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| MA BHABATARINI |
काली
काली महाकाली भद्रकाली नमोस्थुथे
देवी
देवी महादेवि दिव्य गौरी नमोस्थुथे
आयुर्
देहि धनं देहि विद्यां देहि महेश्वरी
समस्थ
अकिलं देहि देहिमे परमेश्वरी
Meaning " The dark mother, the Good Kali, I pray to you. I pray to you,the sacred fair Goddess. Bless me with long life, wealth, learning. O devi, the consort of Lord Siva (Eswar),bless me with the whole earth ,mother."
Actually Kali is the destroyer of evil demons, evil forces and is the fierce and angry form of Goddess Durga. But look at Ma Bhabatarini, the goddess of Dakshineswar in Kolkata, worshipped by Sri Ramkrishna Thakur and Sri Sri Sarada Ma .She looks so calm and beautiful, not in the least fierce. And she has her right leg over the abdomen of her consort, Lord Shiva and has her tongue protruding out in shame. The Dakshineswar temple in Kolkata, was built by the very pious Rani Rashmoni .The priest was the great gurudev, Sri Ramkrishna Thakur. Ma Kali used to appear before him and eat his offerings. His wife,whom he worshipped as the Goddess was Sri Sarada ma.
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| DAKSHINESWAR KALI TEMPLE. |
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| THAKUR SRI RAMAKRISHNA |
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| SREE MA SARADA DEVI |
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| SRI RAMKRISHNA FEEDING MA KALI |
Ma Kali is always seen with her tongue protruding. The pose shows the conclusion of an episode in which Kali was rampaging out of control after destroying many demons. Shiva, fearing that Kali would not stop until she destroyed the world, could only think of one way to pacify her. He lay down on the battlefield so that she would have to step on him. Seeing her consort under her foot, Kali realized that she had gone too far, and calmed down. The most widespread interpretation of Kali's extended tongue involves her embarrassment over the sudden realization that she has stepped on her husband's chest.
According to Hindu mythology, Kāli is first mentioned in Hindu tradition as a distinct goddess around 600 AD.The story of two demons can be found who were destroyed by Kali. Chanda and Munda attack the goddess Durga. Durga responds with such anger, causing her face to turn dark resulting in Kali appearing out of her forehead. Kali's appearance is dark blue, and wearing a tiger skin and a garland of demon heads. She immediately defeats the two demons. That gives her the name" Chamundeeswari."
Later in the same battle, the demon Rakthabija is undefeated because of his ability to reproduce himself from every drop of his blood that reaches the ground. Countless Raktabija clones appear on the battlefield. Kali eventually defeats him by sucking his blood before it can reach the ground, and eating the numerous clones. Hence Kali represents the more angry, more fierce avtar of Goddess Durga.
In Kāli's most famous legend, Durga and her assistants, the Matrikas, wound the demon Raktabija, in various ways and with a variety of weapons in an attempt to destroy him. They soon find that they have worsened the situation for with every drop of blood that is dripped from Raktabija he reproduces a clone of himself. The battlefield becomes increasingly filled with his duplicates.[12] Durga summons Kāli to combat the demons. The "Devi Mahatmiyam" (a Hindu religious text describing the Goddess as the supreme power and creator of the universe), describes:
Out of the surface of her (Durga's) forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga (skull-topped staff ), decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger's skin, very appalling , fearful with her tongue hanging out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras (demons) in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the devas. Kali consumes Raktabija and his duplicates, and dances on the corpses of the slain.
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| KALI KILLING RAKTABIJA AND CONSUMING HIS BLOOD |
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| KATVANGA |
Another story involving Kali is her encounter with a band of thieves. The thieves wanted to make a human sacrifice to Kali, and unwisely chose a saintly Brahmin monk as their victim. The radiance of the young monk was so much that it burned the image of Kali, who took living form and killed the entire band of thieves, decapitating them and drinking their blood.
In Addya pith in North 24 parganas of West Bengal, also, is a calm version of Kali with Gurudev Ramkrishna .Also seen here is Radhe krishna.
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| ADHYA MA |
Now about the Shakti Piths in West Bengal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Assam and in a total of 52 places. We will talk about Kalighat in Kolkata and Tara Pith in Birbhum district of West Bengal and Kamakhya temple in Assam.
Sati, the consort of Lord Shiva, was the daughter of king Daksha. She is also known as Dakshayani. When she married Lord Shiva, the king was very displeased and ignored her completely. So when he conducted a Maha Yagna performed to appease the Devas, the sacred beings of the upper world controlling the earth and elements. And Lord Shiva was not invited. Angry with her father's conduct, Sati decided to go there despite Shiva stopping her.
When Sati entered the palace, Daksha insulted her and her husband. Sati could not bear it and approached the Agni Kunda (sacrifificial fire) and said in a thundering voice "My lord,the lord of lords has been insulted, and anyone who defiles the lord is a sinner and must be punished."And then she threw herself into the sacrificial fire and desecrated the Yagna.
When Lord Shiva heard this, he was enraged.He created Veerabhadra from a lock of his hair. Veerabhadra severed the head of Daksha and threw it into the same sacrificial fire.
The bereaved Lord Shiva started the dance of destruction,carrying the lifeless form of Sati in his arms. Fearing that the world would come to an end, Lord Vishnu severed the body of Sati with his Sudarshan chakra into 52 pieces which fell in different parts of the world. These places where the parts of Sati's body fell are called Shakti Piths. It is believed that if you worship in these places, your desires are fulfilled.
Tārāpīṭh is a Hindu temple town near Rampurhat in Birbhum district of the Indian state of West Bengal, known for its Tantric form and its adjoining cremation (Maha Smashan) grounds where sādhanā (tantric rituals) are performed. The Tantric Hindu temple is dedicated to the goddess Tara, a fearsome Tantric aspect of the Devi Kali.
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| TARA MA |
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| TARA PITH TEMPLE |
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| THE SACRED FEET OF MA TARA |
Tarapith is also famous for Sadhak Bamakhepa, known as the avadhuta or "mad saint", who worshipped in the temple and resided in the cremation grounds as a mendicant and practised and perfected yoga and the tantric arts under the tutelage of another famous saint, Kailashpathi Baba. Bamakhepa dedicated his entire life to the worship of Tara Maa. His ashram is also located in bank of Dwaraka river and close to the Tara temple.
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| BAMA KHYAPA |
The cremation grounds near the temple is still the abode of Sadhus and Tantriks (those who indulge in demonic and super natural practices). No one ventures into those grounds at night.
Tarapith is also famous for a very long version of the famous Bengali sweet "Langcha".
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| LANGCHA |
Then the baby goat heads are filled with ghee and lamps lit in them before puja is started.Kali is worshipped then with various mantras(chantings) usually after 12 P.M. I went to Smashan kali puja once at mid night and actually saw the baby goats ready for sacrifice.
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| The baby goat heads are filled with ghee and readied for puja. |
When they were beheaded ,I could not watch.Something cried in my heart. Ma Kali is also the god of kindness.Would she like her children being sacrificed to appease her?
Last and not the least comes the famous Dakshina Kali Bari of Kalighat. Kalighat was a Ghat (landing stage) sacred to Kali on the old course of the Hooghly river (Bhāgirathi) in the city of Calcutta. The name Calcutta is said to have been derived from the word Kalighat. The river over a period of time has moved away from the temple. The temple is now on the banks of a small canal called Adi Ganga which connects to the Hoogly. The Adi Ganga was the original course of the river Hoogly.
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| KALIGHAT KALI TEMPLE |
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| KALIGHAT KALI MA |
Kalighata might have been situated as early as the time of the Guptas,as
coins of the time was unearthed from the location. At the end of the Buddhist
supremacy at Bengal Tantric sects became active. During the time waterways
was the common trading routes. For this purpose river Adiganga (old course
of Ganges), touching Kalikhetra was an important route to Bay of Bengal.
These traders used to offer pujas to the various temples situated at both
the banks, among these that of Kali was
most important to them.Amidst the dense forest the bank from which vehicles
deport and arrive was termed gradually as "Ghat" or dock. The river
as Kaliganga and the region came to be known as Kalighat.
Kalighat was
at that time a small hut like structure with a furious idol of Kali in
it and a dense jungle around. The present
Dakshina Kali idol in touchstone might have been a creation of two saints
called Brahmananda Giri and Atmaram Giri. It was they who discovered fossils
of fingers of Devi Sati's feet from the pond called Kalikunda. The same is said to be preserved in the temple even now.
The image of the deity is incomplete. Only the face of the deity was made first. The hands, made of gold and silver, the tongue, the Shiva statue and all the jewellery were added over the years.Now it is a tourist place and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world visit this sacred place.
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| MY FAVOURITE KALI IDOL. |
I have visited the holy mother in Kalighat several times with my mother and then alone. When you stand before her pushed and jostled by the crowds,You can see the lustre in her face.
Talking about" Narabali" or sacrifice of human beings, there is an interesting incident my father used to relate to us when we were children. There was this south Indian Hindu Brahmin who had gone on a pilgrimage and hearing about Kali temple, he went there to have refreshments and rest. Now the priests targeted him for Narabali and had poisoned his food when he went to take his bath. The Brahmin somehow got wise to the fact and somehow escaped and came to South India. My father either met this brahmin or heard about him.This is another actual incident my father used to narrate to us.
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| TAMIL BRAHMIN |
In Kolkata maximum people are fanatic Kali bhaktas. This includes me too.And I have visited Kalighat temple and Dakshineswar temple umpteen times.I get mental peace when I visit the holy mother.
The blog is getting long and there is so much more to tell. So I will talk about Kali puja ,the traditions and vidhis, the sincerity ,the absolute faith which drives the Kali bhaktas etc. in my next blog. Many people complain that my blogs are too long.But unless I can relate to you clearly about my topics,I do not feel satisfied.So I have developed this habit of dividing my blog into parts.Kali part 2 will follow. Jai Ma Kali.
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