THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

VII. 14. Hathayoga403divinity of the soul, by rising into the spirit and finding his strengthin the super-psychic Will or Intelligent Force in things. The spiritualman fulfils the divinity of the spirit by rising beyond thehuman spirit, the jivÀtman and finding his strength in the parameÙvaramand parabrahman, the saÕ and tat, God revealed andunrevealed, the Universe and Supreme Spirit who supports andcontains the individual. To put it in language easier but morecapable of misconception, the material man realises himself byidentifying God with his own ego; the psychic man by identifyingGod with passionless, intelligent, blissful Will in himself, thespiritual man by identifying God with the All, in whom everythingabides. The first is the rÀkØasa or asura of the lower order,the second is the deva or the asura of the highest order, thethird is the pÓrÍa or siddhapuruØa, the perfect being.The pure Hathayoga is the means of the fulfilment throughthe body. Its processes are physical, strenuous, colossal, complex,difficult. They centre in Àsana, prÀÍÀyÀma and the physicalpurifications. The number of Àsanas in the modern mixedHathayoga is limited and even they are numerous and painful;in the ancient or pure Hathayoga they were innumerable and theold yogin practised them all. The Àsana means simply particularposition of the body and is perfect or ‘conquered’ in the technicallanguage, when a man can stay in a single posture, howeverstrained or apparently impossible, for an indefinite period, withoutbeing forced by strain to remember the body.The first object of the Asana is to conquer the body, for thebody must be conquered before it can become divine — to beable to lay any command upon it and never be commanded by it.The second object is to conquer physical nature, by developingthe four physical siddhis — laghimÀ, aÍimÀ, garimÀ, mahimÀ.By perfect laghimÀ, man can rise into the air and tread the windsas his natural element, by perfect aÍimÀ he can bring the natureof the subtlety into the gross body which the fire will no longerburn, nor weapon wound, nor want of air stifle, nor the watersdrown; by perfect garimÀ he can develop an adamantine steadinesswhich no shock of even an avalanche can overbear; by perfectmahimÀ he can without muscular development outdo thefeats of a Hercules. These powers in their fullness are no longer