Why Is Kali Called “Mother”?

 Kali is called Mother, although her form is unlike the gentle image that the word might first suggest. She is dark and terrible in appearance, and in the stories of the Goddess she appears amid destruction and battle. Yet she is the Divine Mother, and this is one of the central ways in which Kali is approached.

The Mother is not limited to one appearance. The Goddess reveals herself in different forms, and Kali belongs to the form in which her power is fierce and terrible. She is the power that appears in the battle with the demons, and it is through this power that the enemies of the gods are destroyed.

In the story of Raktabija, Kali appears when the Goddess is faced with a demon whose blood gives birth to more demons. She drinks his blood before it can fall upon the earth, and in this way prevents the endless multiplication of his power. Her appearance is frightening, but she acts as the power of the Goddess in the destruction of the demon.

This is part of the mystery of Kali as Mother. The same Goddess who appears with a terrible form is also the Divine Mother. Her darkness and her fierceness do not take away her motherhood. Kali is not called Mother because she resembles a gentle or peaceful mother in appearance, but because she is the Mother in her own fierce form.

The stories of Kali therefore cannot be separated from the idea of the Divine Mother. She may appear upon the battlefield, surrounded by destruction, yet she remains the Goddess who is approached as Mother.

Her terrible form is one aspect of the Mother’s power. It is the form that confronts the demons and brings their power to an end. In this way Kali stands within the larger mystery of the Goddess, whose power can appear both as protection and as destruction.

To call Kali Mother is therefore to address the Goddess herself. Beneath the frightening form, beneath the wild hair, the terrible face and the weapons of the battlefield, she remains the Divine Mother.

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.

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