“The Two Kalis”
The Hindu goddess Kali was associated with death and destruction. And kali means black – for most, the color of death. But to Sri Ramakrishna and other devotees she was the Divine Mother. “The realization of God – the vision of the Divine Mother – became the one passion of Sri Ramakrishna.”[1] So much of his sacred life was spent “calling on the Mother whole-heartedly.”
Within each of us, there are these two Kalis – the mother of fear and the Divine Mother of Love. The holiness of Sri Ramakrishna was that he came to Know only Her. My one lingering doubt is whether he came to Her through his mother or around her – for it is she we must Know as She. The first goddess must be one’s own mother.
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[1] Life of Sri Ramakrishna. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1977, p. 52.
