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A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga578
to, must be the number and rapidity and variety of the changes within the
organism—must be the amount of vitality.”
A little reflection upon this subject will show us that the greater degree
of exercise and training given the senses, the greater the degree of mental
power and capability. As we store our mental storehouse with the materials
to be manufactured into thought, so is the quality and quantity of the fabric
produced.
It therefore behooves us to awaken from our “lazy” condition of mind, and
to proceed to develop our organs of sense, and their attendant mechanism,
as by doing so we increase our capacity for thought and knowledge.
Before passing to the exercises, however, it may be well to give a hasty
passing glance at the several senses, and their peculiarities.
The sense of Touch is the simplest and primal sense. Long before the
lower forms of life had developed the higher senses, they had evidenced
the sense of Touch or Feeling. Without this sense they would have been
unable to have found their food, or to receive and respond to outside
impressions. In the early forms of life it was exercised equally by all parts
of the body, although in the higher forms this sense has become somewhat
localized, as certain parts of the body are far more sensitive than are others.
The skin is the seat of the sense of Touch, and its nerves are distributed over
the entire area of the skin. The hand, and particularly the fingers, and their
tips, are the principal organs of this sense.
The acuteness of Touch varies materially in different parts of the body.
Experiments have shown that a pair of compasses would register impressions
as a very slight distance apart when applied to the tip of the tongue. The
distance at which the two points could be distinguished from one point, on
the tip of the tongue, was called “one line.” Using this “line” as a standard, it
was found that the palmar surface of the third finger registered 2 lines; the
surface of the lips 4 lines, and the skin of the back, and on the middle of the
arm or thigh, as high as 60 lines. The degree of sensitiveness to Touch varies