The Veiling Brilliance: Kali maa

[Guest guest]

The sage Medhas said:

 

The Devi appears in many forms. [....] There is no end

to the ways in which she reveals herself. And for now

she is both the auspicious Ambika and the terrible Kali.

[....] Kali appears here [in the Devimahatmya] in a

particularly frightening form to embody the Devi's wrath.

The Devi, in her lovely form as Ambika, projected the

horrific Kali from her own scowling brow.

 

This form of Kali bears the imagery of death and

destruction: the emaciated flesh hanging loose upon the

bones, the skull-topped staff, the all-devouring mouth.

Kali is the relentless power of time, which in the end

swallows up everything. But there is more to Kali than

this. Her flesh is black, her tongue is red, her teeth are

gleaming white. Black, red, and white represent the

three gunas - tamas, rajas, and sattva. Kali embodies all

the energy of the universe. She is Shakti personified.

Hers is the power to create, sustain, and destroy. She is

indeed supreme. [....]

 

She is the Mother [...] You must go beyond your fear

and come to her in love.

 

[....] What you love, you cannot fear, [.....] And Kali

takes us beyond all fear. She has many forms. This

wrathful form is called Chamunda. When she appears on

the battlefield with bloody mouth and glowing eyes, she

is the night of death who laughs derisively and binds

men and horses and elephants in her terrible snare.

When she haunts the cremation ground, she is

Shmashanakali, the embodiment of destructive power

who reduces all created things to ash. [...]

Shmashanakali presides over the dissolution of matter

back into spirit. When [Kali] is pleased, she is the

benevolent Bhadrakali. As Shyama, she is worshiped in

household shrines as the tender dispeller of fear and the

granter of boons. She is also called Bhavabhayaharini,

'she who removes the fear of worldly existence.'

 

[...] ehind every detail of her appearance lies a

sublime truth. [....] For example, [consider] the

auspicious Dakshinakali. Her untamed hair hints at

unrestrained power and boundless freedom. Some say it

represents the veil of illusion, woven from the strands of

space and time. Her three eyes represent omniscience,

for she sees past, present, and future. Nothing is

unknown to the all-knowing Mother. The garland of

skulls around her neck is not a symbol of death, as you

might think, but of creative power. [....] Each of the

fifty skulls stands for a sound of the alphabet, and from

these sounds, these vibrating energies, the Mother brings

forth the entire universe. So this garland of skulls is, in

fact, the alphabet of creation! Kali's full breasts show

how she nurtures us. The girdle of severed arms around

her waist betokens her power to sever the bonds of

karma - to free us from the accumulated deeds that keep

us in bondage. Her nakedness represents freedom from

illusion, and her blacker-than-black skin, like the endless

blackness of the night sky, tells us that she is infinite.

[Kali's paradoxical mixture of maternal tenderness and

destructive terror appears polarized on her right and

left.] She often appears with four hands. Her lower right

hand extends itself in the offering of a boon, as if to say,

Ask of me what you will.' [....] One of Kali's greatest

boons is fearlessness, which she signals with her upper

right hand, the palm held outward. 'Be not afraid!' this

gesture proclaims.

[....] Consider the Mother's upper left hand, which

wields the bloodied sword of knowledge. This is a

strong image. It represents the power of discernment -

the ability to separate what is transitory and fleeting

from what is real and abiding. This power cuts through

appearances and reveals things as they really are. [....]

In her lower left hand the Mother dangles the freshly

severed head of a demon. This represents the limiting

sense of ignorance that she slays. Taken together, Kali's

four hands say, 'Take refuge in me, let go of your fear,

let me slay your illusion of smallness and separation,

and you will merge into my infinite bliss.'

_The Veiling Brilliance_, by Devadatta Kali

Pages 138-140