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MYSTICISM IN INDIA
number and each has its peculiar influence on the body and the mind. By various kinds of postures. and modes of controlling the breath the Yogis get over almost all kinds of diseases. Having thoroughly mastered the practices of the three stages, forbearance, observance and postures, the Student of Yoga has to learn the science of the breath and regulate its expiration and inspiration according to the rules of that science. This fourth stage is called Prānāyāma. Proper Prānāyāma destroys all diseases, improper one produces them. By proper Prānāyāma the humours of the body are cleared, the body becomes light and beautiful, the digestive power becomes strong, health ensues and the body is then in a fit state of following the Yoga practice further. By the practice of Prānā. yāma the mind becomes fit for being quite absorbed in the subject thought of. It befits the Yogi to enter the fifth stage-that of Pratyāhāra...abstraction-imitating by the senses, the thinking principle by withdrawing themselves from their objects. It consists in the senses. becoming entirely assimilated to or controlled by the mind. They must be drawn away from their objects and fixed upon the mind and assimilated to it, so that by preventing the transformations of the thinking principle, the senses also will follow it and will be immediately controlled. Not only that, but they will be ever ready to contribute collectively towards the absorbing meditation of any given thing at any moment and even always.
Passing through these five stages, Yama, Niyama,
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