Why Mother Kali? Pravrajika Shuddhatmaprana
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Why Mother Kali? Pravrajika Shuddhatmaprana choose to worship and invoke her as his personal Ishta, his chosen deity? Some of you, perhaps, have asked this very question. Many of you have seen various pictures of Kali. And you have prob- ably also seen photos of the very image of Kali that was worshipped by Sri Ramakrishna. Per- haps some of you have even personally seen her in a visit to the Dakshineswar temple, so you know what she looks like. Perhaps you also know some of the symbolism behind this image: Her dark colour represents the infinite; her three eyes represent knowledge of the past, present, and future. Her red tongue sticking out represents rajas, the quality of activ- Who is this terrible Woman, dark as the sky at midnight? ity; while her white teeth, pressed on her tongue, Who is this Woman represent sattva, the quality of calmness. Both dancing over the field of battle, then represent the quality of activity being con- Like a blue lotus that floats trolled by calmness. The garland of fifty skulls on a crimson sea of blood? represents the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alpha- Who is She, bet, which also means speech. The sword in her clad alone in the Infinite for a garment, upper left hand cuts our ignorance, or bondage; Rolling Her three great eyes while the severed head in the lower left hand is in frenzy and savage fury? Under the weight of Her tread said to bestow wisdom. As Kali stands on Shiva, the earth itself is trembling! who represents the Absolute aspect of God, so Siva, Her mighty Husband, Kali represents the cosmic power, or Shakti, that who wields the fearful trident, brings creation into being. Lies like a lifeless corpse beneath Her conquering feet.1 Why Kali? ho is this strange goddess, So this is, in short, what it all means. But still we and why, of all the gods and goddesses have to ask: Why Kali? Win Hinduism, would Sri Ramakrishna Every year at the Vedanta centre in South- ern California someone makes a large image of Pravrajika Shuddhatmaprana is a nun at Viveka- Kali that will be worshipped at the annual Kali nanda Retreat, Ridgely, New York. Puja festival in Hollywood. A new image is made 56 PB January 2016 Why Mother Kali? 67 every year because each year the one that has was established there, which is still there. M. been worshipped is immersed in water, accord- told the devotees: ‘At that time he [Sri Rama- ing to the traditional custom. One year when krishna] performed worship in the house of Raja one of the nuns in Santa Barbara was making the Digambar Mitra. He would carry the offered image, she went to a store that sells Hindu puja rice, fruits, and sweets that he had received from items to buy some decorations. The owner of that house and sit in front of the [Siddheshvari] the store was pleased that a Western woman was Kali temple. … People knew that the handsome buying Hindu puja items and asked what image young man had a good voice, so they would ask these decorations were for. When the nun told him to sing. He would sing to the Mother, then her it was for an image of Kali, the woman’s face return to his apartment distributing the prasad fell. ‘Why Kali?’ she asked. ‘Why not Lakshmi? to the people.’2 Why not Sarasvati? Why Kali?’ I don’t know In another version of the story it is said that what reply the nun gave. the young men of the neighbourhood knew that So, why did Sri Ramakrishna choose Kali? Sri Ramakrishna was something of a soft touch. It may seem, from a general reading of They would ask him to sit in front of the temple Sri Ramakrishna’s biography, that he did not and sing; meanwhile, they would ransack his of- have any interest in the worship of the Divine ferings, which were tied up in a towel. After sing- Mother—and especially in the form of Kali— ing, Sri Ramakrishna would leave, laughing and until after his brother Ramkumar came to the shaking out his towel.3 Dakshineswar temple to take up the job of Sri Ramakrishna was brought up in a fam- priest there. But we learn from the biography ily that had worshipped Raghuvir—that is, Sri of Swami Subodhananda that even before Sri Ramachandra—for generations, but his father Ramakrishna came to Dakshineswar—that is, also worshipped the goddess Sitala in a conse- when he was living in the Jhamapukur area of crated pot in Kamarpukur, as also Shiva. After Calcutta—he began spending much time at the Sri Ramakrishna’s sacred thread ceremony was Siddheshvari Kali temple of Thanthania. Sri performed, he was then eligible to worship all Ramakrishna was just a teenager then and was Ramkumar’s Sanskrit School at Jhamapukur helping his eldest brother, Ram- kumar, run a Sanskrit school. The Siddheshvari Kali temple, which was very close to the school, was owned by Swami Subodhanan- da’s family, and Sri Ramakrishna knew the family very well. M., the recorder of The Gos- pel of Sri Ramakrishna, also lived very close to that temple. Once he showed some devotees the place where Ramkumar’s San- skrit school used to be. Later a small Shyamsundar temple PB January 2016 57 68 Prabuddha Bharata these deities in the family shrine. According to Ramakrishna? Moreover, why was there this Swami Saradananda, while performing the wor- connection between them? ship of these deities, Sri Ramakrishna ‘became so Like our first question, ‘Why Kali?’, these absorbed in worship that he experienced bhava questions also cannot be answered so easily. This samadhi or savikalpa samadhi and sometimes is because Sri Ramakrishna was not an ordin- had various spiritual visions.’4 ary spiritual aspirant. It is obvious, looking at It is also said that Sri Ramakrishna’s eldest his life, that he was here on a divinely ordained brother Ramkumar was very devoted to the Di- mission. But, again, was it his mission or hers? vine Mother. According to Swami Saradananda: Sri Ramakrishna himself would not easily refer As a result of studying the scriptures, he [Ram- to it as ‘his’ mission. Generally, when he was on kumar] had become very drawn to the wor- a normal plane of consciousness, he considered ship of the Divine Mother; and now [when himself to be a child of the Mother. He often said he was still living in Kamarpukur] he was ini- that he was simply an instrument in the hands tiated into a Shakti mantra by an adept guru. of the Mother, and that it was she who blessed One day while worshipping the Goddess, his the devotees through him, and it was she who Chosen Deity, Ramkumar had a wonderful vi- sion. With Her finger, the Goddess wrote on laid out the plan for his life such as practising his tongue a mantra for the attainment of per- sadhanas of various religious paths. As Swami fection in astrology. After that, whenever he Saradananda writes: ‘The Mother had made him saw someone who was ill, he could tell whether understand clearly that it was She who had put that person would be cured. Because of that that desire into his mind [to see her in various power, whatever he predicted came true and he forms and by different spiritual paths] on many became a well-known soothsayer (96). occasions’ (647). Later, when Ramkumar and Sri Ramakrishna But there are other instances when Sri Rama- were living at the Dakshineswar temple, Ramku- krishna directly told devotees that they should mar asked Sri Ramakrishna to be initiated in a meditate on him,5 or give him ‘the power of at- Shakti mantra so that he too could worship the torney’6—that is, surrender to him. Again, he Divine Mother Kali. Sri Ramakrishna decided told many of the devotees, ‘He who came as to take initiation from Kenaram Bhattacharya, Rama and as Krishna has come now in this body who often came to the Dakshineswar temple and (pointing to himself)’ (238). All these indicate was highly regarded as ‘a devout spiritual aspir- that he was very much aware of himself as a di- ant’. Swami Saradananda writes: ‘We have heard vine incarnation with a mission. that as soon as the Master was initiated he went This contradiction can be resolved when we into ecstasy and that Kenaram was amazed by his understand that Sri Ramakrishna regarded him- extraordinary devotion’ (205). self and Mother Kali as one. One day at the Cos- sipore garden house, when Sri Ramakrishna was Who Chose Whom? dying of throat cancer, he said (placing his hand So we see that Sri Ramakrishna had a deep con- on his heart): ‘There are two persons in this. One, nection with the goddess Kali even before he the Divine Mother … Yes, one is She. And the started formally worshipping her. But, here we other is Her devotee. It is the devotee who broke could ask, did Sri Ramakrishna actually choose his arm, and it is the devotee who is now ill. Do Mother Kali, or did Mother Kali choose Sri you understand?’7 Again, speaking to M. one 58 PB January 2016 Why Mother Kali? 69 day, he made it very plain when he said: ‘Know anywhere, can remain unaffected. Again, the for certain that I and She (Kali of Dakshineswar) more we make an effort to connect with this are one, and there is no difference.