Preparing for the Miraculous

what arjuna saw: the dark side of the force 91possible in the present perturbed world,” wrote Sri Aurobindoin July 1948. 30 And, after a life of avataric effort, hewrote the fateful words: “I have no intention of giving mysanction to a new edition of the old fiasco, a partial andtransient spiritual opening within with no true and radicalchange in the external nature” 31 – as had happened whenChrist and the Buddha had come and were gone.“It is not enough that our own hands should remainclean and our souls unstained for the law of strife and destructionto die out of the world; that which is its root mustfirst disappear out of humanity.” 32 And Sri Aurobindo, theAvatar and Warrior of the Supermind, prepared to descendinto death to extirpate, at the root of the human condition,that which on all previous occasions had barred the wayof Progress. This act was the ultimate condition of the descentof a greater, a divine Consciousness on Earth. Onlysix years after his voluntary descent into death (1950) theSupramental Consciousness manifested in the earth atmosphere(1956). 33CodaYears before he performed the yogic Master Act of consciouslydescending into death to purify and change theoccult foundations of the world, Sri Aurobindo had written:And yet I know my footprints’ track shall beA pathway towards Immortality. 3430 Id., p. 171.31 Sri Aurobindo: Letters on Yoga, p. 130.32 Sri Aurobindo: Essays on the Gita, p. 43.33 See talk 8: “Sri Aurobindo’s Descent into Death”.34 Sri Aurobindo: Collected Poems, p. 603.