________________
WHO SEEKS NIRVAŅA?
humanistic, progressive religious philosophy-not unlike that of his New England contemporary, the Transcendentalist (and student of the Bhagavad Gilā), Ralph Waldo Emerson. Rāmakrishna, on the other hand, was a thorough Ilindu-intentionally ignorant of English, nurtured in the traditions of his motherland, long-practiced in the techniques of introverted contemplation, and filled with the experience of God. The coming together of these two religious leaders was a meeting of the modern, timcly India and the timeless-the modern consciousness of India with the half-forgotten divine symbols of its own unconscious. Noteworthy, moreover, is the fact that on this occasion the teacher was not the Western-educated, tailored gentleman, who had been entertained in London by the Queen, but the yogi in his loincloth, speaking of the traditional Indian Gods out of his own direct experience.
KESHAB (with a smile): “Describe to us, sir, in how many ways Kālī, the Divine Mother, sports in this world.”
Śrī RĀMAKRISHNA (also with a smile): "Oh, She plays in different ways. It is She alone who is known as Mahā-Kāli ["The Great Black One"], Nitya-Kāli [“The Everlasting Black One"). Śinaśāna-Kāli ("Kāli of the Cremation Ground"], Rakṣā-Kāli ["Goblin Kālī"], and śyāmā-Kālī (“Dark Kāli"). Mahā-Kāli and Nitya-Kāli are mentioned in the Tantra Philosophy. When there were neither the creation, nor the sun, the moon, the planets, and the carth, and when darkness was enveloped in darkness, then the Mother, the Formless One, Mahā-Kāli, the Great Power, was one with Mahā-Kāla sthis is the masculine form of the same name), the Absolute.
"Śyāmā-Kāli has a somewhat tender aspect and is worshiped in the Hindu households. She is the Dispenser of boons and the Dispeller of fear. People worship Rakṣā-Kālī, the Protectress, in times of epidemic, famine, earthquake, drought, and flood. Śmaśāna-Kāli is the embodiment of the power of destruction. She resides in the cremation ground, surrounded by corpses,
565
