RELIGIOUS SECTS OF THE HINDUS. 185 



greater or less perfection with which the initiatory processes have been 

 performed. 



According to standard authorities, the perfect fulfilment of the rites 

 which the Yogi has to accomplish, requires a protracted existence and re- 

 peated births, and it is declared to be unattainable in the present or Kali 

 age.* The attempt is therefore prohibited, and the Yoga is prescribed in 

 modern times. This inhibition is, however, disregarded, and the individuals 

 who are the subjects of our enquiry, endeavour to attain the super-human 

 powers which the performance of the Yoga is supposed to confer. They 

 especially practice the various gesticulations and postures of which it 

 consists, and labour assiduously to suppress their breath and fix their 

 thoughts until the effect does somewhat realise expectation, and the brain, 

 in a state of over- wrought excitement, bodies forth a host of crude and 

 wild conceptions, and gives to airy nothings a local habitation and a 

 name.f A year's intense application is imagined enough to qualify the 



* The Kdsikhanda thus enumerates the difficulty or impossibility of completing the Yoga in 

 the present age. 



" From the unsteadiness of the senses, the prevalence of sin in the Kali, and the shortness of life, 

 how can Exaltation by the Yoga be obtained." 

 Again — 



In the Kali age, the Yoga and severe penance are impracticable. 



f Some who have commenced their career in this line, have carried the practice to several 

 hours duration, at which time they have described themselves as becoming perfectly exhausted, 

 with strange objects passing before them, and sparks of fire flashing in their eyes. One individual 



A 1 



