The Hindu Goddess Kali: The Struggle Between Good And Evil

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The Hindu Goddess Kali has a frightening reputation as a destroyer of demons. She is associated with death, destruction, battlefields and cremation grounds. Her name is said to mean "the black one" or "the dark one. Kali has the power to destroy the world, returning it to the dark void, a place of no time and no form. Kali also represents Shakti - feminine energy, creativity and fertility - and is an incarnation of Parvati, wife of the Hindu god Shiva. Her husband, the God Shiva, is the only one has the power to calm her rage. When she is caught up in a demon and evil destroying frenzy he calms her by laying himself down in front of her to make her pause and return to her senses. Which is why in most portraits of her, Kali is seen stepping on a man much more pale then she, who is Shiva.

There are many different stories about the origin of the goddess Kali, and one of them claims that Kali was born when the goddess Parvati shed her dark skin; the sheath became Kali, which is why many people believe Kali is an …show more content…
Kali wears a crown of skulls and a skirt of dismembered arms because the ego arises out of identification with the body. In truth we are beings of spirit and not flesh. So liberation can only proceed when our attachment to the body ends. So the crown and skirt are trophies worn by her to symbolize having liberated her children from attachment to the human body. She holds a sword and a freshly severed head dripping blood. As a popular story says, this represents a great battle in which she destroyed the demon Raktabija. Her black skin represents the womb from which all of creation arises and into which all of creation will eventually dissolve. She is shown as standing on Shiva who lies beneath her with white skin (in contrast to Her black or sometimes dark blue skin). He has a blissful detached
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