Words on the Way - Muz Murray Mantra Yoga Master

Kalå (ka-larh)
Var: Kalaa,
Sense: ‘Part or fraction.’
Kål⁄ kah-lee) (kah
Var: Kalee, Kalai
Synon: Annapur~å (in her aspect as nourisher); Bhadra (the
auspicious); Chåmundå (as the killer of the Buffalo-demon
Mahisha); Maheçi— as consort of Mahesh (Shiva)
Sense: ‘Goddess Kål⁄ represents that aspect of shakti or energy,
which sustains and devours Life and Time in the cosmic activity
of destruction and creation.’
Although her roots have been traced back to pre-Aryan Vedic
sources, Kål⁄ developed over centuries to finally become the
primary, supreme and awesomely fierce goddess of the Tantric
tradition. Her earliest known literary debut was in the
Mårka~∂eya Purå~a, in which she is said to have been born
from the brow of Durgå (the consort of Shiva) during a battle
with demons. She is dark-skinned, naked and gory, with blooddripping
fangs, a necklace of skulls, a skull in one hand and a
cleaver in the other.
In this form she was worshipped by the thuggees (hashish
imbibing assassins: from which the word ‘thugs’was derived in
English). And she is still so worshipped at Kalighat in Kolikatta
(Calcutta) together with dreadful ritualistic animal sacrifices.
By contrast, her image in the temple at Dakshineshwar is
benign and beatific. But in both forms she is believed to be kind
and compassionate towards her devotees, but devastating to her
enemies.
Root: Kål⁄ derives from the feminine of Kåla (Time) —another
aspect of Shiva (The Lord of Time)—and therefore she is the
Mistress of Time and Nature (Prak®iti
Prak®iti); the cycles of ages and
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