Kali Ma

Kali Ma is a Hindu Mother Goddess, more commonly worshipped amongst Tantric believers. She is considered to be the consort of Lord Shiva. As Lord Shiva is called Kala, or the Lord of Death and Time, Kali Ma too is thought to be the Goddess of transformation. In the tenth century religious text called Kalika Purana, Kali Ma is said to be the ultimate reality. Kali Ma was also considered to be a fundamental power and beyond all nature.

In the branch of yoga called Tantra, goddesses play as important a part as the male deities. Here it is Kali Ma who can be said to be dominate much of the philosophy behind Tantra. At least 30 forms of Kali Ma are mentioned in the Tantras. In mainstream Hindu mythology, Kali Ma only began to be worshipped as a motherly figure because of the influence of Bengali devotional songs and literature, as she is a predominant figure in the Bengali religious way of life. She is famously celebrated in the festival of Kali Puja which coincides with the Diwali festival. The best known Kali Ma temples in India are in Dakshineshwar and Kalighat in Kolkata and Kamakhya in Assam.

Even amongst Buddhists, there is a branch of Tantra and they identified Kali Ma as Prajnaparamita, original consort of Buddha. With time, she came to be called Tara, the “Compassionate One”. She was even pictured as a four-armed “Ugra Tara” when she became the “Wrathful Saviouress”, much like the Kali Ma depicted in Hindu Mythology.

Kali Ma is commonly artistically depicted as having 20 arms, 10 faces, with three eyes on each face, with a dark and radiant complexion. She is often seen wearing a necklace of skulls, a skirt with severed arms, glowing effulgently like the full moon in the night sky, holding the head of a demon with a trident and a knife etched with mantras. In Tantra, it is said that the garland of heads about Kali Ma’s neck symbolize the letters or vibrations of the Sanskrit alphabet. Kali Ma's seed-syllables and names, or “bija mantras” are tools by which we can transform ourselves and become one with Her.

Prototypes of Kali Ma can be found strikingly in almost every culture, religion, and country on earth. The Mexican Aztecs had a Goddess called Coatlicue and she looked strikingly similar to the pictorial depictions of Kali Ma. In Ancient Greece, she was called Rhea. In Southern Russia, there is a Goddess called Rha, clothed in blood and devouring her offspring. In Ireland, Celtic religions worshipped a Goddess called Caillech or Cailleach. The land of Scotland was once called Caledonia, the land give by Kali, or Cale, or the Cailleach. The Spaniards had a goddess called Califia. In Finland, the Black Goddess is called Kalma. Many theologians consider this figure of a destructive and creative Black Goddess to be even adopted by Christianity, depicted as the black Madonna. Hence it can be said that Kali Ma is an all pervasive, eternal, and universal primordial truth!

Article by Karishma J. Anand

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