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Subject: NKumar: Mother Goddess as Kali - The Feminine Force in Art
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[I found the text on the referenced website at:
	                   http://www.exoticindiaart.com/kali.txt ]

=========================================================
Mother Goddess as Kali - The Feminine Force in Art
=========================================================

[by Nitin Kumar]

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.

She is full- breasted; her motherhood is a ceaseless creation. Her 
disheveled hair forms a curtain of illusion, the fabric of space- 
time which organizes matter out of the chaotic sea of quantum-foam. 
Her garland of fifty human heads, each representing one of the fifty 
letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, symbolizes the repository of 
knowledge and wisdom. She wears a girdle of severed human hands- 
hands that are the principal instruments of work and so signify the 
action of karma. Thus the binding effects of this karma have been 
overcome, severed, as it were, by devotion to Kali. She has blessed 
the devotee by cutting him free from the cycle of karma. Her white 
teeth are symbolic of purity (Sans. Sattva), and her lolling tongue 
which is red dramatically depicts the fact that she consumes all 
things and denotes the act of tasting or enjoying what society 
regards as forbidden, i.e. her indiscriminate enjoyment of all the 
world's "flavors".

Kali's four arms represent the complete circle of creation and 
destruction, which is contained within her. She represents the 
inherent creative and destructive rhythms of the cosmos. Her right 
hands, making the mudras of "fear not" and conferring boons, 
represent the creative aspect of Kali, while the left hands, holding 
a bloodied sword and a severed head represent her destructive aspect. 
The bloodied sword and severed head symbolize the destruction of 
ignorance and the dawning of knowledge. The sword is the sword of 
knowledge, that cuts the knots of ignorance and destroys false 
consciousness (the severed head). Kali opens the gates of freedom 
with this sword, having cut the eight bonds that bind human beings.  
Finally her three eyes represent the sun, moon, and fire, with which 
she is able to observe the three modes of time: past, present and 
future. This attribute is also the origin of the name Kali, which is 
the feminine form of 'Kala', the Sanskrit term for Time.

Another symbolic but controversial aspect of  Kali is her proximity 
to the cremation ground:

O Kali, Thou art fond of cremation grounds; so
	I have turned my heart into one
That thou, a resident of cremation grounds, may
	dance there unceasingly.
O Mother! I have no other fond desire in my
	heart; fire of a funeral pyre is burning there;
O Mother! I have preserved the ashes of dead bodies
	All around that Thou may come.
O Mother! Keeping Shiva, conqueror of Death, under
Thy feet,
Come, dancing to the tune of music; Prasada waits
	With his eyes closed.
		.. Ramprasad (1718-75)

Kali's dwelling place, the cremation ground denotes a place where the 
five elements (Sanskrit: pancha mahabhuta) are dissolved. Kali dwells 
where dissolution takes place. In terms of devotion and worship, this 
denotes the dissolving of attachments, anger, lust, and other binding 
emotions, feelings, and ideas. The heart of the devotee is where this 
burning takes place, and it is in the heart that Kali dwells. The 
devotee makes her image in his heart and under her influence burns 
away all limitations and ignorance in the cremation fires. This inner 
cremation fire in the heart is the fire of knowledge, (Sanskrit: 
gyanagni), which Kali bestows.

The image of a recumbent Shiva lying under the feet of Kali 
represents Shiva as the passive potential of creation and Kali as his 
Shakti. The generic term Shakti denotes the Universal feminine 
creative principle and the energizing force behind all male divinity 
including Shiva. Shakti is known by the general name Devi, from the 
root 'div', meaning to shine. She is the Shining One, who is given 
different names in different places and in different appearances, as 
the symbol of the life-giving powers of the Universe. It is she that 
powers him. This Shakti is expressed as the i in Shiva's name. 
Without this i, Shiva becomes Shva, which in Sanskrit means a corpse. 
Thus suggesting that without his Sh iakti, Shiva is powerless or 
inert.  

Illustration : http://www.exoticindiaart.com/marble/ra03.jpg (Siz: 74 
kb)

Kali is a particularly appropriate image for conveying the idea of 
the world as the play of the gods. The spontaneous, effortless, 
dizzying creativity of the divine reflex is conveyed in her wild 
appearance. Insofar as kali is identified with the phenomenal world, 
she presents a picture of that world that underlies its ephemeral and 
unpredictable nature. In her mad dancing, disheveled hair, and eerie 
howl there is made present the hint of a world reeling, careening out 
of control. The world is created and destroyed in Kali's wild 
dancing, and the truth of redemption lies in man's awareness that he 
is invited to take part in that dance, to yield to the frenzied beat 
of the Mother's dance of life and death. 

O Kali, my Mother full of Bliss! Enchantress of the almighty Shiva!
In Thy delirious joy Thou dancest, clapping Thy hands together!. . . .
Thou art the Mover of all that move, and we are but Thy helpless toys.
					.. Ramakrishna Paramhans

Kali and her attendants dance to rhythms pounded out by Shiva (Lord 
of destruction) and his animal-headed attendants who dwell in the 
Himalayas. Associated with chaos and uncontrollable destruction, 
Kali's own retinue brandishes swords and holds aloft skull cups from 
which they drink the blood that intoxicates them. Kali, like Shiva, 
has a third eye, but in all other respects the two are distinguished 
from one another. In contrast to Shiva's sweet expression, plump 
body, and ash white complexion, dark kali's emaciated limbs, angular 
gestures, and fierce grimace convey a wild intensity. Her loose hair, 
skull garland, and tiger wrap whip around her body as she stomps and 
claps to the rhythm of the dance.

Illustration : http://www.exoticindiaart.com/hindu/hp73.jpg (Size : 
73 kb)

Many stories describe Kali's dance with Shiva as one that "threatens 
to destroy the world" by its savage power. Art historian Stella 
Kramrisch has noted that the image of kali dancing with Shiva follows 
closely the myth of the demon Daruka. When Shiva asks his wife 
Parvati to destroy this demon, she enters Shiva's body and transforms 
herself from the poison that is stored in his throat. She emerges 
from Shiva as Kali, ferocious in appearance, and with the help of her 
flesh eating retinue attacks and defeats the demon. Kali however 
became so intoxicated by the blood lust of battle that her aroused 
fury and wild hunger threatened to destroy the whole world. She 
continued her ferocious rampage until Shiva manifested himself as an 
infant and lay crying in the midst of the corpse-strewn field. Kali, 
deceived by Shiva's power of illusion, became calm as she suckled the 
baby. When evening approached, Shiva performed the dance of creation 
(tandava) to please the goddess. Delighted with the dance, Kali and 
her attendants joined in.


This terrific and poignant imagery starkly reveals the nature of Kali 
as the Divine Mother. Ramaprasad expresses his feelings thus:

Behold my Mother playing with Shiva, 
lost in an ecstasy of joy!
Drunk with a draught of celestial wine, She reels,
and yet does not fall.
Erect She stands on Shiva's bosom, and the earth
Trembles under Her tread;
She and Her Lord are mad with frenzy, casting 
	Aside all fear and shame.

			 Ramprasad (1718-75)

Kali's human and maternal qualities continue to define the goddess 
for most of her devotees to this day. In human relationships, the 
love between mother and child is usually considered the purest and 
strongest. In the same way, the love between the Mother Goddess and 
her human children is considered the closest and tenderest 
relationship with divinity. Accordingly, Kali's devotees form a 
particularly intimate and loving bond with her.  But the devotee 
never forgets Kali's demonic, frightening aspects. He does not 
distort Kali's nature and the truths she reveals; he does not refuse 
to meditate on her terrifying features. He mentions these repeatedly 
in his songs but is never put off or repelled by them. Kali may be 
frightening, the mad, forgetful mistress of a world spinning out of 
control, but she is, after all, the Mother of all. As such, she must 
be accepted by her children- accepted in wonder and awe, perhaps, but 
accepted nevertheless. The poet in an intimate and lighter tone 
addresses the Mother thus:


O Kali! Why dost Thou roam about nude?
Art Thou not ashamed, Mother!
Garb and ornaments Thou hast none; yet Thou
	Pridest in being King's daughter.
O Mother! Is it a virtue of Thy family that Thou
	Placest thy feet on Thy husband?
Thou art nude; Thy husband is nude; you both roam cremation grounds.
O Mother! We are all ashamed of you; do put on thy garb.
Thou hast cast away Thy necklace of jewels, Mother,
	And worn a garland of human heads.
Prasada says, "Mother! Thy fierce beauty has frightened
	Thy nude consort.

					 Ramaprasad.


The soul that worships becomes always a little child: the soul that 
becomes a child finds God oftenest as mother. In a meditation before 
the Blessed Sacrament, some pen has written the exquisite 
assurance: "My child, you need not know much in order to please Me. 
Only Love Me dearly. Speak to me, as you would talk to your mother, 
if she had taken you in her arms." 

Kali's boon is won when man confronts or accepts her and the 
realities she dramatically conveys to him. The image of Kali, in a 
variety of ways, teaches man that pain, sorrow, decay, death, and 
destruction are not to be overcome or conquered by denying them or 
explaining them away. Pain and sorrow are woven into the texture of 
man's life so thoroughly that to deny them is ultimately futile. For 
man to realize the fullness of his being, for man to exploit his 
potential as a human being, he must finally accept this dimension of 
existence. Kali's boon is freedom, the freedom of the child to revel 
in the moment, and it is won only after confrontation or acceptance 
of death. To ignore death, to pretend that one is physically 
immortal, to pretend that one's ego is the center of things, is to 
provoke Kali's mocking laughter. To confront or accept death, on the 
contrary, is to realize a mode of being that can delight and revel in 
the play of the gods. To 
accept one's mortality is to be able to let go, to be able to sing, 
dance, and shout. Kali is Mother to her devotees not because she 
protects them from the way things really are but because she reveals 
to them their mortality and thus releases them to act fully and 
freely, releases them from the incredible, binding web of "adult" 
pretense, practicality, and rationality.

Our past articles are available at http://www.exoticindiaart.com/update.htm

Warm regards,

Nitin Kumar.
http://www.exoticindiaart.com

EOF