Who Is Maa Kali?

For East Indians, Kali is the ultimate Godhead. She is none other than Brahman, albeit in a ferocious and devouring form.

Maa Kali is the most ferocious form of Goddess Durga. She is the goddess of annihilation. She is black and wears garlands made of skulls. In Shaktism, she is the ultimate power. This is a sect of Hinduism that worships the ultimate reality as a female form called Shakti. Shakti has many forms. Of these, the most worshipped is Goddess Durga. She is fiery.

Kali is the embodiment of Durga’s anger. She is th Goddess of death and destruction,

In her gentler form, she is worshipped as Parvati, the daughter of Himavan who did penance for 5000 years to win Lord Shiva as her husband. For some worshippers, Shakti is the consort of Shiva and constitutes his integral half. Without Shakti, Shiva is essentially powerless. In simpler terms, while Shakti is the manifested universe, Shiva is the universal consciousness pervading it. In that sense, Shiva is the energy while Shakti is the matter. All life forms exist in her – rather, she constitutes all life forms.

Kali or Mahakali is the fiercest form of Goddess Durga / Shakti. When Hindus worship the ultimate power in the female form, she is usually called Durga. Nearly all Goddess temples in the country, except those in the East India, are dedicated to Goddess Durga or her various forms. In East India, the situation is a little different, though. Here Durga is worshipped as Kali. In fact, for East Indians, no deity is more powerful than Maa Kali. For them, Navratri is a five day festival called Kali Puja. While the rest of India, worships the various forms of the Goddess on these nine nights and ten days, they worship Kali on the last five days of Navaratri.

What does Kali mean?

While Shiva is Kala (the one who controls time), Shakti is Kali. Kala and Kali can also mean the God/Goddess of death. After all, you die when your time is up. The word Kali can also mean of the dark color. For Kali worshippers, she is the mother of the universe. Everything emanated from her and everything will ultimately dissolve in her.

In various Puranas, Kali is often depicted as the consort of Shiva. In the first chapter of Devi Mahatmyam, she is described as Mahakali. As Mahakali she emerged from the body of a sleeping Vishnu and is also called Goddess Yoga Nidra. There is a small background to this story. The two demons Madhu and Kaitabha were out to kill Lord Brahma. As Brahma was incapable of killing the demons himself, he rushed to Lord Vishnu who was in a deep meditative sleep (Yoga Nidra) at that time. As Brahma could not awaken Vishnu from his Yoganidra, he sought the help of Mahadevi, who then manifested from Vishnu’s body as Mahakali.

Devi Mahatmyam also mentions the story of two other demons who were killed by Mahakali.Chanda and Munda were powerful demons who once attacked Goddess Durga. The Goddess was enraged by their act and responded with much fury. When her anger caused her face to become dark, Goddess Kali emerged from her forehead wearing a garland made of human skulls and tiger skin. It didn’t take her long to annihilate the two demons. Devi Mahatmyam also mentions the story of Raktabija, a demon who was almost invincible. When he is wounded in a battle, more Raktabijas would emerge from every drop of his blood that hits the ground. Kali killed him too by sucking his blood before it reaches the ground.

In another story Kali is described as the ferocious form that Parvati assumed when Shiva entrusted her with the task of killing the demon Daruka.

In short, Parvati is the benign and loving form of the Divine Mother. When she is out to get demons, she assumes the ferocious form of Durga. And when Durga is enraged beyond measure, she becomes Kali. In other words, Kali is the embodiment of Durga’s wrath.