~~OM~~

The great Rishis of India were invited to a conference at Rama's court in Ayodhya for the occassion of blessing the pregnancy of Sita. This is the dialogue that took place.

Vashishta said to Ram, "Remove all egotism from your mind, and open the doors of humility. Open up the reservoir of your heart, place it beside the lotus feet of these respected examples of pure knowledge, and receive the teachings of wisdom and devotion and the knowledge of non-duality."

Ram said, "It is said that the gift of wisdom is the greatest gift that can be bestowed. I have very limited knowledge, and you all are repositories of great learning. Please show me your grace, and whatever wisdom you think that I'm worthy of receiving, please share that with me. My ears are ever so much desiring to drink the nectar of your words."

Agastya Muni said, "Experience Truth for yourself and don't rely only upon the experiences of others. Truth has only one reference for verification - personal experience. If a teacher says 'I have seen, but you cannot see,' please do not accept such a one as a guru. He who says, 'I have seen, and now I shall show you how you may see.' You should make such a one your guru. You can trust in him or her.

"The ignorant is like he who is sitting beside a mountain of gold, yet still remains a beggar. He who has met his guru and has opened his heart, allows the guru to show him how to see. He is a man of wisdom.

"When a soul rises into the atmosphere it can see for a great distance. Just as when one rises to the top of a high place and looks down upon the scenery, even the greatest and tallest of mountains appears to be small from the perspective of height. When the soul looks down from the heights of Self-Realization and sees all of life, it frees itself from attachment.

"The actions that one encounters in life appear to be very small, just as the mountains upon the earth. As high as the soul will rise, so great a distance can be perceived both before and after, the actions which will happen in the life of that soul. Just as from the heights of above, one can see that even beyond the most difficult of mountains lies a very beautiful valley. This is what we call a perceiver of the three times; a Trikaldarsi is one who knows the events of the past, present and future."

Ram asked, "Please tell me according to the Vedas and other scriptures, what is the greatest dharma and what is the greatest evil."

"Ahimsa - causing harm to none, is the greatest dharma, and the greatest evil is the hatred of others."

"Please tell what is the greatest pain and what is the greatest pleasure?"

"Daridya - Mental affliction is the greatest pain, and Peace is the greatest pleasure. So the greatest pleasure is in meeting with saints, Satsangha. Just as the water from the Ganges River cleans both the inside and the outside of the body, in the same way, meeting with saintly beings gives peace both to the mind and to the soul."

"Please tell me by what means is a saint known, and by what means is a pretender known."

"A saint is always thinking for the welfare of others, whereas an unsaintly being is always thinking for his own personal gain or even of destroying others. The saintly being does good even to those who do him harm. Just like the sandlewood tree: if anyone cuts into the tree, even still, the tree gives forth its beautiful fragrence. The saintly being is always engaged in striving for the upliftment and welfare of everyone. An unsaintly being is known by his capacity to do harm to others and do harm even to himself in the process."

"Learned Sirs, please tell the difference between Bhakti - Devotion, and Jnana - Wisdom."

"Wisdom is like a light. Devotion is like a jewel. Both of them give forth light. When you understand either of them, darkness flees. In all four directions there is illumination. In order to make a light you need a container, some oil and a wick. But a gem or a jewel shines by it's own effulgence. From the winds of desire, anger, greed and ignorance the flame of the light can be extinguished. But greed, anger, desire or ignorance can never extinguish the light of the jewel of Devotion. That jewel shines by the power of its own Self-effulgence. In this way, in whoever's heart true devotion resides, no desire, no greed or other limitation can ever have an effect upon that heart.

"The enemy of Wisdom is ego. One can fall because of ego. The devotee is always humble; therefore, how can he fall? Wisdom is a man. Maya is a woman. Wisdom can be afflicted by the passions for Maya. Therefore he may fall. The man falls for the woman. But devotion is a woman. And devotion - a woman, can never fall for Maya, a woman. A woman rarely falls in love with another woman. Therefore, Maya has little or no power over devotion."

"Please tell me what is the relationship between a devotee and a Jnani, someone who follows the path of Wisdom?"

"The attitude of a devotee is like the relationship between a mother and her small child. If the child were to grab hold of a snake, or in any situation of danger, the mother will always protect it. But when the child is bigger, a young man like the Jnani, she would think that the child could protect himself. The responsibility does not remain with the mother. Therefore, God will always protect a devotee who is like a small child. And like a grown young man, God will leave the Jnani to his own devices."

~~OM~~

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'Kal' means Darkness; Kali takes away that Darkness. She takes away the darkness from every individual who strives in the path of perfection by performing the spiritual disciplines of purifying austerities. Just as all the colors of the spectrum mix into black, yet still black remains black, so too, Kali, who is completely Dark, Unknowable, takes away all the Darkness, yet She, Herself, remains unchanged.

'Kal' means Time and 'i' means the Cause; Kali, the Cause of Time or She Who is Beyond Time, activates Consciousness to perception, allows Consciousness to perceive.

She wears a garland of the heads of impure thoughts, which She has severed from the personalities of Her devotees. She cuts down all the conflicting concepts which debate their various ideologies within the arena of mind, silences the tumultuous roar of mental conflict and the anguish of egotistical attachment, takes the physical manifestations to Herself, and makes a garland of perplexity. Thus She wears all karma as an ornament, while She stops the chattering voices of the active mind, so that Her devotees can experience the purity of inner peace in the absorption of solitude.

As the Destroyer of Madhu and Khaitabha, Too Much and Too Little, She puts Her devotees in the balance of divine meditation.

She is called Camunda, the Slayer of Anger and Passion, who cuts down all the angry thoughts and impure passions along with their tremendous armies. When Canda and Munda, Anger and Passion, hurled thousands of discuses at Her, She merely opened wide Her mouth, and all of those terrible opposing weapons entered the gateway to infinity, absorbed into Her being without effect.

She took all the horses of the cavalry of thoughts, along with their chariots and charioteers; elephants along with their drivers, protectors and armor; and uncountable thousands of warriors of the army of thoughts; She put them into Her mouth and hideously began to chew. She took all the soldiers of the armies opposing divinity, the entire army of thoughts, projections, speculations, and immediately She digested them all.

Witnessing the destruction of confusion, the Gods experience extreme joy! See how many contemplations, prejudices and attitudes from which we have been freed! Having given up all the difficulties, all the thoughts, the very ego itself, to Kali, the mind experiences the utmost peace and delight!

Raktabija, who performed great austerities, was awarded the boon that whenever a drop of his blood would touch the ground, in that very same place a new Raktabija would be born with the same vitality, courage and strength, the same capacity to captivate the mind. Rakta means red, the color; it also means blood and passion; most specifically, a passion for something - Desire. Bija means the seed; Raktabija literally translates as the Seed of Desire.

See how he manifests in action. In order to accomplish his desire, he multiplies into countless new desires with the same intensity, the same capacity of captivating the mind, all of which seek fulfillment as well. As we find desire for one thing, one drop of blood has touched the ground, and immediately, automatically, a new 'something' is required in order to fulfill that desire. Another drop.

This goes on indefinitely, causing a continual necessity to act. Every time a Seed of Desire touches the ground, a new Seed of Desire is born in that very same place. Ultimately the entire earth has been filled with Seeds of Desire.

Seeing this and understanding fully well the tremendous import and significance of the all-pervasiveness of desire, the Gods became extremely dejected. In great alarm we all called to the Divine Mother for help. 'Oh Compassionate Kali, stick out your tongue and drink up all the desires of existence. Only your mouth has sufficient capacity to consume all desire! And when you will have digested all desire, then the Gods will be free from desire.'

This is why She shows Her very lovely, red, protruding tongue -- in order to make all existence free from desire.

Kali is most often depicted as standing upon the corpse-like form of Lord Shiva, dancing upon the stage of Consciousness. She is the perceivable form of Consciousness. Consciousness is awareness. Rather than the actor, Consciousness is the witness of all action. That is why Lord Shiva is shown as a lifeless corpse: still, immobile, his eyes are fixed, trained on the image of the Divine Mother. All that Consciousness perceives is the dance of Nature.

She is dancing to infatuate Him, causing Him to direct His attention to Her. But Shiva does not forget that it is Nature who is dancing, not I; and He remains the silent Witness. This body is Nature. I am Consciousness, the silent witness of the actions of Nature. I am not the performer. This body acts according to its nature, because that is its nature. Remembering this, I am free, one among the audience in a theater watching the drama of life.

Kali is Nature personified -- not necessarily the dark force of Nature, but all of Nature: Mother Nature, as She dances upon the stage of Consciousness. As all the qualities reside together, the three Gunas: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas; activity, desire and rest, Kali embodies the Three. However, She is more frequently associated with Tamas. Tamas means darkness, but not necessarily in the sense of ignorance. There is a darkness which exposes the light. Kali as the personification of Tamas, is the Energy of Wisdom.

She spreads Her darkness over worldly desire, makes seekers oblivious to the transient externals, totally self-contained within. Pure Consciousness knows that the world of matter will continue to revolve according to its nature, in a cyclical flow of creation, preservation and transformation - the wheel of life. It goes on of its own accord.

When one can reside within, without identification or attachment to the ever-changing externals, then the supreme truth can be realized.

Kali is jnana shakti, the energy of Wisdom, the intuitive illumination within, as compared with the intellectual contemplation of the external. Knowledge is conceived, wisdom is intuited. When Kali takes away the darkness of the outside world, She grants illumination of the inner world. Such is Her Grace.

With Kali's Love we become unattached, free from reaction, the silent witness of the stimulus and response which action and interaction brings. We cease to react emotionally to the circumstances of life, and rather plan our actions for the optimum efficiency; so that all the sooner we can complete our necessary contributions to creation according to our karmas, and spend the balance of our time delighting in Universal Consciousness. This is the path that Kali shows.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Devi Mandir, 1989