Invoking Kali

by: Priya Sarukkai Chabria , June 14, 2021

Invoking Kali draws on the Sanskrit genre of sacred stotra (स्तोत्र) literature, which is comprised of odes, eulogies or hymns of praise within codified poetic structures. This poem refers to the namavalli and sahasranamam, which translate as ‘garland of names and praises’ and ‘1000 names’ respectively wherein each name, attribute or epithet lauds an aspect of the god or goddess to whom the hymn is dedicated.  The subject of this poem is the goddess Kali, whose name means Black or Death, symbolising the dread and darkness of Time that she commands. She is regarded as ferocious, untameable, and victorious as a warrior, but also tender, compassionate and protective as a mother. Kali embodies shakti— feminine energy, sanctity, profound wisdom, creativity and fertility – and is an incarnation of Parvati/ Durga Devi, wife of the great Hindu god Shiva. 

 The goddess is often invoked as a figurehead in movements of resistance, especially those of violence against women (which, alas, have not cut down India’s appalling crime rate against women). However, some of these well–intended invocations interpret Kali in a narrow sense: primarily as an avenging goddess. This locates her in a mundane power equation of wielding greater destruction than the violence at hand.  Crucially, such readings relinquish her agency of vast love and spirituality and, with it, our urgent need to reimagine the world and its peoples as aligned with cosmic harmonies and capable of infinite potential and possibilities that the goddess grants. Further, it denies the fact that underlying emotions of love and compassion often galvanise movements of outrage and protest. 

Invoking Kali was written during Durga Puja, a community festival to the Great Goddess, of whom Kali Devi is an emanation. In 2020, Puja was low-key and conducted within homes due to the lockdown, a fact that highlights the numerous mistakes we, as a species, have made and continue to make.  In the face of suffering on a global scale, this poem is a lava-tongued supplication to the untameable, non-hierarchical auspiciousness of Kali Devi for courage and grace, so that we create a wise vision for all life on our pale blue dot.  Beginning with the individual ‘I’, the poem ripples outward. In this, it is also overlaid by the impassioned personal mode of medieval bhakti /devotional poetry which was written in the mother tongue, and called for breaking social boundaries in the path of spiritual inclusiveness.  I translate bhakti poetry from Classical Tamil, which, in multiple ways, has transformed my approach to life and language. 

 

 A note on my formal choices: The lack of capital letters, full stops and verse breaks indicated by double bars II all refer to and point away from earlier male access to the ‘pure’ language of Sanskrit. For instance, Sanskrit dramatist Mahakavi /Great Poet Kalidasa ( 4th-5th CE) had his women characters and servants speak in the ‘common’ language of Prakrit while male characters dialogued in the ‘perfected, put together and adorned’ language of power , Sanskrit.  Today, a growing number of women priestesses conduct sacred rituals in Sanskrit.  

 

II mother

 

sole source who survives

the universe’s cycles of cessation & creation &

is present in the pauses too

who sees suns as firefly blinks

 

cosmic darkness

who makes every shape every form

however small however strange

quiver with life 

 

boundless

love unstoppable

forgiving fearless frightening

in whose sapphire veins blood boils 

 

limitless intelligence

preserving & devouring   

fragrant with holiness 

as a milky way of jasmine

 

accept our pranams II

 

 

II auspiciousness

 

your tongue unfurls across

galaxies sucking in poisons

like nectar of blue lotuses

 

your hair unravels

creating rivers trees capillaries

clouds of connected stars

 

you are unclothed bliss

unlike us webbed in illusions

who confuse abominations for amrut

 

annihilate

our ignorance   replace

our hatred with staggering love II 

 

II divine wisdom

 

protector of poets

behead me

 

make mine the head necklaced

in blood that you pluck 

 

like a fruit     make me crimson

gore that gleams on your sword 

 

extinguish my ego &  

free me      resplendence  II

 

II benevolence

 

your skull garland swings 

from soft  breasts to navel  

 

each cranium potent 

with languages’ power     

 

 dance on my tongue    

 make my every breath a song

 

that you stamp  with ruby soles     

accept me goddess II

 

II  compassionate killer

 

absolve me of karma

let my hacked arms hang 

 

as rakta-beaded girdle over your pubis

unleash me mother II

 

II rampaging kali      

with heart in my mouth      

eyes blinded by your kindness 

i ask for shelter    

consume me devi II