The first way is abstinence from evil actions, slaughter, falsehood, theft, incontinence, and avarice; and the second consists of an obligation to perform certain acts, purification, contentment, penance, study, and devotion to God. These two means are prescribed for all, householders and ascetics alike, while the rules for Yogis are supplemented by additional duties. The third stage is the assumption of special postures for meditation; the fourth is regulation of the breath; the fifth is the abstraction of the organs from their natural functions; and the sixth, seventh, and eighth are steadfastness,