The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c32.s9.1

v2.c32.s9.1

The ritual, as has been seen, both in the case of magic and of the sacrifice, is full of elements which appear systematized in the later Yoga philosophy and practice. But it would be a mistake to exaggerate the degree of correspondence, and in point of fact much that is later characteristic and essential is lacking in the earlier Vedic literature.⁷ In special hardly any trace can be found of the importance later attaching to elaborate regulation of the breath, despite the fact that the division of the breaths or vital airs as five is early. The suggestion that the term *çuṣma* is a word with ecstatic implications is wholly implausible. The inducing of perspiration as a part of the Dīkṣā and as a means of exciting ecstasy is clear, but it does not appear as a distinct or important rite as with the Scythians of Herodotos or the aborigines of North America or Australia. Nor do we find any clear reference to the various sitting postures familiar to the later Yoga, for it is absurd to believe that the sense 'altar', if it ever really belongs to the obscure term Dhiṣaṇā, owes its origin to the fact that by his posture at the place of sacrifice the priest beholds the might (*dhiṣaṇā*) of the gods. The mysterious Uttānapad of the Rigveda⁸ as a cosmic power cannot with any plausibility be deemed to yield a proof of the practice of assuming the position of an embryo in the womb as a means of attaining mystic rebirth. That silence and solitude were conducive to ecstasy is, curiously enough, little referred to, and the dirt of both person and garments of the later Yogin is recognized only in a few hints.⁹ There is more evidence of fasting, and the hymn of Lopāmudrā and Agastya in the Rigveda¹⁰ appears, despite its obscurity, to express the two kindred ideas of the magic potency engendered by continence on the one hand, and on the other of the cosmic importance of the rite of generation, both doctrines of the later system.¹ The idea of a mystic union between the god and the worshipper, which finds its highest development in the Çakti cults of Bengal, appears wholly unknown to Vedic literature,² and dancing as a means of producing ecstasy is never mentioned, though the gods as dancers may be a relic of the conception. The songs, and their musical accompaniments, together with the ritual exclamations which are preserved in the Song-books of the Sāmaveda, may have served a similar purpose; sound may often have accomplished results of spiritual excitement irrespective of the words, and the term Vipra, used of the poet, seems to suggest the trembling or quaking of divine inspiration.³