Yoga
one of the six Darsanas, i. e.. schools or systems of Brahmanical philosophy, that of Patanjali, the essence of which is meditation. It believes in a primordial soul which has had existence from an earlier period than primeval matter, and holds that from the two arose the spirit of life (Mahanatma).
Theoretically, at least, its devotees can acquire even in this world entire command over elementary matter by certain ascetic practices, such as long continued suppression of the respiration, inhaling and exhaling the breath in a particular manner, sitting in 84 attitudes, fixing the eyes on the tip of the nose, and endeavoring, by the force of mental abstraction, to unite themselves with the vital spirit which pervades all nature and is identical with Siva. When this mystic union is effected, the Yoga can make himself lighter than the lightest, or heavier than the heaviest substance, or as small or as large as he pleases; he can traverse all space, can become invisible, can equally know the past, the present, and the future, and can animate any dead body by transferring to it his own spirit; finally he becomes united with Siva, and is excempt from the necessity of undergoing further transmigrations.