KarmaVaani
Shakta tradition
कालीKali
Kalika · Bhavatarini · Adya
The fierce, liberating form of the Divine Mother who destroys ego and time.
- Abode
- Cremation grounds; Kalighat
- Consort
- Shiva
- Vahana
- None; she stands on Shiva
- Colour
- Black or deep blue
- Arms
- 4
Kali is the fierce and tender form of the Divine Mother, dark as the void from which creation arises and to which it returns. Garlanded with skulls and standing upon Shiva, she destroys the ego and the illusion of time, freeing her devotees from fear of death itself. Beneath her terrifying aspect she is the most compassionate of mothers.
Mantra
ॐ क्रीं कालिकायै नमः
Om Krim Kalikayai Namaha
Salutations to Kalika, with her seed syllable Krim: a prayer for liberation from fear.
How Kali is shown
A dark goddess with wild loose hair and a red tongue, standing with one foot on Shiva who lies calmly beneath her.
- Sword
- The knowledge that cuts the bonds of ignorance.
- Severed head
- The ego, cut away.
- Garland of heads
- The fifty letters of Sanskrit: the sound from which creation arises.
- Abhaya and varada mudras
- Her other hands grant fearlessness and boons.
- Shiva beneath her feet
- Pure consciousness, which her power awakens.
Stories
Raktabija
Every drop of the demon Raktabija's blood that touched the ground became another demon. Kali spread her tongue across the battlefield and drank every drop, until he was no more.
