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Kālī’s devotees, however, experience her as a loving, nurturing, and protecting mother. With tear-filled eyes and a longing heart, they invoke her as Kālī Mā, asking her for health, wealth, and happiness, as well as liberation. Like a doting mother, she bestows all boons upon her human children. Sri Ramakrishna, who was a great devotee of the goddess, prayed to Kālī for the fruit of all Yogas and, as he confirmed, “She has shown me everything that is in the Vedas, the Vedanta, the Puranas, and the Tantra.”11 Toward her devotees, Kālī always presents her most benign aspect. Even her destructive side is modulated in a benevolent way, as a force that removes all inner and outer obstacles, especially spiritual blindness, and grants the highest realization beyond space and time. “Because You devour Time (kāla), You are called Kālī.” declares the Mahānirvāna-Tantra (IV. 32). At the end of time, the great Goddess also swallows up all the myriad forms filling space. Then she alone remains, in intimate union with her divine Beloved, Shiva—until the next Big Bang, when the cosmic egg newly arises from its own ashes. The Feminine Divine and the Masculine Divine are never really separate. Consequently Kālī’s destructive function is also often attributed to the supreme god Shiva. He is also called Mahākāla, meaning “Great Time.” Thus the Mahānirvāna-Tantra (5.141) has this pertinent verse, spoken by a devotee of the goddess: I worship the primal Kālikā [i.e., Kālī] whose limbs are like a [dark] rain cloud, who has the moon in her crown, is triple-eyed, clothed in red, whose raised hands are [in the gestures of] blessing and dispelling fear, who is seated on an open red lotus with her beautiful smiling face turned toward Mahākāla [i.e., Shiva], who, drunk on sweet wine, is dancing before her. Like Kālī’s grisly image, Shiva’s dance is one of the grand archetypes of Hinduism. The dancing Shiva is known as Natarāja, or “King of Dancers.” His performance extends throughout the universe. His repertoire, or dance steps, include the creation, preservation, and destruction of the world, as well as concealment of the truth and grace by which the ultimate Reality is revealed in its true form. What is not often appreciated outside India is that Shiva’s dance has several forms, each conveying a distinct but related message. Its best known form is that of the tāndava, which Shiva dances in wild abandon in the cemetery and cremation ground.
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