One of them simply denied that he had any power at all;
the other did not deny, and even showed Dr. Paul some very wonderful
things, but refused to give any explanations whatever; the third
said he would explain a few things on the condition that Dr. Paul
must pledge himself never to repeat anything he learned from him.
In acquiring this kind of information, Dr. Paul had only one aim -
to give these secrets publicity, and to enlighten the public
ignorance, and so he declined the honor.
However, the gifts of the true Raj-Yogis are much more interesting,
and a great deal more important for the world, than the phenomena
of the lay Hatha-Yogis. These gifts are purely psychic: to the
knowledge of the Hatha-Yogis the Raj-Yogis add the whole scale of
mental phenomena. Sacred books ascribe to them the following gifts:
foreseeing future events; understanding of all languages; the
healing of all diseases; the art of reading other people's thoughts;
witnessing at will everything that happens thousands of miles from
them; understanding the language of animals and birds; Prakamya,
or the power of keeping up youthful appearance during incredible
periods of time; the power of abandoning their own bodies and
entering other people's frames; Vashitva, or the gift to kill,
and to tame wild animals with their eyes; and, lastly, the mesmeric
power to subjugate any one, and to force any one to obey the
unexpressed orders of the Raj-Yogi.
Dr. Paul has witnessed the few phenomena of Hatha-Yoga already
described; there are many others about which he has heard, and
which he neither believes nor disbelieves. But he guarantees that
a Yogi can suspend his breath for forty-three minutes and twelve
seconds.
Nevertheless, European scientific authorities maintain that no one
can suspend the breath for more than two minutes. O science! Is
it possible then that thy name is also vanitas vanitatum, like
the other things of this world?
We are forced to suppose that, in Europe, nothing is known about
the means which enabled the philosophers of India, from times
immemorial, gradually to transform their human frames.
Here are a few deep words of Professor Boutleroff, a Russian
scientist whom I, in common with all Russians, greatly respect:
"....All this belongs to knowledge; the increase of the mass of
knowledge will only enrich and not abolish science. This must be
accomplished on the strength of serious observation, of study, of
experience, and under the guidance of positive scientific methods,
by which people are taught to acknowledge every other phenomenon
of nature. We do not call you blindly to accept hypotheses, after
the example of bygone years, but to seek after knowledge; we do
not invite you to give up science, but to enlarge her regions... "
This was said about spiritualist phenomena. As to the rest of our
learned physiologists, this is, approximately, what they have the
right to say: "We know well certain phenomena of nature which we
have personally studied and investigated, under certain conditions,
which we call normal or abnormal, and we guarantee the accuracy of
our conclusions."
However, it would be very well if they added:
"But having no pretensions to assure the world that we are acquainted
with all the forces of nature, known and unknown, we do not claim
the right to hold back other people from bold investigations in
regions which we have not reached as yet, owing to our great
cautiousness and also to our moral timidity. Not being able to
maintain that the human organism is utterly incapable of developing
certain transcendental powers, which are rare, and observable only
under certain conditions, unknown to science, we by no means wish
to keep other explorers within the limits of our own scientific
discoveries."
By pronouncing this noble, and, at the same time, modest speech,
our physiologists would doubtless gain the undying gratitude
of posterity.
After this speech there would be no fear of mockery, no danger of
losing one's reputation for veracity and sound reason; and the
learned colleagues of these broad-minded physiologists would
investigate every phenomenon of nature seriously and openly. The
phenomena of spiritualism would then transmigrate from the region
of materialized "mothers-in-law" and half-witted fortune-telling
to the regions of the psycho-physiological sciences. The celebrated
"spirits" would probably evaporate, but in their stead the living
spirit, which "belongeth not to this world," would become better
known and better realized by humanity, because humanity will
comprehend the harmony of the whole only after learning how closely
the visible world is bound to the world invisible.
After this speech, Haeckel at the head of the evolutionists, and
Alfred Russel Wallace at the head of the spiritualists, would be
relieved from many anxieties, and would shake hands in brotherhood.
Seriously speaking, what is there to prevent humanity from
acknowledging two active forces within itself; one purely animal,
the other purely divine?
It does not behove even the greatest amongst scientists to try
to "bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades," even if they have
chosen "Arcturus with his sons" for their guides. Did it never
occur to them to apply to their own intellectual pride the questions
the "voice out of the whirlwind" once asked of long-suffering Job:
"where were they when were laid the foundations of the earth? and
have the gates of death been opened unto them?" If so, only then
have they the right to maintain that here and not there is the
abode of eternal light.
The End
