Preparing for the Miraculous

idge across the afterlife 159uncountable lives, military and civilian? Why was he, atthat tragic juncture, sent back even against his own will?It would seem that “in heaven” the norms for making theaccounts differ from those “here below.” It would alsoseem that events, whether insignificant or on a world scale– wars, mass deportations and massive catastrophes – areelements or links in processes beyond our understanding.Knowledge physical and spiritual, and its seasonsIf one had read earlier about the Mother’s protectivepathways across the afterlife, say before the publication ofthe first books on NDE, her narrative of what she had accomplishedin the beginning of the 20th century might havelooked like another of those chimerical experiences mysticsthink they have. Yet this is only one of many elements inSri Aurobindo and the Mother’s writings which have inthe meantime come within the compass of science, andthere will no doubt be more to come. For there is a spiritualknowledge which is independent of and more true thanscientific materialism, bound by the limitations of the humanmind. Spiritual insight is based on direct knowledge;mental activity remains inexorably restricted by the humanconstitution, as has been recognized by philosophers likePlato, Berkeley and Kant.Another example of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s“foreknowledge” is the very special nature and purpose ofthe Earth, as commented upon in the talk “2012 and 1956:Doomsday?” It must suffice here to remind that the Mothersaid in the 1950s: “From the occult and spiritual point ofview, the Earth is the concentrated symbol of the universe.... For the convenience and necessity of the work, the wholeuniverse has been concentrated and condensed symbolicallyin a grain of sand which is called the Earth. And thereforeit is the symbol of all – all that is to be changed, all that is to