Kali’s Seed Mantra – KRĪM

Tantric sadhana uses symbols in the form of mantras and yantras. In Harding’s description of Kali, the Goddess has her own seed mantra, or bija-mantra: KRĪM. She describes it as the sound representation of the Mother. The inner meaning of this mantra, Harding notes, can be understood only through deep meditation. 

Harding gives a meaning to each of its sounds. K signifies full knowledge. R signifies that the Mother is auspicious. Ī signifies the giver of blessings, while M signifies the giver of freedom. These meanings are presented as part of the explanation of Kali’s bija-mantra.

The mantra is also given in the form OM KRĪM KALI. Harding describes the repetition of this mantra as a practice through which the mind of the aspirant is divinely transformed. It moves from the gross state of worldly affairs toward the subtle light of Kali’s pure Consciousness. 

The mantra is presented together with the yantra as part of tantric sadhana. Kali appears in both forms: through the sound of the mantra and through the geometric form of the yantra. Harding describes the Kali Yantra as having the bindu at its centre, surrounded by geometric forms, a circle and an eight-petalled lotus. The bindu in the Kali Yantra occupies the same position as the bindu in the Shiva Yantra. Harding connects this with the unity of the highest feminine and masculine principles, describing Kali as the energetic aspect of material nature united with the Absolute, Shiva, for the sake of creation.

The use of letters has another place in Harding’s description of tantric practice. She describes anga-nyasa, in which the aspirant dedicates different parts of the body to the Mother by placing various letters upon them, both vowels and consonants. During this practice, the aspirant is to feel that each part of the physical body, together with the biological processes taking place within it, belongs to the Mother and not to oneself. 

This practice gives another place to the letters within the worship of Kali. They appear in the mantra, and they are also used in the dedication of the body to the Mother through anga-nyasa. Harding does not present the mantra simply as a word to be translated. Its inner meaning, she says, belongs to deep meditation, while its given meanings point to knowledge, auspiciousness, blessings and freedom. 

The KRĪM mantra is therefore one of the forms through which Kali is approached in the tantric tradition described by Harding. It belongs together with the yantra and with practices such as anga-nyasa, where sound, letters, the body and the worship of the Mother are brought into the same practice.

Source & Note

This article is based on Elizabeth U. Harding’s Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar (Nicolas-Hays, 1993). The material has been edited and adapted for this publication.