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THE SEVEN SENSES. 1
23
into Raja Yoga. This storj- is quoted to show how inseparably connected
in the metaphj-sics of old, are intelligent beings, or rather
"intelligences," with every sense or function, whether physical or
mental. The Occult claim that there are seven senses in man, and in
nature, as there are seven states of consciousness, is corroborated in
the same work. Chapter vii, on Pratyahara (the restraint and regulation
of the senses, Pranayama being that of the "vital winds" or breath).
The Brahmana, speaking of the institution of the seven sacrificial
Priests (Hotris), says: "The nose and the eye, and the tongue, and
the skin and the ear as the fifth [or smell, sight, taste, touch, and
hearing], mind and understanding are the seven sacrificial priests
separately stationed," which "dwelling in a minute space (still) do not
perceive each other," on this sensuous plane, none of them except
mind.
For mind says: "The nose smells not without me, the eye does
not take in colour, etc.. etc. I am the eternal chief among all elements
[i.e., senses]. Without me, the senses never shine, like an empty
dwelling, or like fires the flames of which are extinct. Without me, all
beings, like fuel half dried and half moist, fail to apprehend qualities or
objects even with the senses exerting themselves."*'
This, of course, only with regard to mind on the sensuous pla^ie.
Spiritual Mind, the upper portion or aspect of the impersonal Manas,
takes no cognizance of the senses in physical man. How well the
ancients were acquainted with the correlation of forces, and all the
recently discovered phenomena of mental and physical faculties and
functions, and with many more mysteries also—may be found in reading
Chapters vii and viii of this priceless work in philosophy and mystic
learning.
See the quarrel of the senses about their respective superiority
and their taking the Brahman, the Lord of all creatures, for their
arbiter. "You are all greatest and not greatest [or superior to objects,
as Arjuna Mishra says, none being independent of the other]. You
are all possessed of one another's qualities. All are greatest in their
own spheres and all support one another. There is one unmoving
or breath, the yoga-inhalation, so called, which is the breath
of the One or Higher Self]. That one is my own Self, accumulated
in numerous (forms)."
This Breath, Voice, Self or Wind (Pneuma), is the Synthesis of the
• This shows the modern metaphysicians, added ti .ill past and present Hegels. Berkelcys,
Schopenhauers, Hartmanns, Herbert Spencers, and even the modem Hylo-Idealists to boot, no better
than the pale copyists of hoary antiquity.