bids its untutored children
to select some patron saint, or to say prayers to the Virgin Mary, because
these characters were once human and seem to be nearer, and more
approachable than the Great God whose Majesty and All-Mightiness have been
exploited.

Be that as it may, the fact remains, that Lord Gauranga is said to have
earned the devotion and love of some of the most learned pundits of India
and, according to a recent biographer, "he had all the frailties of a man;
he ate and slept like a man. In short, he behaved generally like an
ordinary human being, but yet he succeeded in extorting from the foremost
sages of India, the worship and reverence due a God."

The fact that Lord Gauranga "behaved like a man," is comforting, to say the
least, and presages the coming of a day when "behaving like a man" will not
be considered ungodly. When that time shall have arrived, surely there will
be less mysticism of the hysterical variety and probably fewer hypocrites.

Very unlike Lord Gauranga, is the report of a writer of India, who tells of
the effects of cosmic consciousness upon Tukaram, considered to be one of
the greatest saints and poets of Ancient India. Tukaram lived early in the
sixteenth century, some years later than Lord Gauranga.

This Maharashtra saint is chiefly remembered for his beautiful description
of the effects of Illumination, in which he likens the human soul to the
bride, and the bridegroom is God. This poem is called "Love's Lament," and
might have been written by an impassioned lover to his promised bride.

The life of Tukaram, like that of the late Sri Ramakrishna Paramanansa, was
one long agony of yearning and struggle for that peace of soul which he
craved. One of his chroniclers thus describes, in brief, the final struggle
and the subsequent attainment of Illumination of this good man:

"Selfless, he sought to gather no crowds of idle admiring disciples about
him, but followed what his conscience dictated. He listened not to the
counsel of his relatives and friends, who thought he had gone mad; and he
bore in patience the well-meant but harsh rebukes of his second wife. After
a long mental struggle, the agonies of which he has recorded in
heart-rending words, now entreating God in the tenderest of terms, now
resigning himself to despair, now appealing with the petulance of a pet
child for what he deemed his birthright, now apologizing in all humility
for thus taking liberties with his Mothe