Book Title: Comparative and Critical Study of Mantrashastra
Author(s): Mohanlal Bhagwandas Jhaveri, K V Abhayankar
Publisher: Sarabhai Manilal Nawab
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144
INTRODUCTION
and arrests the matlūb by crying out his name simply and looking fixedly at his heart, reciting a prayer. Another tawajjuh is when the Talib is desirous of bestowing something upon a matlub, and he can then so influence the latter by his powers as to impress him beneficially. This is generally done to the Sāliks or neophytes under instruction by their murshid.
These powers are instances of personal magnetism and mesmerism or Thought-force.
SPIRITUAL POWERS "Among the practices of these powers is the faculty of foreseeing coming events- of predicting their occurrence-of preserving individuals from the harm and evil which would otherwise certainly result for them-of assuring to one person success over the machinations of another, so that he may freely attack him and prevail over him-of restoring harmony of sentiment between those who would otherwise be relentless enemies—of knowing when others have devised harm against themselves, and through certain spells of preserving themselves and causing harm to befall the evil-minded; and even of causing the death of any one against whom they wish to proceed. All this is done as well from a distance as when near.
"In other parts of the world, and among other people, these attainments would have been attributed to sorcery and witchcraft; in modern times they would be ascribed to Spiritism, or magnetic influences, either of the spirit or of the body; but to the instructed Darvish they all derive the origin in the spirit of the holy Shaikh-the special gift of the great Spirit of God, which commences with the spirit of man from which it directly emanated. The condition or disposition necessary for these effects is called hāl the (state,or frame), and is much the same as that required by the magnetised, and the object of his operation. The powers of the body are enfeebled by fasting and mental fatigue and prayer, and the imagination kept in a fervid state, fully impressed with the conviction that such powers are really
