Goddess Kali is a ferocious and fiercest form of the divine mother
Durga. Goddess Kali is Durga's darker aspect, who is represented as the consort
of the lord Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing. She is the goddess
of time and of the transformation that is death. Lord Shiva and Mother Gauri in
their destructive form are known as Mahakala and Mahakali or Kali. Goddess Kali
or the Dark Mother is the goddess with whom devotees have a very loving bond,
in spite of her fearful appearance. In this relationship, the worshipper
becomes a child and Kali assumes the form of the caring mother. She is
sometimes referred as the goddess of death, but actually Kali brings the death
of the ego. She is the all pervading divine mother of the universe and her name
in Sanskrit is derived from the word Kal which means time. She is also not
associated with Yama (the Hindu God of Death). She is also known as Kalikamata
and Kalaratri (black night), who is worshipped particularly in Bengal. Her
best-known temples are in Kalighat and Dakshineshvara.
Goddess Kali is the most compassionate of all the forms
of goddesses and she provides salvation to the devotees. She is considered
equivalent to lord Shiva because both of them are the destroyers of evils and
demonic powers. Goddess Kali’s appearance is fearsome and dangerous, baleful
eyes, a protruding tongue and four arms are fearful. In her two arms, she holds
a bloody sword and a severed head of a demon. With her upper right hand she
blesses her devotees. She wears a garland made of skulls and a belt made of
dismembered arms of demons. As the Divine Mother she is often represented
standing or dancing on Shiva with numerous hands and legs.
Goddess Kali and Lord Shiva, both are considered to
inhabit cremation grounds. Devotees go to these places to meditate with the
purpose of overcoming the ego. The cremation grounds emphasize the idea that
the body is temporary. The way people look and worship goddess Kali depends on
the form of their sense of self. She most famously appears in the sixth century
Devi Mahatmyam as one of the Shaktis of the divine mother, who killed the demon
Raktabija. The tale of Raktabija can be found in the eight chapter of the Devi Maytram.
Raktabija was a powerful demon, who got a boon from Lord Brahma, whenever a
drop of his blood fell on the ground; a duplicate Raktabija would be born at
that spot. Raktabija was wounded, but drops of blood falling on the ground
created innumerable other Raktabijas, and Durga was in difficulty. At this
point, the goddess Durga created Kali, who made her tongue onto the earth, and
sucked off the blood of Raktabija, thus Raktabija was killed.
The tenth century Kalika Purana
venerates Kali as the ultimate reality or Brahman. The Tantric approach to Kali
is to display courage by confronting her on cremation grounds in the dead of
night, despite her terrible appearance. She is often regarded as the Shakti of
Shiva, and is closely associated with him in various Puranas. The Kalika Purana
depicts her as Adi Shakt. She is free from the illusory covering and beyond the
all maya or false consciousness. Kali's garland of fifty human heads stands for
the fifty letters in the Sanskrit alphabet. The common images of goddess Kali
shows her, standing with one foot on Shiva's chest, with her enormous tongue
stuck out. Goddess Kali is commonly associated with death, violence, sexuality
and paradoxically with motherly love. Her appearance and ornaments has special
significance and meaning. The garland of 52 skulls and her skirt made of
dismembered arms symbolizes the destruction of the body and hence the ego
attached with the body.All paintings are courtesy of Art of legend India. Source: Click Here
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