Article selection from “Swami Dayanand’s Views About Yoga” | Note by H.P.B.
Question. Up to what day, hour, or minute, of his own bodily life can the Yogi exercise this power of transferring his atma, or inner self, to the body of another?
Answer. Until the last minute or even second of his natural term of life. He knows beforehand to a second when his body must die, and, until that second strikes, he may project his soul into another person’s body if one is ready for his occupancy. But, should he allow that instant to pass, then he can do no more. The cord is snapped for ever, and the Yogi, if not sufficiently purified and perfected to be enabled to attain Moksha,1 must follow the common law of re-birth.
1. The abstract condition of pure spirit, almost identical with the nirvana of the Buddhists.—Ed. Theos. [H.P.B.]