Having spent twenty years of his life after receiving the first degree of initiation, during which the body is mortified by fasting and privations of every kind, and the intellect is trained and disciplined by means of prayers, invocations, and sacrifices, the candidate finally takes his place in one of the three following categories:
Grihasta—he remains at the head of his family until his death, and attends to his social duties and business, whatever it may be. Of all that he has been taught he only retains the power to evoke the domestic spirits, or in other words, those in the same genealogical line as himself, with whom it is lawful for him to communicate within the sanctuary which it is his duty to reserve for them in his house.
Pourohita—he becomes a priest attached to the popular cult and takes part in all ceremonies and family festivals, both in temples and private dwellings. Phenomena of possession come exclusively within his province: he is the grand exorcist of the pagodas.
Fakir—he becomes a performing Fakir, and from this moment forward all his time is employed in the manifestation of occult power by means of the public exhibition of exterior phenomena.
Neither Grihastas, Pourohitas, nor Fakirs are ever admitted to the second degree of initiation. Their studies are ended, and with the exception of the Fakirs, who are constantly in communication with those who have been
initiated into the higher degrees, in order to augment their magnetic and spiritual power, they take no part in the mystic instruction, which is given in the temples.
Only a few among those who have distinguished themselves in their studies for the first degree are able to pass through the terrible ordeal of the higher initiation or arrive at the dignity of a Sannyassi or Cenobite.
The Sannyassi lives exclusively in the temple, and the is only expected to appear at remote intervals, on solemn occasions, in cases where it is important to impress the popular imagination by a superior class of phenomena.
The Agrouchada-Parikchai is silent as to the course of training they have to undergo. The formulas of prayer and evocation were never committed to writing, but were taught orally, in the underground crypts of the pagodas.
We are able therefore to prosecute our investigations into the subject of the second degree of initiation only by studying the phenomena produced by the Sannyassi, a list of which we find in the second book of the Agrouchada.
