and the feeling of flying through the air) are really produced by the discipline recommended and there may be elements of much greater value in the various systems of meditation.  But this is only the beginning of Tapas.  To the idea that the soul when freed from earthly desires is best able to comprehend the divine is superadded another idea, namely that self-mortification is a process of productive labour akin to intellectual toil.  Just as the whole world is supposed to be permeated by a mysterious principle which can be known and subdued by the science of the sacrificing priests, so the ascetic is able to control gods and nature by the force of his austerities.  The creative deities are said to have produced the world by Tapas, just as they are said to have produced it by sacrifice and Hindu mythology abounds in stories of ascetics who became so mighty that the very gods were alarmed.  For instance Ravana, the Demon ruler of Lanka who carried off Sita, had acquired his power by austerities which enabled him to extort a boon from Brahma.  Thus there need be nothing moral in the object of asceticism or in the use of the power obtained.  The epics and dramas frequently portray ascetics as choleric and unamiable characters and modern Yogis maintain the tradition.

Though asceticism resembles the sacrifice in being a means by which man can obtain his wishes whether religious or profane, it differs in being comparatively easy.  Irksome as it may be, it demands merely strength of will and not a scientific training in ritual and Vedic texts.  Hence in this sphere the supremacy of the Brahman could be challenged by other castes and an instructive legend relates how Rama slew a Sudra whom he surprised in the act of performing austerities.  The lowest castes can by this process acquire a position which makes them equal to the highest[164].

Of the non-Brahmanic sects, the Jains set the highest value on Tapas, but chiefly as a purification of the soul and a means of obtaining an unearthly state of pure knowledge[165].  In theory the Buddha rejected it; he taught a middle way, rejecting alike self-indulgence and self-mortification.  But even Pali Buddhism admits such practices as the Dhutangas and the more extravagant sects, for instance in Tibet, allow monks to entomb themselves in dark cells.  According to our standards even the ordinary religious life of both Hindus and Buddhists is severely ascetic.  It is assumed as a sine qua non that strict chastity must be observed, nourishment be taken only to support life and not for pleasure, that all gratification coming from the senses must be avoided and the mind kept under rigid discipline.  This discipline receives systematic treatment in the Yoga school of philosophy but it is really common to all varieties of Hinduism and Buddhism; all agree that the body must be subdued by physical training before the mind can apprehend the higher truths.  The only question is how far asceticism is directly instrumental in giving higher