A Kali in Every Woman: Motherhood and the Dark Goddess Archetype

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A Kali in Every Woman: Motherhood and the Dark Goddess Archetype

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Wherever there's a woman in any home

doing her work

screening her smiles with her veil,

she is You, Ma;

she is you, Black Goddess.

 

Carefully rising with the light of dawn

to attend with softened hands

to household chores,

she is You, Ma;

she is You, Black Goddess.

 

The woman who gives alms, makes vows, does worship, reads

scriptures

all correctly and with a smile

who drapes her sari over the child on her lap

soothing its hunger with a lullaby,

she is You, Ma;

she is You, Black Goddess.

 

She can't be anyone else;

Mother, sister, housewife

all are You.

 

- Ramprasad (c.a. 1718-1775)

 

It is well established in the canons of Indian thought that every

woman mirrors in herself the divine feminine. The above piece of

poetry goes further and specifically informs us that every female

has in herself the Goddess Kali. At first appearances this comes

as a surprising shock, not in the least because of Kali's

horrific demeanor. Envisioned as totally naked, the visual tales

of her terrible form do not end with her dense black color or

with the skirt made up of decapitated hands she adorns in her

middle, making a mockery of all conventional images of

reassurance a goddess is associated with. Further frightening is

the necklace she vulgarly hangs around her neck. This is no

ordinary necklace. It is made up of heads she has severed from

the torsos of beings who were once as much living as you and I

are at this moment. And the horrors of horrors, she stands in an

arrogant gesture of triumph, one leg placed haughtily over the

chest of Shiva, one of the most powerful deities of the Hindu

pantheon, and who also happens to be her husband.

 

Illustration : http://www.exoticindia.com/artimages/pc19.jpg

 

The truth behind the mystery of Kali, it seems, is to not be

found by a conventional appraisal of her physical appearance.

Rather a faithful analysis of the deep symbolism underlying this

mighty Goddess is required to penetrate her innermost essence.

 

Traditional opinion is unanimous in accepting the figure lying

under Kali's feet as being that of her husband. Here is what the

same poet has to say about this aspect of her iconography:

 

It's not Shiva

At Mother's feet.

Only liars say that.

 

The ancients wrote clearly

that

while killing demons,

saving the gods from their fix,

Ma stepped on a demon child

fallen to the ground.

At the touch of Her feet

the demon boy changed;

suddenly he was Shiva

On the battlefield.

 

As a good wife

would She ever

put Her feet

on Her husband's chest?

No, she wouldn't.

But a servant is different:

Ramprasad pleads-

place those fear-dispelling feet

on my lotus heart.

 

In this striking example, Ramprasad the greatest of Kali's

devotees ever, saves her against the accusations that she

deviates from the path of a true Hindu wife by subjugating her

spouse. In a glorious moment of poetic imagery he establishes in

the goddess a power that is capable of transforming a villainous

demon into Shiva, the purest of all gods. Why transform this evil

being into her husband? She could have changed him into any 'pure

' soul, why grant him the status of her spouse? Why indeed? This

may lead us to theorize that by meditating upon the benevolent

goddess we, who are the wickedest among all, can achieve this

positive transformation. This suggests that in addition to

approaching the goddess as a child, she can also be courted as a

husband. It must however be stressed here that there is no

sexuality involved in this purely emotional process. Beginning

her worship as a child we may ultimately evolve into her husband.

This process mirrors the rhythmic pattern each of our lives

follow, i.e. starting off as a child to our mother and gradually

developing into husbands to our wives. Accepting that duality

exists in nature, such a hypothesis indeed projects the male in

an extremely positive light. But it is the female of the species

who comes out with honors here, by resolutely establishing that

when they are wives and when they progress to being mothers, Kali

forms an integral part of their characteristic buildup.

 

This positive affirmation does not however explain Kali's

blackness as complementary to her motherhood. Things fall into

place when we recall how creation manifested itself at the

beginning of the world, when nothing material existed. This

primordial state was dark. As is Kali, as is the womb, dark and

mysterious. Esoterically speaking black is not a color, but the

absence of color. It is what remains when all colors merge into

each other, or in other words the fount which has the

potentiality to give birth to all the colors of life. Another

poet says in this context:

 

Is my Mother Kali really black?

People say Kali is black,

But my heart doesn't agree.

If She's black,

How can she light up the world?

Sometimes my Mother is white,

Sometimes yellow, blue, and red.

I cannot fathom Her.

My whole life has passed

trying.

 

She is Matter,

Then Spirit,

Then complete Void.

 

- Kamalakanta Bhattacharya (1769-1821)

 

 

It is interesting to note here that in Egypt too, blackness is

associated with a positive symbolism, standing for the mothering

darkness of germination. Hence every woman by virtue of being a

potential mother and possessing the dark, cavernous womb which

grants her this capability, is a Kali.

 

Illustration : http://www.exoticindia.com/artimages/hu05.jpg

 

Strangely enough, scarcely having crossed one hurdle in the

positive interpretation of the Kali icon as a creative matrix, we

are confronted with another contradictory feature, here namely

the necklace of skulls ornamenting her beautiful neck. Indeed it

is a symbol of death. Believers in reincarnation maintain that

before it is invested with a physical body the soul of a man is

free and fully alive since it exists in the spiritual world,

which is it's true sphere of existence. When it is conceived in

the mother's interior, its death begins. The womb is thus the

symbol of the tomb. Or for those of us, who prefer to be

cremated, there are the fires which surround Kali, our archetypal

mother. Thus our physical birth is in a way our spiritual death.

 

Illustration : http://www.exoticindia.com/artimages/ht20.jpg

 

Equally enigmatic is the short skirt encircling her tender waist.

The amputated hands which are strung together to form this

garment represent for her devotees the ultimate act of devotion.

This act consists in severing of all attachment to karma and

meditating upon Kali as the ultimate refuge. The path to

salvation in this belief lies not in following the karmic way but

rather giving up one's complete self in the worship of the

Goddess. As Ramprasad says:

 

Oh my Mind, worship Kali

any way you want-

just repeat the mantra

given to you

day and night.

 

Think that you're prostrating

as you lie on your bed,

and meditating on the Mother

while you sleep.

When you go about the town, imagine

you're circumambulating Kali Ma.

Each sound that enters your ears

is one of Kali's mantras,

Each letter of the fifty

around Her neck

bears Her name.

 

Ramprasad says, astonished,

The Goddess Full of Brahman is in every creature.

When you eat,

think that you're making an offering

to Kali Ma.

 

Kali contains within herself all our actions and the results

which ensue thereof. Our hands are the instruments through which

we carry out our karma, believing ourselves to be the masters of

our own destinies. The goddess allows no such misconception, as

she is the giver of life and also its terminator. It is in her

that all acts originate and it is into her that they finally

dissolve. This is the symbolism implied behind the carelessly

flaring skirt, hobbling with the dynamic goddess, and arguably

the earliest mini skirt in history.

 

Illustration : http://www.exoticindia.com/artimages/be33.jpg

 

Thus even the humblest acts we perform during the course of our

daily lives is to be viewed as an offering to the Great Mother

who is indeed our sustenance and nourisher, both spiritually and

materially. Rightly then, one of Ramprasad's poems is entitled

'Satisfy Every Level of Our Hunger O Mother!' It runs like this:

 

O Mother of the Universe!

You who provide basic sustenance

And subtle nourishment of all creatures!

Please feed us, Holy Mother!

Satisfy every level of our hunger!

 

I know the mother always feeds her hungry child,

Regardless of its foolishness or carelessness.

Goddess Kali, grant the child who sings this song

Your supreme blessing of total illumination.

Today is the most auspicious day!

Please, Mother, do not delay!

 

Goddess Kali, my pangs of hunger for reality

Are becoming unbearable.

Mother! Mother! Mother!

You are the longing and the longed for!

You cannot refuse your child's earnest prayer!

 

The question however remains of Kali's nudity. It is Jesus who

points us in the correct direction regarding this issue. In the

'Gospel of Thomas,' he says, in reply to a disciple's question

about when he would come again: "When you strip yourselves

without being ashamed. When you take off clothes and lay them at

your feet like little children and trample on them."

 

Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese-American philosopher, elaborates:

 

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet

they hide not the unbeautiful.

 

And though you seek in garments the freedom

of privacy you may find in them a harness and a

chain.

 

Would that you could meet the sun and the

wind with more of your skin and less of your

raiment,

 

For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the

hand of life is in the wind.

 

Forget not that modesty is for a shield against

the eye of the unclean.

 

And when the unclean shall be no more, what

were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the

mind?

 

And forget not that the earth delights to feel

your bare feet and the winds long to play with

your hair.

 

(From 'The Prophet')

 

Ramprasad concedes that ordinary mortals like himself (and us)

could be bedazzled by these stark truths. He expresses similar

sentiments, and at the same time grants them the high ground of

abstract philosophy:

 

O sublime Goddess! O naked oneness!

What is the meaning of your nakedness?

Are you shameless, Divine Lady?

Yet even when discarding

royal silks, and golden ornaments

for earrings, bracelets, and anklets

fashioned from human bone,

you retain the dignity of bearing

suited to the daughter of a king.

 

What wild customs you follow, Ma Kali,

trampling on the chest of your noble husband.

You are the naked intensity of divine creativity,

while your consort is naked transcendence.

 

O Mother of the Universe,

this child is terrified by your naked truth,

your unthinkable blackness, your sheer infinity.

Please cover your reality with a gentle veil.

Why have you thrown away the necklace of pearls

that enhances your divine beauty

Wearing instead this awesome garland of heads,

Freshly severed by the sword of non duality?

 

Truth is not complicated. An innocent child is untrained in the

manners of the world but this does not deprive him from living a

zestful and complete life, albeit his/her mother forms an

integral part of his unified circle of existence. This is what

prompted Wordsworth to say that 'the child is the father of man.'

A child is imbued with the quality of intuitive wisdom, which is

the undifferentiating intelligence that existed before the world

was created. Kali's nudity exhibits this free state of archetypal

bliss, of which ecstasy is a characterizing attribute.

 

Conclusion:

 

Elizabeth U. Harding an intrepid Kali adventurer and fan,

describes in her memoirs how laborious and stressful it is to

reach the inner sanctum of Kali at the Dakshineswar Temple at

Calcutta, owing to the regular galore of devotees who generally

swarm her temple. After having reached the inner hall housing the

sanctum sanctorum this is what she says:

 

"Out of sheer awe and admiration one's voice automatically turns

into a whisper - yet, there is nothing intimidating about this

place."

 

Ushered into the presence of the deity our voices automatically

drop to a whisper, as a tribute of respect to the divine

presence. Finally face to face with Kali herself, this is what

transpires in the author's mind:

 

'But when one finally stands before Kali, time seems to stand

still. Everything stops. The people, the noise - all is

mysteriously gone. One stares with wide eyes, forgetting even to

blink. All one sees is Kali and nothing else. Overwhelmed with

feeling one whispers, "I love you." And from within she replies,

"You do so much more for I am the source of your being!"

 

This is the spirit in which to approach Kali. The Great Goddess

herself will then reveal her mysteries for all of us, solving in

the process, the eternal questions of life.

 

Illustration : http://www.exoticindia.com/artimages/zk39.jpg

 

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References and Further Reading:

 

Cooper, J.C. An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols:

London, 1999.

 

Gibran, Kahlil. The Prophet: New Delhi, 2002.

 

Harding. Elizabeth U, Kali The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar:

Delhi, 1998.

 

Hixon, Lee. Mother of the Universe (Visions of the Goddess and

Tantric Hymns of Enlightenment): Wheaton, 1994.

 

McDermott, Rachel Fell. Mother of My Heart, Daughter of My Dreams

(Kali and Uma in the Devotional Poetry of Bengal): Oxford, 2001.

 

Mcdermott, Rachel Fell. Singing to the Goddess (Poems to Kali and

Uma from Bengal): Oxford, 2001.

 

Tresidder, Jack. The Hutchinson Dictionary of Symbols: Oxford,

1997.

 

Walker, Benjamin. Encyclopedia of Esoteric Man, London, 1977.

 

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Nitin G