Significance of Mother Kali Worship

The word Kali comes from the word “kala” or time.  She is the origin or ruler of time, therefore her name is Kali.  What is time?  Time represents change.  The concept of time can only exist if there is change.  When One is perceived as many due to the spell of ignorance by MahaMaya, time is born.  MahaMaya is that aspect of Brahman which is responsible for creating the veil of ignorance or illusion.  The veil of ignorance is responsible for perception of multiplicity or the world.  If you deeply think about it, change is not possible if one is established in Oneness or Sat-Chit-Ananda or Brahman.  Conversely, it is impossible to perceive multiplicity without the concept of change.  To perceive the change, concept of time and space is essential. The concept of time is intertwined with the concept of space.  One cannot exist without the other.  In order for an individual consciousness to get back to one’s root or Oneness or Universal Consciousness, one has to transcend change or the idea of space-time.  It is impossible to transcend space-time without the grace of the creator of space-time or the Supreme Mother Kali.  Change or space-time brings experience of multiplicity, the good and bad, the benevolent and malevolent, the gracefulness and viciousness, the joy and sorrow, darkness and light, pleasure and pain, etc.  Such duality makes life possible.  Life is nothing but experience of such duality by individual consciousness.  Such duality makes it possible to perceive rest of the creation separate from the ego or individuality. 

Thus, Kali is the creator of the world.  She is the Supreme Mother.  The seers realizing this have given the formless a form for ordinary people to be able to meaningfully worship or contemplate upon Her.  She holds a severed head, a sword, a gesture of bestowing fearlessness, and a gesture of giving boon to Her devotee.  She is standing on a corpse depicted as Lord Siva.  She is supremely beautiful and vicious at the same time.  The spiritual interpretation is that She severs the ego or illusory perception of individuality with the sword of knowledge to bestow the boon of fearlessness to Her devotee.  Fear is only possible when there is multiplicity.  In Oneness there is no fear as there remains nothing to be afraid of.  She is colored dark to represent Her as the creator of ignorance.  She is the creative aspect of the Pure Consciousness or Siva.  The Siva aspect of Brahman is actionless or static like a witness as represented by the corpse.  The Kali aspect is the dynamic or creative aspect of Brahman represented by Her dancing on the corpse.

The Supreme Mother Kali is to be worshipped with all thy heart.  There is no better worship than deeply contemplating upon the aspect as described above.  That said, for the worldly minded, She is the giver of material fulfillment so that the devotee can make spiritual progress.  She is the destroyer of enemies such as kama (desire, lust being one of the strongest desire), krodha (anger or frustration when the desire is not fulfilled), lobha (or greed when a particular desire is fulfilled), moha (or attachment to the objects of the world), mada (or the doership or the perception that the ego is the doer), and matsarya (or jealousy or the craving by the ego to possess what another individual seemingly possesses).  When these demons are completely destroyed, ego has no protector and can be easily dissolved leading to realization of Oneness.  When these demons are subdued by Her grace, even worldly minded people can make much worldly progress.  These demons are not only the stumbling blocks for spiritual progress but also great stumbling blocks for worldly progress.  Therefore, on this Kali Puja day the Supreme Mother Kali is to be adored by both worldly minded and spiritually minded alike.  Jai Maa Kali!