The Book of Kali

by Seema Mohanty

  The narrative, however, does not reject caste hierarchy totally. There is clearly a tension between the Kali of the wilderness and the Kali who is worshipped by members of society.

  Kali’s disregard for social mores led to the belief that she did not care for moral and ethical standards of those who invoked her so long as they satisfied her thirst for blood. This belief made Kali the patron of anarchists, thieves and sorcerers. In the Bhagavata Purana, for example, there is a narrative where a band of thieves tries to sacrifice a Brahmin youth to Kali so that their leader gets a son. In the Adbhuta Ramayana, the sorcerer Mahi-Ravana tries to sacrifice Rama in order to earn the blessing of Kali. In both these stories, however, the sacrifice never takes place. In the first, the spiritual effulgence of the Brahmin youth scorches the image of Kali, who appears infuriated and kills the thieves. In the other, Rama tricks Mahi-Ravana to place his head on the sacrificial altar and Mahi-Ravana ends up being beheaded by Hanuman. Both these stories thus have a happy ending where the ‘bad guys’ are destroyed and Kali blesses the ‘good guy’. They clearly indicate an attempt to bring Kali within the acceptable social framework. She becomes the upholder of righteousness, the destroyer of villains and demons who in form looked no different from her erstwhile companions—ghosts and the goblins.

  As worship of Kali grew in popularity, there was a conscious effort to restrict the rituals within cultural norms. The Tantrik practice of moving away from cultural norms was shunned by the mainstream society, while the Vedic approach of adapting all rituals to toe the social line became dominant. In the following folktale from Karnataka, Kali is totally domesticated. Like a mother, she finds the pranks of Tenali Raman endearing.

  Tenali Raman’s father was an impoverished but devoted priest of Kali. One day, he was too ill to go to the temple, so he told his son to go in his place. Raman did not know how to worship the image before him. Since his father had always told him that Kali was his mother, he decided to treat the image as he would his own mother, who had long passed away. He asked her why she did not play with him or feed him or give him a bath as his mother would have. Kali was so touched by this innocent display of devotion that she appeared before him as Dasha-Mukha-Kali, Kali-with-ten-heads. As soon as Tenali Raman saw the ten-headed Kali, he burst into laughter. ‘Why are you laughing?’ asked Kali, who was used to being saluted when she appeared before devotees. ‘Your ten heads make me wonder how you wipe your nose when you have a cold,’ replied the lad. The thought made Kali laugh too. Overwhelmed by motherly affection, she offered Tenali Raman a gift: the choice to drink the sweet milk of wealth or the sour curds of intelligence. ‘How can I choose without tasting either?’ asked Tenali Raman. Kali let Tenali Raman take a sip of the two drinks. But before she knew it, Tenali Raman finished both the drinks. ‘They were both tasty,’ said Tenali Raman with a smile on his face. Kali looked at the lad who had outsmarted her in his innocence. Instead of getting upset, she smiled and blessed Tenali Raman, who later became the much-loved court jester of Krishnadevaraya, the ruler of Vijayanagar.

  The Worship

  The worship of Kali, like the worship of other Hindu deities, involves giving her a form, infusing the form with divinity through appropriate rites and finally adoring the divine entity thus invoked with suitable offerings, including food, flowers, incense, clothes and music. In keeping with the doctrine of devotion, importance is given more to the emotional depth and less to the details of the ritual. The ultimate aim of worshipping Kali in mainstream society is to obtain the blessings of the goddess in matters both spiritual and material.

  Amongst followers of the Tantrik order known as sadhakas, rituals invoking Kali tend to be far more elaborate and complex with the conscious rejection of all things Vedic and the inclusion of objects generally considered inauspicious and activities considered polluting, involving flesh, blood, alcohol, drugs, skulls, funeral ash, dead bodies and sex. Women play an important role in the rituals as they serve as shakti—mediums to realize the goddess. The idea behind these rituals is not to shock a prudish public, but to break through the social conditioning that can be a mental straitjacket to the spiritual aspirant. For a Hindu, the violation of dietary or behavioural taboos, either symbolically or actually, is one way to overturn the neat and tidy preconceptions of social rigidity and be jolted into an altered state of awareness. Only then will the sadhaka achieve the twin goals of attaining spiritual enlightenment and acquiring occult powers.

  Before the ritual is undertaken, the sadhaka fulfils all expectations of the guru to prove his worthiness. Then the guru initiates him into the order and prepares him mentally and physically for the arrival of the goddess and the wisdom that will follow. Without this diksha, the sadhaka runs the risk of either getting scared by the rites, driven mad by the visions, or coming to the conclusion that the rites are a license for violating rules of civilized conduct.

  The instructions vary from scripture to scripture and from guru to guru. The ritual practices tend to be highly individualized to suit the bearings of the sadhaka, but all involve the use of ritual diagrams known as yantras and ritual chants known as mantras.

  Tantra

  The word ‘tantra’ refers not only to a school of thought but also to its ritual instructions. Just as the Bhakti school of Hinduism uses emotion, the Gyan school of Hinduism uses intellect and the Karma school uses social conduct to realize the divine, the Tantra school uses ritual practices. Unlike puja, where the emotion accompanying the ritual is greater than the ritual itself, in Tantra the details of the ritual make all the difference.

  Below is a set of instructions found in the manuscript known as Kali Tantra. All superlatives have been edited out for the sake of clarity. Please note that Tantrik instructions are unique, depending on the time and place of the ritual and the personalities of the teacher and the student. There is no standard set of instructions. The ones below are from the presiding deity of the manuscript through whom the guru speaks:

  Now I speak of the ritual injunction that will help you realize Kali. Doing this, a person becomes like Bhairava. First, I speak of yantra, the knowledge of which conquers death. At first draw a triangle on the sacred altar. Outside, draw another. Then draw three more triangles. Draw a circle and then a beautiful lotus. Then draw another circle and enclose it in a square with four doors. Worship the guru, the six limbs of the body, and the guardians of the directions. Then place your head at the feet of the guru. After worshipping the altar, set down the offering. Place the mantra in the six limbs. Then, in the heart, the ultimate divinity blossoms. Place her at the centre of the yantra by invoking her with your breath. After meditating on the great goddess, dedicate the ritual offerings. Bow to Mahadevi and then worship the surrounding deities. Worship Kali, Kapalini, Kulla, Kurukulla, Virodhini, Vipracitta in the first two triangles. Then Ugra, Ugraprabha, Dipta in the third triangle. Then Nila, Ghana and Balaka in the outermost triangle. Then Matra, Mudra and Mita within this triangle, and then the very dusky one holding the sword, adorned with human skulls, with her left hand showing the threatening mudra and having a pure smile. Worship the eight mothers: Brahmi, Narayani, Maheshvari, Chamunda, Kaumari, Aparajita, Varahi and Narasimhi. In equal shares, give these goddesses animal sacrifice and worship them, smearing them with scent and offering them incense and flame. After doing the puja, worship the Devi using the root mantra. Keep giving food to the Devi time and again. The sadhaka should offer flame ten times. So also offer flowers with the mantra according to the rules of ritual. After meditating on Devi, recite the mantra 1008 times. The fruit of reciting, which is light, place in the hands of the Devi. Then, placing the flower on the head, salute her. With supreme devotion then rub out the yantra.

  Yantra

  Yantras are geometrical abstractions of divinity that are central to meditation and worship in Tantra. The Kali Tantra explains how a Kali yantra has to be drawn: ‘First, I speak of [Kali] yantra, the knowing of which conquers death. At first draw a triangle. Outside, draw a
nother. Then draw three more triangles. Draw a circle and then a beautiful lotus [with eight petals]. Then draw another circle and then a bhupura with four lines and four doors.’ Kali’s yantra is characterized by five downward pointing triangles superimposed on each other. Each point represents one of the fifteen forms of Kali worshipped on different days of the waning moon. The five triangles are enclosed in a lotus with eight petals. In each petal resides the copulating pair of Bhairava and Bhairavi. This lotus is enclosed in a square bhupura, or enclosure with four gates, leading to the yantra.

  A yantra that has not been inscribed with bija mantras (chants) and matrikas (letterings) or that has not been consecrated by an initiated person is unsuitable for worship. To become potent, prana (life) must be installed in a yantra through prescribed rituals, passed on from teacher to student. Every yantra has a definite lifespan, depending on the material. Gold, for example, lasts for life, while silver stays for seven years.

  Mantra

  A mantra is a potent chant that can be either spoken or written. But it is useless without a yantra or mystical diagram, powerless without diksha or Tantrik initiation and weak without a ritually prescribed tantra or preparatory rite. A mantra has no meaning on its own; its power resides in the sound. One of Kali’s popular bija or root mantra is, ‘Krim’. The Kulachudamani Tantra explains how a mantra may be used:

  On a Tuesday, in the cremation ground, smeared with Kula vermillion, using Kula wood, one should draw a yantra. In the petals write the Chamunda mantra, ‘sphrem sphrem kiti kiti’ twice, and then the ninefold mantra of Mahishamardini. Outside this, write the mantras of Jayadurga and Smashana Bhairavi. After writing them, worship Bhadrakali at night, meditating on Kamakhya, the essence of Kamakala.

  Image

  Krishnanda Agamavagisha wanted to introduce a form of Kali for popular worship in the seventeenth century. The goddess appeared in his dream and advised him to walk towards the south and use the form of the first woman he came upon the next day. Krishnanda did as instructed and came upon a woman who was plastering cow dung cakes on the wall of her house for use as fuel. The woman bit her tongue on seeing Krishnanda, a common habit to express surprise and embarrassment. Her left foot was on a heap of dung, while the other was on the ground. She had raised one hand to plaster the dung cake on the wall, and her other hand was lowered. So it came to pass that the most popular form of Kali depicts her biting her tongue as she steps on Shiva with her left foot, one hand raised to hold the scimitar and the other lowered to hold a severed head.

  Many believe this narrative and form is aimed at taming the form of Kali to make it more respectable and suitable for household worship. In Tantrik worship, Kali does not bite her tongue in embarrassment; she stretches it out to drink blood and quench her thirst. Further, Kali does not simply step on Shiva; she copulates with him. While copulating, she is on top, a sexual position known as viparita rati or reverse copulation because it is contrary to what is considered acceptable in a patriarchal society where man is always on top of the woman.

  So there are two types of images of Kali that are worshipped—the form that is acceptable to the society and the form that is suitable only for those who have renounced society. The former is a respectable, domesticated form of the goddess; the latter is wild and unbridled, accessible only to those who have been adequately initiated and trained in the Tantrik ways.

  Place of worship

  According to the Mana-Sara-Shilpa-Shastra, a treatise on architecture written around the eighth century, temples enshrining the image of Kali must be built far away from villages and towns, near cremation grounds and the dwellings of chandalas, the lowest caste in the Hindu hierarchy, people whose livelihood involves clearing settlements of the dead and watching over funeral pyres. This reinforces Kali’s association with the periphery of the Hindu society. In recent times, especially since the nineteenth-century Bengali devotional movement around the idea of Kali, images of Kali are being kept inside the house. But it is often pointed out that the image of Kali located inside homes is different from that which is placed on the border of the village. The former is Dakshina-Kali, the Kali of the ‘south’ who enlightens, while the latter is Smashana-Kali, the Kali of the ‘crematorium’, who embraces dirt and pollution.

  In most Hindu temples, the image of the deity faces the auspicious east. In many Kali temples, the doorway of the temple may face east but the deity faces the inauspicious west. Kali thus turns her back on conventional, mainstream society, which represses the wild side of Nature for the sake of maintaining social order. In other temples, the image appears as if moving from the south (the direction of mortality) towards the north (the direction of immortality). In the north sits Kali’s consort, Shiva, who is the fountainhead of wisdom and enables man to defy death.

  The most popular temple of Kali is located at Kalighat in Kolkata. Other temples of Kali are at Tarapith in Bengal, Kamakhya in Assam and Kathmandu in Nepal.

  Time of worship

  Tuesday is associated with Mangala or Mars, the celestial body linked with war and death, both of which threaten social stability. It is on this day that Kali is worshipped because she is considered all-powerful then. In many parts of India, this day is dedicated to Ganesha, the son of the Devi, and Hanuman, her servant and protector. Both Ganesha and Hanuman protect devotees from being overwhelmed by the fearsome and wild Kali.

  In Hinduism, dawn and the waxing half of the lunar cycle are generally considered auspicious by the Vedic school of thought. The Tantrik school of thought, being counter-culture, prefers midnight and the waning half of the lunar cycle to conduct its rituals. Typically, Kali is worshipped on amavasya or the new moon night at midnight. New moon nights that fall on Tuesdays are especially auspicious.

  The most important and elaborate amavasya puja falls in the lunar month corresponding to October or November in the Western calendar. This Night of Kali, more popularly known as Diwali, when most Hindus light lamps while others make blood sacrifices, corresponds with the Samhain, a festival of Celtic druids, a time when according to the Wicca tradition the veil between the material and the spiritual worlds is the thinnest. The choice of this night to worship Kali is appropriate since Kali is, among many things, the goddess of death.

  Blood sacrifice

  As the form of the Devi that devours life in order to give life, Kali has an insatiable appetite for blood. In Nepal, devotees visiting the Dakshina-Kali temple regularly sacrifice goats, pigs, lambs, buffaloes, and even chickens, pigeons and ducks in order to win favour of the goddess. The heads are chopped or throats slit, and the blood is allowed to flow towards the deity. When a generous amount of blood flows out, men drag the dead animals across the floor of the roofless, outdoor temple to a nearby slaughtering chamber. The shrine’s washable, white-tile gutters and floor overflow with sacrificial blood. At Kalighat in Bengal, goats are sacrificed to Kali every Tuesday and during the festival of Diwali.

  Two hundred years ago, human sacrifice was common in both these shrines until laws were passed to put an end to the practice, but belief that Kali’s favour can be obtained through blood sacrifice remains popular even today. Occasionally, one does hear about a human sacrifice being conducted clandestinely by people who hire the services of criminals to kidnap their victims. More often, people make symbolic sacrifices using vegetables and clay effigies in place of real animals or humans.

  The sacrificial beast is always male, never female. The heads that make up Kali’s garland, are always those of men. This is because it is through the female form that new life is created and killing one would be tantamount to blocking the cycle of life, something that is unacceptable in Devi worship.

  The Upanishads declare that the universe is made up of those who eat and that which is eaten. The Devi as the life-giving Gauri or Tripura Sundari or Mangala or Bimala is ‘that which is eaten’. The Devi as the life-taking Kali or Tripura Bhairavi or Chamunda or Chandika is ‘those who eat’. Thus the Devi embodies the totality of exist
ence.

  Lemons, chillies and neem

  Those who shy away from blood sacrifice offer Kali sour lemons, pungent chillies and bitter neem. Traditionally, sweet food is considered auspicious and offered to deities. Kali, in her inimical style, rejects all things conventionally considered auspicious and seeks the inauspicious, even in food. Lemons, chillies and neem are a reminder of the vital role played in our lives by those aspects of the cosmos that are generally looked upon with fear, disdain or suspicion.

  Alcohol and hallucinogenic drugs

  Consumption of alcohol, hallucinogenic drugs such as Cannabis Indica, and a variety of mushrooms are condemned in Vedic scriptures as they threaten social stability. These serve as integral components of Kali worship in particular, and Tantrik rites in general. They lead the mind into the subconscious where lie hidden all the suppressed and repressed desires and emotions. One confronts visions unfettered by the shackles of biology and ideology. All that society considers inappropriate and inauspicious is explored and experienced. Thus the divine is realized when truth in its totality is accepted without prejudice.

  Corpses

  Corpses are considered inauspicious and polluting, hence important in Kali worship. The ritual using corpses is reserved for only highly evolved Tantrik sadhakas who have achieved high levels of consciousness and are hence able to participate in the ritual without a sense of morbid titillation. The ritual usually takes place at midnight of new moon nights falling on Tuesdays. A fresh corpse is chosen, preferably of one who has recently died in battle, or of one who belongs to the caste of warriors, priests or traders. In earlier times, aspirants often waited downstream to collect bodies that were cast into the river. To protect bodies of loved ones, relatives therefore preferred cremating the bodies. The corpse is placed face down and his back is used as an altar for invoking Kali. Eating the flesh of corpses is sometimes practised by Aghoras—cremation ground ascetics—who have broken all ties with society and its conventionalities. By treating the corpse as a sacred object, the Tantrik practitioner is forced to re-examine his standards of the auspicious and the inauspicious.