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TANTRA
jackals, and terrible female spirits. From Her mouth flows a stream of blood, from Her neck hangs a garland of human heads, and around Her waist is a girdle made of human hands.
"After the destruction of the universe, at the end of a great cycle, the Divine Mother garners the sccds for the next creation. She is like the elderly mistress of the house, who lias a hotchpotch-pot in which she keeps different articles for the household use. (All laugh.) Oh, yes! Housewives have pots like that, where they keep sca-foam, blue pills, small bundles of seeds of cucumber, punipkin, and gourd, and so on. They take them out when they want them. In the same way, after the destruction of the universe, my Divine Mother, the Embodiment of Bralıman, gathers together the secds for the next creation. After the creation the Primal Power dwells in the universe itself. She brings forth this phenomenal world and then pervades it. In the Vedas creation is likened to the spider and its web. The spider brings the web out of itself and then remains in it. God is the container of the universe and also what is contained in it.
"Is Kālī, my Divine Mother, of a black complexion? She appcars black because she is viewed from a distance; but when intimately known She is no longer so. The sky appears blue at a distance; but look at air close by and you will find that it has no color. The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance, but when you go near and take it in your hand, you find that it is colorless."
Sri Rāmakrishna, filled with love for the Goddess, then sang to her two songs of the Bengali devotee and yogi Rāmprasād, after which he resumed his talk.
"The Divine Mother is always sportive and playful. This universe is Her play. She is self-willed and must always have her own way. She is full of bliss. She gives freedom to one out of a hundred thousand."
A BRĀHMO DEVOTEE: “But, sir, if she likes She can give freedom to all. Why, then, has she kept us bound to the world?"
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