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OF THE HINDUS.
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Where the object of the ceremony is to acquire an interview with and control over impure spirits, a dead body is necessary. The adept is also to be alone, at midnight, in a cemetery or place where bodies are burnt or buried, or criminals executed: seated on the corpse he is to perform the usual offerings, and if he does so without fear, the Bhútas, the Yoginis, and other male or female goblins becoine his slaves.
In this, and many of the observances practiced, solitude is enjoined; but all the principal ceremonies comprehend the worship of Sakti, and require for that purpose the presence of a female as the living representative and the type of the goddess. This worship is mostly celebrated in a mixed society, the men of which represent Bhairavas or Viras, and the women Bhairavís and Náyikás. The Sakti is personated by a naked female, to whom meat and wine are offered, and then distributed amongst the assistants, the recitation of various Mantras and texts, and the performance of the Mudrá, or gesticulations with the fingers, accompanying the different stages of the ceremony, and it is terminated with the most scandalous
animated world would not have been formed without it, and exists but as long as it exists, and it is an integral part of the universe, without being distinct from it, as the fragrance of flowers, and sweetness of sugar, oil of Sesamum seed, and Sakti of Śiva. He who knows it needs no other knowledge - he who repeats it need practice no other act of adoration. The authority quoted contains a great deal more to the same purpose.
