In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda explores Kali and her traditional meaning in Indian spirituality.

Kali is not the same as Kali Yuga. Kali with a long vowel and kali with short vowels have different meanings. Kali Yuga refers to the age of Kali, while kali means the weakest or the losing throw of the dice. Kali comes from the word kala, which means time. Kala is also a homonym that means black, although these words come from different roots. Time is closely connected with death. Where there is no time, there is no death. That is why the gods are regarded as timeless until they come down and take avatara, taking incarnation on Earth. Once they enter into time, they become subject to time and therefore subject to death. Time, death, and blackness have all been brought together, and from this emerges Kali.

Kali is one of the ten Mahavidyas, the ten great goddesses of the Indian tradition. There are many origin stories for Kali, but one of the most well-known comes from the Devi Mahatmya, also called the Chandi or Durga Saptashati. When the demons Chanda and Munda are afflicting the world and fighting with Durga, Durga becomes extremely upset, and from her emerges Kali, an intensely powerful, black, and fierce form. From that moment, the traditional imagery of Kali becomes established. She appears to destroy these two demons, and after defeating them she receives the name Chamunda, which is a name associated with Kali. Chanda means terrible, and Munda refers to a head, severed head, or corpse, representing a very fierce form of death and destruction.

This fierce nature is an essential part of Kali, but through the devotion and understanding of those who have worshipped the deities of the Indian subcontinent for thousands of years, she has also become a Matrika, a mother goddess. She is Ma Kali. Although her natural nature is fierce and associated with destruction, she can also heal and bless because she has the nature of the Supreme Mother, from whom everything emerges and into whom everything is eventually reabsorbed. Beginning from an extraordinary intensity of violence and power, Kali transcends that intensity and moves toward a state where harmony and balance can exist among all the forces that come together in the universe. Kali is beyond all limitations, especially the limitation of being mild. But those who worship her sincerely and genuinely can remind her that the same degree to which she is fierce, she is also gentle, because she is everything taken together.