Preparing for the Miraculous

what arjuna saw: the dark side of the force 79the truth in its entirety because there there is much that is notclear and pleasant and comfortable but hard to understand andharder to bear.” 104. The battle that is our battleIn the words of Sri Aurobindo, “Arjuna is the representativeman of his age.” “In the Gita he typifies the humansoul of action brought face to face through that action in itshighest and most violent crisis with the problem of humanlife and its apparent incompatibility with the spiritual stateor even with a purely ethical ideal of perfection.” 11 Whenputting the teachings of the Gita into practice, Sri Aurobindohimself was constantly guided by Sri Krishna whomafterwards he declared to have been the Master of his Yoga(and who later incarnated into him 12 ). The Gita formed anintegral part of the foundation of his avataric realization –which is one reason why his Essays on the Gita remain anessential source of inspiration for all who want to followin his footsteps. The battle on the field of the Kurus is thebattle of striving humanity; it is our battle.“The world of our battle and labour is a fierce dangerousdestructive devouring world in which life existsprecariously and the soul and body of man move amongenormous perils, a world in which by every step forward,whether we will it or no, something is crushed and broken,in which every breath of life is a breath too of death. To putaway the responsibility for all that seems to us evil or terribleon the shoulders of a semi-omnipotent Devil, or to putit aside as part of Nature, making an unbridgeable oppositionbetween world-nature and God-Nature, as if Nature10 Sri Aurobindo: Essays on the Gita, p. 381 (emphasis added).11 Id., p. 21.12 See talk 2, “The Development of Sri Aurobindo’s Thought”.