With a calm mind and
detached heart, Aswapati seeks to find the cause of the world-failure he has
just experienced and penetrates the surface view of Nature.
He sees in the depths
below the fount of Pain and the black pit of Ignorance and Evil. He espies a
dark Nescience looking up at this Creation, a hidden Power of Doom and Death
beneath all life. He observes a fatal influence creeping forth and stamping
itself upon all created existence, corrupting and perverting everything in it.
A deformation comes over all being.
A sorrow breathes over
the world. Beings of Evil arrive and erect the frame of sin and adverse Fate.
The whole appearance and
character of Life undergoes a change. Beauty, Love, Light yield to ugliness, lust,
darkness. Ego thrives, falsehood usurps the place of Truth, Knowledge is
displaced by Ignorance.
Aswapati sees emerging
in a visible form a dark Power whose very breath is poison. A peril begins to haunt
the air and menacing Energies gather. Tempting snares crowd around him. All
there are misled by false appearances; only Aswapati sees through by his inner
discrimination. He is keen to discern the cause of this Evil and goes further
along the dim track.
He enters a no-man's
land where traffic is heavy but dwellings none. All here is one vast deception.
Joy hides pain and good yields evil; love leads to hate, truth disappears into
falsehood and life presages death. The ruling hostile Power cloaks itself in
the garb of Light, quotes the scripture and slays the soul with self-righteous
virtue. The path of heaven here leads to hell.
The scene changes. There
appears a city of ancient Ignorance, a centre without circumference, a place
with none to rule over the warring groups. It is a city where Light is unknown,
Ego and Falsehood are the arbiters. A deceptive code of ethics gives a look of
nobility to the ruthless warrior. Power and utility are the Truth and Right.
Religion oppresses, spirituality is exiled and truth is tabooed as a lie and
lie is enthroned as the truth.
Aswapati passes through
this dangerous passage warily with the Name of God on his lips, constantly aware
of treachery from behind. None questions him; the heights of the Spirit above
beckon to him, the abysses below desire him. He chooses to fathom the abysses
of the Night and turns downwards.
A greater darkness
greets him. It looks as if God and Light have never been there or at any rate
have no more any power there. His sight fails and he feels his way with the
soul. Ugliness, perversion, lust, cruelty vie with one another in dominating
the scene.
Worship is offered to
the Undivine. A new aesthesis valuing what the soul hates is cultivated. Beauty
is banned, pure emotions are deadened. Evil is cherished, brute passions hold
undeterred sway. Here is Hell in its naked glory.
The inhabitants of these
regions are a race possessed by the demoniac force that lurks in the depths of
men, suppressed by the law of the human heart and controlled by the thought of
the refined mind. This force is a monster of greed, aggrandisement and
exploitation.
The beings of this world
look like men but are in truth viler than the vilest of creatures. There is no
touch of pity or love anywhere; all is force, tyranny, cynicism. Light is
despised by these creatures of Darkness, loud in their slogan of loyalty to
their Lords of Falsehood.
Aswapati advances alone
into these menacing realms, combats the powers that seek to deprive his mind of
its light, smites away their clinging influences.
Soon he emerges into
vast blanks; all peopled tracts are left behind. It is a death-like oppressive
Void. He becomes aware of an active hostility in Life opposing light and truth,
spreading despair and doom, and he strives to resist its onslaught. The Abyss
from below rises to claim his soul which is now alone with the confronting
Night; he is being sucked in, pressed down from all sides. Hope disappears and
a nameless fear arises in him. His mind is struck dumb. However, he endures,
stills the terror and bears the agony.
Soon the peace returns
and the gaze of his soul.
The Godhead in him
awakes and he faces the danger with Calm. He masters the waves of this
formidable Nature with a look. He meets naked Hell with his bare spirit.