[109] See Bagavad-Gita.—[Ed.]
[110] “Full consent” including the consent of all their various consciousnesses. If the Patin or Pati saw, and they ought to be able to see, that even in one of the consciousnesses of any of their near relatives there lurked a latent spark of hesitation to consent or of unwillingness, then the pair unselfishly gave up their determination to become Vanaprasthas and remained with the family until the proper time came.
[111] The emerald table is from the collection commencing with Le Miroirs d’ Alquimie de Jean de Mehun, philosophe, tres—excellent. Traduict de Latin on François, A Paris, 1613, pp. 36-39, to which is also attached, the Petit Commentaire de L’Hortulain, philosophe, dict des Jardins maritimes, sur la Table d’ Esmerande d’ Hermes Trismegiste pp. 42-64.
[112] An ancient Hindu book full of tales as well as doctrines.—[Ed.]
[113] These flashes of thought are not unknown even in the scientific world, as, where in such a moment of lunacy, it was revealed to an English scientist, that there must be iron in the sun; and Edison gets his ideas thus.—[Ed.]
[114] The careful student will remember that Jacob Bœhme speaks of the “harsh and bitter anguish of nature which is the principle that produces bones and all corporification.” So here the master, it appears, tells the fortunate chela, that in the spiritual and mental world, anxiety, harsh and bitter, raises a veil before us and prevents us from using our memory. He refers, it would seem, to the other memory above the ordinary. The correctness and value of what was said in this, must be admitted when we reflect that, after all, the whole process of development is the process of getting back the memory of the past. And that too is the teaching found in pure Buddhism as well also as in its corrupted form.—[Ed.]
[115] The mystic syllable OM.—[Ed.]
[116] There is some reference here apparently to the Upanishad, for they contain a teacher’s directions to break through all shrines until the last one is reached.—[Ed.]
[117] See Bagavad-Gita where the whole poem turns upon the conflict in this battle field, which is called the “sacred plain of Kurukshetra” meaning, the “body which is acquired by Karma.”—[Ed.]
[118] Arabian Soc. in the Middle Age.—D’Ohsson describing the Turkish Dervishes gives another account.