{"id":199,"date":"2011-04-21T08:23:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T08:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2011\/04\/of-deities-and-people-an-early-morning-meditation\/"},"modified":"2011-11-01T15:02:14","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:02:14","slug":"of-deities-and-people-an-early-morning-meditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2011\/04\/of-deities-and-people-an-early-morning-meditation.html","title":{"rendered":"Of Deities and People: An Early Morning Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left\">\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-JXYeQLXITd0\/TbAgV0F90oI\/AAAAAAAADvk\/8YNefh9pZFc\/s1600\/cruelty+of+life.gif\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-JXYeQLXITd0\/TbAgV0F90oI\/AAAAAAAADvk\/8YNefh9pZFc\/s400\/cruelty+of+life.gif\" width=\"366\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/monkeymindonline.blogspot.com\/2008\/11\/love-your-mother-reflecting-on-nature.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ramakrishna<\/a> was \u201ca 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Ramakrishna, himself, when commenting on this vision taught. \u201cMy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/33904114-1043135554208848417?l=monkeymindonline.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ramakrishna was \u201ca 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Of Deities and People: An Early Morning Meditation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ramakrishna was &quot;a nineteenth century Hindu saint. He was a Bengali and a priest of the goddess Kali. 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I very much identified with his fervent desire to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2011\/04\/of-deities-and-people-an-early-morning-meditation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Monkey Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-21T08:23:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-01T19:02:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-JXYeQLXITd0\/TbAgV0F90oI\/AAAAAAAADvk\/8YNefh9pZFc\/s400\/cruelty+of+life.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2011\/04\/of-deities-and-people-an-early-morning-meditation.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2011\/04\/of-deities-and-people-an-early-morning-meditation.html\",\"name\":\"Of Deities and People: An Early Morning Meditation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-21T08:23:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-01T19:02:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\"},\"description\":\"Ramakrishna was \\\"a nineteenth century Hindu saint. 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