that supernal thought and its human realisation. The Rishis were those who, having realised it in the heart and in the mind, and in all the activities of the world, had attained Nirvana. Their followers were taught to believe that in sun and wind, in earth and water, in all the play of life around them, the living and ideal creative spirit was made real. The earth did not only serve to hold and condition man's body; it fulfilled and enhanced his whole being. Its contact was more than a physical contact; it was a living presence. The water did not only cleanse his limbs; it made clean his heart, it touched the very garment of his soul. As Goethe taught in Faust:
In Being's flood, in Action's storm
I walk and work, above, beneath,
Work and weave in endless motion:
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'Tis thus at the roaring Loom of Time I ply,
And weave for God the garment thou seest Him by.
The one symbol amid the kindred elements which helps to express to us the unity of the universe is that of the Sun. Often, when in London, Rabindranath would laugh at the smoky sunlight as only the shadow of the sun of Bengal.
