Means black and the goddess which is the symbol of power and worshipped by Hindus as their superior deity, is called kali. In Hinduism, there is a concept of trinity which is known as a Brahma, Vianu and Maheswora or Shiva. Also there is a concept of trinity among the goddess and they are Laxmi, Saraswoti and Kali. In this chapter, we are concentrating to share some basic information in a brief about kali. There are several stories about her and sometime the man from different culture found her as mysterious and terrifying goddess and sometime they asked themselves that how can be such a terrifying aspect can be respected and worshipped by the people as their deity? Same experience happened during the colonial period in India. When the British came to India, the saw an image of kali with the naked black body, ornaments with human skulls, the waistband of chopped off forearms, her outstuck red tongue filled with blood, the sawed off human head in her hand, the knife in another hand, two other red palmed hands stuck up behind her in gestures of beneficence, dancing on the corpse, and terrifying environment around her, the first man from other culture was in shock. On top of that all, there was a lack of intrepratation of the symbols and its meaning mystified the people. This made confusion and created the revulsion upon the venerable Hindu goddess of power.

The philosophy behind is meaningful, which goes back to the time of Vedas. The abstract picture has basic philosophy of apoureshya, not bornof any purusha, any one individual. It has not been created, it is an eternal fundamental truth, it existed when nought did not exist, will continue to existing and in the future. This extremely evolved analytical school of thought is the Tantra and Shakti, the life force is its driving energy, kali is one manifestation of this primordial spark of life without which there can be no matter, no form, no work, no power.

Kali has four hands, two hands on her left holds a knife and cut human head, with the top right hand, she offers boon, with the lower right, she grants solace, protection from all fears, this is the synergy of fear and love, the opposing forces that play in nature, in the physical and emotional world. The symbolism of the knife and cut head is to be aspired to see beauty in havoc. This is true of all aspects of kali and in this page we try to present a holistic perspective on kali. Going back to the kalis appearance and her significance of he weapons and cut off hed in her hands, her right hands show beneficence and offer salvation, that is the complete freedom from all worries, pains, sufferings, travails and tribulations. How should the human reach that destination? Her left hands show the direction. The sawed off head is symbolic of the ego. The sense of I,the love, the pride and all other emotions attached to the feeling of self. One can separate the self from all worldly wealth with greater or lesser pain. The greatest sacrifice that one can make is to destroy the feeling of individuality. This is the greatest hurdle to salvation. The shining scimitar in the hand of kali is to destroy all these hurdles and bring to human being to the path of salvation. Behind kali hangs her abundant hair, a curtain of darkness, which is the representation of yamas clock, the god of death and his time. She wears the garlands of heads which is the repository of knowledge, the temple of wisdom and the seat of thought, so the goddess of power, protects thegerm of idea and all kinds of emotions on her shoulder as a garland. In her garland, there are 50 heads, which represents the 50 alphabets of the Sanskrit language which is considered by hindus as a holy language.

She wears no dress as such but around her waist hangs a belt of chopped off forearms. It is interesting to note that all the arms are right ones, which is the symbol of karma, the works that we do, acts we undertake, every acts has its own recoil. The three eyes of kali has also some explanation, they represents the sun, the moon, and the fire, three illuminators of our life. They make the world visible to us without of them, the world would remain dark. The extended tongue is symbolic of mysteriousness on the victory, the bright redness is representative of the lust for life, the desire to achieve material wealth, for more and more of corporeal success, to win over others, to arouse the envy others through ones own achievements, these have been referred to as three qualities as Raja, Satwa, Tama. Raja is symbol of egoness, who has inclination towards the material achievements and successes, but does not necessarily bring happiness in its wake, at least not everlasting happiness. Kalis red tongue is champed down by white teeth, and white is the symbol of purity, clarity, light. When the light of pure knowledge dawns on a person, he can see, with awesome clarity, that is the path to unending happiness opens up when the ego is sacrificed. Than the satwa guna arises and the prize is the salvation and victory over the misery. In an essence, kali is the tradition which is beyond the explanation and beyond the description but this is the glorious tradition to worship the female deity and respect the mother goddess.