A Land of Deception, p. 206

Opening Remarks
Aswapati now enters this land of deception where nothing is real or true.

Screened attack
But he alone discerned that screened attack.

Aswapati had the necessary discernment due to his Yoga thereby helping him to see and distinguish between truth and falsehood even though it came screened in acceptable garbs.

A veil
A veil upon the inner vision lay,
A force was there that hid its dreadful steps;
All was belied, yet thought itself the truth;
All were beset but knew not of the siege:
For none could see the authors of their fall.

One of the very first things that falsehood does to us is to make us unconscious of our motives and impulses. This state of unconsciousness and the dense veil of Ignorance and obscurity are its best cover to enter human beings and influence them. It sieges the mind and thought and feelings making everyone believe that they are fighting for God and Truth while in reality they are gravitating towards the darkness of Hell and suffering for themselves and others.

Dark Wisdom
Aware of some dark wisdom still withheld
That was the seal and warrant of this strength,
He followed the track of dim tremendous steps
Returning to the night from which they came.

Yet Aswapati is keen to explore this realm to discover the Wisdom that concealed itself in this dark and sombre robe. He is keen to discover the source from which Evil draws its power and strength. Without this knowledge one cannot think of changing this world into a diviner and beautiful place. Thus he goes deeper into the Night.

A dim tract
A tract he reached unbuilt and owned by none:
There all could enter but none stay for long.

At first his steps lead him through a dim tract without any signs or definite contours, a space that none seemed to hold or occupy. In fact none could stay there for long.

No-man’s land of evil air
It was a no man’s land of evil air,
A crowded neighbourhood without one home,
A borderland between the world and hell.

It resembled the low lying slums crowded and deprived of light and fresh air. The space carried evil’s atmosphere and served as a borderland between our human world and hell.

Unreality was Nature’s lord
There unreality was Nature’s lord:
It was a space where nothing could be true,
For nothing was what it had claimed to be:
A high appearance wrapped a specious void.

Truth was not found there but only appearances without substance or reality in them. Everything was artificial as it were, an imitation meant to deceive and pass off as true. Yet nothing was what it pretended to be.

A vast deception
Yet nothing would confess its own pretence
Even to itself in the ambiguous heart:
A vast deception was the law of things;
Only by that deception they could live.

It was a world that lived by deception, a deception so profound that even the instruments of falsehood knew not that they are not living a real and true life. Deception was simply the way of their life.

Unsubstantial Nihil
An unsubstantial Nihil guaranteed
The falsehood of the forms this Nature took
And made them seem awhile to be and live.

Out of some dark Void the forms that falsehood took emerged and seemed real in the absence of any solid base of Truth.

A borrowed magic
A borrowed magic drew them from the Void;
They took a shape and stuff that was not theirs
And showed a colour that they could not keep,
Mirrors to a phantasm of reality.

An adverse Asuric Maya (the power of illusion) created forms that had no base. These forms were drawn from some real images and given here an artificial and temporary shape that resembled the original.

Closing Remarks
Thus Aswapati enters this ambiguous world where nothing was true and yet pretended to be so.