Preparing for the Miraculous

sri aurobindo’s descent into death 173egoistic force and their servants, cries for the sword of theHero of the struggle and the word of the prophet.”It is said that Sri Aurobindo never explicitly stated thathe was an Avatar. To expect such a statement would demandthat Sri Aurobindo broke with his inborn and spiritualdiscretion. The quotations in the previous paragraph,however, make it abundantly clear, as do many other passagesin his writings and acts in his workings, that he consideredhis yogic effort to be that of an Avatar, and even themost decisive of all avataric missions. On the other hand,where does one ever find a sign of the slightest awarenessthat in 1947 the Work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, onwhich the future of humanity depended, was threatenedwith annulment?Nirodbaran, in those days with Champaklal the closestassistant of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, wrote in hispriceless Twelve Years with Sri Aurobindo: “We observed anoticeable change in his mood. Our talks ... diminished.He was no longer expansive; humour, wit, sally, fun, allhad shrivelled up and we were in front of a temple deity,impassive, aloof and indifferent. However much we triedto draw him out from his impregnable sanctum of silence,we were answered with a monosyllabic ‘yes’ or ‘no’, or atmost a faint smile. ... One day taking courage in both hands,Dr. Satyendra asked: ‘Why are you so serious, Sir?’ Sri Aurobindoanswered gravely: ‘The time is very serious.’ Theanswer left us mystified.” 5The decisionThings must have grown “worse than worst,” for adrastic act became imperative. Of Sri Aurobindo’s decisionto perform this act nobody knew at the time. It is only5 Nirodbaran: Twelve Years with Sri Aurobindo, pp. 263-264.