Preparing for the Miraculous

preparing for the miraculous 55Sri Aurobindo had called “a new humanity,” the Mothercalled surhomme which literally means “overman,” not“super man,” and which is the being corresponding to thesurmental, the “overmind.” This error is unfortunately thesource of an enormous confusion, for other translators followby example and commit systematically the same error,e.g. throughout the English translation of the Agenda.One result is that lots of texts are written on the futureglories of the Supermind and supermanhood, buthardly anything about the transitional processes requiredto fashion the supramental being, that is: about our ownparticipation in the Work. The effort of the practitioner ofthe Integral Yoga at present is to become, through his aspirationand surrender, one of the transitional beings whichwill make the appearance of the supramental being possible.As the Mother said: “This was certainly what Sri Aurobindoexpected of us: what he conceived of as the overman,who must be the intermediate being between humanity asit is and the supramental being created in the supramentalway – in other words, in no way part of the animal lifeany longer and freed from all animal needs ... It is quiteobvious that intermediary beings are necessary, and that itis these intermediary beings who must find the means tocreate beings of the Supermind. And there is no doubt that,when Sri Aurobindo wrote this, he was convinced that thisis what we have to do.” 10The manifestation of the SupermindThe avataric task of Sri Aurobindo and the Motherconsist ed in bringing down a new, higher consciousnessinto the Earth atmosphere: the consciousness of the Supermind.Life on Earth is still predominantly the fiefdom ofthe “hostile powers,” which are the direct descendants of10 Ibid.