THE NEW WINE
295
With eyes well fixed on my proboscis ,'
I soon absorbed the Yogi Gnosis .
He taught me to steer clear of vices,
The giddy waltz , the tuneful
aria ,
Those fatal foes of Brahma - charya ;
And said , “ How very mild and nice is
One's luck to lop out truth in slices,
And chance to chop up cosmic crises ! ”
He taught me A, he taught me B ,
He stopped
my baccy and my tea .
He taught me Y, he taught me 2 ,
He made strange noises
in my head .
He taught me that , he taught me this ,
He spoke of knowledge , life and bliss.
He taught me this , he taught me that ,
He grew me mangoes in his hat .
I brought him corn : he made good grist of it :
And here , my Christian friend , 's the gist of it ! "
In
“ Science
and
Buddhism
” there is a vivid de
scription of Pratyâhâra
:
The
work
is comparable
to
that
of an electrician who
should
sit
for hours with his finger
on
a
delicately adjusted
resistance
-
box
,
and his eye
on
the spot
of
light
of
a
galvano
meter
,
charged with the duty
of
keeping the
spot
still
,
at
least
,
that
it
should never move
beyond
a
certain number
of
degrees
,
and
of
recording the more important details
of
his experiment
.
Our
work
is
identical
in
design
,
though
worked
with subtler_if
less
complex
-
means
.
For
the
finger
on
the
resistance
-
box we substitute the Will
;
and
its
control extends
but
to
the Mind
;
for the eye we substi
tute
the
Introspective
Faculty
with
its
keen
observation
of
the
most
minute
disturbance
,
while
the
spot
of
light
is
the
Consciousness itself
,
the
central
point
of
the gal
vanometer scale the predetermined object
,
and the other
figures
in
the
scale
,
other
objects
,
connected with
the
1
The monks
of
Mount Athos substituted
,
as
a
gazing
-
point
,
the
navel
for the nose
.
-VAUGHAN
,
Hours
with
the Mystics
,
p
.
57
.
2
The Sword
of
Song
,
Pentecost
,
vol
.
ii,
p
.
166
.