INDIAN GODDESS.... KALI
She is black as night. Her eyes are red, a terrifying woman with four/eight arms; in one hand she has a sword, in another the head of the demon she has slain. For earrings she has two dead bodies and wears a necklace of skulls, she is almost naked, and her tongue protrudes from her mouth. Her face and her naked breasts are besmeared with blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the breast of her husband Lord Siva. Meet Kali, the most famous, the most-well known of all the Hindu goddesses – her name means black (kali) and time (kala). Kali’s blackness symbolizes her nature. Black is the source of all colours. It absorbs all colours, so all the creations in the universe are absorbed by her. Black also represents the absence of colours such is the nature of Kali, beyond all qualities. Her black (kali) skin represents from which all of creation is born and into which all of creation will eventually return. Her nakedness represents the pure nature, she is beyond qualities, beyond names and forms. |
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| The naked full breasts illustrate motherhood, that she is the mother of all creation. Her arms represent creation and destruction. The arm carrying the severed head represent the destruction of ego and the arms with mudra represent creation and protection. The sword cuts the ignorance in us. Her three eyes represent the sun, moon and fire and with these three eyes she can see the past, present and future illustrating her influence on time (kala). But for her devotees (I am one of them… I just love her) she is the loving beautiful mother, protecting, caring the divine mother. Kali, the Great Mother Goddess of the Hinduism, is the Source, the One that gives birth to all. She is known as a slayer of demons, she destroys ego, ignorance and arrogance, symbolized by demons that separate us from the Divine as our own true Self. To our limited knowledge, she may appear as a black coloured terrible looking, sword carrying, blood-smelling figure. But in reality she is our extremely beautiful, beloved, our divine mother, giving love and protection. Kali was first manifested when the Goddess Durga, the divine mother, knitted her brows in anger when the demons threatened the Gods. It was then that the three-eyed Kali first appeared, fully armed, killing two of the demons Chanda and Munda… for this she is called “Chamunda devi”. It is for this reason that Kali is considered the terrified form of Durga. It was whilst celebrating her victory, that she drained the blood from their bodies and drunk from the slaughter. She began to dance, becoming overjoyed, feeling their dead flesh under her feet. In this intoxicated state she continued dancing, more and more wildly, until she realized that her husband, Lord Siva, was underneath her. She was dancing over him, trampling him to death. Once Kali recognized her beloved consort she was shocked out of her killing spree, thus ending her anger. It is true that Kali is a goddess of death but it is the death of demons within us: the ego, the arrogance, etc. Kali and Lord Siva are said to live in the crematorium to illustrate the idea that the body is just a temporary house for the soul. Our attachment to the body brings the ego in us, it is our attachment to the body that gives rise to the ego. Kali and Siva provide liberation by dissolving the illusion of the ego. Kali is called the goddess of destruction. She destroys only to recreate, and she destroys the sin, ignorance and ego. She is the eternal night, is power of time, and is the wife of the god Siva. Siva who destroys the world, and Kali is his power or energy (sakthi). Therefore, Kali is Siva's shakti, without her Siva is powerless. She is all powerful, the one without time and limits...The energy or sakthi behind all the gods. |
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