There’s a legend about a tribe called the Invisible People in the Amazon jungles. When standing silently and unmoving in the middle of the forest, they would remain undetected by their enemies. Then there’s the comic book character Plastic Man who, in his fight against crime, would at times mold himself into part of the landscape or appear as inanimate objects. His ability was because of a freak chemical accident.
Now if you wanted to go undetected in plain view of everyone how would you do that? Could you take the shape of a rock, bicycle or garbage can? Could you blend into the marble wall in the lobby of some big downtown hotel? What about taking on the color and texture of a plush armchair you’re sitting in so it appears that no one’s there?
Carl Zimmer, in his New York Times article Revealed: Secrets Of The Camouflage Masters,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/science/19camo.html?st=cse&sq=carl+zimmer+revealed&scp=1
reports how some living entities can, within a moments notice, blend into their surroundings and “disappear.” It sounds like the talents of the best Special Forces Units, Undercover Squads, Hollywood make up artists, and the likes of Houdini and David Copperfield all rolled into one.
But the marvels explained therein are not of human design, but of Intelligent Design. The Supreme Intelligent (Krishna - God) has given various living entities and species their own special intelligence and has parceled out to them an array of extraordinary abilities that in many ways seem to out perform those of us humans.
The article focuses on Dr. Roger Hanlon and his ongoing research over a 30 year period with cephalopods, animals that can change or disguise themselves in their environments. Among them, the cuttlefish, squids and octopus are the “world’s camouflage champions.” One account tells that after following an octopus for an hour and a half underwater, Dr Hanlon turned away for an instant, and when he turned back, the octopus was gone. After searching for 20 minutes he realized it was right in front of him all the time, exactly where he had seen it before. Other Octopuses he observed “assume the shape of a rock and move in plain sight across the sea floor. But no faster than the ripples of light around them, so they never seem to move.”
It would serve Dr Hanlon and colleagues to study the camouflage abilities of Sri Krishna. Krishna appears in numerous forms, shapes, and guises. He is always with us, He surrounds us and maintains us, but we cannot see Him nor readily detect Him. This is the greatest deception. He simultaneously walks and does not walk. He is within everything and yet he is also outside of everything. He is the furthest away, and even if one travels at the speed of the mind, no one can approach Him. And yet He is the closest of all, residing undetected, in the core of our hearts. And on those rare occasions when yogis and mystics, meditating for ages, finally glimpse the Lord Within The Heart, they think it’s themselves. O’Krishna – the supreme master of camouflage!
“I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by my creative potency. And so the deluded world knows Me not , who am unborn and infallible. I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.” Bhagavad Gita 7: 25-26
