Beware of Following Kali, She Will Destroy Your Life
I hoped that was less of a warning than a promise
“Kali is the goddess of divine transformation,” boomed my yoga philosophy teacher.
We’d been studying the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon, but this lesson caused me to sit up straighter on the yoga shala’s cement floor. Kali was no sober-minded goddess of art and music (Sarasvati), or fertility (Lakshmi), or, heaven forefend, devotion (Parvati). This entity was something else entirely.
“Legend has it that the warrior Kali was born when all the other gods combined their shakti [divine energy] to create one superior being who could destroy the evil demon Raktabija.”
According to my teacher, the gods had long been in a battle of good and evil. Thus far, the demon Raktabija had been impossible to defeat because each time his blood fell to the ground, his clone would sprout on the spot. To defeat this enemy, Kali fought his warrior clones with her four arms, using her fierce tongue to lap up every drop of his blood before it touched the earth. When at last there was only one Raktabija left, she beheaded him and drank his blood.
My immediate thought was, Perfect! I will worship her.
