Dasha Mahavidya Kali: The Ten Great Goddesses as forms of Kali

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Dasha Mahavidya Kali

The Ten Great Goddesses as forms of Kali

By Shambhavi Chopra

 

The Dasha Mahavidya, the Ten Great Wisdom Forms of the Goddess, are

not merely ten different Goddesses but are the ten manifestations of

Kali. Dasha Mahavidya begins with Kali who is not only the first

among them but the milieu of power, through which they all unfold.

Their powers unravel through symbolism.

 

Kali herself is the overall Yoga Shakti or power of Yoga. She is

our `spiritual mother' through whom we are reborn into the inner

world of eternity and infinity, whose womb of consciousness delivers

us into the realm of Brahman beyond all dualities, divisions, desires

and fragmentations of the outer world.

 

Yet for our spiritual rebirth to occur, we must first seek death of

the outer world. That is why Kali first appears to us as destroyer

and the very power of death. In Upanishadic and mystical thought

generally, death is the guru or great teacher. To move beyond death

we must willingly accept Kali's noose, the death wish to the illusory

world of time, before experiencing the real world of eternity.

 

Atheistic philosophies of modernists look upon life as a worldly

existence of materialism, existentialism, secular humanism and

communism. Evolution has its facts based in science as well as

naturalism, holding the truth of worldly existence sans any

spiritualism or divine paranormal phenomena. Vedantic or Tantric

teachings allay all our misconceptions about mere mundane

existentialist survival, bringing into our lives a rich heritage of

Sanatana dharma or eternal spiritual teachings or way of life.

 

Kali is the Inner Guru

 

The Dark Goddess is our guide, the high priestess of the yogic ritual

of self-transcendence. As this inner or `mystic death', Kali appears

in her fierce form carrying the head chopper which removes the ego,

her garland of skulls showing our past lives and their sorrows. She

dances on the corpse of Shiva who represents the eternal death of the

outer world that is the inner peace of eternity.

 

Kali's Shakti is Kriya Shakti, the power of action behind the entire

inner yogic process, which renders us from non-being to being, from

the many to the one, from the not-self to the Self, and from darkness

to light. This occurs through the awakening Kundalini Shakti in the

root chakra or muladhara ascending through the chakras. The Kundalini

traces our journey back through the cosmic elements to our true Self

beyond all manifestation, through the mergence of all factors of

existence in the spiritual heart.

 

Kali's Kriya Shakti of Yoga reverses the process of creation, taking

us from multiplicity to unity. This is our spiritual rebirth as a

Divine being of pure consciousness and bliss after the dissolution of

the elements, sense organs, body and mind that we usually identify

ourselves with. Each of the Dasha Mahavidyas, the Devis and Shaktis

represent a portion of Kali's Kriya Shakti.

 

Tara Holds the Tarana Shakti

 

After Kali comes Tara, closely resembling Kali in her appearance,

dancing on the corpse of Lord Shiva. Ma Tara holds the Tarana Shakti,

the capacity to save us, to deliver us from ignorance to

enlightenment. Yet more than this, on a cosmic level she is the power

of both ascent and descent, through which the soul aspires upwards to

divinity, on one hand, and through which Divine grace flows down from

above, on the other.

 

The cosmic existence consists of a series of levels, layers or strata

which form the different worlds and realms of experience. Tara

provides us the knowledge of each plane of existence, guiding us in

moving up or down from one to the other. Tara gives us the skill in

both the ascent of higher forces from below and their descent as

grace from above.

 

More specifically, Tara initiates the upward movement of energy that

is the main action of Kali's Kriya Shakti, our ascent to the supreme

or movement up through the chakras. She is the inner guide and high

priestess of our spiritual ascent. Once awakened within us, Kali

becomes Tara or emanates her out of herself to take us forward. Tara

is also Durga as the power that protects us and delivers us from

obstacles, particularly from drowning in the ocean of ignorance and

negative emotion.

 

Sundari is the Akarshana Shakti

 

Third of the Mahavidyas is Sundari, Goddess of beauty and delight.

Such beauty is not an aspect of the outer Lakshmi energy through

which people seek enjoyment, happiness and prosperity in the external

world. She is the Sundari of Kali, the beauty and delight inherent in

Kali or the inner yogic process. Once we have gone through Kali and

been lead by Tara upward, we rediscover beauty and delight as an

inner power through Sundari, which is embodied as the Soma principle

in the crown chakra.

 

The spiritual path is not just about renunciation, austerity,

detachment, denial, death or deprivation. It is about seeking a

higher beauty and delight than what can be found in the forms,

objects, events and experiences of the outer world. This quest for

inner delight leads us to Sundari.

 

Sundari is the Akarshana Shakti, the attractive or magnetic force of

the Divine, which draws us in love and aspiration back to our true

nature. Without this inner attraction the spiritual path would be

dry, pessimistic and constricting. We can only give up something we

enjoy externally for something more beautiful within. Actually it is

the inner beauty or rasa which draws us to the external forms. We

usually need some suffering or disappointment in the outer world to

turn us within, unless we discover that inner attraction we cannot

continue in our quest for eternal bliss.

 

Sundari is the attractive power of Kali, differing her electrical

force. She is the power of immortal life. We can only give up one

thing for something better, even in the external world. The same law

is true of the internal world. Unless we have a sense of the greater

Divine ananda, we cannot go far on our path. Sundari provides this

attraction for us, the inner Soma or nectar to nourish and inspire us

along the way.

 

Bhuvaneshvari holds the Vikasana Shakti

 

Bhuvaneshvari represents the ruling power of Kali, the Mother's

executive force governing the entire universe, the movement of time

and the orientation of objects in space. Her Vikasana Shakti

or `power of making clear or evident' allows all grace to manifest.

As we move within, we go beyond outer human realms, even the forces

of nature and come into contact with this great ruling power of the

Mother, through which alone all things can operate.

 

Coming under the Goddess's power and vision, she restructures our

view of the world according to her wisdom and grace, giving us a

sense of freedom, expanse and joy in our actions, magnifying the

influence of Sundari. She creates space and freedom within us,

connecting us to our soul's mastery of the world processes.

 

Bhairavi holds the Pavitra-karana Shakti

 

Bhairavi is the fierce or fiery form of Kali or Chandi. She

represents Kali's fire hidden in the material nature and in the

recesses of our bodies and mind. As she awakens, she initiates and

propels the upward process of Inner Yoga in a powerful way. Bhairavi

is the Yogini at the root of the world. Pavitra-karana Shakti is the

power of purification, where her actions precede Kamala the youthful

form of Kali.

 

Bhairavi's fire can destroy all negative forces, the Asuras that

assail us. It is her fire that brings about the deep transmutation at

the core of our being. Kali becomes Bhairavi or Chandi to protect,

purify and transform us. Bhairavi stands opposite and complementary

to Sundari, as the fire to the moon and the root to the crown chakra.

 

Chhinnamasta is the Chhedana Shakti

 

Chhinnamasta is the yet more fierce form of Kali or Chandi as

Prachanda Chandi. She is a further development of the energy of

Bhairavi. She is the electrical fire in the third eye that opens the

crown chakra, symbolically cutting off the head. This allows the

blood or devotion of the spiritual heart to unfold and become Soma,

the flow of bliss and delight.

 

Chhinamasta's lightning removes the ignorance from our own minds and

hearts as well as from the environment around us. She is the great

Yogini or the ascended form of Bhairavi. Hers is the Chhedana Shakti

or `power to cut through everything', which at the highest level is a

power of deep perception, discrimination or viveka. She is the Yogini

in the higher chakras who brings them into action.

 

Dhumavati wields the Avarana Shakti

 

Dhumavati is well known as Jyestha or the elder form of Kali. She

represents the primal smoke, ignorance or cloud of unknowing from

which the world arises and which we must past through to go beyond

the world. Her Avarana Shakti is `the power to conceal or hide', the

veil of smoke.

 

She is the grandmother form of the Dark Goddess, who knows both the

primal beginning and ultimate end of all things. She is often

symbolises a negative force bringing us poverty, deprivation,

disease, disappointment and sorrow. The deprivation and poverty is

the lack of richness in our souls, which leads to disease and sorrow.

But this also is just one aspect of her nature.

 

Dhuma is smoke. Dhumavati's smoke is also the incense that inspires

us, the sweet aroma of our deepest aspiration. It is the mist from

which the clouds and rain eventually come. One aspect of her mist is

the airy or gaseous form of the Soma, the pranic amrit that

rejuvenates us at the core. Even her dark smoke works to protect us

in a cloud of unknowing. She is the primal night in which we discover

the origins of the eternal light.

 

Bagalamukhi wields the Sthambhana Shakti

 

Bagalamukhi is another aspect of the fierce form of Kali as the power

to stop, paralyze or neutralize, the Sthambhana Shakti. She is the

energy of Kali as the weapon or Astra. Her weapon is one of mantra

and light. Yet her weapon is not just one of strength but of beauty.

She hypnotizes us with her beauty, not simply assaults us externally.

 

Actually the Goddess is the weapon of the Devas, Shakti is the weapon

of Shiva. Kali as this weapon is Bagalamukhi, the radiant yellow

Tejas or fearless force of pure awareness. Through Bagalamukhi,

Kali's energy can stop our movement in time and space and take us

into the infinite and eternal.

 

Matangi holds the Mohana Shakti

 

Matangi is the form of Kali as ruling the forces of nature in the

outer world and giving us their help and guidance, including animals,

birds and plants (flowers). She is Kali as the wild nature Goddess.

She is the seductive power of Kali or Mohana Shakti, the inner allure

that takes us within. As such she is another aspect of Sundari or

Sundari operative on the Earth plane through nature.

 

Yet Matangi has her martial prowess as well. She brings all the

forces of nature to help us in our sadhana. She is the voice of Kali

as the call of the wild, which is also the call of the unknown and

the allure of the inner world. She grants the healing and creative

powers of all nature.

 

Kamala holds the Pushti-karana Shakti power of nourishment

 

Kamala is the Lakshmi aspect of Kali. Through the pursuit of Lakshmi

or prosperity in the outer sense, we end in Kali, or death, loss and

renunciation. But through the pursuit of Kali in the inner sense, the

Yoga Shakti, we end with an abundance of joy, beauty, happiness and

delight. It is this inner abundance that Kamala represents. That is

the ultimate result and summation of the movement of Kali or the Yoga

Shakti, of Kali's entire dance through the ten Mahavidyas.

 

Kamala holds the Pushti-karana Shakti, the `power of nourishment',

the ultimate unfoldment of Sundari as well as the expansion of the

crown chakra. She is the beauty of perception reborn from the

experience of the infinite and eternal through the Dark Goddess

Kali's grace.

 

Kali is Dasavidya-atmika, incarnate of the ten forms of the Wisdom

Goddesses. To work with the Ten Mahavidyas, we should always remember

Kali as their foundation. Yet to understand Kali we must also

comprehend the Mahavidyas, particularly her benefic forms as Sundari,

Bhuvaneshvari, Matangi and Kamala. Kali's red or Rakta forms include

not only the fierce and fiery forms like Bhairavi but also the

passionate and beautiful forms of Sundari and Kamala.

 

Actually, all the Goddesses are forms of Kali as the Supreme Shakti.

Kali symbolises the power and grace of every Goddess. In seeking the

Dark Goddess in every Devi manifestation, will we be able to deeply

connect with their most powerful energies. The Goddesses are

celestial forms of beauty representing the most awesome forces of the

universe, compared to which even nuclear energy is but a spark. Their

energies create and rule the entire universe but also vibrate with

the formless, unborn and Absolute Brahman beyond.

 

Jai Kali! Jai Dasavidya-svarupini!

 

Victorious Kali who embodies the ten Wisdom Goddesses

[Guest guest]

>

> Actually, all the Goddesses are forms of Kali as the Supreme Shakti.

> Kali symbolises the power and grace of every Goddess. In seeking the

> Dark Goddess in every Devi manifestation, will we be able to deeply

> connect with their most powerful energies. The Goddesses are

> celestial forms of beauty representing the most awesome forces of the

> universe, compared to which even nuclear energy is but a spark. Their

> energies create and rule the entire universe but also vibrate with

> the formless, unborn and Absolute Brahman beyond.

>

> Jai Kali! Jai Dasavidya-svarupini!

>

> Victorious Kali who embodies the ten Wisdom Goddesses

>

 

The attention should be at all times on the formless, unborn and

Absolute Brahman beyond, the Great Mother ............. of whom Kali

and all the Goddesses are but Her forms.

 

" The Grail of the Feminine is urging us to open our minds to a new

vision of reality, a revelation of all cosmic life as a divine unity.

For those awakened to this vision, to be born a human being is not to

be born into a fallen, flawed world of sin and illusion, cut off from

the divine; it is to be born into a world lit by an invisible

radiance, ensouled by Divine Presence, graced and sustained by

incandescent light and love... This primordial experience of the

Great Mother is the foundation of later cultures all over the world.

She is like an immense tree, whose roots lie beyond the reach of our

consciousness, whose branches are all the forms of life we know, and

whose flowering is a potential within us, a potential that only a

tiny handful of the human race has realized. " - Andrew Harvey and

Anne Baring, The Divine Feminine.

 

If that is not the case then this makes little sense:

 

www.adi-shakti.org/ — Divine Feminine (Hinduism)

www.holyspirit-shekinah.org/ — Divine Feminine (Christianity)

www.ruach-elohim.org/ — Divine Feminine (Judaism)

www.ruh-allah.org/ — Divine Feminine (Islam)

www.tao-mother.org/ — Divine Feminine (Taoism)

www.prajnaaparamita.org/ — Divine Feminine (Buddhism)

www.aykaa-mayee.org/ — Divine Feminine (Sikhism)

www.great-spirit-mother.org/ — Divine Feminine (Native Traditions)

 

" Now, the principle of Mother is in every, every scripture - has to

be there! " Shri Mataji, Radio Interview 1983 Oct 1, Santa Cruz, USA