Who Is Kali? (Part 2)

[Guest guest]

Can we be more specific about just who Kali is? Well, that is a

problem - for Her devotees She is everything, both in the manifest

Universe and beyond it. But here are a few thoughts that might help us

to think about and meditate upon Her:

 

1. KALI IS TIME

 

Kali, in Sanskrit, is the feminine form of the word for Time. And time

is eternity itself. Time is change. And nothing in the manifest

Universe is permanent except for change.

 

Time is the backdrop, the matrix against which our lives - and all the

movements of the Universe - unfold. Time is the great Womb from which

all things are born, and to which all things return upon death.

 

And yet, even in devouring Her own children, Kali is returning them to

Her blissful totality. David Frawley, a disciple of the late, great

modern seer, Ganapati Muni, an esteemed teacher of Mahavidya Sadhana,

wrote:

 

"Kali teaches us that if we give up our attachment to the events of

our lives, we gain mastery over time itself. We can devour death and

swallow the universe, without moving at all."

 

All of Kali's principle meanings relate back to Her basic form as Time

itself. Think about it:

 

2. KALI IS CREATION AND DESTRUCTION

 

Both are functions of and within Time.

 

"To create we must first destroy," writes Frawley. "To bring the new

into being, we must first let go of the old."

 

That is the lesson of time, and the secret of sadhana.

 

3. KALI IS LIFE AND DEATH

 

Life and death are the rhythm of Time in human experience.

 

"Kali is the life that exists in death, and the death that exists in

life," Frawley says. "To be conscious of [this] is one of Her

meditational approaches. To die daily is Her daily worship."

 

"To die" here means to shed all of one's worldly worries, cares,

fears, loves and hates, likes and dislikes. Such "psychological death"

is also the death of separateness.

 

4. KALI IS LOVE

 

All earthly love, however sublime, is but a limited manifestation of

Divine Love, transcending both life and death. That ultimate form of

love manifests in human beings in its purest form, in our eternal

aspiration toward the Divine. That love is Kali.

 

5. KALI IS ETERNAL LIFE

 

As human beings, we must ultimately lose everything we are. We all

must die. And when we die, we WILL lose all of our attachments - our

homes, families, friends, possessions, nationalities, identity; our

very body and mind. Clinging to any of these things has never

preserved them for anyone.

 

Then what happens? We get a new body - in a different family, a

different place; perhaps of a different color, a different gender. And

we go through it all again: A new home, new family, new friends,

possessions, loves, fears, accomplishments, identity. And then we die,

and lose it all again. Each life determined by our unfulfilled desires

- our karma, if you please; each tries to move us a little closer to

realization that our real desire is Divine Unity; that all of these

other little desires are but dim reflections of that one great desire.

 

Kali gives us an opportunity to "take control of the situation," so to

speak. Rather than ignoring or denying the inevitable, . She invites

us to embrace it. Rather than drifting blind and without a rudder on

the sea of death and rebirth, we can boldly open our eyes and face the

truth; we can take firm hold of the wheel. We can do the work of Death

ourselves, in our own time, rather than waiting until it is thrust

upon us and we have no choice in the matter.

 

Then, if there is to be another life, we choose the time and place and

circumstance. Or if our soul chooses, it can abandon merely human life

and merge into Eternal Life; Shiva-Shakti; Brahman Itself.

 

"Kali grants us eternal life," says Frawley. "Yet the etrnal life has

a price. Only that which is immortal can be immortal, as nothing can

change its own nature. The mortal and transient must pass away. To

gain the eternity that is Kali, our mortal nature must be sacrificed.

Hence Kali appears frightening and destructive to the ordinary

vision."

 

Aum Maatangyai Namahe

[Guest guest]

OM Devi Bhakta

 

Thanks for the informative posts on Kali and for sharing aspects

of your own journey.

 

I wonder if it might not be interesting to hear from others what

they have on their altars. Currently on mine, I have only a brass

OM symbol, a candle and a Nataraja. Above the altar is a photo

of my Guru performing a homa with a picture of his Guru behind

him.

 

Kali is indeed about time and more importantly about

transcending time. As you quote David Frawley, "Kali grants us

eternal life, yet the etrnal life has a price. Only that which is

immortal can be immortal, as nothing can change its own

nature. The mortal and transient must pass away. To gain the

eternity that is Kali, our mortal nature must be sacrificed.

Hence Kali appears frightening and destructive to the ordinary

vision."

 

This aversion to leaving behind the familiar (even with all of its

disappointment, suffering and estrangement) and venturing into

the unknown of Satchitananda was captured by George Orwell

when he said, "On the whole, human beings want to be good,

but not too good and not all the time."

 

Sadhana is all about overcoming our resistance to

transcendental change by loosening the restrictions of our

conditionings, opening the 7 main chakras and the 3 principal

nadis, and moving our thoughts away from the mundane and

into the transcendental in small but progressive steps. Through

Sadhana the aspirant yearns more and more for the sublime,

the transcendental, while disowning the temporal to the same

degree. I tell the people who take my classes that yoga and

meditation are subversive activities: their lives will change

substantially the more they practice these sadhanas.

 

OM Sri Maha Kalikayai Namah

 

Omprem