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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE. undergo the austerities and hard practices of Hatha Yoga, may proceed along that road.
Such is the general scheme of the process of realization to be gathered from the Hindu Scriptures. The classification of the method under the four heads, Jnana Yoga and the like, is, however, quite arbitrary, and one not founded upon any scientifically valid grounds, notwithstanding the fact that it seems at first sight to provide a suitable method for different kinds of temperaments. For the truly scientific process, like all other scientific processes, can be but one, irrespective of the question, whether it suit the fancy of all men or not? Furthermore, little or no good can ever come out of abandoning the strictly scientific path to suit different temperaments, for while all endeavours to humour individual idiosyncrasies invariably fail to develop second-rate talents, or capacity, on the one hand, the validity of the means employed is also vitiated at once hy a compromising spirit, on the other. We may compare the strict enforcement of disciplinary rules of Yoga with the training of men for the army, where it would be disastrous to humour individual whims. Thus, the pursuit of the scientific method is alone calculated to succeed in the realization of an ideal--and this is the case especially with the training of the will--not the fostering of human weaknesses and shortcomings.
Artificial as the above classification of the subject has been seen to be, it is nevertheless one which is eminently useful for our requirements, since it furnishes a fairly suitable basis for the comparative study of the principles underlying the different methods of
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