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KALI YOGA: Mother Kali seeks bhaktas to be in
yoga with Her. She extends Her warm arms to
embrace while Her iconographical image may
suggest the opposite. She fiercely carries a
sword, a Trishul, a severed and blood-dripping
head; kapala skull-cup. Her demeanor is
frightening; eyes are red with intoxication; she
is in absolute rage; hair is disheveled like a
mad-woman; fangs are protruding from Her
mouth; tongue is lolling and above all She is
unashamedly stark naked to the core with the
fullness of dangling breasts! And, mind you, she
is stepping on to Her husband, Siva. Not a very
good welcome for Kali Yoga, is it?
DASA MAHAVIDYA MAHAKALI: This takes her
iconography one step further. She is the ten
headed Dasamukhi representing all the ten
Mahavidya Mothers. It is the wisdom of all ten
rolled into one Kali. So she is depicted in this
form as having ten heads, ten arms, and ten
legs to conform Her symbolisms. Her weapons
are all ritualistically from Devas and Gods. The
implication is that Mahakali subsumes and is
responsible for the powers that these deities
possess. This is in line with the interpretation
that Mahakali is identical with Brahman.
The aspiring Yogi is bound to wonder if
?Ekamukhi Kali?, instead of displaying ten heads
would signify the same concept. After-all Her
powers comes through Her Grace. But She has
to make it known that She too is in Yoga with
the Gods who have unconditionally graced Her
with their weapons. So yoga with Her is Yoga
with all the Gods.
If She is so graceful, compassionate and loving,
then why stand wrathfully on the inert Shava of
Shiva. Well, Dasa Mahakali represents the
feminine energy of Shakti; the power of Pure
Creation. Shiva represents pure Consciousness
which is inert in and of itself. In this context
Consciousness is the quality or state of being
aware of an external object or something within
oneself. It is the subjectivity, the awareness,
the experience to feel the sense of Selfhood for
the executive control of the mind.
Yogis are to remind themselves of this
symbolism first, lest the first spiritual ladder
becomes shaky. She has to symbolically show
that Shiva without Shakti is Shava. This implies
that without the power of action ?Shakt which
is Mahakali, is inactive. Between Shiva and
Shava is the difference of ?i?. This differential ?i?
represents the female power or Shakti that
activates Creation. So she stands as embodying
Shaktism on Her own Husband. There is
symbolical contact to also imply that the wild
destructive Mahakali can only stop her fury
when in contact and presence of Shiva, the God
of Consciousness. This ensures that balance of
life is not run over by wild nature altogether.
YOGA OF TRUTH: How could a blissful Mother
be cruel? She symbolically kills demons
representing ego, greed, lust, pride, drama and
masks. This punishment balances the world as
prakriti and purusha union balances the
Cosmos. Notwithstanding, her fierce demeanor
and myths behind them, stimulates
imagination. It provokes spiritual thoughts. Her
cemetery dance with tongue lolling wildly is her
laughing at the attachments of us mortal
humans. Mahakali is out to strip away objects
which we are so craze or passionate about. This
includes kama, the objects of desire that in
enchained in negative thought patterns and
actions.
Mahakali stands for the energies of time,
transformation and death. Time is a merciless
energy and gives the framework in which all
transformation takes place in the universe. With
time order turns to chaos, life turns to death,
death turns to new life, and chaos to new order.
In every moment of manifestation something is
dying, giving place for something new in a
continuous transformation. She teaches all this
in a terrible way to take us out of predefined
ego-patterns. Her ways horrify and shock so
that one strips away pretensions and dares to
face Cosmic Truth.
So, what is this Truth that is to sprout from
Mahakali Yoga? The truth is that, most of us are
deluded, attached to finite things, so much so,
we become incapable to comprehend the
Absolute, infinite Truth. But she is also the
cause of this illusion, Maya, which is the Divine
Mother Dasamukhi Mahakali. Those seeking
freedom from this maya and its dilemma,
worship her for divine yoga. It is her grace, her
feminine energy as Mother alone that one
uncovers and regains the Truth.
PURUSHA YOGA. Here again, as prakriti,
Mahakali?s lessons are from her yoga with the
Parama Purusha. Shiva and Shakti attain
transcendence through the union of the two
forces whose separation was not absolute in
the first place. There is creation, evolution and
finally a return to the source. So, they have
fused to take the Ardhanarisvara form. This is
symbolic of the entire universe as a
manifestation of pure consciousness.
In manifesting the universe, this pure
consciousness seems to become divided into
two polarities or aspects, neither of which can
exist without the other. The unmanifest
consciousness retains a static quality
conceptualised as masculine Shiva. The
dynamic, energetic, or creative polarity aspect
is Shakti. In their balanced Oneness, Shakti
manifests as the great Mother of the universe.
It is from Ardhanarisvara that all is born.
TANTRIK YOGA: Tantric Mahakali prompts the
yogi to explore the energies of the universe to
thereby understand the essence behind these
energies of Ten Tantric Mothers, the
Mahavidyas or Great Knowledge. Vidya is
knowledge and avidya is ignorance. So the Dasa
Mahavidyas represent ten fundamental,
archetypical energies in the Universe. Their ten
faces and attributes are symbolical of one
Mother.
They are energies of Kali: the Eternal Night, the
Goddesses of Time, Tara: The Goddess Who
Guides through Troubles, Tripurasundari: She
who is Lovely in the Three Worlds,
Bhuvaneshwari: She Whose Body is the World,
Chinnamasta: The Self-Decapitated Goddess,
Bhairavi: The Fierce and Terrible, Dhumavati:
The Widow Goddess, Bagalamukhi: The
Paralysing Goddess, Matangi: The Outcaste
Goddess and finally Kamala, the ever-beautiful
Lotus Goddess. Each of these goddesses have a
cosmic function leading to universal harmony.
Going behind the myriad energies and faces,
one also has Mahakali as the adolescent Child
in Bala-Tripurasundari. So the fierce Mother is
also of child-like innocence of Bala, her virgin
version.Tripura is the milder mother version and
Tripurabhairavi is the version with menstruation
ceased symbolically. Each of these states have
inner meanings. A yogi meditating on Mahakali,
gains access to this tantric science combined
with a complex methodology.
Behind Bala, Tripurasundari and Bhairavi he
sees one Divinity and has his or her Blissful
tears rolling down. Guidance of a tantric master
may be necessary for the inner workings of
Naga or Kundalini yoga. The mysterious nature
of the Absolute is comprehended when one is
aware of his or her place in the Universe. The
ultimate path is fusion with Divine Mahakali
and her vidya.
NAGA YOGA. This is a Tamil siddha reference
for kundalini yoga. One given to this practice
starts with a profound awakening of our
potential energy, in tantra called Kundalini,
stored at the base of our spines. This energy is
correlated with our sexual energy. True
transformation starts when we awaken this
energy and channel it to higher centers of
consciousness in our being. Mahakali, in all her
nakedness, lures or teases the yogi to awaken
kundalini energy.
The yogi sees a sensual and powerful woman in
Mahakali. She has the ability of fully enjoying
life. She knows the power of love. It is the
egoistic mind that is afraid of nearing
Mahakali?s stiff and expansive feminine energy.
The yogi takes this invitation of her erotic
power, which is in fact representing the life
energy itself. In Naga yoga with Mahakali, the
yogi does not fear the fully awakened woman.
In Kundalini tantra, Mahakali is refered as
Shakti, the serpent that crawls upwards
progressively to be in final Yoga with Shiva.
EROTIC YOGA: The spiritual Union of Siva and
Parvati can also be explained in terms of Para
Siva and Para Shakti. Siva is the physical
manifestation of Para-Siva and Parvati that of
Para-Shakti. In their unmanifest forms they are
inseparable just as one lot of wind is not
separate from. In their Uma-Mahesvara
dalliance in Kailash mountains, their ecstasy
and sexual bliss is Cosmic romance and Union.
The predominant spiritual despondency of the
spiritual seeker is yoga. One is to go beyond the
Kamasutra to meet the purusharta goals
enshired in Kama Shashtras and the the Sutra.
In this state, the yogi becomes aware of the
romance and Union of the objective character
of Prakriti and subjective consciousness
perceived as Purusha.
YOGA WITH DEATH: Death is imminent, yet
human fear meeting it. Mahakali Yoga assists
one to understand that we came with nothing;
we go with nothing also. One has to transcend
this fear. Her very abode is the cemetery where
each mortal journey ends and she is there to
welcome you. That presence is more than
welcoming a corpse; it is a reminder to those
alive.
Every little moment contains a death, a
destruction, for events to be able to unfold
through the energy of time. What does not die
is the Self. Mahakali kills the ephemeral within
each yogi so that he or she gets in touch with
the Universal Self. She gives the courage to do
things that we never dreamt of doing. Some of
this teaching is idiosyncratic. For instance,
aghoris are given to lying in burial pits just
hours before a corpse and coffin is really
houses there for eternal rotting; or lie on
cremation ash while it is within tolerable
heat....
Mahakali gives the strength to take the first
step to the unknown where the grounds tremble
but disappears beneath the feet.
New level of Consciousness is born by being in
Yoga with Kali. She tells you that death is an
important moment in life and the two poles of
life and death are intuitively understood by her
yogic ways.
Black Tara, her Tibetian equal, asks as spiritual
practice to prepare the great moment of Death.
Remember the coming of death ? memento
mori. It is a Mahakali call to die before you
actually die. When death is embraced with
understanding, then one is truly able to taste
the other pole of life. Worst fears and ego had
died and there is the resurrected Yogi. Life and
death have become two sides of the same coin
and there is Oneness with Mahakali.
Bright Blessings