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Subject: Kali: Understanding the Divine Mother
                                   
    '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
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