Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/316

260 contemplation, and meditation, which are the essential constituents of Yoga itself. When these three are united, occult powers are acquired, and through them one may know the past and the future, make himself invisible to men, observe the details of what is passing



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in distant regions or in the stars and planets, converse with spirits, travel in the air or through water, and acquire various superhuman powers.

It will thus be seen that as a system of philosophy Yoga is valueless; all its fundamental maxims about the soul and intellect and sensations, about the transmigration of souls and their eternity and final emancipation by knowledge, are those of the Sankhya philosophy. In fact Patanjali tried to blend the idea of a Supreme Deity with the philosophy of Kapila; but unfortunately he or his followers mixed up with it much of the superstition and the mystic practices of the age, while in still later times the philosophy of the Yoga