rself, have
devoted your life to gaining a greater comprehension of it."

"I seek only to rise above my material self so that I might place
myself in harmony with the flowing symphony of Absolute Truth," he
lectured me sonorously. Oh well, his enrapturement with such terminology
differed little from some of the sciences which tended to grow equally
esoteric. And maybe it meant something. Who was I to say that mine ears
alone heard all the music being played?

It did mean one thing very specifically. There are two basic approaches
to the meaning of life and the universe about us. Man can know: That is
the approach of science, its whole meaning. There are mysteries which
man was not meant to know: That is the other approach. There is no
reconciling of the two on a reasoning basis. I represented the former. I
wasn't sure the Swami was a true representative of the latter, but at
least he had picked up the valence and the phrases.

I made a mental note that reasoning was an unworkable technique with
this compound. Henry, a past master at it, had already tried threats and
abuse. That hadn't worked. I next tried one of the oldest forms in the
teaching of man, a parable.

I told him of my old Aunt Dimity, who was passionately fond of Rummy,
but considered all other card games sinful.

"Ah, how well she proves my point," the Swami countered. "There is an
inner voice, a wisdom greater than the mortal mind to guide us--"

"Well now," I asked reasonably, "why would the inner voice say that
Rummy was O.K., but Casino wasn't?" But it was obvious he liked the
point he had made better than he had liked the one I failed to make.

So I tried the next technique. I tried an appeal for instruction. Often
an opponent will come over to your side if you just confess, honestly,
that he is a better man than you are, and you need his help. What was
the road I must take to achieve the same understanding he had achieved?
His eyes glittered at that, and a mercenary expression underlay the tone
of his answer.

"First there is fasting, and breathing, and contemplating self," he
murmured mendaciously. "I would be unable to aid you until you gave me
full ascendancy over you, so that I might guide your every thought--"

I decided to try inspiration. In breaking down recalcitrant materials in
the laboratory of my personnel office, sometimes one method worked,
sometimes another.

"Do you realize, Swami," I asked, "that the one great drawback
th