Mother Kali

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Hello,

 

This was sent out on another list.

 

'Kal' means Darkness; Kali takes away that Darkness.

She takes away the darkness from

every individual who strives in the path of perfection

by performing the spiritual

disciplines of purifying austerities. Just as all the

colors of the spectrum mix into black, yet

still black remains black, so too, Kali, who is

completely Dark, Unknowable, takes away all

the Darkness, yet She, Herself, remains unchanged.

 

'Kal' means Time and 'i' means the Cause; Kali, the

Cause of Time or She Who is Beyond

Time, activates Consciousness to perception, allows

Consciousness to perceive.

She wears a garland of the heads of impure thoughts,

which She has severed from the

personalities of Her devotees. She cuts down all the

conflicting concepts which debate

their various ideologies within the arena of mind,

silences the tumultuous roar of mental

conflict and the anguish of egotistical attachment,

takes the physical manifestations to

Herself, and makes a garland of perplexity. Thus She

wears all karma as an ornament,

while She stops the chattering voices of the active

mind, so that Her devotees can

experience the purity of inner peace in the absorption

of solitude.

As the Destroyer of Madhu and Khaitabha, Too Much and

Too Little, She puts Her devotees

in the balance of divine meditation.

 

She is called Camunda, the Slayer of Anger and

Passion, who cuts down all the angry

thoughts and impure passions along with their

tremendous armies. When Canda and

Munda, Anger and Passion, hurled thousands of discuses

at Her, She merely opened wide

Her mouth, and all of those terrible opposing weapons

entered the gateway to infinity,

absorbed into Her being without effect.

 

She took all the horses of the cavalry of thoughts,

along with their chariots and

charioteers; elephants along with their drivers,

protectors and armor; and uncountable

thousands of warriors of the army of thoughts; She put

them into Her mouth and

hideously began to chew. She took all the soldiers of

the armies opposing divinity, the

entire army of thoughts, projections, speculations,

and immediately She digested them all.

Witnessing the destruction of confusion, the Gods

experience extreme joy! See how many

contemplations, prejudices and attitudes from which we

have been freed! Having given up

all the difficulties, all the thoughts, the very ego

itself, to Kali, the mind experiences the

utmost peace and delight!

 

Raktabija, who performed great austerities, was

awarded the boon that whenever a drop of

his blood would touch the ground, in that very same

place a new Raktabija would be born

with the same vitality, courage and strength, the same

capacity to captivate the mind.

Rakta means red, the color; it also means blood and

passion; most specifically, a passion

for something - Desire. Bija means the seed; Raktabija

literally translates as the Seed of

Desire.

 

See how he manifests in action. In order to accomplish

his desire, he multiplies into

countless new desires with the same intensity, the

same capacity of captivating the mind,

all of which seek fulfillment as well. As we find

desire for one thing, one drop of blood has

touched the ground, and immediately, automatically, a

new 'something' is required in

order to fulfill that desire. Another drop.

 

This goes on indefinitely, causing a continual

necessity to act. Every time a Seed of Desire

touches the ground, a new Seed of Desire is born in

that very same place. Ultimately the

entire earth has been filled with Seeds of Desire.

Seeing this and understanding fully well the

tremendous import and significance of the

all-pervasiveness of desire, the Gods became extremely

dejected. In great alarm we all

called to the Divine Mother for help. 'Oh

Compassionate Kali, stick out your tongue and

drink up all the desires of existence. Only your mouth

has sufficient capacity to consume

all desire! And when you will have digested all

desire, then the Gods will be free from

desire.'

 

This is why She shows Her very lovely, red, protruding

tongue -- in order to make all

existence free from desire.

Kali is most often depicted as standing upon the

corpse-like form of Lord Shiva, dancing

upon the stage of Consciousness. She is the

perceivable form of Consciousness.

Consciousness is awareness. Rather than the actor,

Consciousness is the witness of all

action. That is why Lord Shiva is shown as a lifeless

corpse: still, immobile, his eyes are

fixed, trained on the image of the Divine Mother. All

that Consciousness perceives is the

dance of Nature.

 

She is dancing to infatuate Him, causing Him to direct

His attention to Her. But Shiva does

not forget that it is Nature who is dancing, not I;

and He remains the silent Witness. This

body is Nature. I am Consciousness, the silent witness

of the actions of Nature. I am not

the performer. This body acts according to its nature,

because that is its nature.

Remembering this, I am free, one among the audience in

a theater watching the drama of

life.

 

Kali is Nature personified -- not necessarily the dark

force of Nature, but all of Nature:

Mother Nature, as She dances upon the stage of

Consciousness. As all the qualities reside

together, the three Gunas: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas;

activity, desire and rest, Kali embodies

the Three. However, She is more frequently associated

with Tamas. Tamas means

darkness, but not necessarily in the sense of

ignorance. There is a darkness which

exposes the light. Kali as the personification of

Tamas, is the Energy of Wisdom.

She spreads Her darkness over worldly desire, makes

seekers oblivious to the transient

externals, totally self-contained within. Pure

Consciousness knows that the world of

matter will continue to revolve according to its

nature, in a cyclical flow of creation,

preservation and transformation - the wheel of life.

It goes on of its own accord.

When one can reside within, without identification or

attachment to the ever-changing

externals, then the supreme truth can be realized.

 

Kali is jnana shakti, the energy of Wisdom, the

intuitive illumination within, as compared

with the intellectual contemplation of the external.

Knowledge is conceived, wisdom is

intuited. When Kali takes away the darkness of the

outside world, She grants illumination

of the inner world. Such is Her Grace.

 

With Kali's Love we become unattached, free from

reaction, the silent witness of the

stimulus and response which action and interaction

brings. We cease to react emotionally

to the circumstances of life, and rather plan our

actions for the optimum efficiency; so that

all the sooner we can complete our necessary

contributions to creation according to our

karmas, and spend the balance of our time delighting

in Universal Consciousness. This is

the path that Kali shows.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati?

Devi Mandir, 1989

(Intro from His book on the Kali Puja)

~~OM~~

[Guest guest]

Thanks Stacee for this post. The intro was taken from the Kali Puja

book by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, of Devi Mandir.

(http://www.ShreeMaa.org <http://www.ShreeMaa.org> )

 

The post is from

<>

 

Jai Maa

Nanda

 

 

 

 

Ammachi, Stacee Kramer <stacee.kramer wrote:

>

> Hello,

>

> This was sent out on another list.

>

> 'Kal' means Darkness; Kali takes away that Darkness.

> She takes away the darkness from

> every individual who strives in the path of perfection

> by performing the spiritual

> disciplines of purifying austerities. Just as all the

> colors of the spectrum mix into black, yet

> still black remains black, so too, Kali, who is

> completely Dark, Unknowable, takes away all

> the Darkness, yet She, Herself, remains unchanged.

>