death goddess
death goddessdeath goddess who grants the boon of liberation by destroying the demons of self-centered illusion.
death goddess: death goddess
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The Encyclopedia Britannica is grossly mistaken in the following quote, "Major Hindu goddess whose iconography, cult, and mythology commonly associate her with death, sexuality, violence, and, paradoxically in some of her later historical appearances, motherly love." It is partly correct to say the Goddess Kali Ma is a goddess of death but She brings the death of the ego as the illusory self-centered view of reality. Nowhere in the Hindu stories is Kali seen killing anything but demons nor is She associated specifically with the process of human dying like the Hindu god Yama (who really is the god of death). Goddess Kali Ma is the goddess of enlightenment or liberation. Mother Kali Ma is the most misunderstood of the Hindu goddesses. Goddess Kali Ma comes from the Sanskrit root word Kal which means time. There is nothing that escapes the all-consuming march of time. This is not to worship death but rather it is to overcome the I-am-the-body idea by reinforcing the awareness that the body is a temporary condition. Goddess Kali Ma is depicted as standing on Shiva who lays beneath Her with white skin (in contrast to Her black or sometimes dark blue skin). It is true that both Goddess Kali Ma and Shiva are said to inhabit cremation grounds and devotees often go to these places to meditate. As the story goes, this represents a great battle in which she destroyed the demon Raktabija. He has a blissful detached look. Shiva represents pure formless awareness sat-chit-ananda (being-consciousness-bliss) while She represents "form" eternally supported by the substratum of pure awareness. In Tibetan Buddhism Her counterpart is male with the name Kala. Shiva and Kali grant liberation by removing the illusion of the ego. Shiva and Kali are said to inhabit these places because it is our attachment to the body that gives rise to the ego. Ma Kali wears a garland of skulls and a skirt of dismembered arms because the ego arises out of identification with the body. This is underscored by the scene of the cremation grounds. Thus we are the eternal I AM and not the body. The garland and skirt are trophies worn by Her to symbolize having liberated Her children from attachment to the limited body. Liberation can only proceed when our attachment to the body ends. She holds a sword and a freshly severed head dripping blood. In truth we are beings of spirit and not flesh.
death goddess