Kali

The Great Goddess Kali can never be understood by the intellect. To know Her we must plunge into Her luscious, radiant, blackness, dive through our fear into Her terrifying mystery and allow ourselves to dissolve in Her velvety midnight embrace. By Her grace we may know the unutterable truth of Her love, even as we are annihilated by Her infinitude. Beware, you may return babbling, forever lost to your spouse!

Kali is the Source, the One that gives birth to All. Known as a slayer of demons She destroys the army of mind-born delusions that separate us from the Divine. To our bound, limited and contracted identities She strikes terror, appearing as a coal-black, sword-wielding, blood-smeared dancer of death and destruction. To our true Self, She is our supremely beautiful Beloved, performing a ballet of incomparable grace.

Only a poet saint can assemble the words necessary to point our attention toward Her. Ramprasad Sen, the eighteenth-century Bengali poet-saint, is one of the most loquacious of Her devotees. Lex Hixon brilliantly rendered Ramprasad’s poems into English verse in his book, Mother of the Universe. Letting your mind step aside for a moment, allow your heart and soul to feast on these two poems:

My blissful Mother exists fully through every creature! (1)

Meditate, O mind, on the mystery of Kali.
Use any method of worship you please,
or be free from methods,
breathing day and night her living name
as the seed of power
planted by the teacher in your heart.

Consider the simple act of lying down to sleep
    as devoted offering of body and mind to her.
Allow your dreams to become
   radiant meditations on the Cosmic Mother.
As you wander through countryside or city,
feel that you are moving through Kali, Kali, Kali.
All sounds you hear are her natural mantras
   arising spontaneously
as the whole universe worships her,
prostrates to her, awakens to her.

The Goddess, who is unitive wisdom,
constitutes the letters of every alphabet.
Every word secretly bears the power of her name.

The singer of this mystic hymn is overwhelmed:
“Wonderful! Wonderful! My blissful Mother
exists fully through every creature!
O wandering poet,
whatever food or drink you receive,
offer as oblation in the sacrificial fire of your body
and dissolve your mind
into her all-encompassing reality.

Listen to me, Death! (2)

Listen to me, Death!
You must leave here immediately.
How can you touch me?
I have captured Goddess Kali.
I have bound her hands and feet
   with adamantine strands of pure love.
Her intimate presence alone
   now shines from the stronghold of my heart.
The twelve-petal lotus that floats in my chest
   is surrounded by her fierce flames.

I contemplate with awe
   the thousand-petal lotus at my crown
where the golden honey of mystic union
   is flowing eternally.
O Mother Kundalini,
my entire being is swept upward continuously
   by your current of wisdom energy.

I have taken precautions so that Goddess Kali
cannot escape from within me.
Single-minded devotion guards her with every breath.
These two eyes are her gatekeepers.
My third eye has become her own clear vision.

Suspecting that the fatal fever of egocentricity
would attack my mind and body,
I have taken the ancient remedy
prescribed by my illumined master.
The medicine Om Kali, taken four times daily,
cures the chronic illness of me! me! me!

Emboldened by the indwelling of the Mother,
this warrior poet calls out:
“Listen to me, Death, so your insane pride
will at last be humbled.
You can take away only this form.
I have already begun my deathless journey,
chanting Kali! Kali! Kali!

The Mantra Om Kali Ma

The mantra Om Kali Ma vibrates with Her power and serves as a Divine vehicle for transporting you into Her domain. Using it for meditation, you breathe in Om Kali Ma with every inhalation, silently repeating it in your mind, savoring the subtle sounds of each syllable as She infuses every cell of your body with Her power, radiance and love. With every exhalation, silently breathe out Om Kali Ma, feeling Her presence filling the universe around you. Breathe in Om Kali Ma drinking in Her elixir. Breathe out Om Kali Ma as you float like a bubble in the ocean of the Divine. Your body may be gently swayed by Her lullaby as the ego-mind falls asleep and the Divine awakens within you. Meditate daily, taking delight in all She shows you. Om Kali Ma, Jai Kali Ma!

When the intellect grows jealous of the heart and soul enjoying the nectar of meditation on Her, you can feed your mind the works of Lex Hixon and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa - the great 19th century Kali devotee of Dakshineshwar, India. Elizabeth Harding’s book, Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar, is also well worth reading. Chanting the names of the Goddess or listening to such chants is a sublime practice in itself. The recordings of Krishna Das - One Track Heart, Pilgrim Heart and Live on Earth - may move you into Her ecstasy. The visions Kali granted me are shared in The Soul's Journey: Guidance From The Divine Within.

Jai Kali Ma!

Notes:

(1) Lex Hixon, Mother of the Universe, 1994, Wheaton, Ill. Theosophical Publishing House., p. 40.
(2) Ibid, p. 58.

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