Kali Yuga and Goddess Kali

A lot of people confuse the goddess Kali with Kali-Yuga. The main reason is that Sanskrit does not present itself exactly in roman alphabets, without diacritical markings. The goddess “Kali” is k-(long) a-l-(long) i. The age “Kali” is k-a-l-i. The difference is that in the goddess the a and i are long and in the age the a and i are short. In sanskrit a long a is as different from a short a as t is different from b or d in English. They are entirely different letters. It would be better to spell it:

Goddess Kaalii
Age of Kali

Kali (as in the age) means “one.” So kali-yuga just means “Age One.” It’s called Age One because it only has one fourth power. The word “kali” specifically means “the side of a dice marked with a 1.” So, the word also implies “worst” or “lowest.”

There is a divinity named kali, but it is not the goddess kaalii. It’s a male deity who is the son of Krodha (anger) and Himsa (violence). His sister is Durukti (harshness), and he impregnates her to have the children Bhaya (fear) and Mrtyu (death).

So Age One is the worst one, and these sorts of traits come out into the world very abundantly.

Goddess Kaalii is entirely different. She is the divine energy in a destructive form. As such she is a destructive mood of Shiva’s consort, Parvati.

Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

Personification of the Age, Kali

Goddess Kaalii (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ardra Naksatra: Siva destroys himself and becomes a goddess!

This is an excerpt from the draft chapter on Ardra, the sixth star of the Vedic sidereal zodiac, from my forthcoming book.

Protector of the Divine Beauty of Rasa

Residents of the holy city of Vṛṇdāvana is tell a sacred legend of Śiva as “Gopeśvara Mahādeva.” This tale beautifully illustrates how Ārdrā forms a wall barring the undeserving from entering the realm of Rohiṇī; how destruction of the unreal and utter forgetfulness and abandonment of ones ego is required before one can enter into the true beauty and pleasure of spiritual abundance. I will now tell you that tale:

In the middle of the full-moon-lit autumn night, Śrī Kṛṣṇa held the magnificent “dance of rasa,” manifesting the true infinitude of abundant romantic beauty that is partially reflected by Rohiṇī’s fullest glory. You should already know what rasa is, and what its significance is, because we discussed it while discussing Mṛgaśīrṣā.

Śiva rushed to the spot to participate in the rasa-dance. Vṛṇdā, the goddess of Vṛṇdāvana, stopped him in his tracks at the outskirts of the forest groves. “You are not permitted to enter!” She declared.

Śiva was crushed and dejected. “Why!?”

“No male exists in the rasa-dance except Kṛṣṇa,” Vṛṇdā explained. “Because you hold on to the false-identity of being a male, your presence cannot be tolerated there. You are barred from entry!”

From a great distance, Śiva could hear and see and smell and feel the excitement of the rāsa-dance. He could taste its intoxicating sweetness on the breezes. This drove him mad with desire.

“I am Rudra!!!” He declared. “I can destroy, dismantle, and put an end to everything!!! Therefore I will destroy my own male ego!” With this ferociously powerful determination he entered meditation upon the supreme female, Śrī Rādhā, the central figure of the rāsa-dance, seeking her blessing.

Hearing his prayers, Śrī Rādhā sent her closest confidant, Lalitā, to Śiva, who sat in fiery, passionate meditation at the edge of the forest. Lalitā imparted to Śiva all the profound conceptions required to develop the inner ego of a purely feminine goddess fit to partake in Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s paramount revelry of rāsa. Yet Śiva’s male body remained.

Lalitā escorted him to the Yamunā. “Submerge yourself in it,” she commanded. By her blessing, when Śiva again emerged from the water his possessed a new physical self to matched his new internal self: he had the form of a divine goddess of rāsa, a Gopī.

When Śrī Kṛṣṇa saw this new gopī entering the rāsa-dance hand in hand with Lalitā a surge of happiness and mischief erupted from his transcendental being. Because this gopī was none other than Śiva (who is called Maheśvara, the great controller) Kṛṣṇa playfully nicknamed her Gopeśvara.

When the annihilation and destructive force of Ārdrā is given spiritual direction, it dismantles the false ego and one can pass its barrier into the blessed realms of Kṛttikā, Mṛgaśīrṣā and ultimately Rohiṇī.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

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Krishna and Radha dancing the Rasalila, Jaipur, 19th century. Opaque watercolour with gold on paper. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Vedic Pantheon – and the 1st lord in the 9th house

Image via Wikipedia

In Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, the sage Parashara illustrates the nature of the 1st lord in the 9th house by stating that it inclines one to become a “Vishnu devotee.” I will now explain what he is talking about.

The Vedic pantheon contains many gods. There are two reason why: (1) There are many powers in nature, thus many gods, and (2) There are many different people who need different things from religion. Most of the gods have specific roles, rather like sanctified stores in the shopping mall of religion. If you need x,y,z go to God #34, if you need a,b,c go to God #28, etc. The head among the gods are Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma. Brahma is not quite on the same level as the other two because he, like the other gods, is an ordinary being invested with the power to act as a god. Vishnu and Shiva, on the other hand are directly Godhead. So these two are well known as the cheif Gods of the Vedic pantheon. Shiva has the responsibility of destroying things – ultimately the entire universe; while Vishnu takes charge of preserving the universe and its components.

The 1st lord in the 9th house increases ones interest in being moral, which in some form or another is “religion.” In a sense, the 1st lord in the 9th house – on it’s own, in isolation from other factors in your horoscope – is a symbol of the pinnacle of morality and religiousity. The author illustrates this by pointing specifically to Vishnu specifically because he, following the standard classical Vedic conclusion, considered Vishnu-centered religion the topmost evolution of morality. Why? Because it is the least selfish. After all, selfishness is the antithesis of morality! So it is very logical that the gods whose function is to fulfill desires, etc. are subordinate to the Godhead who is worshipped for the sake of morality alone.

Actually, the author does not merely point to “Vishnu-religion.” He points to a “Vishnu devotee.” This refers specifically to the Vedic spiritual path of bhakti. Bhakti is the root of all spiritual paths because it is the essence of all morality – love.

By illustrating the 1st lord in the 9th house with the image of a Vishnu devotee, the author means to communicate that this placement makes one truly moral, truly religious. It decreases the interest in religious pretention or secterian badge-wearing and increases the interest of being at the heart of what morality and religion really is all about: serving others and loving the divine.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

Capricorn Earrings of the Gods

The Supremely Attractive and Enchanting Krishna, the ultimate Godhead of Vishnu, wears earrings.

In both ears he wears “makara-kundala.” Kundala just means “earring.” Makara means “Capricorn.” What is a Capricorn? A “mythological” creature most akin to a sea-dragon which is a blend of crocodile and dolphin. It has the fearsome power of a Crocodile’s unyielding bite, but the timid intelligence and grace of a dolphin in its long tail. It is something like a “shark” but much grander and exotic.

Krishna wears this creature as his earrings. Lord Shiva also wears one of them on his ear. And the goddess of the river ganges rides upon a makara as her steed.

Why?

In ancient Indian culture males wear many ornaments, like females. But male ornamentation is, sort of like men themselves, very connected to status. Women wear earrings and such to enhance their natural beauty. Men wear them to display their power and accomplishments.

In ancient Indian culture, the Capricorn Earring is the symbol of extreme accomplishment in education. The dolphin tail is the most intelligent and sensitive creature – and its combination with a crocodile’s mouth gives it the manly power to put its intellect into action with unstoppable power.

The Goddess of the river Ganges, Ganga-Maataa, has a Capricorn for her steed because she is a powerful river, powerful like a crocodile, yet is wise and learned and intelligent like the dolphin.

The God Shiva wears one Capricorn earring to show his intellectual understanding of the entire complexity of the universe (dolphin) yet his power to destroy it all (crocodile) – as is his task every several trillion years.

Krishna is the original form of Godhead. This is not a sectarian boast but a philosophical truism: The ultimate meaning of life is happiness (we all intuitively know this from the depths of our bones to the fringes of our skin). Krishna is the form of Godhead who, with his co-manifestation as Goddess Radha, manifests the happiness and joy of life to the deepest infinite extremes. Thus it is simply an ontological observation that Radha-Krishna is the ultimate and original form of life, Godhead.

When Krishna wears Capricorn earrings it displays his erudition and accomplishments in the arts. In ancient India arts included the musical, visual, dance, theatrical dimensions we are accustomed to today, as well as arts in the subject of flirtation, romance and lovemaking. All these arts are imperitive to the full enjoyment of life, therefore the Godhead Krishna – who most deeply manifests the bliss of existence – is the most learned in all of these arts. This is what his Capricorn earrings signify.

The Bhagavata Purana, in the 65th verse of the 24th poem in its 9th book, says:

yasyānanaḿ makara-kuṇḍala-cāru-karṇa-
bhrājat-kapola-subhagaḿ savilāsa-hāsam
nityotsavaḿ na tatṛpur dṛśibhiḥ pibantyo
nāryo narāś ca muditāḥ kupitā nimeś ca

Beautiful ears adorned with Capricorn earrings.
Brilliantly opulent decorations upon his forehead
And most beautiful of all: the enjoyable smiles decorating his mouth
To see his face is to celebrate an endless festival

But because that vision is interrupted by eyelids when we blink
We think the Creator of our eyes to be an idiot!

The swinging of Krishna’s earrings attracts to him all of us, souls who deeply year for our natural “birthright” of pure love and joy. The dolphin tail of the Capricorn causes the earrings to dance delightfully – but the crocodile bite of the Capricorn sinks its teeth into our consciousness and never lets go. To look upon the Capricorn earrings of Godhead is thus to become lost forever to a world of pure happiness.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com