Kali and Kalidasa – The Fool Who Became a Poet

 

Kalidasa became one of India’s great classical poets, but the story of the man he had once been was very different. He was a devotee of Ma, and his name itself carries that connection: dasa means servant, making Kalidasa the servant of Kali. 

Before the life in which he became famous, Kalidasa had already worshipped Ma through nine incarnations. At the end of each one, he sacrificed himself to Her, cutting off his own head and allowing his blood to fall upon Her feet. Then came his tenth birth.

This time he was born extremely stupid and very ugly. He became a woodcutter. Other woodcutters could sell the same amount of wood for ten rupees, while Kalidasa received only two. His stupidity made him easy to exploit, but he did not seem particularly concerned. He had customers, he had enough food, and that was sufficient for him. 

In that same country lived a king whose daughter was both beautiful and exceptionally intelligent. She announced that she would marry only a man capable of defeating her in debate. Those who failed were put to death. Princes who came because they were attracted to her beauty eventually lost their lives when they could not overcome her in argument.

The king eventually ordered his minister to find the most foolish man in the kingdom. He intended to marry his daughter to such a man as a lesson to her.

The minister found Kalidasa sitting in a tree and cutting the very branch on which he was sitting. When told that the king wanted to see him, Kalidasa saw no reason to go. He had done nothing wrong. If the king wished to see him, he suggested, the king could come to him.

The minister therefore had two soldiers seize him and take him to the palace.

The king was astonished when he saw Kalidasa. He told him that he wanted him to marry his daughter. Kalidasa could not see why he should marry her when there were plenty of other girls. The king threatened to have him beheaded if he refused, and Kalidasa simply shrugged. 

The marriage took place.

The princess was veiled during the ceremony and had not properly seen the man she had married. Later, in the room prepared for the newlyweds, she saw Kalidasa sitting quietly. It was raining outside, and the animals in the forest were calling during the mating season.

She assumed that her husband was shy and tried to awaken his interest in her. Then she heard a camel calling.

She asked Kalidasa which animal was calling for its mate, hoping he would understand what she meant.

The Sanskrit word for camel was ushtra. Kalidasa could not pronounce it correctly.

“Utru, utru,” he replied.

Whatever desire the princess had felt disappeared. She realized that he could not speak Sanskrit and had not understood her question. She told him that he was not fit for her and ordered him to leave.

Until that moment Kalidasa had never experienced such humiliation. Now, for the first time, he became deeply troubled by his condition. He left his house and went to a temple of Kali. 

There he began striking his head against the feet of the image of Ma.

Something from his previous births remained within him. He continued until a few drops of his blood fell upon Her feet.

Then Ma came.

She appeared outside the temple and called to him, telling him that She was Kali and that he could ask Her for anything.

Kalidasa did not believe Her.

He stayed behind the closed door and told Her that he did not trust Her. He had become aware, at least vaguely, of his previous births, and he remembered that he had trusted Her before.

Ma asked him to trust Her now.

Kalidasa reminded Her that he had trusted Her nine times already and showed Her what had happened to him.

Then Ma asked him to open the door slightly so that he could see that She really was his Kali.

He agreed, but only enough to put his tongue through the opening.

Ma struck his tongue.

Immediately his speech changed. He received divine speech, and his appearance was transformed as well: he became tall and handsome. From that moment Ma remained with him constantly, and a beautiful verse praising Her arose spontaneously from his lips.

When Kalidasa returned to the palace, no one recognized him.

He gained entrance to the king by reciting a poem in praise of the princess. His words described her beauty through comparisons with things in nature, and while he was reciting, the princess appeared on the balcony behind the throne.

She saw him.

Immediately she fell in love with him.

Kalidasa did not need to speak. He answered her with a look and a smile. She then told her father that she wanted to marry this man and that he was the only man worthy of her.

The king reminded her that she was already married.

She refused to accept this.

When Kalidasa quietly revealed that he was her husband, the entire court was astonished. He thanked the king for giving him his daughter, while the king offered him extensive lands. Kalidasa declined them.

The princess then came before her father's throne and thanked him for having given her a husband worthy of her.

The king was relieved. The man he had once regarded as an idiot had become the husband his daughter considered worthy of herself. 

Kalidasa eventually left the kingdom and went to Ujjain, where he became part of the court of King Vikramaditya.

One of his poems, Meghaduta, tells of a Yaksha separated from his wife and longing for her. Svoboda connects the poem with Kalidasa’s experience on his wedding night. The man who had once been unable to express the pain of his rejection was now able, through the grace of Ma, to turn that experience into poetry.

His ignorance had been part of the path that brought him to Ma. If he had not been ignorant, he would not have been chosen for the marriage. If he had not been rejected, he might never have gone to the temple and struck his head against the stone.

The circumstances that seemed to ruin him became the circumstances through which Ma reached him. 

Ma wanted him to remain in the world for some time and give his poetry to it. If he had recognized Her immediately, he would never have thought of marriage and the life of a householder. Instead, She allowed him to become caught to some extent in Her Maya and then rescued him.

Through those entanglements, he became Her tongue and Her mouthpiece.

Sometimes Ma allows a person to worship Her for years. Then circumstances arise that force the person to release the bonds of Maya, and She comes to him.

It is all Her play.

Source & Note

This article is based on Robert E. Svoboda’s Aghora: At the Left Hand of God. The material has been edited and adapted for this publication.