Kali

Kali
   The name Kali has two derivations. In the sense ofshe who is blackit is from kala (black). In the sense ofshe who is the ruler of timeit derives from kala (time, spelled slightly differently in SANSKRIT letters).
   Kali is the most frightening of the goddesses and the most misunderstood by non-Hindus. Mythologically, she originates in the fury of the goddess DURGA and emerges physically from that goddesss forehead. She has a terrible, frightening appearance. She is originally very black (though in modern depictions she is often lighter), usually naked, emaciated, with long disheveled hair. She wears a skirt of severed arms, earrings made of the corpses of children, and a necklace of human skulls. In one hand she holds a cutting instru-ment, in another the severed head of a man. She has long sharp fangs, bloody lips, and a bloody lolling tongue.
   In iconography Kali is often depicted as stand-ing upon the chest of the supine corpse of SHIVA, her nominal husband. She is known to frequent the burning grounds where burned and unburned corpses abound, where she is always accompanied by female jackals. She, as does DURGA, likes liquor, meat, and blood.
   There is little doubt that Kali is a fierce autochthonous non-Aryan goddess who has been absorbed into the larger Brahminized pantheon of Hinduism. Kali first appears in developed liter-ary form in the Devibhagavatam of the 11th to 12th centuries, where she is seen to be PARVATI, wife of Shiva, who becomes completely black out of fury when battling the demons Shumbha and Nishumbha. She also appears in the 16th-century Devimahatmya, part of the Markandeya Purana; this is the source of the story that Kali emerged from the enraged Durga.
   Kali is most associated with eastern India, particularly Bengal. Her devotional literature and cultic followings began to proliferate as early as the 13th and 14th centuries. Bengal is the only state to worship Kali during the all-India festival of DIVALI. The medieval Bengali poet Ram Prasad is best known for his Bengali hymns in devotion toMother Kali,” and the modern Bengali Saint RAMAKRISHNA, who had perhaps the greatest influence in the West of any Indian spiritual figure, was known as a devotee of Kali alone.
   Devotion to Kali requires the utmost surrender and the ability to see that her chaotic and fearsome visage is only a barrier placed before the devotee, who must have the courage to seek the inner depths of her compassion and the SHAKTI or uni-versal power she represents. When one has accom-plished this step, one can learn to become Kali, as Sri Ramakrishna so clearly demonstrates. When one has learned to be her truth, then ones con-sciousness and being are completely transformed The temple to the goddess Kali, in Dakshineshwar, Bengal, where Sri Ramakrishna served as a priest (Constance A. Jones) and one can live in her endless bliss for longer and longer periods.
   Kali has been associated with tantric religious forms. TANTRISM in this context focuses on the cremation ground; normative elements and prac-tices are frowned upon or forbidden. When one realizes the divinity within even the lowest reali-ties, within the rotting corpse, within the dark of the cremation ground, then one has learned to find the limit of time and one can began to see the secrets buried in the depths of reality. Then one can begin to experience Kali as the sweet, compas-sionate, nurturing mother that she is.
   Iconographically it is understood that Kalis nakedness symbolizes the stripping away of illu-sion; the severed head is a symbol of her cutting away of the ignorance that binds one to the cycle of birth and rebirth. Kalis lolling tongue is most often taken to indicate her anger, but some in India have taken it to be a gesture, likebiting the tonguein shame.
   Further reading: David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tra-dition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988); ———, The Sword and the Flute: Kali and Krsna, Dark Visions of the Terrible and the Sublime in Hindu Mythology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975); Rachel Fell McDermott and Jeffrey J. Kripal, eds., Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, In the West (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

Encyclopedia of Hinduism. . 2007.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • kali — kali …   Dictionnaire des rimes

  • Kālī — Kâlî Kâlî Père Mère Vâhana Attributs …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Kali — steht für: Kali (Computerprogramm), ein Computerprogramm, das das IPX Netzwerkprotokoll in TCP/IP tunnelt Kali (Gattung), eine Pflanzengattung Kali (Kampfkunst), eine philippinische Kampfkunst Kali (Textkorpus), ein diachrones Textkorpus für das… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • KALI — K L 壟 Divinité féminine dont le culte est prépondérant dans le nord est de l’Inde (particulièrement au Bengale), l’emportant sur les nombreuses formes que prend la vénération de la Déesse dans l’hindouisme classique et contemporain. Représentée… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Kali — Sn erw. fach. (18. Jh.) Neoklassische Bildung. Von dem deutschen Chemiker M. H. Klaproth aus Alkali gekürzt und als Sammelbezeichnung für die Kaliumsalze verwendet; besonders bei Düngemitteln gebraucht.    Ebenso nndl. kali, ne. kali, nfrz. kali …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • kali — 1. (ka li) s. m. Terme de botanique. Espèce de soude à feuilles épineuses qui croît abondamment et sans culture sur les bords de la mer, dans toute l Europe, salsola kali, L., chénopodées. C est de la décoction de cette herbe maritime que les… …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • Kali (BD) — Kali (bande dessinée) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Kali. Kali est une revue de petit format éditée par Jeunesse et Vacances. 133 numéros sont parus de juillet 1966 à juillet 1981. Les Séries Billy Bis (Antonio Mancuso Loredano… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Kali — Kali, blausaures, s. Blutlaugensalze; Kali, chromsaures, dichromsaures, s. Chromsäuresalze; Kali, doppelkohlensaures, s. Pottasche; Kali, salpetersaures, s.v.w. Salpeter (s.d.); Kali, schwefelsaures, s.v.w. Kaliumsulfat (s.d.) …   Lexikon der gesamten Technik

  • KALI — may refer to:* KALI (AM), a radio station (900 AM) licensed to West Covina, California, United States * KALI FM, a radio station (106.3 FM) licensed to Santa Ana, California, United States * KMRB, a radio station (1430 AM) licensed to San Gabriel …   Wikipedia

  • Kali [2] — Kali (arabisch, mit dem Artikel Alkali), 1) das durch Auslaugen der Asche von Landpflanzen erhaltene Salz. K. aceticum, Essigsaures Kali, s.u. Essigsaure Salze. K. carbonicum, Kohlensaures Kali, s.u. Kohlensaure Salze. K. muriaticum, Chlorkalium …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • KALI — herba Arabibus dicitur, quae ad vitra conftanda exuri consuevit, in Aegypto et Syria fregquens. Ex eius certe cineribus cum quodam silicum genere mixtis pretiosissima ac nitidissima crystallina Veneti conficiunt. Provenit etiam in prov.… …   Hofmann J. Lexicon universale

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
https://hinduism.en-academic.com/387/KALI Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”