Preparing for the Miraculous

82 eleven talksmeanwhile the aspect of battle and the nature and functionof man as a fighter have to be accepted and accounted forby any practical philosophy and religion.” (Essays on theGita, p. 49)5. The Work of Sri Aurobindo and the MotherIn September 1943, when the Second World War was atits height and undecided, Sri Aurobindo wrote in a letter:“Ours is a Sadhana which involves not only devotion orunion with the Divine or a perception of Him in all things,but also action as workers and instruments and a work tobe done in the world or a force to be brought in the worldunder difficult conditions ... It does not seem to me that X iswrong in seeing in it [i.e. the Second World War] the sameproblem as in Kurukshetra.” “In this yoga,” he wrote onanother occasion, “all sides of the Truth are taken up, notin the systematic forms given them formerly but in their essence,and carried to the fullest and highest significance.” 16It cannot be overstressed that the Integral Yoga of SriAurobindo and the Mother is a radical, revolutionary effortto change human nature. As it is “integral,” it takes upthe essence and many processes of the old yogas, but it isnew in its aim (the transformation and divinization of humannature); its standpoint (if all is the Brahman, the worldand the body in which we are incarnated is also the Brahman;instead of the search for escape, the appreciation oftheir Work must lead to an understanding and realizationof their purposes); and the totality of its method (includingthe yogas of devotion, knowledge and works).The Integral Yoga is also new “because the object soughtafter is not an individual achievement of divine realizationfor the sake of the individual, but something to be gained for16 Sri Aurobindo: Letters on Yoga, p. 73.