Acharya Prashant recounts the story of Totapuri and Shri Ramakrishna to explain the nature of spiritual liberation. Totapuri advised Shri Ramakrishna that his final obstacle was the mental image of the Goddess Kali. He instructed him to use a sword to cut through this image during meditation. When Shri Ramakrishna struggled to find a sword in his vision, Totapuri explained that just as the image of the Mother was a creation of the mind, a sword could also be created from the same source. To force Shri Ramakrishna into action, Totapuri used a piece of glass to cut his forehead, using physical pain as a catalyst to break his deep identification with the mental form. This physical shock allowed Shri Ramakrishna to finally transcend the image and attain the ultimate truth.
