Mother Kali - 7 - CONCLUSION

[Guest guest]

The poet in an intimate and lighter tone

addresses the Mother thus:<br><br><br>O Kali! Why dost Thou

roam about nude?<br>Art Thou not ashamed,

Mother!<br>Garb and ornaments Thou hast none; yet Thou<br>Pridest

in being King's daughter.<br>O Mother! Is it a

virtue of Thy family that Thou<br>Placest thy feet on

Thy husband?<br>Thou art nude; Thy husband is nude;

you both roam<br>cremation grounds.<br>O Mother! We

are all ashamed of you; do put on

thy<br>garb.<br>Thou hast cast away Thy necklace of jewels,

Mother,<br>And worn a garland of human heads.<br>Prasada says,

"Mother! Thy fierce beauty has frightened Thy nude

consort.<br><br>.. Ramaprasad.<br><br>Kali's boon is won when man

confronts or accepts her and the realities she dramatically

conveys to him. The image of Kali, in a variety of ways,

teaches man that pain, sorrow, decay, death, and

destruction are not to be overcome or conquered by denying

them or explaining them away. Pain and sorrow are

woven into the texture of man's life so thoroughly that

to deny them is ultimately futile. For man to

realize the fullness of his being, for man to exploit his

potential as a human being, he must finally accept this

dimension of existence. Kali's boon is freedom, the freedom

of the child to revel in the moment, and it is won

only after confrontation or acceptance of death. To

ignore death, to pretend that one is physically

immortal, to pretend that one's ego is the center of

things, is to provoke Kali's mocking laughter. To

confront or accept death, on the contrary, is to realize a

mode of being that can delight and revel in the play

of the gods. To accept one's mortality is to be able

to let go, to be able to sing, dance, and shout.

Kali is Mother to her devotees not because she

protects them from the way things really are but because

she reveals to them their mortality and thus releases

them to act fully and freely, releases them from the

incredible, binding web of "adult" pretense, practicality,

and rationality.