hindu goddess of death
hindu goddess of deathhindu goddess of death who grants the boon of liberation by destroying the demons of self-centered illusion.
hindu goddess of death: hindu goddess of death
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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." Mother Kali Ma is the most misunderstood of the Hindu goddesses. 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). 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. 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. Goddess Kali Ma is the goddess of enlightenment or liberation. In truth we are beings of spirit and not flesh. Shiva and Kali grant liberation by removing the illusion of the ego. 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. The garland and skirt are trophies worn by Her to symbolize having liberated Her children from attachment to the limited body. Ma Kali wears a garland of skulls and a skirt of dismembered arms because the ego arises out of identification with the body. Thus we are the eternal I AM and not the body. This is underscored by the scene of the cremation grounds. As the story goes, this represents a great battle in which she destroyed the demon Raktabija. Her black skin represents the womb of the quantum unmanifest from which all of creation arises and into which all of creation will eventually dissolve. She holds a sword and a freshly severed head dripping blood. Liberation can only proceed when our attachment to the body ends.
hindu goddess of death