Page:The Gospel of Râmakrishna.djvu/174

 My Mother, the Primal Divine Energy, is both within and without this phenomenal world. Having given birth to the world, She lives within it. In the Vedas we find the illustration of a spider and its web she is the spider and the world is the web that She has woven. The spider brings the phenomenal web out of herself and then lives on it. My Mother is both the Container and the Contained. Is Kali, the Divine Mother, black? She looks black from a distance, but when realized, She is not black. The sky looks blue from a distance, but look at it near you, it has no color. The water of the ocean is blue from a distance. Take a little up in the hand, and it has no color. Saying this, the Bhaga van became intoxicated with Divine Love, and began to sing:

"Is my Divine Mother black? O mind! What dost thou say? Though black, She with Her flowing hair Illumines the lotus of the heart." Bondage and freedom, of both She is the maker. Through Her inscrutable power of