![]() The Purana says that miraculous powers and celestial attributes spontaneously develop themselves in a Yogin, absorbed in meditating upon the Universal Soul symbolised by Lord Vishnu, and thus unmistakably indicate his success in connection with his practice of Yoga. The Yogin sees, with unaided eyes, unbounded treasures lying concealed in the bowels of the earth, and hears the music of celestial spheres swelling in eddies around his person. Kings and rich men seek his favours by the gift of enormous wealth. The Vedas, the books of scripture and sciences, as well as Poetry and celestial alchemy, reveal to him their respective secrets and voluntarily furnish him with all knowledge contained in them. He becomes a healer of maladies and a skilful artisan without going through the necessary term of training. Beautiful virgins of Paradise hail him with their overtures of unsolicited affections. But a. true Yogin must discard all these as so many trifles; and with such a man alone Lord Vishnu is pleased. Agni Purana states that the attributes of Anima, etc., are the virtues or powers which a Yogin necessarily acquires in the course of practising his penances. The preceptor,, having developed true knowledge in the mind of his disciple, should abandon his home, rise above the plain of mere physical or animal existence, and live in the soul in perfect knowledge and supreme felicity, in other words, in nothing short of the Supreme Brahma, itself . The intellect, the senses (both intellectual and operative) the wind, the sense of egoism, and the physical principles of earth, etc., enter into the composition of the human individuality. This body is called the Kshetra (field) and the invisible soul is called the Kshetrajna or the knower of the field, the lord of all beings, and is combined of two factors, both finite and infinite. Intellect proceeds out of a source which is invisible, and cannot be perceived by the senses. Out of the faculty of intellect germinates the sense of egoism. Out of this egoistic feeling are evolved the principles of space, etc, which are respectively characterised by the attributes of sound, touch, sight, taste, smell, etc., and they ultimately merge in the physical principles by which they are respectively worked upon in life. The soul under the influence of the fundamental virtues of Rajas and Tamas, is whirled round through the cycles of successive re-births. The Purusha or the Jivatman is finite and infinite, finite in the plain of individuality, and infinite in the region of psychic continuity. |