The worship of a mother goddess as the source of life
and fertility has prehistoric roots, but the transformation
of that deity into a Great goddess of cosmic powers was
achieved with the composition of the Devi Mahatmya
(Glory of the goddess), a text of the fifth to sixth
century, when worship of the female principle took on
dramatic new dimensions. The goddess is not only the
mysterious source of life,she is the very soil, all-creating
and all consuming.
The divine and anti-divine forces. Etymologically Durga's name means "Beyond Reach".
She is thus an echo of the woman warrior's fierce virginal autonomy. In this context Kali
is considered the 'forceful' form of the great goddess Durga.
Kali is represented as a Black woman with four arms; in one hand she has a sword, in
another the head of the demon she has slain, with the other two she is encouraging her
worshippers. For earrings she has two dead bodies and wears a necklace of skulls ; her
only clothing is a girdle made of dead men's
hands, and her tongue protrudes from her mouth. Her eyes are red, and her face and breasts are besmeared with blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the breast of her husband.
Kali's fierce appearances have been the subject of extensive descriptions in several earlier
and modern works. Though her fierce form is filled with awe- inspiring symbols, their real
meaning is not what it first appears- they have equivocal significance:
Kali's blackness symbolizes her all-embracing, comprehensive nature, because black is the
color in which all other colors merge; black absorbs and dissolves them. 'Just as all colors
disappear in black, so all names and forms disappear in her' (Mahanirvana Tantra). Or
black is said to represent the total absence of color, again signifying the nature of Kali
as ultimate reality. This in Sanskrit is named as nirguna (beyond all quality and form).
Either way, Kali's black color symbolizes her transcendence of all form.
A devotee poet says:
"Is Kali, my Divine Mother, of a black complexion?
She appears black because She is viewed from a distance;
but when intimately known She is no longer so.
The sky appears blue at a distance, but look at it close by
and you will find that it has no colour.
The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance,
but when you go near and take it in your hand,
you find that it is colourless."...Ramakrishna Paramhansa (1836-86)
Kali's nudity has a similar meaning. In many instances she is described as garbed in space
or sky clad. In her absolute, primordial nakedness she is free from all covering of illusion.
She is Nature (Prakriti in Sanskrit), stripped of 'clothes'. It symbolizes that she is completely
beyond name and form, completely beyond the illusory effects of maya (false
consciousness).Her nudity is said to represent totally illumined consciousness, unaffected
by maya. Kali is the bright fire of truth, which cannot be hidden by the clothes of ignorance.
Such truth simply burns them away.
She is full-breasted; her motherhood is a ceaseless creation. Her disheveled hair forms a
curtain of illusion, the fabric of space - time which organizes matter out of the chaotic sea
of quantum-foam. Her garland of fifty human heads, each representing one of the fifty
letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, symbolizes the repository of knowledge and wisdom.
She wears a girdle of severed human hands- hands that are the principal instruments of
work and so signify the action of karma. Thus the binding effects of this karma have been
overcome, severed, as it were, by devotion to Kali. She has blessed the devotee by cutting
him free from the cycle of karma. Her white teeth are symbolic of purity (Sans. Sattva),
and her lolling tongue which is red dramatically depicts the fact that she consumes all things
and denotes the act of tasting or enjoying what society regards as forbidden, i.e. her
indiscriminate enjoyment of all the world's "flavors".
Kali's four arms represent the complete circle of creation and destruction, which is contained
within her. She represents the inherent creative and destructive rhythms of the cosmos.
Her right hands, making the mudras of "fear not" and conferring boons, represent the
creative aspect of Kali, while the left hands, holding a bloodied sword and a severed head
represent her destructive aspect. The bloodied sword and severed head symbolize the
destruction of ignorance and the dawning of knowledge. The sword is the sword of
knowledge , that cuts the knots of ignorance and destroys false consciousness
(the severed head). Kali opens the gates of freedom with this sword, having cut the eight
bonds that bind human beings. Finally her three eyes represent the sun, moon, and fire,
with which she is able to observe the three modes of time: past, present and future. This
attribute is also the origin of the name Kali, which is the feminine form of 'Kala',the Sanskrit
term for Time.
Another symbolic but controversial aspect of Kali is her proximity to the cremation ground:
O Kali, Thou art fond of cremation grounds;
so I have turned my heart into one
That thou, a resident of cremation grounds,
may dance there unceasingly.
O Mother! I have no other fond desire in my heart;
fire of a funeral pyre is burning there;
O Mother! I have preserved the ashes of dead bodies all around
that Thou may come.
O Mother! Keeping Shiva, conqueror of Death, under Thy feet,
Come, dancing to the tune of music;
Prasada waits With his eyes closed...Ramprasad (1718-75)
Kali's dwelling place, the cremation ground denotes a place where the five elements (Sanskrit:
pancha mahabhuta) are dissolved. Kali dwells where dissolution takes place. In terms of
devotion and worship, this denotes the dissolving of attachments, anger, lust, and other
binding emotions, feelings, and ideas. The heart of the devotee is where this burning takes
place, and it is in the heart that Kali dwells. The devotee makes her image in his heart and
under her influence burns away all limitations and ignorance in the cremation fires. This inner
cremation fire in the heart is the fire of knowledge, (Sanskrit: gyanagni), which Kali bestows.
The image of a recumbent Shiva lying under the feet of Kali represents Shiva as the passive
potential of creation and Kali as his Shakti. The generic term Shakti denotes the Universal
feminine creative principle and the energizing force behind all male divinity including Shiva.
Shakti is known by the general name Devi, from the root 'div', meaning to shine. She is the
Shining One, who is given different names in different places and in different appearances,
as the symbol of the life-giving powers of the Universe. It is she that powers him. This Shakti
is expressed as the i in Shiva's name. Without this "i", Shiva becomes Shva, which in Sanskrit
means a corpse. Thus suggesting that without his Shakti, Shiva is powerless or inert.
Kali is a particularly appropriate image for conveying the idea of the world as the play of the
gods. The spontaneous, effortless, dizzying creativity of the divine reflex is conveyed in her
wild appearance.Insofar as kali is identified with the phenomenal world,she presents a picture
of that world that underlies its ephemeral and unpredictable nature. In her mad dancing,
disheveled hair, and eerie howl there is made present the hint of a world reeling, careening
out of control. The world is created and destroyed in Kali's wild dancing, and the truth of
redemption lies in man's awareness that he is invited to take part in that dance,to yield to the
frenzied beat of the Mother's dance of life and death.
O Kali, my Mother full of Bliss! Enchantress of the almighty Shiva!
In Thy delirious joy Thou dancest, clapping Thy hands together!
Thou art the Mover of all that move, and we are but Thy helpless toys...Ramakrishna Paramhans
Kali and her attendants dance to rhythms pounded out by Shiva (Lord of destruction) and his
animal-headed attendants who dwell in the Himalayas. Associated with chaos and
uncontrollable destruction, Kali's own retinue brandishes swords and holds aloft skull cups from
which they drink the blood that intoxicates them. Kali,like Shiva,has a third eye,but in all other
respects the two are distinguished from one another. In contrast to Shiva's sweet expression,
plump body, and ash white complexion,dark kali's emaciated limbs,angular gestures,and fierce
grimace convey a wild intensity. Her loose hair, skull garland, and tiger wrap whip around her
body as she stomps and claps to the rhythm of the dance.
Many stories describe Kali's dance with Shiva as one that "threatens to destroy the world" by
its savage power.
When Shiva asks his wife Parvati to destroy this demon,she enters Shiva's body & transforms
herself from the poison that is stored in his throat. She emerges from Shiva as Kali, ferocious
in appearance, and with the help of her flesh eating retinue attacks and defeats the demon.
Kali however became so intoxicated by the blood lust of battle that her aroused fury and wild
hunger threatened to destroy the whole world. She continued her ferocious rampage until
Shiva manifested himself as an infant and lay crying in the midst of the corpse-strewn field.
Kali, deceived by Shiva's power of illusion, became calm as she suckled the baby. When
evening approached, Shiva performed the dance of creation (tandava) to please the goddess
.Delighted with the dance, Kali and her attendants joined in.
This terrific and poignant imagery starkly reveals the nature of Kali as the DivineMother.
Ramaprasad expresses his feelings thus:
Behold my Mother playing with Shiva, lost in an ecstasy of
joy!Drunk with a draught of celestial wine,She reels, and
yet does not fall.Erect She stands on Shiva's bosom,and
the earth Trembles under Her tread;She and Her Lord are
mad with frenzy,casting Aside all fear and shame... Ramprasad (1718-75)
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