534 THE ASHTA-YOGA
Another kind of meditation, which is quite as efficacious as that which I have just described, is the ashta-yoga( the
eight yogas). The following is a short analysis of it, compiled from the Saka of the Rig-Veda
:
The ashta-yoga is peculiarly efficacious. By its means
Siva himself obtained forgiveness for his sins and the * kingdom of Kailasa. There are no sins that it will not wipe out! To kill a Brahmin or a cow, to steal gold, to drink intoxicating liquors, to violate the wife of one ' s guru, to bring about abortion, are all most heinous crimes.
To slander or deceive a Brahmin, or break a promise made to a Brahmin
; to look upon a poor man or a stranger when one is eating and not to have pity on him, but to repulse him and send him away hungry; to prevent cows
from drinking when they are thirsty; to try to pass oneself
off as learned when one knows nothing; to attempt to dogmatize on the practice of meditation while ignorant of the subject; to give medicines without being a doctor; to predict the future when one, is no astrologer; for a
Brahmin to offer sacrifices to the lingam or to an image of
Vishnu after a Sudra has previously sacrificed to them:
all these are indeed terrible sins. But the ashta-yoga will wipe them:— all out. It is thus described First of all, one
must fast for three consecutive days; after which one must repair to a temple dedicated to Siva, or to a cemetery, or to a bilva tree. There one must perform the achamania and paint the little circular mark called tilaka on one ' s forehead. Having prepared a clean spot on the ground, the devotee must stand upon it on his head with his feet in the air. In this position he must six times perform the pranayama, which consists in inhaling through one nostril and forcibly expelling the air through the other 2. By this means the Man of Sin will be destroyed, for this Man of Sin resides in the nerve which is found on the left side of the head. While expelling the air from the body by the
'
pranayama, one must say: Nerve, you are a goddess!
In you resides the Man of Sin. I am about to wash you to
'
rid you of him. So begone!
A violent exhalation through the left nostril having expelled this nerve where
1
See Part I, Chapter VII.
2
Pranayama literally means suppression of breath.— Er >.