TARAPITH, BIRBHUM, WEST BENGAL

Some 300 miles from Calcutta, Tarapith is situated on the banks of the north flowing Dwarka river, in Birbhum, in West Bengal. A seat of tantra studies, this is yet another holy shrine devoted to the worship of the female principle of creation, or Shakti. Tarapith is where Vasistha, the son of Brahma, the creator among the Hindu trinity first attained his spiritual salvation. As the legend goes, Vasistha, after repeated failure in his attempt to acquire salvation, went away to China, mastered it there, and brought it back to Tarapith. A very similar form of this quasi Buddhist asceticism is still practiced here, which involves austerities and meditation, leading to a final communion with God. The temple that was built by Vasistha got buried under the earth with the passage of time. Tarapith as it stands today, was built by Joybroto, a merchant, who received directions from Tara Maa in his sleep to unearth the 'brahmashila', or the sacred stone, to set it up as a shrine in a proper place. Tara Maa of Tarapith, another form of Kali, has two hands, is garlanded with snakes, is adorned in sacred threads, and has Shiva lying in her left lap sucking her breast.

DAKSHINESWAR KALI TEMPLE

Built by Rani Rasmoni of North Calcutta in the 19th century, the Dakshineswar Kali Temple is situated on the bank of Ganges, northeast of Calcutta. Maa Kali here is in a benign form. She is the Dakshina Kali, with Her right foot front. It is famous as the temple where Maa Kali came alive for Sri Ramakrishna, the renowned spiritual personality and the guru of Swami Vivekananda. Many great saints like Paramahansa Yogananda, Ananda-moyi Ma, Neem Karoli Baba and Papa Ram Das are known to have had mystical experiences in its hallowed grounds.

KAMAKHYA TEMPLE, GUWAHATI

Kamakhya Temple, wrapped in legends, mythology, and the splendour of nature, is a cave temple built atop the Neelachal hills in Guwahati. Considered one of the holiest shrines of the Shakta Hindus in India and a seat of tantrik studies, Kamakhya is one of the 'pithostans', where the 'yoni' of Uma or Shakti was said to have fallen during the 'tandava nritya' of Shiva. In the sanctum sanctorum, there is no idol, but a dark, evenly shaped stone. The actual site of the temple is a cave with a spring, where the locals worshipped the Mother Goddess some 5000 years back, later identified as Shakti. Every year, in a particular month, 'ashadha' (June-July), the spring water turns red. This is identified as the Goddess's menstruation and the Temple is closed to the public as well as to the priests for three days of the 'ambubachi'. According to folklore, the temple was built by Narakasura, the demon king of ancient Assam, only to be rebuilt in the 10th century by Koch Narnarayana, a king who ruled much of Assam alongside the Ahom kings.

MAA KALI OF KALIGHAT
KALI, THE DARK GODDESS, THE COSMIC-FEMALE POWER THE MYTH

Hindu mythology is replete with tales of feud and war between the two adverse powers of good and evil, personified in the Gods or Devas and the demons or Rakshasas. One such calamitous power wrecking the Heavens and earth was the demon Raktabija. Such was the power of this invincible monster that every drop of his blood that touched the ground was instantly transformed into another Raktabija. No sooner would the fatal blow fall on him than the battlefield would resonate with a million clones of the demon. Hopeless and at a loss, the devas turned to Shiva for help, only to find him in deep meditation. It was then that Shiva's divine consort Parvati consented to help end this threatening power.
Thus was born the dreaded, dark Goddess Kali out of Parvati. Red eyes, dark as the night, unbound hair, teeth sharp as fangs, she rode into the battleground on her lion, ordering the Gods to spread attack. She then flung her tongue wide to cover the entire battlefield. This, to prevent a single drop of Raktabija's self-renewing blood to touch the ground. The battle was won, the evil one defeated, and Kali, inebriated on the blood of Raktabija. She ran across the universe slaughtering any that dared cross her path, adorning Herself with the heads, limbs and guts of her victims. To pacify the raving Goddess and end Her frenzied havoc, Shiva threw Himself at her feet. She stopped, struck her tongue out at her mistake, embraced Her husband and shed Her rapacious form to become the becalmed Mother, Gauri.

KALI'S IMAGE/ICON

Legend has it that one Krisnananda Agamavagisa chanced upon a bathing village belle at a river in Tarapith or Bakreswar, West Bengal. Unclothed, dark-skinned with long, dishevelled hair, the girl was engrossed in scrubbing herself with a skullcap that she had picked up from a nearby funeral pyre. Embarassed by Krisnananda's presence, the belle stuck her tongue out in shyness. Krisnananda, who had been trying to comprehend the external representative form of the Dark Goddess, knew directly the vision before him as a potent icon for the Goddess Kali.
The blackness of Kali is exhibitive of the endless beginning, the black sky of eternity, a dark deep from where creation began. Her long, dark hair in disarray are the black clouds of the eternal sky. The wreath of severed heads around her neck is a relic of death, destruction and calamity. The lower left arm holding a human head just severed betokens no escape from time, while the upper left holds a sword, the arm of destruction. Lower right hand is posed as if giving a boon, and the upper right hand is posed granting freedom from fear. She wears two corpses or arrows as ornaments for her ears, and a girdle of the hands of her victims. Her features are gaunt, her three eyes are Sun, Moon and Fire, of which the third, represents foresight and wisdom, a harbinger of supreme knowledge that opens once the human sight is cleared of ignorance. Surrounded by jackals and powers of the night, she stands astride Mahadeva, lying beneath Her, corpselike.

KALI - THE SYMBOL - THE FIRST CONSONANT AND VOWEL

Kali, the Primordial Mother Goddess of archaic, matriarchal religion is known variously as Tara, Mahavidya, Shoroshi, Bhubaneswari, Bhairavi, Chhinnamstha, Dhumbati, Bagala and Matangi. Variations of this female wisdom energy can be found in many ancient cultures outside India. There is Kele, the powerful Goddess of pre-historic Ireland, Goddess Kal-ma of ancient Finland, Goddess Kalu of the Sinai region of the Middle East, Kalli of ancient Greece, and Lhamo, the God Mother of the Tibetans. The Hindu Kali could well have been the warrior Goddess of ancient dark-skinned tribes who worshipped Her with blood sacrifice, flesh and liquor, much of which is still continued in Her present rituals. Mahabharata, the Indian epic, describes Her as 'red-eyed, red-faced, garlanded with red, terrible to look at and holding a noose.' Early Buddhists identified Her with their Prajnaparamita, the 'perfection of Wisdom'. Mythologically, in relation to Shiva, She is exactly opposite of Parvati. While Parvati calms Shiva's destruction, Kali compliments Him. She is the feminine 'other' of the destroyer Shiva. They both have their respective dances of destruction. She threatens stability and order, and in association with other Goddesses, she embodies their cumulative wrath and fury, and is the dangerous dimension of the feminine power. And last but not the least, Kali is time, or 'kala'. Time, that is the annihilator and creator of all, cannot be comprehended in the passive, immemorial Brahma. It is thus perceivably delineated in Her as the 'night of destruction' that swallows all that exists. She stands on the corpse of the ruined universe, a reminder of the temporal, the fleeting, and the cycle of life and death.