A VENTURE INTO MYSTICISM

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3052, 13 April 1917, Page 3

A VENTURE INTO MYSTICISM

THE OUT-OF-DATENESS OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE It docs not do to bo • a practical disciplo of Tagorean philosophy these hustling twentieth century days. Mr. Christopher Morley, in tho New York "Evening Post" Saturday miscellany tried it, in fancy. Wo read: — ' I had heard so much about this Itabbi Tagore and his message of calm for our hustling, feverish lifo that I thought I would try to put some of that stuff into practice. "Shut, out tlio clamour of small things. Withdraw into the deep quiet of your soul, commune with infinite beauty and infinite peace. You must be full of gladness and love for every person and every tiniest thing. Great activity and worry is needless—it is poison to the soul. Learn to reflect, and to brood upon eternal beauty. It is the mystic, who finds all that is most precious in life. The flowers of meditation blossom in his heart." I cut out these words and pasted them in my hat. I have always felt that my real genius lies in the direction of philosophic calm. I determined to override tne brutal clamour of petty things. The alarm clock rail"; as ufiuf.l at 6.30. • Calmly, with nothing but lovely thoughts m my mind, I threw it out of the window. I lay until eight o'clock, communing with infinite peace. I began to see that Professor lagore. was right. My wife asked me if I was going to the office."" "I am brooding upon eternal -beauty," I told her. She thought I was ill, and made me take breakfast in. bed.

At nine o'clock came a telephone call from the office. My employer is not a devotee of eternal calm, I fear. When I explained that I was at home reading "Gitanjali," his language was far from mystical. "Get here by ten o'clock or you lose your job," ho said. I was dismayed to see the same old throng on the subway, all the senseless scuffle and the imphilosopliic crowd. But I felt full of gladness in my new way of life, full of brotherhood for all the world. "I love you," I said to the fuard oh the platform. He seized mo y the shoulders and rammed me into the crowded ear, shouting "Another nut!" When I reached the office my desk was littered with a hundred papers. The stenographer was at the telephone, trying to pacify someone. "Here he is now," I heard her say. It'was Dennis and Company 011 the wire.

"How about that car-load of Bavarian herrings.we were to have yesterday without fail?" said Donuis. I took the 'phone. . ,"In God's good time," I said, "the shipment will arrive. The matter is purely ephemeral, after all. If you will attune yourself " He rang off. I turned over the.papers on my desk. Looked at with the unclouded eye of a mystic, how mundane and unnecessary all these pettifogging transactions seemed. Tlio buzzer of my desk sounded. That meant that the boss wanted to see me. Now, it has always seemed to' me that to put one's self at the b'cck and call of another man is essentially degrading. In the long perspective of eternity, was his soul any moro majestic than mine? In this luminous new vision of my importance as a fraement of immortal mind,_ could I, should I. bow to the force of impertinent trivialities? I sat back in my chair, full of love of humanity. By and by the boss appeared at my desk. One look at his face convinced ■me oF the truth of Tagore's saying that ereat_ activity is poison to the soul. Certainly his face was poisonous^ "Say," he'shouted, "what's the mat-, tor with you to-day? Dennis just called me up about that herring order " "Master," I said mildlv, "bo not overwrought. Great activity is a strychnine to the soul. I am a- mystic. ..."

A little later I found myself on the street ivitK two weeks' pay in my pocket. It is true that my departure had been hasty a'nd unpleasant, for the stairway from the office to the street is long and dusty: hut I recalled what Professor Tagore had said ahout vicissitudes being the true revealers of the spirit. My hat was not with me, hut I remembered the creed pasted in it. After pacing a block or so, my soul was once more tranquil. • I entered a restaurant. It'was the noon hour, and the room was crowded .with hurrying waiters' and impatient people. I found a vacant seat in a corner and sat down. I concentrated my mind upon the majestic vision of the brotherhood of man-

Gradually I began to feel hungry, but no waiter came near me. Never mind, I thought; to shout and hammer the table as. the others do is beneath | the dignity of a philosopher. I began i to dream of endless vistas of mystical j ham and eggs'. I brooded . upon these for some time, but still no corporeal and physical -units of food reached me. The man nest me gradually materialised into my consciousness. Full of love for humanity I spoke to him. "Brother/' I said, "until one of these priestly waiters draws nigh, will you not permit me to sustain myself with one of your rolls and one of your but-ter-balls? In the great brotherhood of humanity, all that is mine is yours; and per contra, all that is yours is mine." Beaming luminously upon him, I laid a friendly hand on his arm. He leaped up and called the head waiter. "Here's an attic for rent!" he cried, coarsely. "He wants to pick my pocket." By . tho time I got away from the police station it was dusk, and I felt ready for home. I must say my breedings upon eternal beauty were begin' liing to be a little forced. As I passed along the crowded street, walking slowly and' withdrawn into the quiet of my soul, three people trod upon my heels and a taxi, nearly cave mo a passport to eternity. I reflected that men were perhaps not yet ready for these doctrines of infinite peace. How much more wise were the animals—and' I raised my hand to stroke a huge dray-horse by the pavement. He seized my fingers in his teeth and hipped them vigorously.

I gave a yell and ran full tilt to the nearest subway entrance. I burst into the mass of struggling unphilosophic humanity and fought, shoved, cursed, and buffeted with them. I pushed three old ladies to one side to snatch my ticket before they could get theirs. I leaped into the car at the head of a flying wedge of sinful, roimysticnl men, who knew nothing of infinite beauty and peace. As the door closed I pushed a decrepit clergyman outside, and I hope ho fell on the third 1 ail. 'As I felt the lurching, trampling, throttling jam of humanity sway to and fro with the motion of the car, t drew a long breath. Dare I confess it?—l was perfectly liappyl