Essence of Kali & Durga - The Fierce Mother Goddesses

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Kali is a form of the mother Goddess - "Shakti". Shakti in sanskrit means "energy/power". She is like the nuclear reactor(with immense energy) which becomes unstable, on irking by evil forces, turning herself into a nuclear bomb. She does this when terrible situations anger her a lot, typically the demons and the bad elements which threaten creation.

The Vedic Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, who are the phenomenon of creation, time period / lifespan and destruction respectively, have their abiding source of power. This power is feminine. The phenomenon cannot manifest without the power and the power is in turn guided by the phenomenon into the formation of this creation. "Aadi-Shakti"(eternal energy) is the consort of Brahma as "Saraswati"(Goddess of Knowledge), of Vishnu as "Lakshmi"(Goddess of Prosperity) and of Shiva as "Parvati"(Goddess of Strength). 

Parvati also called "Shakti" is also mostly generally referred to as the consort of Shiva, and their union - "ArdhaNareeshwara" (half male-half female form of Shiva-Shakti) is the secret of all creation.They both entwine to form the web of creation, Shiva being the pool of consciousness(the end of all forms) and Shakti being the energy which gives consciousness the medium to create. Which is why she is called Mother. The energy of creation that she is, "Shakti" flows consciously through every particle and is the life force of every being - living or dead. She is the life force of the humans, the ghosts, plants, animals, angels and demons. The whole of creation is her child. She is the nurturer and also the punisher when her child is in danger.



Many forms of Shakti in different
situations & aspects, centre one being Durga,
2 topleft corner ones are forms of  Kaali.
There are still many more forms and Avataars.
HER VARIOUS FORMS : 
Maa Durga, Maa Kaali, Annapurna, and many more.

Maa is kind, benevolent, loving and truly the ultimate mother. She cares and nurtures. In most of her forms, Shakti is in a benevolent state. But when her own creations - the demons, "Asuras", evil spirits, etc go upto the level of destroying nature, killing innocent beings, and creating havoc, she comes into the angry protective mother form. She manifests into "Durga" ("Durg" meaning fortress/ boundary/ protection). Durga is shown as all powerful, skilled in martial arts and with her sheer strength and courage she kills the devils and protects the good people. Till now she is courageous, poised and angry. This can be seen in the story of "Mahishasura" who was a demon who could disguise himself as a buffalo. He was creating havoc. He had got a boon that no man but only a woman could kill him, which he thought was impossible as women aren't as strong enough. 
In his ego he destroyed villages, settlements and entire tribes. His cruel ways were limited by Shakti who transformed into Durga and showed the demon that power and energy itself are feminine in nature. The same energy can become life giving or life taking.




When Evil does not stop at that, and demonic activity continues to anger her even more, Shakti loses it totally. She becomes Raw. She loses her poise. She becomes like the tigress who wants to protect her cubs. She transforms into Kali, the fierce one and does not even try to defeat the demons. Instead she just massacres all of them. She becomes the term - Madness and Wrath in the true sense. She loses her touch of femininity and poise, and becomes only the mad angry Mother taking revenge for her murdered babies and punishing evil. She goes around wild, breathing anger, severing heads of demons and wearing a garland of their skulls and skirt of their chopped hands. It seems like she herself has become a mad demon in nature, but only for a good cause. There are many stories of Kaali, but a famous one is the arrival of this demon called "RaktBeej"(meaning blood-seed). This demon had terrifying powers. The Angels and warriors tried to fight him, but his one drop of blood which fell on the ground would give birth to another demon like him. He could cut his own arm and sprinkle the drops of blood around to create 100's of Raktbeejas like him. This way he went on killing and destroying. When Mother's patience ended, she burst up in massive anger taking the form of Kaali. She wanted blood. She leaped and flung her weapon like a hurricane cutting up all the Raktbeejas, but they wud keep growing more and more as soon as their blood touched the ground. In her fierce madness, mother Kaali opened her mouth wide like a giant and started sucking all the blood that came out of these demons with such a force, that no drop of Raktbeej's blood ever touched the ground. Once all the demons were dead, Kaali was still angry, could not control her wrath, as she is the form of pure wrath. She continued to kill all other evil demons as well, in her madness, to which Shiva and other Gods got worried that she would destroy the meaning of life (good vs evil struggle) if she kills the entire species of demons in her anger. This would harm the balance of life as every creation has an intended purpose of it existing.
Kali, durga, shakti, shiva, wrath, demon, angry, mother.
Shiva laid himself as a corpse to stop Kali

So Shiva laid himself down as a corpse in the way of Kali who was madly walking over them searching for any demons alive. As soon as her feet touched Shiva's body, which is considered super disrespectful, she got a shock, her tounge stuck out in shame and she realized that she is also a poised Parvati, the wife of Shiva. The anger receded, and she got back to her old form of "Parvati".













Why is Kali so fierce?
We see the essence of Kali in nature everywhere. Try troubling new born cubs or pups, surely their mother won't spare you. The mother of a newborn human baby, if someone tries to kill her baby, she takes the form of Durga first trying her best to protect her child, and sometimes she could even become Kaali, take up weapons, knowing no shame, fight to kill. The mother in this form is so full of love & emotions for her child that she will fight anyone even till her own death to protect her child. This is the true essence of motherhood. She doesnt care about dangers, society, and her feminine poise. She only thinks of attacking anyone who comes close to her child, like an animal.


Why is Kaali naked ?
We see naked images and sculptures of all Gods/godesses in ancient Indian historical sites and art. Clothing was more of an ornamentation back then. Mostly it was worn to segregate people in work, like a jersey is used. 


Shame was seen in a bad task, not a bare body.
(Sculpture of a Goddess)
Painting of a queen.
The servant has cloth but no jewels.
Clothing was a way of  tagging & ornamentation back in time.
(Ajanta cave paintings, India)
Kali, maa, durga, destruction, shakti
Another example of ancient attitudes to nudity
visible in the sculpture
Modern art forms of the same Goddesses,
now covered up, shows the ways of our narrow minded society,
which considers bare bodies shameful & lustful.
So for example, all the queens servant wore a white robe, and the kings guards wore a red head gear. Shame because of a bare body, wasn't existent in people's minds, as is seen in the ancient art. This is also seen in all other art forms from Greek to Egyptian to Meopotamian.
We see this culture even today among the tribals anywhere in the world, who live away from the society, in nature's goodness, knowing no shame. Look at their simple faces. it shows that they are much more pure and logical in their thinking. They respect man, woman and nature equally and do not lust after bare skin which is something every human is born with. Cloth is only used for protection and utility.

The free and open minded attitudes of tribals all around the world, which are remnants of civilizations.
Some form of rigid and vulgar mindset took away this innocence from the world.
In each photo you can see men and women together.
But still why is Kali not even adorned with jewels and ornamentation like other feminine forms shown above? Why is her hair flowing wild? Why doesn't she behave demurely and gracefully like women do? That's because only when she quits her poise of a woman, will she be immune to all fear. The shame of a person is the biggest drawback in a fight. If we feel shameful in a fight because our clothes got torn at the wrong places, or for other reasons, and our opponent starts making fun, our strength, our confidence and will to fight is greatly reduced. And knowing the demons, they would definitely try all possible ways, to bring disgrace to a female warrior(who is also a graceful married wife of Shiva), which is why she gives up all her grace in the beginning itself and transforms into a mad animal like being trying to protect her babies; ie us.


Why is Kaali also benevolent?
Kaali is realized as an eternal truth of Shakti - the feminine power of the cosmos. She runs through our very bodies and mind. She is seen as benevolent to those whom she is protecting. It is very obvious that if someone is fighting madly for a cause, like soldiers who madly and bravely fight for their motherland, not knowing fear of death, they must be extremely loving towards their country, ie. the subject whom they are protecting. The Indian revolutionaries who sacrificed themselves at young ages for the love of their country, people still tell tales of their mad love for their motherland (the subject). Thus if Kaali or even Durga for that matter, is fierce against elements who are harming the creation, including us, it would mean that she must also madly love us. We are her babies whom she loves in the same raw, unpoised, feminine way.


'Ramkrishna Paramhansa' and wife 'Sarada Devi'
(19th cent - in white clothes), considered to be God
incarnate themselves, are one of the greatest loving
devotees of Maa Kali. Many miracles have been 
witnessed around them in their lives. Their teachings have 
touched many lives & their ashram has a vast following today.
Kaali is invoked to protect from evil spirits, evil intentions and negative feelings. She is invoked in particular rituals for various purposes as she brings in the immense raw power of Shakti, which is sometimes difficult to handle. 

Many exorcists often use her mantras and rituals to ward off evil spirits and sometimes even to gain power to control the spirits or to do black magic. However stories and accounts, and even wizards and exorcists themselves have always told us that whenever any of these powers given by her, which are tremendous, are misused, Kaali punishes and even those punishments are tremendous, usually leading to death of the practitioner.

She is the fierce but also the simple minded mother who wants no Tantra wizardry to impress her, but only pure love and thus would prefer a loving devotee over the wisest Tantra wizards. That is the essence of the largely mistaken Maa Kali- the protector, the master of Tantra, the controller of spirits, the destroyer, the fierce mother, the most loving, the most benevolent, the maddest, the kindest...

She makes me feel secure.
She is Pure Wrath... and Pure Love.

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