Book 2 Canto 7 Opening Remarks
Aswapati the seer yogi has undertaken a tremendous inner journey to search for the key to transmute earthly life. In the course of his journey he encounters the highest possibilities of our present life with its idealism and hopes and imaginations of a greater world. However it has not the power to effectuate these things in a lasting and perfect way. There is something that bars its further ascension, something that pulls it backward and draws it downwards so to say. It is this that Aswapati now wants to explore, the dark underbelly of Life that denies it enduring progress and hope and ties it down to the level of a beast with some rare uplifting moments. With this will to discover the very roots of evil, Aswapati now descends into darkness.