Canto I: The Pursuit of the Unknowable

This Canto describes the ultimate experience of the Vedantin. It is said that if one enters there then all lines of return are closed and one vanishes as in the sea a wave. But Aswapati waits upon Its threshold and returns but not before seeking the ultimate boon for earth and men.

Aswapati has now entered the penultimate experience of Adwaita, the experience of the sole Reality that is beyond all constructions, definitions, forms and conceptions we can build out of it.

Aswapati has arrived at the brink of Nothingness. It is the zone where all begins and ends. It is the last sense of the Self, the eternal immortal Self that was experienced before even this had vanished.

Aswapati removes the veil of creation woven by mind and life and matter and is now ready to behold the Lord who is hidden behind it.

Aswapati is now ready to enter where none has gone before and returned. It is the realm of the Formless where all forms must shed the layers.

There is an inner divining sense that felt the presence of a Being who is the ultimate Source, the supreme Mystery. Aswapati is about to enter this secret sanctuary.

Aswapati stands now at the doors of the Unknowable. It is here that he may find the very Home of Truth, the ultimate Source from where all emerge. Our mind’s knowledge is insufficient to reveal the face of Truth to us.

In Book Three Canto 1 ‘The Pursuit of the Unknowable’ we see Aswapati enter through the doors from where none returns. He has to choose between a complete annulment of all that he has been and is and ever could be or else to be reborn and remade and return from the tremendous threshold of extinction with a new mind and new life.