Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 572

PAINFUL EXPERIMENTS
532
out by these foolish and fatiguing practices, and fearing
my brain might really be turned, I left the sannyasi
and his meditative penances, and returned to my former
lest
state of
life.'
The second, an old man
of a very cheerful disposition,
the following story of his novitiate
The sannyasi under whose direction I placed myself
had built his hermitage at some distance from the fort of
Namakal, in a desert spot. Amongst other exercises which
he laid down for me, he obliged me to stare at the sky
every day without blinking my eyes or changing my position.
This prolonged effort inflamed my eyes terribly and often
gave me dreadful headaches. Sometimes I thought I saw
at others I seemed to see fiery
sparks of fire in the air
My teacher was much pleased
globes and other meteors.
with the success of my efforts and with the progress I was
making. He had only one eye, and I knew that he had
lost the other in following out this practice, which he
assured me was indispensable if I wished to attain to
Bat at last I could bear it no longer,
perfect spirituality.
and fearing that I might lose the sight of both eyes, I bade
I also
farewell to meditation and the celestial firmament.
told
me
:
'
;
My
master told
tried another kind of exercise for a time.
me that an infallible means for making rapid progress
towards spirituality was to keep all the apertures of
my
body completely closed, so that none of the
To do
(winds) which are in it could escape.
five
this
pranams
I had to
each ear, close my lips with the fourth
and little fingers of each hand, my eyes with the two fore-
and
fingers, and my nostrils with the two middle fingers
to close the lower orifice I had to cross my legs and sit
very tightly on one of my heels. While in this attitude
I had to keep one nostril tightly shut, and leaving the
then,
other open I had to draw in a long deep breath
immediately closing that nostril, I had to open the other
and thoroughly exhale the air that I had just inhaled. It
was of the greatest importance that the inhalation and
exhalation should not be performed through the same
nostril.
I continued this exercise until I lost consciousness
and fainted away.'
In order to make his description more intelligible the
place a
thumb
in
;
;