Goddess of the Month: Vicious March

In light of recent events, ("I regret to inform you that we were not able to offer you admission into our Master's program") the featured goddess this month is Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction. Kali embodies the principle of darkness, often referred to as "Terrible Kali". Kali is often pictured with glowing blue skin, a protruding red tongue, a necklace of skulls, and a skirt of severed arms.

The goddess Kali is understood as an emanation of Shakti-- the Mother Goddess. In essence, Kali is a manifestation of Shakti's destructive aspect. This explains why those who follow Kali are considered "shaktas", or followers of Shakti. In many Hindu homes, one god or goddess is focused on in worship. This is a form of Bhakti Yoga, or discipline of devotion... one of the few main disciplines employed to achieve Moksha, or an eradication of suffering and ending one's personal cycle of death and rebirth... basically Nirvana. By choosing one god or goddess-- an individual aspect of the divine--to focus on, one transversely worships and confronts Brahman: the eternal, unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality. All existence emanates from Brahman. The pantheon of Hindu gods and goddess are a manifestation of this existence, and practicing bhakti yoga helps one to better understand and access that reality. So a family that worships Shakti exclusively also understands Shakti as an individual form of a larger, more comprehensive ultimate reality.

Although Kali is the essence of darkness and destruction, the goddess' primary purpose is to seek out and eradicate all evil with a fierce ruthlessness. Reflecting on life, I am comforted by this Hindu goddess. She represents only one aspect of Shakti-- fierce destruction and death (like, the death of a certain young woman's dream to go to grad school)-- but Shakti, being the sacred female she is, also embodies life-potential, rebirth, renewal... fertility. And so in Hindu fashion, I envision that, though this specific dream of mine has been destroyed, it's death is inevitably followed by a reincarnation. Let's hope I've got good Karma!