Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds

Though Reason is presently the highest mental faculty available to man, it has several limitations. It fails when it makes claims to discovery of Truth.

The mind, by its very nature can see things in bits and parts. It knows a little but much more escapes its vision. Though useful in its place, Reason must slowly give way to higher modes of knowledge through which we can comprehend the Whole.

With the advent of Reason man’s thought strives to understand the secret law of things. It is this search that gives birth to science and Philosophy. Science too becomes a religion when she regards her discoveries as absolute truths.

Reason is an imperfect light even though right now it is thought to be the highest. Until greater ways of knowledge open their doors this imperfect light illumines the field of human experience.

After the physical and vital mind there emerges reason into the human play. It brings with it measure and rule.

This mind is quick to leap on impulse. It jumps from appearance to appearance sometimes hitting the mark and sometimes totally missing it.

This mind is an adventurer and an explorer. It is easily drawn towards the unknown and is also quick at weaving fantasy and imagination. This adventurer mind breaks into unknown domains by trying out the seemingly impossible.

The spell of physical mind tied down to convention and routine is broken by the emergence of the dynamic vital mind in man. This mind is hungry for innovation and change.

Each power of nature, each of its layers serves a certain purpose. The conservative spirit fixes things into a pattern but the same spirit becomes an obstacle when it is the hour of change

The physical mind, by its very nature is conservative. It is limited in its scope of understanding and action. It prefers stability over change. It lacks innovation and prefers to continue the old ways of life.

The little mind is stratified in three layers. The first of these is closely tied to earth and the body. It is what develops into the physical mind whose field is largely what the senses determine.

The birth of Mind upon our earth marks a transition from the unconsciously driven animal to a self-conscious being. This transition begins with the advent of mind and the stirrings of a mental consciousness in the human brain.

Here was seen the first glimmerings of the Mind. These were the first steps that the Mind took towards the far off light that is its true Home.

This power that we term as imagination is actually a portion of the formative power of Maya. It is given to man to escape from the trap of the senses and the mind tied to their imperfect and incomplete data.

This intelligence though seeming to be free actually binds itself within the limits of its own creations. It works mechanically so that a temporary order is created and objects follow a certain law and course set for them by action of this mind.

The little mind is the realm of early light. It is from its low slopes that our being begins to search for meaning and purpose, to reflect and discover oneself. The vital worlds seek for and are satisfied with power and joy. It is the mind that seeks for knowledge.

This little mind is not an instrument of knowledge even though it feigns itself to be. It is rather an instrument of formation that constructs frames of thought as scaffoldings to climb towards the true Home of Truth.

Aswapati now steps into this world of mind which is constituted very differently from the life worlds through which he has travelled so far. He must now discover its peaks and its laws, the beings and energies and their influence upon our earthly life.