Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 560

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MEDITATION AND SELF-MORTIFICATION
the practice of moksha-sadhaka and their status as Sannyasi
According
acquitting them of all blame in this respect l
to other authorities, the Bairagis attain this condition by
purely mechanical means, that is, they attach to their
generative organs a heavy weight which they drag about
until the power of muscles and nerves is completely
destroyed.
Some of these fanatics profess to conquer every feeling
They will
of disgust that is innate in a human being.
even go so far as to eat human ordure without evincing
any dislike. Instead of treating these degraded practices
with the horror and contempt that thej' merit, the Hindus
regard them with respect and honour, true to their custom
of admiring everything that astonishes them.
Meditation, the second means of achieving spiritual per-
fection, accomplishes what the repression of the passions
has only begun. It fills the soul with the thought of God
and identifies it with the Divine Being, of which it is an
emanation. This union with God is not brought about
instantaneously, but gradually, as will be explained else-
where. It was with the object of accomplishing, little by
little, this blessed union with God that the Vanaprastha
devoted a considerable portion of each day to meditation,
combining this devout exercise with the ordinary sacrifices,
particularly the sacrifice to fire, called homam.
The third means of arriving at spiritual perfection
mortification of the flesh consists in leading a hard and
austere life in rigorous and almost continuous fasting, and
.
—
in voluntary and self-inflicted punishments, and above all
in never omitting the indispensable duty of frequent ablu-
tions.
These Vanaprastha recluses were fully persuaded that
the defilements of the soul were communicated to the body,
and those of the body to the soul. They held that ablu-
tions, while cleansing the body, also possessed the virtue
of purifying the soul, especially if they were performed in
the Ganges or in some other waters bearing an equal
reputation for sanctity.
The purification of the soul was completed by fire and
;
1
This
is
only true of the lower types of Bairagis.
— Ed.