regarding the Yogis and their philosophy and practice. Travelers to
India have written great tales about the hordes of fakirs, mendicants
and mountebanks who infest the great roads of India and the streets of
its cities, and who impudently claim the title "Yogi." The Western
student is scarcely to be blamed for thinking of the typical Yogi as
an emaciated, fanatical, dirty, ignorant Hindu, who either sits in a
fixed posture until his body becomes ossified, or else holds his arm
up in the air until it becomes stiff and withered and forever after
remains in that position, or perhaps clenches his fist and holds it
tight until his fingernails grow through the palms of his hands. That
these people exist is true, but their claim to the title "Yogi" seems
as absurd to the true Yogi as does the claim to the title "Doctor" on
the part of the man who pares one's corns seem to the eminent surgeon,
or as does the title of "Professor," as assumed by the street corner
vendor of worm medicine, seem to the President of Harvard or Yale.

There have been for ages past in India and other Oriental countries
men who devoted their time and attention to the development of Man,
physically, mentally and spiritually. The experience of generations of
earnest seekers has been handed down for centuries from teacher to
pupil, and gradually a definite Yogi science was built up. To these
investigations and teachings was finally applied the term "Yogi," from
the Sanscrit word "Yug," meaning "to join." From the same source comes
the English word "yoke," with a similar meaning. Its use in connection
with these teachings is difficult to trace, different authorities
giving different explanations, but probably the most ingenious is that
which holds that it is intended as the Hindu equivalent for the idea
conveyed by the English phrase, "getting into harness," or "yoking
up," as the Yogi undoubtedly "gets into harness" in his work of
controlling the body and mind by the Will.