Once Sri Ramakrishna went with Hriday to Kalighat in South Calcutta to visit the Divine Mother. On the northern side of the pond near the temple there were kachu shrubs. Sri Ramakrishna saw the Divine Mother there in the guise of a girl wearing a red-bordered cloth. She was playing with some other girls, catching grasshoppers. Seeing Her, the Master cried out, “Mother, O Mother!” and lost all outer consciousness. Coming back to normal consciousness, he went inside the temple and found the same cloth on the image of the Mother that She had worn while playing as a girl in the bushes. After listening to the Master’s story, Hriday asked: “Uncle, why didn’t you tell me then and there? I would have run and caught hold of Her.” Sri Ramakrishna smiled and said: “Is it so easy? If Mother does not want to be caught, who has the power to catch Her? Without Her grace, nobody can see Her.” (Source: They Lived with God)
One evening at this time the Master was in deep samadhi in the women’s section of Mathur’s home. He was then wearing women’s clothes. Jagadamba wanted to attend the vesper service, but she was reluctant to leave the Master by himself. Once before he had fallen onto a pan of live charcoal while in ecstasy and had been badly burned. Like her husband, she had tremendous love and regard for Sri Ramakrishna. Suddenly, out of inspiration, she thought of a way to bring the Master to outer consciousness. Putting some of her precious jewellery on him, she began to say over and over: “Father, it’s time to wave the lights. Won’t you come and fan Mother Durga?” The Master slowly regained normal consciousness and went with Jagadamba to the shrine. Mathur noticed from a distance that an unknown aristocratic woman was standing near his wife and fanning the image. When the vesper service was over he asked his wife about the lady. Jagadamba smiled and said: “You didn’t know? That was Father.” “No one can know Father,” said Mathur, “if he doesn’t allow himself to be known.” (Source: They Lived with God)
Brahmananda had unbounded devotion to Holy Mother. He used to go every morning to pay his respects to her. Fearful of being overwhelmed with emotion, he would bow down to her from the courtyard instead of going upstairs where she was. One day Golap-ma said: “Rakhal, the Mother asks why a devotee propitiates Shakti, the Divine Mother, at the beginning of worship?” Brahmananda replied: “It is because the key to the knowledge of Brahman is in the Divine Mother’s keeping. There is no way of communing with Brahman unless the Mother graciously unlocks the door.” (Source: God Lived with Them)
Sri Ramakrishna Says —
“But why should God make us run about?” thought M.
Immediately Sri Ramakrishna said: “It is His will that we should run about a little. Then it is great fun. God has created the world in play, as it were. This is called Mahamaya, the Great Illusion. Therefore one must take refuge in the Divine Mother, the Cosmic Power Itself. It is She who has bound us with the shackles of illusion. The realisation of God is possible only when those shackles are severed.” (BG 7.14, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.5.19)
The Master continued: “One must propitiate the Divine Mother, the Primal Energy, in order to obtain God’s grace. God Himself is Mahamaya, who deludes the world with Her illusion and conjures up the magic of creation, preservation, and destruction. She has spread this veil of ignorance before our eyes. We can go into the inner chamber only when She lets us pass through the door. Living outside, we see only outer objects, but not that Eternal Being, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Therefore it is stated in the Purana that deities like Brahma praised Mahamaya for the destruction of the demons Madhu and Kaitabha.
“Sakti alone is the root of the universe. That Primal Energy has two aspects: vidya and avidya. Avidya deludes. Avidya conjures up ‘woman and gold’, which casts the spell. Vidya begets devotion, kindness, wisdom, and love, which lead one to God. This avidya must be propitiated, and that is the purpose of the rites of Sakti worship. ( In this worship a woman is regarded as the representation of the Divine Mother.) (Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)