Preparing for the Miraculous

what arjuna saw: the dark side of the force 73“thus lapsed into unheroic weakness,” a weakness whichmight cause him to fail in his dharma, his inherent dutyas a warrior. And this is where Sri Krishna at first rebukeshim, and then, making him see the essential, divine justificationof it all, instructs him in the yoga. Arjuna receiveshis initiation on the battlefield.That the Mahabharata, the great war of the Bharatas, hasbeen a historic event is not in doubt, but the date of the waris still under discussion. In the introduction to his Searchfor the Historical Krishna, Navaratna S. Rajaram writes: “Itis beginning to be seen that even the chronology of ancientIndia based on the so-called Kali Date (3102 BC) for theMahabharata period is not lacking in scientific support, fallingas it does at the beginning of what we now call theHarappan Civilization. The Kali Age – especially its harbinger,the Mahabharata War – may be seen as marking theend of the spiritual age of the Vedas to be replaced by thematerialistic age in which we live. Its origins go back some5 000 years. The Mahabharata War stands at the thresholdof this transition.”The historic significance of this war was therefore considerable.No less is its significance in the spiritual progressof humanity, as it constitutes the background of the avataricWork of Sri Krishna. And the lasting significance of SriKrishna’s teaching to the present day – witness the role itplayed in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga and his marvellous Essayson the Gita – is that it remains an inexhaustible guide forspiritual practice, especially useful on the daily “battle field”of us, present-day humans.2. Dharmakshetra: the field of dharmaThe Gita, together with the Upanishads, was the textwhich Sri Aurobindo constantly studied and worked out