DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0437
Hindu Fasts, Festivals, and Holy Days. 427
of self-mortification, find themselves quite outdone and left
hopelessly in the rear by a thousand devotees in every sacred
city of India \
It must of course be borne in mind that fasting is practised
by Indian devotees, not as a penitential exercise, but as a
means of accumulating religious merit. Moreover, severe self-
mortification is always connected with the fancied attainment
of extraordinary sanctity or superhuman powers. Amongst
other objects aimed at is the acquirement of a kind of preter-
natural or ethereal lightness of body. By long fasting a man
is believed to achieve what is called Laghima; that is to say,
his frame becomes so buoyant and sublimated by abstinence,
that the force of gravitation loses its power of binding him to
the earth, and he is able to sit or float in the air. It may
seem the very height of superstitious credulity to give cre-
dence to an emaciated Hindu claiming to triumph in this
way over the laws of matter; yet cool-headed and sceptical
Englishmen of unimpeachable sincerity have been invited to
witness the achievements of these so-called Yogis, and have
come away convinced of their genuineness and ready to
testify to the absence of all fraud.
Nevertheless, it must be noted that the rules of fasting, as
practised by natives of India in the present day, are by no
means so stringent as they were in ancient times. Several
severe forms of abstinence are specified by Manu. For ex-
ample, the fast called 'very painful' (ati-kricchra) consisted
in eating only a single mouthful every day for nine days, and
then abstaining from all food for the three following days
(Manu XL 213).
Another notable fast was that called 'the lunar vow' (can-
1 The truth is that any breach of the Creator's law of adaptation is
sure to be followed by a Nemesis, and those pious and devoted English-
men who practise protracted abstinence from religious motives in an
exhausting Indian atmosphere cannot expect to be exempt from the
operation of this law. We have recently had, I am sorry to say, several
sad examples of useful careers arrested through this cause.
of self-mortification, find themselves quite outdone and left
hopelessly in the rear by a thousand devotees in every sacred
city of India \
It must of course be borne in mind that fasting is practised
by Indian devotees, not as a penitential exercise, but as a
means of accumulating religious merit. Moreover, severe self-
mortification is always connected with the fancied attainment
of extraordinary sanctity or superhuman powers. Amongst
other objects aimed at is the acquirement of a kind of preter-
natural or ethereal lightness of body. By long fasting a man
is believed to achieve what is called Laghima; that is to say,
his frame becomes so buoyant and sublimated by abstinence,
that the force of gravitation loses its power of binding him to
the earth, and he is able to sit or float in the air. It may
seem the very height of superstitious credulity to give cre-
dence to an emaciated Hindu claiming to triumph in this
way over the laws of matter; yet cool-headed and sceptical
Englishmen of unimpeachable sincerity have been invited to
witness the achievements of these so-called Yogis, and have
come away convinced of their genuineness and ready to
testify to the absence of all fraud.
Nevertheless, it must be noted that the rules of fasting, as
practised by natives of India in the present day, are by no
means so stringent as they were in ancient times. Several
severe forms of abstinence are specified by Manu. For ex-
ample, the fast called 'very painful' (ati-kricchra) consisted
in eating only a single mouthful every day for nine days, and
then abstaining from all food for the three following days
(Manu XL 213).
Another notable fast was that called 'the lunar vow' (can-
1 The truth is that any breach of the Creator's law of adaptation is
sure to be followed by a Nemesis, and those pious and devoted English-
men who practise protracted abstinence from religious motives in an
exhausting Indian atmosphere cannot expect to be exempt from the
operation of this law. We have recently had, I am sorry to say, several
sad examples of useful careers arrested through this cause.