35053668-Empire-of-the-Soul-Paul-William-Roberts

‘THERE’S BLOODLETTING AS WE SPEAK’
It instantly severed Sati’s body into fifty-one parts. These he scattered
all over India, to conceal them from her distraught husband. The
Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris is satisfyingly similar.
Sati’s right toe fell in what is now Calcutta, on the spot where the
Kalighat temple stands, making the place one of fifty-one pithas, the
most sacred of all destinations for pilgrims. To those who worship
Kali, devourer of human skulls, the most fearsome aspect of Siva’s
consort, Kalighat is the holiest temple in the world.
Thus, Calcutta is the city of Kali, active force of a god of
destruction, of death – the destruction and death that are essential to
life. To Christians, no image was more terrifying and repugnant than
that of Kali who was at one point a focus for thuggee, the dreaded cult
of ritual assassins who strangled their victims in the goddess’s name.
More recently, a gun-toting female Robin Hood figure, feared by
the rich and loved by the poor villagers her gang shared their loot
with, also worshiped Kali, remaining loyal to the Terrible Mother
even after she finally surrendered to the authorities who had failed
to capture her after years of trying.
Near the Kalighat temple stands Mother Teresa’s mission, one of
many institutions in Calcutta that have taken Kali’s destruction,
her City of Death, and from it have allegedly created a City of Joy.
Mighty opposites rule this world. In this clash of opposites, Calcutta
is the most truthful city on earth, exposing all the wounds, the scars,
the festering sores, the realities we in the West hide away as if they
did not exist. Calcutta shows what poverty and social injustice really
are. And that truth is a savage beauty making Calcutta one of the
most vitally alive and uncompromisingly real places in a world veiled
by maya, illusion. It’s also why tourists rarely visit the place now.
I travelled across town to the Kalighat temple to pay my respects
to the Fierce and Terrible Mother, and to ask the goddess’s help for
Lady Sinha. The present structure, built around 1790, is singularly
devoid of any architectural interest. But in the early evening it
thronged with devotees waiting to catch a glimpse of Kali Ma, to
have her darshan. A maze of crowded bazaars surrounds the building,
practically concealing it. Vendors offering puja articles, photos,
lockets, incense, dashboard minishrines in plastic, and countless
other mementoes of Kali Ma yelled out offers as I passed. Lit by
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