Lord Krishna-The One With A Black Body

Wednesday, September 29, 2010, 17:47

Physics speaks of the 'black body'. It is an ideal body. Usually a particular material can absorb or emit heat of only a specific range of wavelengths, just as radio receiver can be tuned only to particular wavelengths. But the 'black body', by definition, receives and gives out all wavelengths of heat. It is universal in its response. Perhaps our ancient Rishis had this truth in mind when they named the Purnavatara, the perfect incarnation of the Divine, as Krishna, the Black One (Krishna with a black body).

The Puranas tell us how delightfully and spontaneously Krishna reacted to an intricate variety of situations and a baffling complexity of personalities. All was grist to His mill. He could function masterfully from any angle. He was Visvatomukha. As He Himself has put it: Ye yatha mam prapadyante, tamstathaiva bhajamyaham. And whatever way you approach Him, along the same path He meets you. He has no preferences. Being the centre of the circle, He can move along any of the radii. His transcendence, paratva, does not stand in the way of His accessibility, saulabhya. No wonder Krishna is the darling of humanity and has been lovingly celebrated in songs and stories galore.

Krishna belongs to the Dvaparayuga, chronologically very distant from us. We live in Kaliyuga, the dark age. But age is no bar to His grace. Sambhavami yuge yuge. In every age He manifests Himself appropriately. So He who was Rama, He who was Krishna, embodied Himself once more as Ramakrishna in this age of science, for our sake. No one knew Ramakrishna better than Vivekananda; and Vivekananda, after testing him thoroughly as a money-changer tests a coin, has hailed him as Avatara-varistha, the Incarnation Supreme. And his supremacy is proved by his functioning as a spiritual 'black body' He accepted everyone, was accessible to everyone and showered his bounty on all without let or hindrance. By a touch or a glance he could transform a sinner into a saint, what then to speak of his grace towards earnest, pure-minded aspirants?

The case of Aghormani Devi, more fondly known as Gopaler Ma, exemplifies a variety of aspects of Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual ministry. Let us briefly recapitulate the incredible romance of her tryst with Divinity before we attempt to analyse the significance of her nexus with Sri Ramakrishna.

To be continued

About the author

C.S. Ramakrishnan

Sri C.S. Ramakrishnan, a former Joint Editor of the Vedanta Kesari, is a longstanding devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, and is actively associated with the Ramakrishna Movement for nearly five decades. In this write up which is an excerpt from his article 'Gopaler Ma,' he draws reference to Krishna who is symbolised with a 'black body'in order to make it comprehensive about Gopaler Ma, about whom the article is written.