for a high mental discipline which speedily qualifies one for absorption
into the Deity. It is manifested in the form of abstract meditation and
austerity--an austerity embodied in asceticism and self-mortification. From
early times this method has been held high in honour, and today is
universally esteemed as the most powerful and speedy boat wherewith to
cross the sullen stream of human existence. The grand object of _Yoga_ is
to teach how to concentrate the mind--an object based upon the idea that
the great and sole need of man is not moral and spiritual regeneration,
but more light, _i.e._, a clear, intellectual apprehension of things. Not
only is this basis of philosophy false in supposing that such intellectual
gymnastics can finally exalt and save a soul, it is also radically
defective in its general rules and practical results. No one who has
studied the childish rules which are prescribed to the Yogis, or has
observed in India many of even the better type of Yogis can fail to be
impressed with the degradation to mind and morals which is indissolubly
connected with it. Barth's observation on the processes of _Yoga_ is
eminently true. "Conscientiously observed," he says, "they can only issue
in folly and idiocy; and it is, in fact, under the image of a fool or an
idiot that the wise man is often delineated for us in the _Puranas_ for
instance."(9)

Meditation upon the Divine Being and upon self is a supreme duty
inculcated by Christianity. Here God is a Personality upon whom the mind
can be centred and find rest and exaltation. The self also is conceived as
a being with a separate and infinitely high destiny marked out before it.
Concentrated thought, deep emotion and lofty purpose, in view of these
objects, is supremely profitable. But what is there left worthy of thought
for the Vedantist _Yogi_ when the Divine Being is the unknowable and the
Yogi himself the deluded child of (_Maya_) illusion and (_avidya_)
ignorance--those twin enemies to all true and worthy knowledge? It cannot
be elevating to detach the mind from things worldly and attach it to
nothing!

Incarnation, as we have seen above, has in later times become a popular
doctrine in India. The _avatars_ ("descents") of members of the Hindu
pantheon, especially of Vishnu, the second member of the Triad, wield a
large influence in the religious life of the masses. Yet the doctrines
should, by no means, be regarded as identical or even similar in Hinduism