Kali

O Kali! why dost Thou roam about nude?
Art Thou not ashamed, Mother!
Garb and ornaments Thou hast none;
yet Thou pridest in being King's daughter.
O Mother! is it a virtue of Thy family that
Thou placest Thy feet on Thy Husband?
Thou are nude; Thy Husband is nude;
You both roam cremation grounds.
O Mother! we are all ashamed of you; do put on Thy garb.
Thou hast cast away Thy necklace of jewels, Mother,
and worn a garland of human heads.
Prasada says, "Mother! Thy fierce beauty has
frightened Thy nude Consort."

from
Rama Prasada's Devotional Songs: The Cult of Shakti
by Rama Prasada (1718-75), published in 1966 by Sinha Pub. Calcutta

"The Goddess Kali is almost always described as having a terrible, frightening appearance. She is always black or dark, is usually naked, and has long dishevelled hair. She is adorned with several arms as a girdle, freshly cut heads as a necklace, children's corpses as earrings, and serpents as bracelets. She has long, sharp fangs, is often depicted as having clawlike hands with long nails, and is often said to have blood smeared on Her lips. Her favourite haunts heighten Her fearsome nature. She is usually shown on the battlefield, where She is a furious combatant who gets drunk on the hot blood of Her victims, or in a cremation ground, where She sits on a corpse surrounded by jackals and goblins."¹

In general we might describe Kali as a Goddess who threatens stability and order. She is the destroyer of the very world She is supposed to protect. Kali, the Great Mother Goddess who brings Life and Death. She is the furious embodiment of the divine feminine that is released when she becomes enraged.

According to Barbara Walker, "Kali was the basic archetypal image of the birth-and-death Mother, simultaneously womb and tomb, giver of life and devourer of her children: the same image portrayed in a thousand ancient religions." ²

One legend says that Kali manifested when the demon Daruka appropriated divine power and the powerful Goddess Parvati knitted Her brows. From Her fury sprang Kali, armed with a trident. She dispatched Daruka and remained in existence, beyond even the control of Parvati, of whom She is an aspect.

Kali is still one of India's most popular Goddesses. In fact the city of Calcutta is an anglicised version of the name Kali-Ghatt, or "steps of Kali", Her temple. The bloody rites of Kali worship are sometimes so terrifying, that few understand them. Kali is a symbol of the worst we can imagine and by knowing Her, we can overcome the terror of our own death and destruction. "Once faced and understood... Kali frees her worshippers of all fear and becomes the greatest of mothers, the most comforting of all goddesses." ³

Kali is an important figure in Hinduism, despite Her intimidating appearance and ghastly habits. She takes a central role in Tantrism, where an underlying assumption if ideology is that reality is the result of the symbiotic interaction of male and female, Siva and Sakti - polar opposites that in interaction produce a creative tension.. In Tantra it is Kali's vitality that is sought through techniques aimed at spiritual transformation. She is affirmed as the dominant and primary reality.

In the Mahanirvana-tantra Kali is one of the most common manifestations of the primordial Sakti, and Siva praises Her:

At the dissolution of things, it is Kala [Time] Who will devour all, and by reason of this He is called Mahakala [an epithet of Siva], and since thou devourest Mahakala Himself, it is thou who are the Supreme Primordial Kalika.

Because Thou devourest Kala, Thou art Kali, the original form of all things, and because Thou art the Origin of and devourest all things Thou art called the Adya [primordial] Kali. Resuming after Dissolution thine own form, dark and formless, thou alone remainest as One ineffable and inconceivable. Though having a form, yet art Thou formless; though thyself without beginning, multiform by the power of Maya, thou art the Beginning of all, Creatrix, Protectress, and Destructress that thou art. (4.30-34) ⁴

The approach of a devotee towards Kali is different from that of a Tantric sadhaka. The Tantric adept will seek Kali in Her most terrifying and terrible aspect and is heroic in approach, cultivating a fearless stance. The devotee might adopt a position of helpless child - even though the Mother may be fearsome, the child has little choice but to return to Her for protection, security and warmth.

O Mother! Thou has great dissolution in thy hand;
Siva lies at Thy feet, absorbed in bliss.
Thou laughest aloud (striking terror); streams of
blood flow from Thy limbs.
O Tara, doer of good, the good of all, grantor of safety,
O Mother, grant me safety.
O Mother Kali! take me in Thy arms; A Mother Kali!
take me in thy arms.
O Mother! come now as Tara with a smiling face and clad in white;
As dawn descends on dense darkness of the night.
O Mother! terrific Kali! I have worshipped Thee alone so long.
My worship is finished; now O Mother, bring down Thy sword. ⁵

Notes:
1. David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine, Motilal Banarsidass, India, 1987, page 116.
2. Barbara Walker, The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, Harper Collins, 1983, page 488.
3. Patricia Monaghan, The Book of Goddesses and Heroines, Llewellyn, USA, 1993, page 188-9.
4. Arthur Avalon, trans., Tantra of the Great Liberation (Mahanirvana-tantra), Ganesh, Madras, 1972, pp. 49-50
5. Rama Prasada, Devotional Songs, No.221, Sinha Pub. Calcutta, 1966, page 106.

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