ith and love for God who is
thrown into such a state!'"

"Yes," I said, "that is the Hindu ideal--ecstatic contemplation."
Something in me leapt to approve it; but the stronger pull was to
Hellenism and the West. "Go your way, Ramakrishna," I said, "but your
way is not mine. For me and my kind action not meditation; the temporal
not the eternal; the human not the ultra-divine; Socrates not
Ramakrishna!" But hardly had I said the words when I read on:

"M. enters. Looking at him the Master laughs and laughs. He
cries out, 'Why, look! There he is again!' The boys all join in
the merriment. M. takes his seat, and the Master tells Narendra
and the other disciples what has made him laugh. He says:

"'Once upon a time a small quantity of opium was given to a
certain peacock at four o'clock in the afternoon. Well,
punctually at four the next afternoon who should come in but the
selfsame peacock, longing for a repetition of the
favour--another dose of opium!'--(Laughter.)

"M. sat watching the Master as he amused himself with the boys.
He kept up a running fire of chaff, and it seemed as if these
boys were his own age and he was playing with them. Peals of
laughter and brilliant flashes of humour follow upon one
another, calling to mind the image of a fair when the Joy of the
World is to be had for sale."

I rubbed my eyes. Was this India or Athens? Is East East? Is West West?
Are there any opposites that exclude one another? Or is this
all-comprehensive Hinduism, this universal toleration, this refusal to
recognise ultimate antagonisms, this "mush," in a word, as my friends
would dub it--is this, after all, the truest and profoundest vision?

And I read in my book:

"M.'s egotism is now completely crushed. He thinks to himself:
What this God-man says is indeed perfectly true. What business
have I to go about preaching to others? Have I myself known God?
Do I love God? About God I know nothing. It would indeed be the
height of folly and vulgarity itself, of which I should be
ashamed, to think of teaching others! This is not mathematics,
or history, or literature; it is the science of God! Yes, I see
the force of the words of this holy man."

Footnotes:

[Footnote 2: _Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna._ Second Edition. Part
1. Madras: Published by the Ramakrishna Mission. 1912.]

IX

THE MONSTROUS REGIMEN OF