ADHAR (introducing Bankim [Chandra Chatterji]): "Sir, he is a great scholar and has written many books. He has come here to see you. His name is Bankim Babu."
MASTER (smiling): "Bankim! Well, what has made you bent?"
BANKIM (smiling): "Why, sir, boots are responsible for it. The kicks of our white masters have bent my body."
MASTER: "No, my dear sir! Sri Krishna was bent on account of His ecstatic love. His body was bent in three places owing to His love for Radha. That is how some people explain Sri Krishna's form.
Do you know why He has a deep-blue complexion? And why He is of such small stature-only three and a half cubits measured by His own hand? God looks so as long as He is seen from a distance. So the water of the ocean looks blue from afar. But if you go near the ocean and take the water in your hand, you will no longer find it blue; it will be very clear, transparent. So the sun appears small because it is very far away; if you go near it, you will no longer find it small. When one knows the true nature of God, He appears neither blue nor small. But that is a far-off vision; one does not see it except in samādhi. As long as 'I' and 'you' exist, name and form will also exist.
Everything is God's lila. His sportive pleasure. As long as a man is conscious of 'I' and 'you', he will experience the manifestations of God through diverse forms.
- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 666-67 (6 December 1884)
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