Mysterious Play of Kali

Ramakrishna was a nineteenth-century Bengali devotee of Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction. He assumed the demeanor and dress of a woman, acted like a monkey, a child, a madman, and a comedian at various times during his career. Using the concept of play (lila), as bothspontaneous activity and dramatic performance on behalf of Kali, Carl Olson provides a interpretive key for unlocking Ramakrishna's life and his often contradictory forms of behavior. Olson places Ramakrishna in his social and historical context, examines his relationship to women, and investigateshis status as a mystery or stranger to his contemporaries.Olson, Carl is the author of 'Mysterious Play of Kali', published 1990 under ISBN 9781555403393 and ISBN 1555403395.