Kali- The Mother Goddess ( A repost ) by dkny1_2000

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"according to the Devimahatmya, Kali sprang forth from the furrowed

brow of the goddess Durga in order to slay the demons Chanda and

Munda. Here, Kali's horrific form has black, loosely hanging,

emaciated flesh that barely conceals her angular bones. Gleaming white

fangs protrude from her gaping, blood-stained mouth, framing her

lolling red tongue. Sunken, reddened eyes peer out from her black

face. She is clad in a tiger's skin and carries a khatvanga, a

skull-topped staff traditionally associated with tribal shamans and

magicians. The khatvanga is a clear reminder of Kali's origin among

fierce, aboriginal peoples. In the ensuing battle, much attention is

placed on her gaping mouth and gnashing teeth, which devour the demon

hordes. At one point Munda hurls thousands of discusses at her, but

they enter her mouth "as so many solar orbs vanishing into the

denseness of a cloud" . WIth its cosmic allusion, this passage reveals

Kali as the abstraction of primal energy and suggests the underlying

connection between the black goddess and Kala ('time'), an epithet of

Shiva. Kali is the inherent power of ever-turning time, the

relentless devourer that brings all created things to an end. Even the

gods are said to have their origin and dissolution in her."

 

"the Devimahatmya paints an even more gruesome portrait. Having slain

Chanda and Munda, Kali is now called Chamunda, and she faces an

infinitely more powerful adversary in the demon named Raktabija.

Whenever a drop of his blood falls to earth, an identical demon

springs up. When utter terror seizes the gods, Durga merely laughs and

instructs Kali to drink in the drops of blood. While Durga assaults

Raktabija so that his blood runs copiously, Kali avidly laps it up.

The demons who spring into being from the flow perish between her

gnashing teeth until Raktabija topples drained and lifeless to the

ground."

 

Although the Puranas and earlier Sanskrit texts characterize Kali as a

hideous, frightening crone who deals death and destruction, her

victims symbolize the forces of ignorance and evil, making her in fact

a force for good. But later on, secular texts of the medieval period,

not always sympathetic to the goddess, paint a lurid and truly

horrifying picture of Kali as exacting and receiving human sacrifice.

"

 

"the present-day idea of the goddess as dakshinakali has a terrifying

appearance, but the cronelike emaciation of the Puranas has given way

to voluptuous beauty. "

 

Kali has a fierce but smiling face. Her red tongue, protruding from

her gaping mouth is taken either as a sign of modesty or of her thirst

for blood. (Even today goats are sacrificed in most Kali temples,

perpetuating ancient ritual practices.) Her untamed hair hints at

unrestrained power and boundless freedom. Alternatively, it may

symbolize the mystery of death that encircles life or the veil of

illusion, made of the fabric of space-time . Her three eyes represent

omniscience, for she sees past, present and future. The garland of

severed heads around her neck represents the letters of the Sanskrit

alphabet, a Tantric metaphor for creative power. Encircling her waist,

a girdle of severed arms indicates that she severs the bonds of karma

and frees us from the bondage of accumulated deeds. Her full breasts

symbolize nurturance. Her nakedness signifies freedom from the veils

of illusion, and her dark skin alludes to the infinitude of the

blue-black night sky."

 

Kali's paradoxical combination of maternal tenderness and destructive

terror appears polarized on right and left. Her lower right hand is

held in the varada mudra, extended to offer a boon. One of her

greatest boons is fearlessness, indicated by her upper right hand,

held in the abhaya mudra, upright with the palm outward. Her upper

left hand brandishes a bloodied curving sword, and her lower left hand

dangles a freshly severed head. Behind these apparent symbols of

destruction lies a different story. The sword symbolizes the higher

knowledge that cuts through appearances and reveals things as they

really are. The severed head represents the human ego, the limiting

sense of I-me-and-mine that she slays. Together Kali's four hands seem

to say, "Take refuge in me, let go of your existential fear, let me

slay your illusion of smallness and separation, and you will merge

into my infinite bliss." Kali haunts the cremation ground, and she is

often pictured standing on the chest of the ashen white Shiva, who

lies still as a corpse. In some images Shiva is ithyphallic and

engages with Kali in a form of sexual intercourse called viparitarati

or purushayita. In this position the female is on top, taking the

active role. This inversion sends a message of the Mother Goddess's

supremacy. According to Shakta and Tantric cosmology, it is the

feminine power that creates, sustains and dissolves the universe while

the masculine principle is the static substratum. The sexual union of

Shiva and Shakti graphically illustrates that ultimately the two are

one, beyond all duality. "

 

That monistic principle found eloquent expression in the poetry of

Ramprasad, the greatest of Kali's mystical poets, who lived in the

18th century. After a lifetime of extolling his beloved goddess in

human terms as gentle, elusive, playful, or mad, and in cosmic

imagery as the all-pervading creative and destructive power, on his

final day Ramprasad wrote that at last he understood the supreme

mystery that Kali is one with the highest Brahman. Enlightenment

brought him to the ultimate consciousness beyond all duality.

 

Because of the Bengali devotional poets of the 18th century, Kali's

human and maternal qualities continue to define the goddess for most

of her Indian devotees to this day. In human relationships, the love

between mother and child is usually considered the purest and

strongest. In the same way, the love between the Mother Goddess and

her human children is considered the closest and tenderest

relationship with divinity. Accordingly, Kali's Indian devotees form a

particularly intimate and loving bond with her. "

 

from a web source