This stage brings abundant suffering; it requires a good deal of
firmness and resolution on the part of a Yogi, but it leads him
to Dhayana, a state of perfect, indescribable bliss. According
to their own description, in this state they swim in the ocean
of eternal light, in Akasha, or Ananta Jyoti, which they call
the "Soul of the Universe." Reaching the stage of Dhyana, the
Yogi becomes a seer. The Dhyana of the Yogis is the same thing
as Turiya Avastha of the Vedantins, in the number of whom are
the Raj-Yogis.
"Samadhi is the last stage of self-trance," says Dr. Paul. "In
this state the Yogis, like the bat, the hedge-hog, the marmot,
the hamster and the dormouse, acquire the power of supporting the
abstraction of atmospheric air, and the privation of food and drink.
Of Samadhi or human hibernation there have been three cases within
the last twenty-five years. The first case occurred in Calcutta,
the second in Jesselmere, and the third in the Punjab. I was an
eyewitness of the first case. The Jesselmere, the Punjab, and
the Calcutta Yogis assumed a death-like condition by swallowing
the tongue. How the Punjabi fakir (witnessed by Dr. McGregor),
by suspending his breath, lived forty days without food and drink,
is a question which has puzzled a great many learned men of Europe....
It is on the principle of Laghima and Garima (a diminution of one's
specific gravity by swallowing large draughts of air) that the
Brahman of Madras maintained himself in an aerial posture.
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