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A Series of Lessons on the Inner Teachings of the Philosophies and Religions of India1220
prostitution of the Yoga by the fanatics and self-deluded enthusiasts, whose
name in India is legion. And there is not a juggling and conjuring Fakir in
India, whether his tricks be performed by pure imposture, or whether by
developed powers of concentration and hypnotic methods (see our lesson
on Hindu Wonder-Waking), who does not claim the authority of Yoga as the
basis of his work. Could Patanjali have seen the perverted application and
consequences of his teachings could he have foreseen the prostitution of
his valuable methods, exercises, and practices—he would have hesitated to
give them to the world. He warned against such perversion and prostitution,
so far as he thought it necessary—but see the result of telling people “how
to do things,” even from the best motives and intent. And still people ask
why the Adepts do not give their higher teachings, and instructions as to the
attainment of occult power, to the general public. The Fakirs and false-Yogis
of India, and the dark practices of some of the Western dabblers in occult
practices—these are the answers to that question.
And even aside from these things, and viewing the higher aspect of the
case, it must be admitted that the so-called “practical side” of Patanjali’s
teachings has caused his philosophical doctrine to be overlooked, as we
have said, and as says a well-known authority: “The Yoga is in truth a system
of practical discipline for effecting the ultimate release of the Purushas from
the entangling bondage of matter”; and his philosophy is described and
dismissed, with the conclusion so well expressed by the same authority,
who says: “The Yoga theories of knowledge, cosmology, physiology, and
psychology are essentially those of the Sankhya; and the goal of final
deliverance is conceived originally in the same manner.” And so Patanjali,
the great Hindu teacher and philosopher, is now regarded in philosophical
history as “the man who gave us the Raja Yoga methods, exercise, and
practices in his Aphorisms.” So much for “being practical,” even in India, that
land which the West believes to abhor the practical side of things.