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CONCLUSION
senility and decay. The descent from a pulsating vision to a mechanical dogma is not peculiar to religion alone, but nevertheless there are certain features in the case of religion which do not occur elsewhere. These unique problems stem from the mystical experience at the heart of every great religion. The mystic experience, as we have seen, extends to planes of existence to which normally human beings have no access. Only a handful, nay less than a handful, can claim its mastery in any age. It is an experience unique in character, for it possesses a kind of richness, extensiveness, intensity and beauty that finds no parallel in earthly life. But we on this earthly plane can comprehend its meaning only within the limitations of our own mundane experience. The choice before the mystic, if he wishes to convey to us something of his unique experience (not just ending in silence or in the negative statements of the Vedantist or of St. John of the Cross), is perforce to resort to metaphor and parable. In Maulana Rumi's Masnavi, we are told: It is not fitting that I tell thee more, For the stream's bed cannot hold the sea. Jesus was quite explicit on the subject when speaking to his closest disciples (to whom he could directly convey firsthand inner experience) : U n t o you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of G o d ; hut unto those that are without, all things are done in parables. ST. MARK
Whereas direct statement tends to be limited by the analyzable qualities of the object, figurative statement suffers no such bar. Poets have described their love for a woman in terms of a rose, a star, a melody, a flame, the moon, etc. The