2 BLOOMFIELD— ON THE ART OF 



ence ; omniscience ; and, finally, as a result of passionlessness or dis- 

 regard of all these perfections, the isolation or concentration that 

 leads up to final emancipation or salvation. 



In later Yoga scriptures the supernormal powers are systematized 

 as the 8 mahasiddhi (great powers): (i) to render one's self in- 

 finitely small or invisible; (2, 3) assumption of levitation and 

 gravitation ; (4) power to extend one's self, so as, e. g., to be able 

 to touch the moon with one's finger tip; (5) irresistible fulfilment 

 of wishes ; (6) complete control over the body and the organs ; 

 (7) power to alter the course of nature; (8) power of transfer at 

 will. And, in addition to these, other, even more wonderful facul- 

 ties are described, such as citing and conversing with the dead ; the 

 assumption of many bodies at one and the same time; trance and 

 burial alive, ^ and finally even the power of creation. There are 

 also other systematizations, such as that of the commentator to 

 Vacaspatimigra's " Samkhya-tattva-kaumudi," mentioned by Garbe 

 in his translation of that work, in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Bavarian Academy, Vol. XIX., p. 586. 



From its own point of view Yoga does not overestimate these 

 powers ; they are all considered ephemeral or unimportant or even 

 contemptible. They are merely a progressive course towards the 

 final goal of emancipation. Buddhist writings state repeatedly that 

 they do not lead to perfection. The great Jain Divine, Hemacandra, 

 once engaged in a Yoga tournament with another Jain Doctor, Deva- 

 bodhi. Hemacandra made appear all the ancestors of King Kumara- 

 pfda, together with the entire Olympus of the Jainas,* he himself 

 in the meanwhile floating in the air. He thus beat Devabodhi, but 

 in the end declared that all his stunts as well as Devabodhi's were 

 mere hallucinations.'' 



But was there ever such an enhancement of the vulgar practice 

 of magic? Philosophy, in dealing with such matters at all, enters 

 into partnership with fairy-tale ; it sanctions, promotes, and legal- 

 izes, so to speak, every fancy, however misty and however ex- 



3 See for this matter Ernst Kuhn's statement in Garbe, " Samkhya und 

 Yoga" (Encyclopaedia of Indo-Aryan Research), p. 47. 

 •1 Cf. Mahabh., 15. 31. i. 

 ^ See Biihler, " Uber das Leben dcs Jaina Monches Hemacandra," p. 83. 



