Mother Kali

Sri Chinmoy was born into a Hindu family and was the youngest of seven children. Their family deity is Mother Kali, who happens also to one of my favourite deities.

In Hindu theology, God is One reality which is termed Brahman or Supreme and when God is seen as dwelling within all creatures God is then termed Atman or the soul. When God acts however, for example creating the universe, God is resembled by three personified functions. These are:

Lord Brahma, the Creator

Lord Vishnu, the Preserver

Lord Shiva, the Transformer

Each of the trilogy have a female principle called a Shakti. The Shakti of Brahma is Saraswati, Vishnu-Lakshmi and Shiva's consort is Parvati. Two of Parvati's aspects are Mother Kali (as shown above) and Durga (as shown on the left). I think at first she can appear a little frightening, (as she wears a necklace made of skulls and girdle of severed arms) yet one of her hands gesture 'fear not' while and the other is blessing her devotees. Mother Kali gives of life and death, blessings and misfortunes and is the active energy of Shiva. This explains why she often is depicted standing on the chest of Lord Shiva.

I am so grateful that the spiritual path I am on, not only accepts all paths, but actually apreciates them. Sri Chinmoy has honoured so many different religious leaders and luminaries, with the 'lifting up the world' programme and has such a deep love of spirituality. When asked what the difference between one religion and another is, Sri Chinmoy said, "There is no fundamental difference between one religion and another because each religion embodies the ultimate Truth".