Lectures on Hindu religion, philosophy and yoga

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 Excerpt: ...misfortunes or all causes of unhappiness of the company. She then drinks a little of the wine and puts the pup down on the ground, which is taken up by turn by every members of the company, and its contents are partially mixed with the contents of each one's own cup. When all the members have once finished their drink, they meditate and sing together. The superioress at the head of the circle may fall into ecstacy or not, according to the devotional character of the company. In the case of Sundari Sadhana, or the worship of the beautiful, i. e., of celestial spirits, either an unmarried girl of 8 to 10 years of age, or a married woman of 16 years, of fair Bhiti art Chiitrdntutdng says that men with Sakti or women should ait as ceuplcs either in the form of a circle or in a line. Within the circle all arc to contemplate on Sivasakti, then flowers, &c, are to be offered to Gurupatra. Within the circle all men and women of whatever caste or colour should be considered pure as Brahmans. Outside Jie circle all colours (castes) are separate as before. colour and prepossessing appearance, after she has ben clad in best of cloths and decked with best of ornaments, is worshipped in the morning, In such cases the medium is addressed as mother, whereas in other cases as mother, sister or wife, according to the option of the worshipper. The nature of the worship, which resembles the worship of images, dazes the girl considerably and imparts to her a power of prevision which enables her to forecast future events for a time. Of solitary worship I have spoken as much as is necessary in my paper on " Spirit Worship of ancient India. I therefore need not repeat what I have said. Let me now analyze and see--(1) Wherein the Tantrik Sadhana differs from the modern spi...