Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds

Not for long can the energy of life remain in this locked realm. She is bound to seek something beyond. She is destined to go further in her quest for the Ultimate, the ever-lasting, the limitless since she is secretly driven by the breath of the Eternal.

The sense of dissatisfaction that haunts all life can be solved only if we discover the missing piece of the human puzzle. It is the Divine. Without discovering this central piece, life will continue to swing between joy and sorrow

Vast and powerful though this domain of greater life is, it falls short of the ultimate Truth. It still moves in the encircling sphere of cosmic Ignorance. Its cry is unable to pierce through the veil that holds us back from God and Light and Truth.

This realm builds a dream splendour, which lasts only as long as a dream lasts. A time comes when the illusion is over and one discovers the fugitive nature of what one had hoped to have found. This is a very beautiful description of our life as it stands at present.

As with every other power, this realm too tries to understand the ways of God through its own limited abilities. Though it feels a distant glimpse and a call, it is still a realm of Ignorance and the veil is not yet lifted without which the real sense is lost.

The domain of Greater Life whose centre lies in our heart, allows a window glimpse of Truth. It lets us see Reality through a veil. A first hint of divinity and the distant call of the Divine is felt here as one enters this plane.

Life runs along two parallel streams. The one with which we are more familiar is the surface life of man, its surface seekings, temporary satisfactions and sufferings. Behind it all there is a deeper yearning that one finds sometimes in this greater life, a glimpse of the deeper truth of Life.

The world of fantasy and imagination has its own reality. It is not just an escape door but a dwelling place for some. It is important therefore to choose carefully what kind of imagination we shall dwell upon. These creations can give us temporary satisfactions but not the ultimate release or the transformation that our souls seek.

As Aswapati begins to search with a spiritual fire and intuitive beams, he discovers a world of fantasy and imagination drawing its substance from some hidden reality. It is the world that painters and musicians and artists are in touch with as also some poets.

Aswapati is now set to read the book of life. It is a mysterious script full of signs and gestures that are rapidly changing like costumes that disguise the actor.

Aswapati now moves deeper along the trails of life to see where it is leading our journey. Is there a purpose at all in its movements or all is a chance caprice? He shares his discoveries with us.

Though the larger vital worlds are endowed with much more power and possibilities than we can imagine upon earth, yet there is something crucial missing there. Though large in scope, powerful in action, yet it lacks oneness and hence it is still a world of ignorance.

Unlike the physical world, the vital worlds and its beings are not closed containers. They can readily and rapidly diffuse and melt and change from one to the other.

These are some of the characteristics of the vital world: expansion, taste of the extremes, seeking for power and joy. The larger vital, the greater life grows through these things towards its great goal.

We see here a description of the Intermediate Zone through which the aspirants to the beyond must pass. It is a realm that can easily confuse the seeker who can mistake ‘extreme’ of things for Truth and believe himself to be waging a just and righteous war while all the time labouring in the law of ignorance. Yet this illusion may provide a foothold for further ascension if one follows the lead of the Ideal and keeps the aspiration for Truth intact.

The beings of this greater life are wider in their consciousness and have the ring of a greater vision and power around them than ordinary human life. The circle of their influence is large and the sphere of their action extends beyond their little personal life.

A greater life awaits us beyond our struggling everyday life of dead routine and common acts. Though not yet Divine, it reflects some touch of divinity and awakens us to the higher truths above.