Preparing for the Miraculous

86 eleven talkshuman nature, which is such a difficult undertaking thatformerly no spiritual path, and certainly no religious one,has even tried to attempt it.As every aspirant is soon to find out: “This yoga is aspiritual battle; its very attempt raises all sorts of adverseforces.” The battlefield, however, is we ourselves, we composite,complex human beings. It is a “war of our members”in which every member, like every creature, has the right ofits highest possible development. It is “a battle, a long warwith ourselves and with opposing forces around us.”Without heroism, avers Sri Aurobindo, no human cangrow into the Godhead. “Courage, energy and strength areamong the very first principles of the divine nature in action.”And the Mother had the following prayer printedin the Ashram School notebooks: “Make of us the herowarriorswe aspire to become. May we fight successfullythe great battle of the future that is to be born, against thepast that seeks to endure, so that the new things may manifestand we be ready to receive them.”O soul, intruder in Nature’s ignorance,Armed traveller to the unseen supernal heights,Thy spirit’s fate is a battle and ceaseless marchAgainst invisible opponent Powers ...All who would raise the fallen world must comeUnder the dangerous arches of their power;For even the radiant children of the godsTo darken their privilege is and dreadful right.None can reach heaven who has not passed through hell. 236. Kurukshetra in the twentieth centuryThe Second World War is long past and is by most peopletoday but vaguely remembered. Countless books have23 Sri Aurobindo: Savitri, pp. 458, 227.