[Illustration: A YOGI ON A BED OF SPIKES _An example of present-day austerities_ 17]
Priests might also accumulate in heaven credit balances of Celestial power by undergoing penances for long periods. A heavy debt was also due to them by the gods for their sacrificial offerings. When a Brahman desired to exercise his accumulated power, he might even depose the deities, who were therefore placed under compulsion to fulfil his demands; his Celestial credit might exceed the “paying” possibilities of the supreme Powers. In the sacred tales Brahmans were credited with performing rigid penances for centuries.
In the fourth Veda, the _Atharva-veda_, the revival of belief in formulas is emphasized. This book, which did not receive recognition as an inspired work at first, is in the main a collection of metrical charms of great antiquity. Many resemble closely those which have been collected by folk-lorists during late years in the Scottish Highlands and elsewhere throughout Europe. The Rigveda hymns reveal the religious beliefs and aspirations of the advanced thinkers of their age; the _Atharva-veda_ contains the germs of folk religion—the magical formulas chanted to dispel or invoke the vague spirits who helped or thwarted mankind. It teaches that the Universe is upheld by sacrifice and the spiritual exaltation of Brahmans, and that Brahmanic power may be exercised by the use of appropriate charms. Human beings might also be influenced by the spirits invoked by means of formulas.
Primitive man believed that all emotions were caused by spirits. When the poet sang, he was “inspired”—he drew in a spirit; ecstasy was “a standing outside of oneself”, the soul having escaped temporarily from the body. Wrath was caused by a demon, and “battle fury” by the spirit of war which possessed the warrior. When a human being was “seized” by a fit, his convulsions were believed to be caused by the demon who had entered his body. Love was inspiration in the literal sense, and an Indian lover might compel a heedless lady to regard him with favour by reciting an Atharva-vedic spell. Apparently the love spirit had a weakness for honey. The lover chanted:
Honey be mine at the tip of my tongue, May sweetness of honey pervade my speech, So that my love may come under my spell— So that my lady may yield to my will.