[Divine Mother omnipresent.] 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. [Divine Mother, the material and the instrumental cause.] 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, [Kali, why black?] 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 Bhagavan 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

[The Power of the Divine Mother.] [paragraph continues] Maya a man of the world becomes bound by woman and gold. Again, through Her grace he becomes free. She breaks all fetters and takes Her children across the ocean of the world; and the Bhagavan sang in His divine voice:

THE DIVINE MOTHER AND THE LIBERATED SOUL

1. O Mother, Thou art flying the paper kite (of the human being) in the market-place of this world.
It flies on the wind of hope, tied to the string of Maya.

2. Ribs, nerves and bones make up its frame,
Of Thine own qualities hast Thou made the Kite, to display Thine art.

3. Thou hast rubbed the string with the Manja (paste with powdered glass) of worldliness, and it has become sharp.
Among hundred thousand Kites one or two have their strings cut, and are freed;
Then with a laugh Thou clappest Thy hands.

4. Prasad says, The Kite thus set free will fly swiftly on fair winds and drop beyond the ocean of this world.

[Divine Mother's will.] Sri Ramakrishna continuing: My Divine Mother is playful. The world indeed is Her sport. She does what She will and is blissful. It is Her pleasure to give freedom to one among a hundred thousand of Her children.

A Brahmo: Sir, She can, if She pleases, set every body free. Why is it then that She has bound us hand and foot with the chains of the world?

Sri Ramakrishna: Well, I suppose it is Her will. Her will is to play with all these things. In the game of Hide-and-Seek, whoever touches the Grand-dame is out. He no longer runs about. If all the players touch the Grand-dame at the same time, how can there be any game? The Grand-dame would not like it; for she is pleased to have the play go on.