THE GODDESS OF TRANSFORMATION KALI : THE SANSKRIT
WORD KALI LITERALLY MEANS TIME. KALI IS THE FEMININE OF THE WORD FOR TIME WHICH IS THE MASCULINE IS KALA.TIME AS WE ALL ARE
FORCED TO UNDERSTAND, IS THE FOREMOST OF THE POWERS WHICH GOVERNS THE UNIVERSE. IN ITS ESSENTIAL NATURE TIME IS ETERNITY ITSELF,
PERPETUAL CHANGELESS DURATION. EVERYTHING CHANGES BUT CHANGE ITSELF THIS PERPETUITY OR IMMUTABILITY IN DURATION IS THE SECRET
MESSAGE OF TIME. ULTIMATELY TIME IS BEING ITSELF THE UNBORN, UNCREATED, UNDYING, ABSOLUTE REALITY.TIME IS BOTH CREATION &
DESTRUCTION. TIME IS WORKING OUT OF COSMIC INTELLIGENCE. IT IS THE VERY BREATH OF COSMIC SPIRIT.
Kali is dark blue in color and wears a garland of skulls. She has her long tongue
sticking out and is laughing. Sometimes instead of a tongue she has two fangs. Kali has four arms and holds a head chopper
in one hand and a severed head dripping blood with the other. With her other two hands she makes the mudras of bestowing boons
and dispelling fear. She wears a skirt made of human arms. Kali is portrayed as dancing in a cremation ground and striding
on a corpse (who is the form of Lord Shiva himself). Kali is Mother Gauri, the present wife of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva
in his destructive aspect is known as Mahakala, and the Divine Mother Gauri as Kali or Mahakali.
The Sanskrit word kala is "death" on one hand and "time" on the
other. Everything in this phenomenal world is time-bound. When a being's time is over, its shakti is gone and the being is
dead. Death, in other words, is the end point in time of the life force (prana). Matter is neither created nor destroyed;
it only changes form. Death is therefore a change or transformation, which is essential for the renewal of energy (the life
force) and spiritual growth.Attachment to the material form (the physical body) causes fear of death. This is the basic fear
rooted in our brain stem, the primitive brain, and is the basic obstacle in the path of the spiritual growth. Shum and Nishumb
are the demonic forces of attachment, threatening our spiritual helpers and forcing them out of their abode. Invoking
Kali by these spiritual forces can bring an end to this threat. Kali thus removes the fear of death, the basic insecurity
of the first chakra. For the ignorant ones who are attached to their physical body and are eternally insecure, she is ferocious,
but for the gods (the spiritual forces) she is Gauri, who has assumed the form of Kali to help them. In that ferocious form
she conquers the demonic forces of false attachment - Shumbh and Nishumbh, Chand and Mund.The sadhak of Tantra has to conform
his or her Shumb and Nishumbh, and through invoking Kali (kundalini) the sadhak can escape the clutches of fear and death.
The love of Kali removes this fear and opens the door of knowledge (mahavidya) of eternity.
The physical body is dependent upon prana, flowing through the left and right
nostrils, or the ida and pingala, so called because they excite the working of ida and pingala nadis when active. The ida
and pingala originate in the muladhara Chakra (first chakra) with sushumna and terminate in the left and right nostrils respectively.
By pranayama, the prana is controlled and the passage of sushumna nadi is opened. In an individual, prana is breath, but it
is the same prana or pranic force that pervades the cosmos as time, movement, or frequencies. By mastering prana the yogi
becomes free from the bondage of time. Ida and pingala, the lunar and the solar currents, keeps the sadhak time-bound and
create in him the fear of death. Sushumna is beyond time. It goes across the brain strem to the cerebral cortex, the seat
of consciousness, where matter is transformed into consciousness. When prana is made to flow through sushumna, the evil forces
of lunar and solar currents (Shumbh and Nishumbh) are paralyzed and the kundalini is awakened from its deep sleep. She rises
up through the bramanadi, which is the center of sushumna, and pierces the six chakras, dissolving the five basic elements
into their source, the mahat. These basic elements are the material constituents of the physical body. Any attachment to these
elements in any form (desire) creates a terrifying kundalini experience. When the material attachments are removed by purification
(bhuta-shuddhi), Kali (Kundalini, the primordial force) is please and the sadhak is able to have a pleasent kundalini
experience, which leads him or her beyond tattvas (tattvatic state) and beyond guna (gunatic state) to the realm of anada
(bliss) and transcends him to the region of eternity (beyond time-bound consciousness), where there is no fear of death.Kali
is therefore the mahavidya that removes the avidya (ignorance) that makes us fear death. She is the first mahavidya
and also known as Adya (the first born) - one of the names used for Kundalini Shakti.
Kali's Dwelling Place - The Heart
The cremation ground, Kali's dwelling place, denotes a place where the
five elements (panca mahabhuta) are dissolved. Kali dwells where dissolution takes place. In terms of devotion, worship,
and sadhana, this denotes the dissolving of attachments, anger, lust, and other binding emotions, feelings and ideas.
The heart of the devotee is where this burning away 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, jnanagni, which Kali bestows.
Beeja Mantra:- Krim
To die daily is Her daily worship
Everyday before we go to
sleep we should empty the mind, as if each day was our last.
This also makes each day our first and turns life itself
into a meditation.
Those who seek to merge themselves into the unknown, formless, uncreate Nirvanic
field are true worshippers of Kali.
PRARMHANSA RAMAKRISHNA ONE OF THE MOST WELL KNOW REVERED MODERN SAINTS/TEACHERS
WITHIN THE HINDU TRADITION,KALI IS THE MOST COMMONLY KNOW N OF HINDU GODDESSES,BUT STILL NOT WELL UNDERSTOOD.YET MUCH
OF WHAT WE ADMIRE IN RAMAKRISHNA-HIS LOVE,BLISS & UNIVERSAL SPIRIT-IS KALI GIFT TO US THROUGH HIM.THROUGH HIM KALI HAS
ALREADY DELIVERED US HER MESSAGE FO THE MODERN AGE.
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