Mahavidya Kali Mantra Sadhana

Mahavidya Kali

20.1. Kali is Adi Mahavidya, the primary Mahavidya. She is the first and the foremost among the Mahavidyas. Even before the Mahavidya cult came into being, she was a major goddess with large following of devotees immersed in her mythologies, hymns and songs. She is not only the first but the most important of the Mahavidyas. It is said, the Mahavidya tradition is centered on Kali and her attributes. Kali is the epitome of the Mahavidyas. The rest of the Mahavidyas emanate from Kali and share her virtues and powers in varying shades. The Saktisamgama-tantra says,“All the Mahavidyas, Siddhividyas, Vidyas, and Upa-vidyas, are different forms that Kali assumes”. She is the exemplary Mahavidya; she alone symbolizes the fully awakened consciousness; and she alone reveals the ultimate truth.

20.2. Mahavidyas are symbols of female independence; and, Kali demonstrates that freedom with great abandon. She is never depicted as a submissive consort luring with charm. She is always dominant, striding on the male with a destructive frenzy. She challenges and demolishes the conventional notions about looks, manners and the limited ways of understanding things. 21.1. It is explained that Kali manifests in countless ways, but some aspects of her are more common than others. There are therefore varied descriptions of Kali. Each Tantric and Shakta tradition pictures her in its own light. But all sources tend to agree on her prominent characteristics. Kali is almost always regarded as being dark like the starlit night, with a dreadful appearance, having four arms, holding a bloodied cleaver and a severed head in her left hands, while her right hands gesture blessings (varadamudra) and reassurance (abhayamudra). She is depicted with three eyes, white teeth, garland of fifty human skulls and a girdle of seven severed human hands. Her limbs are adorned with various ornaments. Her tongue hangs out. Her laughter is most fearful. Kali who dwells in funeral pyres stands upon the corpse of a male. She is the auspicious divinity truly worthy of meditation. O Kali, you are fond of cremation grounds So I have turned my heart into one You love to dance in the light of burning pyres At the dead of the night Mother, come and dance unceasingly In the cremation ground of my heart Where all my early desires burning to ashes Prasada waits with his eyes closed. Kali, greatly terrifying, laughing loudly, Elokeshi sporting disheveled hair flying in all directions With fearful fangs, four arms holding a cleaver, a skull, And gesturing mudras bestowing boons and dispelling fear, Wearing a garland of skulls, tongue rolling wildly, Digambari garbed in space in her nakedness, Free from covering of all illusions Thus I meditate on Kali My Mother, Dwelling in the cremation ground of my heart My Mother dances joyfully Prasada watches with great delight … Ramprasad Sen (1718-75)

21.2. Kali is also pictured in more benign forms. As Dakshinakali, she is portrayed as young and beautiful; gently smiling; standing with her right foot on the supine, ash-besmeared body of Siva, who looks up at her adoringly. Kali in her merciful form is protective, benevolent and a loving Mother who liberates her children.Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa envisioned Kali, his chosen deity, as the love that exists at the very heart of life; and that which endures through both life and death. Kali, he said, appears fearful only when approached through relative forms of existence and through worldly attachments. But when one lets his identities dissolve in the submission to her out of absolute faith and love, she appears as the very fountain of joy. 21.3. Kali is the Supreme Goddess resolving and harmonizing the contrasting attributes of creation and dissolution,. She is the very essence of every existence.All the dualities of life, the light and the dark, the beautiful and the fearsome, are united and reconciled in Kali. Kali is the symbol of eternal time (Kala) she presides over all stages of the life. Kali is consciousness in motion—the overflowing joy that projects, sustains, and withdraws the universe. And her destructionhas a dual aspect; she gives birth to new life as the old one fades away in the darkness of death. Iconography and symbolism

22.1. Kali is portrayed mostly in two forms: the popular four-armed form and the tenarmed Mahakali form .She is being described as being black or deep blue. The iconography of Kali is rich in symbolisms. It is said, Kali ‘picture is filled with awe-inspiring symbols,

but they are not what they appear to be; and their real meaning is in their esoteric significance. 22.2. She is dark like mountains of collyrium. Her Black does not mean absence of color; but the absorption of all colors. It also suggests her immense power of attraction which draws the entire existence into itself. All colors reside in her. In Kali all colors dissolve. All shapes return to shapelessness, dissolved in the all pervading darkness of the eternal night. Her dark color is the ultimate reality in which all distinctions disappear. 22.3. Naked, clad by space, the Digambari is resplendent in her nakedness. She is unrestrained and boundlessness; free from all limitations and all illusions. She is beyond name (nama) and form (rupa) and all conditional existence. Kali’s nakedness signifies her absolute (nirguna) nature. 22.4. Her three eyes govern the three forces of creation, preservation and destruction. They are also said to represent the sun, moon, and fire; the three modes of time (kaala): past, present and future which she governs. 22.5. Her garland of fifty human heads is said to represent the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet (varnamala), as also the power of her mantra, symbolizing her as the repository of power and all knowledge. The girdle of the seven severed human arms that circles her waist is said to represent the versatility and the freedom of choice inherent in all beings. 22.6. Her laughter is the expression of her absolute domination over all existence. It mocks at those who in folly of their vanity try to oppose her. 22.7. Kali’s four arms represent the complete circle of creation and destruction, which is contained within her. Her two right hands dispel fear (abhaya) and bestow boons (varada); assuring salvation. She holds out the promise of transformation. With her sword she cuts the knots of doubts (samshaya) and eight types of delusions and negative traits (hatred, doubt, fear, shame, backbiting, conformity, arrogance and status consciousness - Kularnava Tantra). It is also the sword of wisdom and discrimination (viveka) that cuts through ignorance and destroys falsehood. The freshly severed head of a demon dangling from her left hand is the small ego, the false identities, the crippling limitations that bind human thinking.

23.1. In the hierarchy of manifestations, Kali stands at the highest, the most abstract aspect of divinity. All the dualities of life, the light and the dark, the beautiful and the fearsome, are united and reconciled in Kali. To reach her one has to abandon all prejudices, inhibitions; and discard all attachments, even the attachments to ideas and concepts. Kali Kali Mahakali Kalike Papanasini Khadgahaste Mundahaste Kali Kali Namostu Te

"Kreem Kreem Kreem Hum Hum Hreem Hreem Dakshine Kaalika Kreem Kreem Kreem Hum Hum Hreem Hreem Swaha"