Aswapati arrives at an
abrupt Silence where the climbing stair of the worlds pauses. He stands alone with
an immense Self of Mind which is omnipotent but aloof from the world that has
sprung from it. It does not participate in all the movements in this world but
bears them equally. Aswapati reflects this vast quietism.
This witness Silence is
the real base of the Thinker and the origin of the Word. Here meet the seeing
Self and the potent Energy and creation ensues.
Aswapati watches the
world from this height and seems to grasp the meaning of its thoughts and forces.
He feels that this Silence, this Peace is the ultimate.
Suddenly a Ray of Light
falls on the scene and shows to him that nothing is really known. The Truth, by
knowing which all is known, is yet to be reached.
It is above thought and
sense. All Knowledge built by the mind appears unsound, unreal, all experience
in life is converted into fixed mental forms that are more dead than alive. The
entire mental edifice collapses.
Man's mind is like a
house haunted by the dead past and petrified ideas. It is a force for the
misuse of soul and life and the waste of higher gifts. It is a stage for the
comedy of Ignorance.
Struck by this Ray of
Light, Reason loses confidence in its powers; its wisdom turns out to be a brilliant
guess, its science fumbling on the surfaces of things. What has been done is
little more than a plan, a figure of reality. The self of existence itself
appears to be but a fragile leaf afloat on the
The Mind is seen to hang
as a veil between the soul and the Light. Even the witness Self looks to be a
pale shadow of the Unknowable. Peace is there but not the potent, creative
Power, the mighty Mother who gathers to her bosom the worlds of her making in
the Bliss of God.
A greater Spirit than
the Self of Mind must be found if Aswapati's seeking soul is to be satisfied.
Aswapati looks above,
but all is blank and still; he looks down below, all is dark and mute. In
between is the great stir of life in the realms of Ignorance. The soul wanders
between these two firmaments of darkness and light, the Inconscient and the
Superconscient.