Kali- a love story
The common image of Kali depicts rage, destruction and death. With her black skin, tongue sticking out, a garland of skulls worn around her neck and skirt of bones around her waist. Kali is usually depicted standing with one foot over her beloved, Lord Shiva. But this is not the whole story of Kali Maa, in fact, this part of the story lies somewhere in the middle of the whole story.
First, a little history must be explained.
Before Kali came into existence, an incarnation of Parvati, the wife of Shiva. What I am drawn to in Hindu mythology is the depiction of personas through the deities. Each deity embodies a persona that is an archetypal energy. Parvati, the mother. Loving, empowered, good natured, beautiful, divine feminine, union, devoted and compassionate. There are many forms of Parvati (personas), however, I am only going to focus on Parvati, Durga and Kali.
Durga, born out of Parvati, symbolizes balance of the Universe. Through the death of many things, such as ego, attachments, addictions, greed, envy, and all mental afflictions. Durga is the powerful Goddess that slays these demons within us. Durga is an empowered strength. She is also an embodied form of motherly love, creation, balancer of good and evil.
Kali, born out of Durga, symbolizes an even darker force of discernment. She is also a balancer of the Universe, just as Durga and Parvati. She symbolizes Shakti, the Divine Feminine power, timelessness, creativity, fertility, sexuality, motherly love, death, and rebirth.
Kali’s story is a love story. This is why she is depicted as standing on her husband, Lord Shiva.
As the story goes, a demon was brought to earth, Goddess Durga attacked this demon. However, once Durga wounded the demon, his blood dripped to Earth. Because of a boon (a wish/gift/blessing) previously given to him, once his blood hit the ground he began to multiply. Durga, summoned intense rage within her, transforming herself into the Goddess Kali. Kali, filled with rage, finished the war upon this demon and his many clones by killing all of them. With success, Kali killed the demon and to stop his ability to multiply, Kali drank his blood immediately to ensure it would not hit the ground. No new demons were born.
Goddess Kali’s anger did not calm down once the blood was drunk and the demons were destroyed. Instead, her rage was only fueled and a quest to kill all evil was pursued. No one could stop her, she was too powerful. This was brought to the attention of her husband Shiva, as he was the only one who could stop Kali.
Shiva, through selfless love, laid down amongst the corpses. Kali, still blinded by rage, accidentally stomped on Shiva, killing him immediately, as her strength was immense. Once Kali looked down, she saw her beloved under her foot. Kali called out “What have I done?”. She knelt down beside her love, breathed life back into him, and apologized for being so blind by such destruction. She realized that her anger consumed her, so much that she did not even recognize her own husband.
Kali represents power to create a revolutionary change, power of radical transformation. She is the dynamic force in the Universe, the feminine power that churns the stillness of the world so new worlds can be created. Kali is SHAKTI. Kali is fierce but also very loving. Because of her fierce discernment of evil and will to destroy evil, many people fear Kali Maa. In truth, she is a loving mother, her only intention is the Spiritual purpose of her children, as she protects and guides us towards enlightenment.
Only the love from her husband had the power to stop Kali’s intense mission to destroy, protect and rid the world of evil. Kali is the female form of Shiva, thus Shakt-Shiva.
I like to imagine, after Kali Maa snapped out of her trance, she and her husband went home to their children, ate a delicious meal, made love that evening and enjoyed a deep sleep together, knowing that all is right in the world as the Universe’s balance is restored and in their home.
The story of Kali is a love story, plain and simple.
