Paragraph 13:
“You see, I cannot but believe that there is somewhere a great Power That thinks of Herself as feminine, and called Kali, and Mother….. And I believe in Brahman too…….. But is it not always like that? Is it not the multitude of cells in the body that make up the personality, the many brain-centres, not the one, that produce consciousness? ……..Unity in complexity! Just so! And why should it be different with Brahman? It is Brahman. It is the One. And yet — and yet — it is the gods too!”
Paraphrase: Vivekananda expressed his belief in a great feminine power called Kali, while also believing in Brahman. He likened this to the human body, where many cells create a single personality. Similarly, Brahman is one, yet manifests as multiple gods, demonstrating unity in complexity.
Paragraph 14:
Similarly, he had returned from a pilgrimage in Kashmir saying “These gods are not merely symbols! They are the forms that the bhaktas have seen!” And it is told of Sri Ramakrishna that he would sometimes speak, coming out of samadhi, of the past experience of that soul that dwelt within him, — “He who came as Rama, as Krishna, as Jesus dwells here”—and then would add playfully, turning to his chief disciple, “But not in your Vedanta sense, Noren!”
Paraphrase: After a pilgrimage to Kashmir, Vivekananda stated that gods are not just symbols but forms seen by devotees. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, after coming out of deep meditation, would speak of past lives, saying that the souls of Rama, Krishna, and Jesus lived within him. He would then jokingly clarify to his disciple Noren that he didn’t mean this in the Vedantic sense.
Paragraph 15:
Thus we are admitted to a glimpse of the struggle that goes on in great souls, for the correlation and mutual adjustment of the different realizations of different times. On the one side the Mother, on the other side Brahman. We are reminded of the Swami’s own words, heard long ago, “The impersonal God, seen through the mists of sense, is personal.” In truth it might well be that the two ideas could not be reconciled. Both conceptions could not be equally true at the same time. It is clear enough that in the end, as a subjective realization, either the Mother must become Brahman, or Brahman the Mother. One of the two must melt into the other, the question of which, in any particular case, depending on the destiny and the past of the worshipping soul.
Paraphrase: This passage reveals the inner conflict in great souls trying to reconcile different spiritual realizations. On one hand, there is the Divine Mother, and on the other, Brahman. Vivekananda had said, “The impersonal God, seen through the mists of sense, is personal.” These two ideas might seem irreconcilable, and eventually, either the Mother becomes Brahman or Brahman becomes the Mother, depending on the individual’s spiritual journey and destiny.
Paragraph 16:
For my own part, the conversation I have related marked an epoch. Ever since it took place, I have thought I saw in my Master’s attitude a certain element of one who carried for another a trust confided to him. He would always, when asked to explain the image of Kali, speak of it as the book of experience, in which the soul turns page after page, only to find that there is nothing in it, after all. And this, to my own mind, is the final explanation. Kali the Mother is to be the worship of the Indian future. In Her name will her sons find it possible to sound many experiences to their depths. And yet, in the end, their hearts will return to the ancient wisdom, and each man will know, when his hour comes, that all his life was but as a dream.
Paraphrase: For Nivedita, a particular conversation with Vivekananda was pivotal. She realized that he seemed to carry a trust from someone else. When explaining Kali, he would describe her as a book of experience, where each page turned shows that there is ultimately nothing there. Nivedita believed that Kali worship would shape the future of Indian spirituality, allowing devotees to deeply explore many experiences but eventually returning to ancient wisdom, recognizing life as a dream.