Goddess Kali, Ramakrishna and Ramprasad-Part 1

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The worship of a mother goddess as the source of life

and fertility

has prehistoric roots, but the transformation of that

deity into a

Great goddess of cosmic powers was achieved with the

composition of

the Devi Mahatmya (Glory of the goddess), a text of

the fifth to

sixth century, when worship of the female principle

took on dramatic

new dimensions. The goddess is not only the mysterious

source of

life, she is the very soil, all-creating and all

consuming.

 

Kali makes her 'official' debut in the Devi-Mahatmya,

where she is

said to have emanated from the brow of Goddess Durga

(slayer of

demons) during one of the battles between the divine

and anti-divine

forces. Etymologically Durga's name means " Beyond

Reach " . She is thus

an echo of the woman warrior's fierce virginal

autonomy. In this

context Kali is considered the 'forceful' form of the

great goddess

Durga.

 

Illustration :

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/batik/ba22.jpg (Size :

74 kb)

 

Kali is represented as a Black woman with four arms;

in one hand she

has a sword, in another the head of the demon she has

slain, with the

other two she is encouraging her worshippers. For

earrings she has

two dead bodies and wears a necklace of skulls ; her

only clothing is

a girdle made of dead men's hands, and her tongue

protrudes from her

mouth. Her eyes are red, and her face and breasts are

besmeared with

blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and

another on the

breast of her husband.

 

Illustration :

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/madhuban/db09.jpg

(Size : 79 kb)

 

Kali's fierce appearances have been the subject of

extensive

descriptions in several earlier and modern works.

Though her fierce

form is filled with awe- inspiring symbols, their real

meaning is not

what it first appears- they have equivocal

significance:

 

Kali's blackness symbolizes her all-embracing,

comprehensive nature,

because black is the color in which all other colors

merge; black

absorbs and dissolves them. 'Just as all colors

disappear in black,

so all names and forms disappear in her' (Mahanirvana

Tantra). Or

black is said to represent the total absence of color,

again

signifying the nature of Kali as ultimate reality.

This in Sanskrit

is named as nirguna (beyond all quality and form).

Either way, Kali's

black color symbolizes her transcendence of all form.

 

Illustration :

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/batik/ba11.jpg (Size :

71 kb)

 

A devotee poet says:

 

" Is Kali, my Divine Mother, of a black complexion?

She appears black because She is viewed from a

distance;

but when intimately known She is no longer so.

The sky appears blue at a distance, but look at it

close by and you will find that it has no colour.

The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance,

but when you go near and take it in your hand,

you find that it is colourless. "

 

... Ramakrishna Paramhansa (1836-86)

 

Kali's nudity has a similar meaning. In many instances

she is

described as garbed in space or sky clad. In her

absolute, primordial

nakedness she is free from all covering of illusion.

She is Nature

(Prakriti in Sanskrit), stripped of 'clothes'. It

symbolizes that she

is completely beyond name and form, completely beyond

the illusory

effects of maya (false consciousness). Her nudity is

said to

represent totally illumined consciousness, unaffected

by maya. Kali

is the bright fire of truth, which cannot be hidden by

the clothes of

ignorance. Such truth simply burns them away.

 

to be contd.....

 

 

 

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