ma Kali...-ANSWER TO CHUMKI'S QUESTION...

[Guest guest]

our chumki has asked us a very pertinent question. why is kali ma

sometimes blue and sometimes black>

 

is it because of artist's imagination or is there a hidden meaning

behind kali's so called 'blueness' or 'blackness '.

 

 

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)

 

borrowed from exotic india...

 

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so chumki, the colr of the sky is blue ; the colr of the ocean is

blue ' Both the sky and the ocean are infinite ; the ocean has no

shores. SIMILARLY, THE SKY HAS NO LIMITS/// similarly, our kali ma

has no beginning ; no end; she is MAHAT- great; She is infinite; all

pervading , all embracing.

 

similarly, black signifies there is no light or darkness . so . kali

appears black from a distance that is to those who do not know her

intimately ; but when you get to know her intimately as your own

personal goddess, all darkness disappears and she is full of light.

 

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here iam reposting my beloved penkatali's ideas on this subject from

my group 'brahman'

 

PENKATALI on KALI-MA

 

 

The name of Kali, meaning 'black', is of Dravidian origin, borrowed

into Sanskrit. Black in Tamil is karu. At a very early period,

proto-Sanskrit shifted the sound of r to l and vice versa. So

the name of Kali must be very ancient.

 

The metaphysical significance of Her blackness, is interesting

because Sufis use the very same description for the Divine

Feminine.

 

Their mystical love poems invoke Allah as "Layla"

from the word for 'night' (layl), meaning a Woman

whose hair is black as night. The explanation my shaykh

gave me of Her blackness is the same as Kali Ma's

blackness:

 

"Night represents the Unmanifest. In the

Arabian desert, the night is a reality without

boundaries: forms are dissolved, no sand dunes or camels or

anything else visible, all is formless, nothing but

darkness. This is direct symbolism of the unmanifested

aspect of the Divine Nature, Allah as Unmanifest.

Blackness absorbs all light, as it is above manifestation,

so it symbolizes the Beyond-Being.

 

In the poem, Layla was named for the blackness of her hair and the

beauty of the night. By extension, it in fact refers to

the beauty of the Divine Reality beyond this world,

beyond the act of creation, and therefore the supreme

goal that the Sufi seeks to reach."

 

Allah as the Beloved in Sufi literature, the ma`shûq, is

always depicted with female iconography. This is one

reason I find that Sufism is congruent with Devi

worship, and why I as a Muslim am so irresistibly drawn to

Her devotion.The Islamic attestation of faith is called "Kali-Ma."

 

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chumki, i hope this answers your question.

 

love

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

, "blueblackeyes" <blueblackeyes>

wrote:

> why is she sometimes blue and sometimes black???

>

> chumki.