25. Dissolving Boundaries

If we visit the famous Kali Temple at Calcutta, we can see a strange thing.

The temple has a tradition to decorate Mother Kali's idol with conch shell bangles. Kali has four hands: one in 'abhaya', the posture of protection and one in 'varada', the posture of giving; the third holds a skull and the fourth carries a sword. The first two hands are empty and the bangles can be directly inserted. The sword can be removed and the bangles inserted on the fourth hand. But the bangles cannot be inserted on the hand which holds the skull because the skull is too big.

One day the priest assisting Ramakrishna Paramahamsa noticed that Mother Kali's idol had bangles on her third hand too. They went close and examined it to see if the bangles were broken, but the stone idol has a full unbroken conch bangle on the third hand! There was no rational explanation to what they were seeing. They were shocked and surprised at this impossibility.

The priests rushed to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to ask him about it. They were suspicious of Ramakrishna- did he break the skull to insert the bangles? Ramakrishna was considered to be slightly mad on account of his unique ways of doing Puja.

Before offering the prasad, the traditional food offering to the idol, he would eat a little bit of the food to see that it tasted alright and only then offer it to Mother Kali. He would do all sorts of weird things which the scriptures do not condone; but his love was such that Mother accepted everything. When questioned about the bangle on the third hand, Ramakrishna replied, ' What is so surprising about this? I just asked Mother to keep the skull down so that I could insert the bangles and she dropped the skull. I inserted the bangle and I gave the skull back for her to hold!'

This sounds like an improbable story. But it is true. We can verify this in Kali temple in Calcutta even today. We are surprised that even stone can react and can respond to love. Even a stone comes alive for a devotee with deep and true 'bhakti' or devotion.

Love is the only way to dissolve boundaries. It removes the feeling of separation between us and those around us. Love lets us survive. Love to live.