Kali the Dark. Goddess of violent death and motherhood
And to other gods for your brothers." The daughter bowed to her mother and, turning into a wild buffalo, went into the forest. There she indulged in unheard-of cruel asceticism, from which the worlds shook, and Indra and the gods were numb in immeasurable amazement and alarm. And for this asceticism she was granted to give birth to a mighty son in the guise of a buffalo. His name was Mahisha, the Buffalo. Over time, his strength increased more and more, like water in the ocean at high tide. Then the leaders of the asuras took heart; led by Vidyunmalin, they came to Mahisha and said: “Once upon a time we reigned in heaven, O wise one, but the gods took our kingdom from us by deceit, resorting to the help of .
Give us back this kingdom, show your power, O great Buffalo. Defeat Shachi’s husband and the entire army of the gods in battle.” Having heard these speeches, Mahisha became inflamed with a thirst for battle and marched towards Amaravati, followed by the army of the asuras.
The terrible battle between the gods and asuras lasted for a hundred years. Mahisha scattered the armies of the gods and invaded their kingdom. Having overthrown Indra from the heavenly throne, he seized power and reigned over the world.
The gods had to submit to the buffalo asura. But it was not easy for them to endure his oppression; Dejected, they went to Vishnu and told them about the atrocities of Mahisha: “He took away all our treasures and turned us into his servants, and we live in constant fear, not daring to disobey his orders; He forced the goddesses, our wives, to serve in his house, ordered the apsaras and gandharvas to entertain him, and now he has fun day and night surrounded by them in the heavenly garden of Nandana. He rides Airavata everywhere, keeps the divine horse Uchchaikhshravas in his stall, harnesses a buffalo to his cart, and allows his sons to ride on a ram belonging to. With his horns he tears mountains out of the earth and stirs up the ocean, extracting the treasures of its depths. And no one can handle it."
After listening to the gods, the rulers of the universe became angry; the flames of their anger came out of their mouths and merged into a fiery cloud like a mountain; in that cloud the powers of all the gods were embodied. From this fiery cloud, which illuminated the universe with a menacing brilliance, a woman emerged. The flame of Shiva became her face, the power of Yama became her hair, the power of Vishnu created her arms, the moon god created her chest, the power of Indra girded her, the power gave her legs, Prithivi, the goddess of the earth, created her hips, created her heels, Brahma created her teeth. , eyes - Agni, eyebrows - Ashvins, nose - , ears - . This is how the Great Goddess arose, surpassing all gods and asuras in power and formidable disposition. The gods gave her weapons. Shiva gave her a trident, Vishnu a battle disk, Agni a spear, Vayu a bow and a quiver full of arrows, Indra, the lord of the gods, his famous vajra, Yama a rod, Varuna a noose, Brahma gave her his necklace, Surya his rays. Vishvakarman gave an ax, skillfully crafted, and precious necklaces and rings, Himavat, the Lord of the mountains, a lion to ride on him, Kubera a cup of wine.
“May you win!” - the celestials cried out, and the goddess issued a war cry that shook the worlds, and, riding a lion, went to battle. Asura Mahisha, hearing this terrifying cry, came out to meet her with his army. He saw a thousand-armed goddess with outstretched hands that eclipsed the entire sky; under her footsteps the earth and the underground worlds shook. And the battle began.
Thousands of enemies attacked the goddess - on chariots, on elephants and on horseback - striking her with blows of clubs, and swords, and axes, and spears. But the Great Goddess, playfully, repelled the blows and, calm and fearless, brought down her weapon on the countless army of asuras. The lion on which she was sitting, with a flowing mane, burst into the ranks of the asuras like a flame of fire in a forest thicket. And from the breath of the Goddess hundreds of formidable warriors arose who followed her into battle. The goddess chopped down the mighty asuras with her sword, stunned them with blows from her club, stabbed them with a spear and pierced them with arrows, threw a noose around their neck and dragged them along the ground. Thousands of asuras fell under her blows, beheaded, cut in half, pierced through or chopped into pieces. But some of them, even having lost their heads, still continued to clutch weapons in their hands and fight with the Goddess; and streams of blood flowed over the ground where she rushed astride her lion.
Many of Mahisha’s warriors were killed by the warriors of the Goddess, many were torn to pieces by lions who attacked elephants, chariots, horsemen, and foot soldiers; and the army of the asuras scattered, completely defeated. Then the buffalo-like Mahisha himself appeared on the battlefield, frightening the warriors of the Goddess with his appearance and menacing roar. He rushed at them and trampled some with his hooves, raised others on his horns, and killed others with blows of his tail. He rushed at the lion of the Goddess, and under the blows of his hooves the earth shook and cracked; with his tail he lashed the great ocean, which became agitated as in the most terrible storm and splashed out of its banks; Mahish's horns tore the clouds in the sky to shreds, and his breath caused high cliffs and mountains to fall.
Then the Goddess threw Varuna's terrible noose over Mahisha and tightened it tightly. But immediately the asura left the buffalo body and turned into a lion. The goddess swung the sword of Kala - Time - and cut off the lion's head, but at the same instant Mahisha turned into a man holding a staff in one hand and a shield in the other. The goddess grabbed her bow and pierced the man with the staff and shield with an arrow; but in an instant he turned into a huge elephant and, with a terrifying roar, rushed at the Goddess and her lion, waving his monstrous trunk. The Goddess cut off the elephant's trunk with an ax, but then Mahisha took on his former form as a buffalo and began digging the ground with his horns and throwing huge mountains and rocks at the Goddess.
Meanwhile, the angry goddess drank intoxicating moisture from the cup of the lord of wealth, the king of kings, Kubera, and her eyes turned red and lit up like a flame, and red moisture flowed over her lips. “Roar, you madman, while I drink wine! - she said. “Soon the gods will roar with joy when they find out that I have killed you!” With a gigantic leap, she soared into the air and fell on the great asura from above. She stepped on the buffalo's head with her foot and pinned his body to the ground with a spear. In an effort to escape death, Mahisha tried to take on a new form and leaned half out of the buffalo's mouth, but the Goddess immediately cut off his head with a sword.
Mahisha fell to the ground lifeless, and the gods rejoiced and shouted praise to the Great Goddess. The Gandharvas sang her glory, and the Apsaras danced to honor her victory. And when the celestials bowed to the Goddess, she told them: “Whenever you are in great danger, call on me, and I will come to your aid.” And she disappeared.
Time passed, and again trouble visited Indra’s heavenly kingdom. Two formidable asuras, brothers Shumbha and Nishumbha, rose immensely in power and glory in the world and defeated the gods in a bloody battle. The gods fled in fear before them and took refuge in the northern mountains, where the sacred Ganges falls from the celestial cliffs to the earth. And they called out to the Goddess, glorifying her: “Protect the universe, O Great Goddess, whose power is equal to the power of the entire heavenly army, O you, incomprehensible even to the omniscient Vishnu and Shiva!”
There, where the gods called to the Goddess, the beautiful Daughter of the Mountains came to bathe in the sacred waters of the Ganges. “Who are the gods praising?” she asked. And then a formidable Goddess appeared from the body of Shiva’s tender wife. She left Parvati’s body and said: “It is me that the gods, who are again oppressed by the asuras, praise and call upon me, the great one, they call upon me, an angry and merciless warrior, whose spirit is contained, like a second self, in the body of Parvati, the merciful goddess. Severe Kali and gentle Parvati, we are two principles united in one deity, two faces of Mahadevi, the Great Goddess! And the gods praised the Great Goddess under her different names: “O Kali, O Uma, O Parvati, have mercy, help us! O Gauri, beautiful wife of Shiva, O Intractable One, may you overcome our enemies with your might! O Ambika, Great Mother, protect us with your sword! O Chandika, Wrathful One, protect us from evil enemies with your spear! O Devi, Goddess, save the gods and the universe!” And Kali, heeding the pleas of the celestials, again went to battle with the asuras.
When Shumbha, the mighty leader of the demon army, saw the brilliant Kali, he was captivated by her beauty. And he sent his matchmakers to her. “Oh beautiful Goddess, become my wife! All three worlds and all their treasures are now in my power! Come to me and you will own them with me!” - this is what his messengers said on behalf of Shumbha to the goddess Kali, but she answered: “I made a vow: only the one who defeats me in battle will become my husband. Let him go to the battlefield; if he or his army defeats me, I will become his wife!”
The messengers returned and conveyed her words to Shumbha; but he did not want to fight the woman himself, and sent his army against her. The asuras rushed at Kali, trying to capture her and bring her tamed and submissive to their master, but the Goddess easily scattered them with blows of her spear, and many asuras then died on the battlefield; some were struck down by Kali, others were torn to pieces by her lion. The surviving asuras fled in fear, and Durga pursued them riding on a lion and caused a great massacre; her lion, shaking his mane, tore the asuras with teeth and claws and drank the blood of the defeated.
When Shumbha saw that his army was destroyed, he was overcome with great anger. He then gathered all his armies, all the asuras, powerful and brave, all who recognized him as their ruler, and sent them against the Goddess. The countless force of the asuras moved towards the fearless Kali.
All the gods then came to her aid. Brahma appeared on the battlefield on his chariot drawn by swans; Shiva, crowned with a moon and entwined with monstrous poisonous snakes, rode out on a bull with a trident in his right hand; , his son, rode on a peacock, shaking a spear; Vishnu flew on a horse, armed with a disk, a club and a bow, with a conch-trumpet and a staff, and his hypostases - the universal boar and the man-lion - followed him; Indra, the lord of the celestials, appeared on the elephant Airavata with a vajra in his hand.
Kali sent Shiva to the ruler of the asuras: “Let him submit to the gods and make peace with them.” But Shumbha rejected the peace proposal. He sent the commander Raktavija, a powerful asura, at the head of his troops, and ordered him to deal with the gods and not give them mercy. Raktavija led an innumerable army of asuras into battle, and again they clashed with the gods in mortal combat.
The celestials rained blows of their weapons on Raktavija and his warriors, and they destroyed many asuras, defeating them on the battlefield, but they could not defeat Raktavija. The gods inflicted many wounds on the asura commander, and blood gushed out of them in streams; but from every drop of blood shed by Raktavija, a new warrior stood up on the battlefield and rushed to battle; and therefore the army of asuras, exterminated by the gods, instead of decreasing, multiplied endlessly, and hundreds of asuras, arising from the blood of Raktavija, entered into battle with the heavenly warriors.
Then the goddess Kali herself came out to fight Raktavija. She struck him with her sword and drank all his blood, and devoured all the asuras born from his blood. Kali, her lion and the gods who followed her then destroyed all the countless hordes of asuras. The goddess rode a lion into the abode of the wicked brothers; they tried in vain to resist her. And both mighty warriors, the brave leaders of the asuras Shumbha and Nishumbha, fell, struck down by her hand, and went to the kingdom of Varuna, who captured the asuras who died under the burden of their atrocities in the noose of his soul.
The goddesses of world mythology are not always merciful and kind. Many of them demanded a special kind of worship from their adherents.
Cali
Even if you don’t know anything about the goddess Kali, you’ve probably heard that according to the Hindu calendar we live in the era of Kali Yuga. The name of the former capital of India, Calcutta, comes from the name Kali. The largest temple of worship of this goddess is located here today.
Kali is the most formidable goddess of world mythology. One image of her is already scary. She is traditionally depicted as blue or black (the color of endless cosmic time, pure consciousness and death), with four arms (4 cardinal directions, 4 main chakras), and a garland of skulls hanging on her neck (a series of incarnations).
Kali has a red tongue, which symbolizes the kinetic energy of the universe, the guna rajas, and the goddess stands on a prostrate body, which symbolizes the secondary nature of the physical embodiment.
Kali is scary, and for good reason. In India, sacrifices were made to her, and the most zealous adherents of this goddess were the Thagi (Thugs), a sect of professional murderers and stranglers.
According to historian William Rubinstein, the Tugh killed 1 million people between 1740 and 1840. The Guinness Book of Records attributes two million deaths to them. In English, the word “thugs” has acquired the common noun meaning of “killer thugs”
Hecate
Hecate is the ancient Greek goddess of the moonlight, the underworld and everything mysterious. Researchers are inclined to believe that the cult of Hecate was borrowed by the Greeks from the Thracians.
Hecate's sacred number is three, since Hecate is a three-faced goddess. It is believed that Hecate ruled the cycle of human existence - birth, life and death, as well as the three elements - earth, fire and air.
Its power extended to the past, present and future. Hecate drew her strength from the Moon, which also has three phases: new, old and full.
Hecate was usually depicted either as a woman holding two torches in her hands, or as three figures tied back to back. Hecate's head was often depicted with flames or horns-rays.
The altar dedicated to Hecate was called a hetacomb. A description of the sacrifice to Hecate is found in Homer’s Iliad: “Now we will lower a black ship onto the sacred sea, // We will choose strong oarsmen, and we will place a hecatomb on the ship.”
Hecate's sacred animal was a dog; puppies were sacrificed to her in deep pits or in caves inaccessible to sunlight. Mysteries were performed in honor of Hecate. Greek tragic poetry depicted Hecate as ruling over evil demons and the souls of the dead.
Cybele
The cult of Cybele came to the ancient Greeks from the Phrygians. Cybele was the personification of Mother Nature and was revered in most of the regions of Asia Minor.
The cult of Cybele was very cruel in its content. His servants were required to completely submit to their deity, bringing themselves to an ecstatic state, even to the point of inflicting bloody wounds on each other.
Neophytes who surrendered themselves to the power of Cybele underwent initiation through emasculation.
The famous English anthropologist James Fraser wrote about this ritual: “The man threw off his clothes, ran out of the crowd screaming, grabbed one of the daggers prepared for this purpose and immediately performed castration. Then he rushed like mad through the streets of the city, clutching the bloody part of his body in his hand, which he finally got rid of by throwing it into one of the houses.”
A convert to the cult of Cybele was given women's clothing with feminine jewelry, which he was now destined to wear for the rest of his life. Similar sacrifices of male flesh were performed in honor of the goddess Cybele in Ancient Greece during a celebration known as the Day of Blood.
Ishtar
In Akkadian mythology, Ishtar was the goddess of fertility and carnal love, war and strife. In the Babylonian pantheon, Ishtar had the role of an astral deity and was the personification of the planet Venus.
Ishtar was considered the patroness of prostitutes, hetaeras and homosexuals, so her cult often included sacred prostitution. The holy city of Ishtar - Uruk - was also called the “city of sacred courtesans,” and the goddess herself was often referred to as the “courtesan of the gods.”
In mythology, Ishtar had many lovers, but this passion was both her curse and the curse of those who became her favorites.
Guirand’s notes say: “Woe to the one whom Ishtar honored! The fickle goddess treats her casual lovers cruelly, and the unfortunate ones usually pay dearly for the services rendered to them. Animals enslaved by love lose their natural strength: they fall into the traps of hunters or are domesticated by them. In her youth, Ishtar loved Tammuz, the god of the harvest, and - according to Gilgamesh - this love caused the death of Tammuz.
Chinnamasta
Chinnamasta is one of the goddesses of the Hindu pantheon. Her cult contains interesting iconography. Chinnamasta is traditionally depicted as follows: in her left hand she holds her own severed head with her mouth open; her hair is disheveled, and she drinks the blood that streams from her own neck. The goddess stands or sits on a couple making love. To the right and left of her are two companions who joyfully drink the blood flowing from the neck of the goddess
Researcher E.A. Benard believes that the image of Chinnamasta, as well as the other Mahavidya goddesses, should be considered as a mask, a theatrical role in which the supreme deity, at his whim, wants to appear before his adept.
One of the important details of Chinnamasta’s iconography, the fact that she tramples underfoot a couple in a love union, develops the theme of the goddess overcoming lust and love affects.
The fact that Chinnamasta herself drinks her own blood symbolizes that by doing so she achieves the destruction of illusions and receives liberation-moksha.
The practice of ritual suicide was well known in ancient and medieval India. The most famous is the self-immolation of widows - satī, sahamaraņa. Among the most ardent worshipers of deities, there was also a custom of sacrificing one’s own head. Unique monuments have been preserved - relief images with scenes of such a sacrifice, thanks to which we can imagine how it took place.
A similar ritual is found in the notes of Marco Polo. He mentions a custom that existed on the Malabar coast, according to which a criminal sentenced to death could choose, instead of execution, a form of sacrifice in which he kills himself “out of love for such and such idols.” This form of sacrifice was understood by the people as most pleasing to Chinnamasta and, therefore, could serve the prosperity and benefit of the entire community.
In the Devi Bhagavata Purana there is a story about the incarnation of Kali. Once two Danavas (demons), Shumbha and Nishumbha, imposed severe penance on themselves to please Brahma the Creator, and for this they received from him “invulnerability from any husband.” Having achieved this ability, they became, as they thought, completely invincible and began to conquer the three worlds: bhuloka (earth), bhuvarloka (astral plane) and svargaloka (heavenly plane, the abode of gods and demigods). They drove out all the gods and demigods from Svargaloka. Knowing that no male energy is capable of taming these demonic forces, the gods and demigods, including Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer, gathered on the banks of the Ganga River and turned to the Divine Mother.
Hearing their prayers. The Divine Mother rejoiced and sent her shakti to help the gods. Gauri's mother. Mother Gauri appeared before the gods and listened to their story about the power of Shumbha and Nishumbha. She then took on the fierce form of Kali and destroyed the evil force of Shumbha and Nishumbha, as well as their two generals - Chanda and Munda. Thus, Kali is Mother Gauri, the wife of the god Shiva. Shiva in his destructive aspect is called Mahakala, and the Divine Mother Gauri is called Kali or Mahakali.
The Sanskrit word kala means “death” on the one hand and “time” on the other. In the phenomenal world everything is limited by time. At the proper time, the shakti of any being leaves him and that being dies. In other words, death represents the end of the life force (prana). Matter does not arise and does not die, it simply changes its shape. For this reason, death represents a change or transformation. Kali is the goddess of such changes, which are absolutely necessary for the renewal of energy (life force) and spiritual development. Kali is the mistress of time. Without her pulsating energy as Prakriti, all existence is motionless and like a corpse, for Kali is both the creator and the preserver of the eternal cyclical order of time.
Attachment to the material form (physical body) causes fear of death. It is a fundamental fear that has its roots in the brainstem, the primitive brain; such fear is the main obstacle to spiritual development. Shumbha and Nishumbha represent the demonic forces of attachment that threaten our spiritual assistants and drive them away from the exalted abode.
Calling on Kali to help these spiritual forces can put an end to such a threat. In her fierce aspect she pacifies the demonic forces of false attachments - Shumbha and Nishumbha, Chanda and Munda.
The sadhak must come face to face with his own Shumbha and Nishumbha and overcome the grip of the fear of death by invoking Kali. Goddess Kali destroys such fear and opens the doors to knowledge-comprehension (mahavidya) of eternity. Kali represents Mahavidya, eliminating avidya (ignorance) that makes one fear death.
Kali is the first Mahavidya. Her other name is Adya (firstborn), Adi Mahavidya. It is often pointed out that everyone else descended from her.
Just as a tree grows and sinks deeper into the earth, a bubble into the water column, or a luminary into the clouds, so all gods have their beginning and end in Kali (Nirvana Tantra)
Goddess Kali - Supreme Goddess, Night of Eternity, Devourer of Time (Mahanirvana Tantra)
She is the original all-pervading force, the source and ultimate refuge of everything that exists. “I am Kali, the Primordial Creative Power” - this is how the Great Mother testifies to herself in the Shakti-sangama tantra.
The texts describe that veneration, ritual worship, sadhanas of Kali are the dissolution of attachments, anger, lust and other enslaving emotions, feelings and ideas. It is she who, if fearlessly faced face to face in meditation, gives great strength and supreme liberation to sadhana.
Intolerant of any imperfection, she does not stand on ceremony in relation to everything that persists in a person.
Severe towards everything that is stubborn in its imperfection and darkness.
Her rage is instantaneous and terrible against treachery, deceit and malice. The bearers of evil will are immediately struck down by her lash. She cannot stand indifference, negligence and laziness in her work. And if necessary, she speeds up the kick and fall asleep with a biting blow that reverberates with acute pain.
The impulses are fast, direct, clear. Actions are frank and absolute in nature. Her spirit is unstoppable, her vision and will are high and distant, like the flight of an eagle.
Her feet are fast on the upward path. Her hands are ready to strike and protect, for she is also a Mother.
Her love is as strong as her fury, and her kindness is deep and passionate...
If her anger is terrible to her enemies, and the power of her pressure is painful for the weak and timid, then she is loved and revered by the great, strong and noble.
For they feel that its blows reforge everything that is rebellious in themselves into the power and perfection of truth, straightening everything that is crooked and perverted, expelling everything that is unclean and defective. What she accomplishes in one day could take centuries...
Thanks to her grace, fire, passion and speed, great achievements can be accomplished right now, and not in the uncertain future...
Its dark blue color is the color of endless cosmic, eternal time, as well as death. It absorbs in itself all other colors, that is, Kali absorbs and contains within itself all conceivable forms and manifestations of God - from the most merciful and blissful to the angry and terrifying. Also, black means the complete absence of color, which is the Nirguna (lack of characteristics) nature of Kali.
The garland of skulls with which it is decorated means a series of human incarnations. There are exactly 50 skulls - according to the number of letters of Sanskrit.
The three eyes of the goddess control three forces: creation, preservation and destruction. They also correspond to three tenses: past, present and future.
"She has four arms." They symbolize the full circle of creation and destruction that is contained within or embraced by her. One of the hands bestows mercy and prosperity; the other is fearlessness. She holds a sword and a severed head in her hands, representing destructive aspects. The sword is the sword of knowledge or selfless sadhana that destroys the knots of ignorance and false consciousness. With this sword, Kali opens the gates of freedom. A severed head is false consciousness. Likewise, a bleeding head signifies the outflow of the guna of rajas, which completely purifies the adept, who is filled with sattvic qualities in his awakening to truth.
A protruding tongue and sharp fangs also mean victory over the same power of rajas.
A belt made from severed hands speaks of the destruction of the sadhak's karma. Hands are deeds, actions are karma. The enslaving influence of this karma is surpassed and cut off by sadhana.
The home of Kali, the place of cremation, where the dissolution of the 5 elements (pancha mahabhuta) occurs. She dwells in a place where transformation and dissolution occur.
On a cosmic level, Kali is associated with the elements of air or wind, vayu. This force fills the Universe as the energy of transformation. She embodies creation, preservation and destruction, and evokes both love and horror.
In the human body, Kali exists in the form of breath or life force (prana). Kali resides in anahata. It interacts with the physical heart. In this form it is called Rakti-Kali (Red Kali), the pulsation of the heart. Kali is the force of life that does not belong to us, but to the Divine Mother. This energy of life also causes death when it goes into the subtle worlds. Kali is the power of action or transformation. Everything she does is not a simple external action - she performs spiritual work to revive pure consciousness.
Thus, Kali brings knowledge about the primordial force, about Nirguna, about impermanence. Kali is the shakti of Kala, or the transcendental power of Time; she is the embodiment of the time power of the world and is the primary evolutionary principle.
Bija mantra of Kali - CRIM:
R- Absolute
I-Transcendental power of illusion
M - Primordial sound
Mantra of Kali: OM KAM KALIKA NAMAH
I worship the primordial Kali: her members are like dark rain clouds, she has three eyes, she is dressed in crimson clothes. Kali's raised hands bless me and free me from fear. She sits on a red lotus and smiles at Mahakala dancing in front of her. (Mahanirvana Tantra)
Kali mantra of 22 syllables:
CRIM CRIM CRIM HUM HUM CRIM CRIM DAKSHINE KALIKE CRIM CRIM CRIM HUM HUM CRIM CRIM SVAHA
The Sanskrit word “kala” means “death” on the one hand and “time” on the other.
According to the Mahanirvana Tantra, “time, or kala, devours the whole world during cosmic dissolution - pralaya, but Kali devours even time itself, which is why she is called the word Kali.” Goddess Kali is the highest Goddess, the night of eternity, the devourer of time.
“Her appearance is terrible. With disheveled hair, with a garland of freshly severed human heads. She has four arms. In her upper left hand she holds a sword, freshly sprinkled with the blood of a severed head, which she holds in her lower left hand. The upper right hand is folded in a gesture of fearlessness, and the lower right hand is folded in a gesture of bestowing favors. Her complexion is bluish and her face shines like a dark cloud.
She is completely naked, and her body glistens with blood flowing from a garland of severed heads around her neck. She has earrings made from corpses in her ears. Her fangs are monstrous, and her face expresses rage. Her breasts are lush and round, she wears a belt made from severed human hands. Blood trickles from the corners of her mouth, adding shine to her face.
She emits piercing screams and lives in places where corpses are burned, where she is surrounded by howling jackals. She stands on the chest of Shiva, who is lying in the form of a corpse. She desires sexual union with Mahakala in an inverted position. The expression on her face is satisfied. She smiles. She shines like a dark cloud and wears black clothes."
Kali is the only one among the goddesses who fully reveals the nature of the ultimate reality and symbolizes a completely enlightened consciousness. The principle of destruction, which is personified in Kali, is aimed at getting rid of ignorance and illusion.
Kali is also a symbol of female self-sufficiency and emotional independence; in Kali Tantra it is indicated that even in sex, Kali occupies the position on top, that is, the male one. Kali has enormous sexual power. In later texts, especially the Tantras, she appears as sexually aggressive and is often depicted or described in sexual union with Shiva. In her Sahasranama Stotra (a hymn listing the names of the deity), many names emphasize her sexual voraciousness or attractiveness.
Among her names:
- She whose essential form is sexual lust
- She whose form is yoni
- She who resides in the yoni
- Garland-decorated yoni
- She who loves the lingam
- Living in a lingam
- She who is worshiped with seed
- Living in the ocean of seed
- Always filled with seed
In this regard, Kali violates the concept of a controlled woman who is sexually satisfied in marriage. Kali is sexually voracious and therefore dangerous.
Kali embodies freedom, especially freedom from social norms. She lives outside the boundaries of normal society. She prefers cremation grounds, places that are usually avoided by normal members of society. She lives in forests or jungles, among savages. Her flowing hair and nakedness suggest that she is completely out of control, completely free from social and ethical responsibilities and expectations. For the same reason, she is an outsider, outside of convention.
Two features typical of Kali's appearance—her flowing hair and protruding tongue—seem to be appropriate expressions of her “otherness,” her unconventional, boundary-pushing, role-breaking, liminal character. In iconography, she is almost always depicted with her mouth open and her tongue hanging out. In her early history, where she is depicted as a savage, bloodthirsty goddess living on the edge of civilization, or as a fierce demon-slayer drunk on the blood of her victims, her protruding tongue, like her figure, seems to indicate her lust for blood. She sticks out her tongue wildly to satisfy her wild, all-consuming appetite.
Kali's protruding tongue has two main meanings in the context of Tantra: sexual gratification and the absorption of the forbidden or polluted. In Dakshina-Kali images, Shiva is sometimes shown in an erect state, and in some dhyana mantras and iconographic images of Kali she is in sexual union with him. In both cases, her tongue is stuck out.
Kali's gaping mouth and protruding tongue, her appearance and habits are disgusting to our ordinary sensibility. Perhaps this is precisely the main thing in tantra. What we perceive as disgusting, dirty, forbidden, ugly, is rooted in the limited human, or cultural, consciousness that has ordered, structured and divided reality into categories that serve limited self-centered, selfish concepts of how the world should be. Kali, with her rawness, rearranges these categories, inviting those who would like to learn from her to be open to the whole world in all its aspects.
She encourages her admirers to dare to taste the world in its most disgusting and forbidden manifestations, in order to discover at its core the unity and holiness, that is, the Great Goddess herself.
Kali's loose hair marks the end of the world, it flutters in different directions; there is no more order; everything turned into chaos. The “braided braid” of the social and cosmic order ends in the wild, loose, flowing hair of Kali. In certain circumstances, almost always involving desecration and pollution of one kind or another, Hindu women let their hair down. In particular, they do this during menstruation. The Mahabharata refers to the well-known prohibition of wearing one's hair braided during menstruation and not braiding it until after the ritual bath that ends the period of impurity. In addition to keeping their hair unkempt during menstruation, Punjabi women also let their hair down during the period following the birth of a child, after sexual intercourse, and after the death of a husband. Thus, women let their hair down while in a state of impurity.
Kali's four arms symbolize the full circle of creation and destruction that is contained within or embraced by her. It represents the inherent creative and destructive rhythms of the universe. Her right hands, folded in the gesture of “fear not” and the bestowal of boons, symbolize the creative aspect of Kali, and her left hands, holding a bloody sword and severed head, symbolize the destructive aspect.
Her three eyes represent the sun, moon and fire, with which she can control three modes of time: past, present and future. The bloody sword and severed head also symbolize the destruction of ignorance and the descent of knowledge. This sword is the sword of knowledge, or selfless sadhana, cutting the knots of ignorance and destroying false consciousness (the severed head). With this sword, Kali opens the gates of freedom, cutting the eight bonds that bind people. Besides false consciousness, a bleeding severed head also signifies the outflow of the guna of rajas (passionate tendencies), which completely purifies the adept, who is filled with sattvic (spiritual) qualities in his awakening to truth.
Kali's protruding tongue and sharp fangs represent the victory won over the power of rajas (red tongue) by the power of sattva (white teeth). Thus, Kali consists entirely of sattva and is completely spiritual in nature, transcending all impurities contained in the other gunas.
Kali's blackness also speaks of her all-encompassing, all-consuming nature, since black is the color in which all other colors disappear; black absorbs and dissolves them. Or it is said that black symbolizes the complete absence of color, which again signifies nirguna - the absence of characteristics - the nature of Kali as the ultimate reality. In any case, Kali's black color symbolizes her transcendence of all forms.
Kali's nakedness has a similar meaning and indicates that she is completely beyond name and form, beyond the illusory influences of maya and false consciousness, that she is completely transcendental. It is believed that her nakedness represents a completely enlightened consciousness, unaffected by maya. Kali is the shining fire of truth, which cannot be hidden under the veil of ignorance represented by Maya. This truth simply burns them.
Kali's home - a place of cremation - has a similar meaning. At the cremation site, the five elements are dissolved. Kali resides where dissolution occurs. In the sense of reverence, ritual worship and sadhana, it means the dissolution of attachments, anger, lust and other enslaving emotions, feelings and ideas. The devotee's heart is where this burning occurs, and Kali resides in the heart. The devotee places her image in the heart and under its influence burns all limitations and ignorance in the funeral pyre. This inner funeral fire in the heart is the fire of knowledge, jnana agni, which is bestowed by Kali.
Kali standing on Shiva represents the blessing she gives to her devotees. Shiva represents the passive potential of creation. In yoga philosophy he is purusha, lit. "man", the unchanging, characterless aspect of reality, while Kali is the active prakriti, the nature of the physical world. According to this view, Kali and Shiva together symbolize the ultimate reality.
Another interpretation of Kali standing on Shiva or having sex with him in an inverted position says that this symbolizes the involution of meditation, the means by which man “recreates” the universe in order to experience the blissful union of Shiva and Shakti.
The overwhelming presence of death imagery in all descriptions of Kali can also be understood as a symbol of the transformative nature of the goddess. It makes you think about the main thing in life, removing the husks and unnecessary things.
As you know, in Hinduism, in addition to the supreme deity, there are many other gods and their incarnations. They all serve the same purpose - leading a person along the path of enlightenment, but each uses its own means for this.
The Indian goddess Kali represents the destructive form of Parvati, the wife of Shiva. She is usually depicted dancing on the body of Shiva, with four hands, in one of which she holds the head of a demon with a protruding tongue dripping blood, and a garland of skulls. It would seem that the image should have made her a negative character, but adherents of Hinduism highly revere her. There is even a special cult dedicated to Kali. The goddess, who represents the destructive hypostasis of Shakti, also personifies protection from dark forces and a maternal, caring principle.
Goddess Kali is a manifestation of “divine wrath”, and not causeless destructive aggression. She gets rid of ignorance and demons, purifying and protecting. She is also associated in Hinduism with great joy: when she defeats her enemies, she always laughs. The Goddess constantly supports honest people. But the followers of the cult of Kali, who misinterpreted Hindu philosophy, performed terrible rituals accompanied by human sacrifices, as a result of which this deity became associated with senseless bloodshed and mercilessness.
The true essence of this goddess remains in the harmonious unification of creative and destructive forces.
Goddess Kali exists in twelve manifestations: the goddess of Creation, Kali of Preservation, Destruction, Limitation, Destruction, Death, Horror, the Goddess of the Cosmic Egg, Kali of the Supreme Radiance, the Terrible Fire of Time, Great Time and Kali of Fearlessness.
All these forms carry out a gradual transition of consciousness to enlightenment through the acceptance of all objects of the external world as part of one’s Self, and oneself as the world.
Thus, destruction is the erasure of boundaries between different forms of existence.
Goddess Kali destroys the duality of the world and doubt.
The image of this deity includes many symbols: her four arms represent both the cardinal directions and the main chakras; three eyes - three main forces on which the entire philosophy of Hinduism rests: creation, preservation and destruction; a garland of skulls - a series of human reincarnations, and a severed head - liberation from the ego; blue skin color - eternity; the corpse under her feet is the frailty of the bodily shell; a bloody tongue is the rajas guna, and black hair is the purity of consciousness.
We see that the goddess Kali embodies all the basic ideas and principles of Hinduism, albeit in a strange and perhaps even repulsive form. It symbolizes eternal life and victory over petty concerns about the body, ignorance and evil forces.
Despite the fact that she is rarely ranked among the main gods of Hinduism, her image is undoubtedly a characteristic example for those who strive to comprehend. After all, Kali is also eternal balance and harmony, the unity of the creative and destructive principles in the form of a female deity.