Of Deities and People: An Early Morning Meditation

Ramakrishna was “a nineteenth century Hindu saint. He was a Bengali and a priest of the goddess Kali. I very much identified with his fervent desire to know his goddess. He pursued her with all his energy. And in this short version of the telling, eventually he was gifted with a vision.

I read about it and was dumbfounded. In his vision the goddess emerged from a river, swelled out in pregnancy, gave birth to a child, and then ate it. I read this and it took my breath away. I was repulsed and at the very same time felt somewhere deep inside me this was a pointing to something more profound than I had ever before dreamt.

Ramakrishna, himself, when commenting on this vision taught. “My Mother is the principle of consciousness. She is indivisible Reality, Awareness, and Bliss. The night sky between the stars is perfectly black. The waters of the ocean depths are the same; the infinite is always mysteriously dark. This inebriating darkness is my beloved Kali.”