KALI - Understanding the Divine Mother

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'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

 

 

 

, "Gauri" <gaurima108> wrote:

> My favorite sahasranama is Kali's. Whenever I get the feeling to

> chant something, but don't have some text already picked out,

Kali's

> 1000 names always come to my mind. It happens especially late at

> night and the feeling I get is just wonderful.

> Jai Kali Ma!

>

> , "Sarada"

<sarada_saraswati>

> wrote:

> > Kali Puja is coming soon. Who is Kali? What is Her origin? What

> are

> > your experiences with Her? How do we worship her? This is a very

> > extensive subject. Dig deep and let us know. Jai Maa!

> > Om Krim Kalyai Namah