Religion would be the conscious and intelligent pursuit of man's Final End, the unitive knowledge of immanent Tao or Logos, the transcendent Godhead or Brahman.

Farnaby awakens on the island with a leg injury, hearing a myna bird screaming "Attention", when a local boy and girl notice him and take him for medical treatment to their grandfather, Dr. Robert MacPhail.

Farnaby and Murugan recognise each other from a recent meeting with Colonel Dipa, the military dictator of a threatening country called Rendang-Lobo that neighbours Pala—another force coveting Pala's oil.

Palanese citizens strive to live always in the moment, to directly confront suffering and death, to meditate often, to engage shamelessly in coitus reservatus called maithuna, and to use moksha-medicine—a local psychedelic drug or entheogen—to help achieve these other goals.

The Rani, however, who comes to visit Farnaby and is theatrical, larger-than-life, and more traditionally religious, is disgusted by these mainstream Palanese values and wishes to reform the country.

As he recuperates, Farnaby reads Dr. Robert's copy of the Old Raja's Notes on What's What, and What It Might be Reasonable to do about What's What, which outlines Palanese practical philosophies for self-improvement and self-actualisation.

The Palanese are so intimately connected with the reality of the moment that they even have taught the local myna birds to say "Attention" and "Karuṇā", to remind the people to stay focused on the here-and-now and to have compassion.

His ensuing hallucinatory visions are vividly philosophical and unspeakably vibrant; he feels a loss of self in the oneness of everything and "knowledgeless understanding", and he also horrifically watches a nearby mantis sexually cannibalise her partner, before Susila encourages him to let the medicine help him see the beauty in all things.

Murugan's voice through a loudspeaker encourages the people to remain calm and welcome the invading forces, while announcing the formation of the new United Kingdom of Rendang and Pala with himself as the monarch and Colonel Dipa as its prime minister.

Scholars of Aldous's works see his mother's death in his cynical attitude and his books including Brave New World and the utopian Island.

A central element of Palanese society is restrained industrialisation, undertaken with the goal of providing fulfilling work and time for leisure and contemplation.

For the Palanese, progress means a selective attitude towards technology, which Huxley contrasts to the underdeveloped poverty of the neighbouring island of Rendang, and with the alienating overdevelopment of the industrialised West, chiefly through Will Farnaby's recollections of London.