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<font size="4">Mystic
Symbolism</font></b></p>
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Mystics all over the world and in all ages have clothed their sayings
in proverbs and parables, in figures and symbols. To speak in symbols
seems to be in their very nature; it is their characteristic manner,
their inevitable style. Let us see what is the reason behind it. But
first who are the Mystics? They are those who are in touch with
supra-sensual things, whose experiences are of a world different from
the common physical world, the world of the mind and the senses.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>These other worlds are constituted in other ways than
ours. Their contents are different and the laws that obtain there are
also different. It would be a gross blunder to attempt a chart of</FONT></P>
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of these other systems, to use an Einsteinian term, with the measures
and conventions of the system to which our external waking
consciousness belongs. For, there &quot;the sun shines not, nor the
moon, nor the stars, neither these lightnings nor this fire.&quot;
The difficulty is further enhanced by the fact that there are very
many unseen worlds and they all differ from the seen and from one
another in manner and degree. Thus, for example, the Upanishads speak
of the <I>swapna, </I>the <I>susupta, </I>and the <I>tur<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ī</FONT>ya,
</I>domains beyond the <I>j<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>grat
</I>which is that where the rational being with its mind and senses
lives and moves. And there are other systems and other ways in which
systems exist, and they are practically innumerable.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>If, however, we have to speak of these other worlds,
then, since we can speak only in the terms of this world, we have to
use them in a different sense from those they usually bear; we must
employ them as figures and symbols. Even then they may prove
inadequate and misleading; so there are Mystics who are averse to all
speech and expression – they are <I>mauni; </I>in silence they
experience the inexpressible and in silence they communicate</FONT><BR>
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<FONT face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Page – 8</span></FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>&nbsp;it to the few who have the capacity to receive in silence.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>But those who do speak, how do they choose their figures
and symbols? What is their methodology? For it might be said, since
the unseen and the seen differ out and out, it does not matter what
forms or signs are taken from the latter; for any meaning and
significance could be put into anything. But in reality, it does not
so happen. For, although there is a great divergence between figures
and symbols on the one hand and the things figured and symbolised on
the other, still there is also some link, some common measure. And
that is why we see not unoften the same or similar figures and
symbols representing an identical experience in ages and countries
far apart from each other.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>We can make a distinction here between two types of
expression which we have put together indiscriminately, figures and
symbols. Figures, we may say, are those that are constructed by the
rational mind, the intellect; they are mere metaphors and similes and
are not organically related to the thing experienced, but put round
it as a robe that can be dropped or changed without affecting the
experience itself. Thus, for example, when the Upanishad says,
<I><FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>tm<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>nam
rathinam viddhi </I>(Know that the soul is the master of the chariot
who sits within it) or <I>indriy<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Än</FONT>i
hay<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>n<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>hu
</I>(The senses, they say, are the horses), we have here only a
comparison or analogy that is common and natural to the poetic
manner. The particular figure or simile used is not inevitable to the
idea or experience that it seeks to express, its part and parcel. On
the other hand, take this Upanishadic perception: <I>hiranyamayena
patrena satyasy<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>phitam mukham </I>(The
face of the Truth lies hidden under the golden orb). Here the symbol
is not mere analogy or comparison, a figure; it is one with the very
substance of the experience-the two cannot be separated. Or when the
Vedas speak of the kindling of the Fire, the rushing of the waters or
the rise of the Dawn, the images though taken from the material
world, are not used for the sake of mere comparison, but they are the
embodiments, the living forms of truths experienced in another world.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>When a Mystic refers to the Solar Light or to the
Fire-the light, for example, that struck down Saul and transformed
him into Saint Paul or the burning bush that visited Moses, it is</FONT><BR>
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<FONT face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Page – 9</span></FONT><BR>
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the physical or material object that he means and yet it is that in a
way. It is the materialization of something that is fundamentally not
material: some movement in an inner consciousness precipitates itself
into the region of the senses and takes from out of the material the
form commensurable with its nature that it finds there.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>And there is such a commensurability or parallelism
between the various levels of consciousness, in and through all the
differences that separate them from one another. Thus an object or a
movement apprehended on the physical plane has a sort of line of
re-echoing images extended in a series along the whole gradation of
the inner planes; otherwise viewed, an object or movement in the
innermost consciousness translates itself in varying modes from plane
to plane down to the most material, where it appears in its grossest
form as a concrete three-dimensional object or a mechanical movement.
This parallelism or commensurability by virtue of which the different
and divergent states of consciousness can portray or represent each
other is the source of all symbolism.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>A symbol symbolizes something for this reason that both
possess in common a certain identical, at least similar, quality or
rhythm or vibration, the symbol possessing it in a grosser or more
apparent or sensuous form than the thing symbolized does. Sometimes
it may happen that it is more than a certain quality or rhythm or
vibration that is common between the two: the symbol in its entirety
is the thing symbolized but thrown</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>down on another plane, it is the embodiment of the
latter in a more concrete world. The light and the fire that Saint
Paul and Moses saw appear to be of this kind.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Thus there is a great diversity of symbols. At the one
end is the mere metaphor or simile or allegory ('figure,' as we have
called it) and at the other end is the symbol identical with the
thing symbolized. And upon this inner character of the symbol depends
also to a large extent its range and scope. There are symbols which
are universal and intimately ingrained in the human consciousness
itself. Mankind has used them in all ages and climes almost in the
same sense and significance. There are others that are limited to
peoples and ages. They are made out of forms that are of local and
temporal interest and importance. Their significances vary according
to time </FONT>
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<FONT face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Page – 10</span></FONT><BR>
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<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 150%; margin-top:0"><FONT SIZE=3>and
place. Finally, there are symbols which are true of the individual
consciousness only; they depend on personal peculiarities and
idiosyncrasies, on one's environment and upbringing and education. </FONT>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Man being an embodied soul, his external consciousness
(what the Upanishad calls <I>j<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>grat)
</I>is the <I>milieu </I>in which his soul-experiences naturally
manifest and find their play. It is the forms and movements of that
consciousness which clothe and give a concrete habitation and name to
perceptions on the subtler ranges of the inner existence. If the
experiences on these planes are to be presented to the conscious
memory and to the brain-mind and made communicable to others through
speech, this is the inevitable and natural process. Symbols are a
translation in mental and sensual (and vocal) terms of experiences
that are beyond the mind and the sense and the speech and yet throw a
kind of echoing vibrations upon these lesser levels.</FONT></P>
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<FONT face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Page – 11</span></FONT></P>
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