The Field of the Issue by Narendra

Kurukshetra was the place where the Issue of the Age of Mahabharata was settled. Where on earth would the Issue of the present Age be settled?

Perhaps:

A spot for the eternal’s tread on earth
Set in the cloistral yearning of the woods
And watched by the aspiration of the peaks
Appeared through an aureate opening in Time
Where stillness listening felt the unspoken word
And the hours forgot to pass towards grief and change.

Mother says [19 April 1969] that India is the place where the Issue would be settled and more specifically Sri Aurobindo in Savitri symbolically places this in the forests of Shalwa:

For … for years, even from the time Sri Aurobindo was here, there had been the vision – an inner vision – that India is the place where the fate of the earth will be decided. So the two opposite possibilities are there. As if it were said that if there were war, it would be over India; that the world conflict … (how can I put it?), the ISSUE would be played out over India. But will the Force of Peace be sufficient to prevent war? There’s the whole question. But the whirl of forces is here, over India.

And since this Consciousness came, things have been accelerating.

It has given a great rapidity of movement to circumstances. But then, it’s becoming urgent. And … oh, falsehood, duplicity … oh, everything seems to be rising to the surface – it’s hideous. Will the … the Force of Harmony and Peace be strong enough to … to digest all that? I don’t know.

I thought (there were all kinds of things going on, like pictures of possibilities), I thought it was in the body’s makeup, that it was coming out in order to be purified. Now I realize it may have been partly that, but that all those pictures correspond to things taking place at present [in the world]. And if they are true … the things to come are rather catastrophic.
There is always this inner will to … (gesture of pressure to establish peace). As if it were, I can’t say a last conflict, but it’s becoming … it’s becoming immediate.

It’s like a conflict between the forces that want to destroy the earth and the terrestrial transformation. if those forces can be checked, can be mastered or rendered powerless, then the earth’s progress and transformation will go on soaring up – magnificent! But now … monsters seem to be coming up from every side to prevent that.

It’s exactly as if we were sitting on top of a volcano: either the volcano must fall extinct, or everything is going to blow up. That’s how it is.

Also on 3 February 1968:

I concentrated to know what had to be said [regarding Auroville]. And all of a sudden, Sri Aurobindo gave me a revelation. That was something interesting. I concentrated to know the why, the how and so on, and all of a sudden Sri Aurobindo said … [the Mother reads out a note]: “India has become the symbolic representation of all the difficulties of modern mankind. India will be the land of its resurrection – the resurrection to a higher and truer life.”

And the clear vision: the same thing which in the history of the universe made the earth the symbolic representation of the universe so as to concentrate the work on one point, the same phenomenon is now taking place: India is the representation of all human difficulties on earth, and it is in India that the … cure will be found. And then, that is why – THAT IS WHY I was made to start Auroville.

It came and it was so clear, so tremendously powerful!

So really the forests of Shalwa appear to be in Auroville and by extension to the Ashram! It is well to remember here that devotion to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo does NOT stop short of their WORK as is evident from what the Mother has said on 10 May 1958:

From the positive point of view, I am convinced that we agree upon the result to be obtained, that is, an integral and unreserved consecration—in love, knowledge and action—to the Supreme AND TO HIS WORK. I say to the Supreme and to his work because consecration to the Supreme alone is not enough. Now we are here for the supramental realization, this is what is expected of us, but to reach it, our consecration to it must be total, unreserved absolutely integral. I believe you have understood this—in other words, that you have the will to realize it.

So really it is incumbent for us, who have the arrogance to claim ourselves, the devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, to gain full appreciation and conception of their work, the New Creation, and collaborate.