Preparing for the Miraculous

88 eleven talksa cruel oppression and degradation for most of the humanrace such as people in this country do not dream of and cannotyet at all realize.” (29.7.1942)“The victory of one side (the Allies) would keep thepath open for the evolutionary forces; the victory of theother side would drag back humanity, degrade it horriblyand might lead even, at the worst, to its eventual failure asa race, as others in the past evolution failed and perished.”(3.9.1943)This was the Avatar speaking in defence of the Work hehad come to do, to “keep the path open for the evolutionaryforces.” It is at the vital, decisive evolutionary momentsthat the Avatar incarnates, yuge yuge, to create the possibilityof an evolutionary step forwards and to do battle withthe Forces who oppose his action with all their terrific, egoisticpowers. Sri Rama had to fight Ravana at the time of thementalization of humanity; Sri Krishna led the fight of theMahabharata war, supporting with his physical presenceand his spiritual Power the Pandavas against the ill-intentionedKauravas. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were forthe first time in human history the complete, bi-poled malefemaleAvatar. May it at last be realized that their crucialavataric effort of transforming humanity, to make a betterworld possible, impelled the Hostile Forces to retaliate andcaused the twentieth-century wars. Actually the First andSecond World War, together with the third Cold War, areclosely interrelated and should be seen as one.A direct result of the Second World War was that itbrought the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to ahalt, and this at the moment that they expected the supramentalDescent to take place. Sri Aurobindo wrote lateron about “these times of world-crisis when I have to be onguard and concentrated all the time to prevent irremediable