History of Bengali Language and Literature c10.s2.97

c10.s2.97

Through the fierce and the terrible he sees the sweet moonlight of grace that suddenly breaks forth, and Kālī is no more than a symbol to him,—a symbol of divine punishment, of divine grace, and of divine motherhood. She is as much a symbol as the word God. If the symbol of a word is admitted into the vocabulary, why object to the symbol of a figure in the temple? One appeals to the ear, and the other to the eye. Rāma Prasāda saw the fierce rolling clouds that darkened the whole horizon, and thought he saw in them the dark and flowing tresses of the Mother. The fire of the funeral ground, reducing a corpse to ashes, reminded him of the destructive dance of the Mother. The red glow of the evening sky, with its first stars, wore to his eyes the angry look of the divine Mother. The storm, the hurricane, the flood, death and disease—these are her companions. The cry of jackal is the chorus heard behind her. The funeral ground is her favourite place; her dark skin, stained with blood, he compares to the black waters of the Jumna upon which floats the full blown lotus. In the agonies that rend the whole world he sees the chastising rod of the Mother, but says that he is not in the heart affrighted, for he has taken refuge in her grace. The image of Kālī works his imagination into lofty poetry, He sang :—