The Black Mother

I felt like writing a little post on Kali.  One of the primary reasons being I am at present just a few kilometers away from a very famous Kali temple. I would like to believe I am in her energy range. I suppose we are always in her energy field, but this is the human mind comprehending and therefore I say that. 

The divine feminine energy in our country and culture is revered and worshipped, and most of the forms are represented like that of an Empress.  Durga comes in with much fanfare and like a queen. She dazzles. Kali however is stark, and you cannot find her between drum beats and revelling people. She is found amidst the dark night, and amidst a cremation ground. And because she is stark and so devoid of all finery, perhaps that’s why I am bit more attracted to her. I have always been. She is not fearful, but she is the mother who you can stand bare in front of with nothing. She is dark, almost blue. She is like the void she can consume anything.  Of course it is easier to worship her in a temple as opposed to a cremation ground. She is the benign mother. She creates and nourishes as she can destroy. 

By her magic we see the good and bad, though in reality there is neither. There are two forms of Kali. The Dakshina Kali (The loving calm form) is the one most worship in homes. Here the Mother holds the sword in her left hand, and her right foot stretches out. If she holds the sword in her right hand and her left foot stretches out she is the Samshan Kali. She is worshipped in the cremation ground.  She exists when time is transcended, the eternal night of peace and joy is also called Kala, And it is she who prods Shiva into the next cycle of creation.

“You see her black because you are far away from her. Go near her and you will find her devoid of all colour. The more closer you go to God you will realize that he has neither name nor form. If you move away from the divine mother you will find her blue., like the divine grass flower. Is Shyama male or female? A man once saw the image of the divine mother wearing a sacred thread. He then told the worshipper “What you have put the sacred thread around the mother’s neck”? The worshipper then said, Brother I have not yet been able to find whether mother is male or female, that’s why I put the sacred thread around her”{Gospel of Ramakrishna)

We don’t need to fear her, we need to look at her and cry Mother. And she will pick us up.

I end with a story which I heard as a child many years back. It’s a well documented account, so many of you may have already read about. 

One day Sarada Devi (wife of Ramakrishna) was travelling by foot from Jayrambati( her village) to Calcutta. The small party had to cross a notorious field known for dacoits. Deep in these fields (Teko bhelo) there is even today a temple of goddess Kali, which the dacoits would invoke before going out to rob. It’s called the Robbers Kali.(Dacait Kali). The little party decided that there was still enough day light to cross the field before night fall. How ever the Holy Mother (Sarada devi was tired). She didn’t want to impend the other people’s journey so she walked on. But as they progressed, she lagged behind. She didn’t want to inconvenience the others so she urged them to walk on and not worry about her. 

But soon enough the sun set, and the fields turned dark. And the mother was left alone. She was scared. And suddenly out of nowhere she saw a tall dark fierce looking man step out. She instinctively knew he was a dacoit. The dacoit was enjoying her terror and hollered at her. “Who goes there”? He was about to grab the Mother by her wrists but stopped almost stunned. It was much later he told people what he had seen. The Holy mother had turned into the full form of Kali and stood in front of him. As he retreated back, she turned back into her gentle form of a village women and gently addressed him ” Father I have been left behind, will you please take me to Dakhinshwar, your son-in law lives there”, before the startled dacoit could say or do anything the Holy mother had grabbed his hand. The dacoits wife too had come out , the Holy Mother called her Mother. Her simple behavior won over their hearts. 

The following day they took her safely through the fields. The dacoit couple gave up their ways and later would even visit the Holy mother in Dakhineshwar. Mysterious are the ways of the mother. 

“My mother the all powerful who reveals herself to her children in different aspects and incarnations…. and if it pleases her she takes away the last traces of ego from humans and absorbs her in her consciousness ….” (Gospel of Ramakrishna)