Canto VII: The Descent into Night

The journey towards the heart of darkness seems endless. It moves from grey to dark and further towards the dark extreme of creation.

Here Sri Aurobindo is cautioning us of what the aspirant may encounter on the Eternal’s Road. At the same time he reminds us of the ever-present Help and the Grace that we must always summon and pray for.

These cults spread to propagate falsehood under different names. Their way of life was cruel and intolerant of all that did not share their belief. Deception, hypocrisy, cruelty, intolerance was the very law of this world of falsehood.

Not only politics but even religion has come under the influence of evil that lives in the underbelly of creation. It has changed religion also into something dark and despicable.

Aswapati enters a domain of anarchy. There is no order, no rule, no harmony and each lives only for himself. Sri Aurobindo reveals to us in details what the world has become and can become under the influence of this darkness.

It was a world of treachery where even truth-speaking was used as a strategy by falsehood to further its own empire. It is when these dark worlds of falsehood and untruth influence human beings and take them in its strong grip that life here too becomes a hell.

Evil works in dubious and diabolic ways. It seldom comes declaring itself. Rather it often appears in the garb of good. Falsehood deceives us by imitating truth. We can see how quite a few religious teachers and even those who claim to be spiritual fall into this category. It reminds us of the need for caution and vigilance.

Aswapati now enters this land of deception where nothing is real or true and yet pretended to be so.

Falsehood draws its material from truth but gives it a twist thereby turning it into a lie. Its action is a distorting influence on things. Deception and terror is the law of life in this world. It is a world devoid of natural joy and good.